Line #5 Series/HeadOfTheClass


1	%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
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3	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/head_of_the_class.jpeg]]
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5	A highly successful SitCom that aired on Creator/{{ABC\|US}} from 1986–91. Imagine ''Series/WelcomeBackKotter'' in TheEighties and with ''much'' smarter students. Or ''Series/SavedByTheBell'' in prime time.
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7	Creator/HowardHesseman (''Series/WKRPInCincinnati'') stars as Charlie Moore, a substitute teacher who is hired to teach history to a class of Individualized Honors Program students at Millard Fillmore HighSchool in [[BigApplesauce Manhattan]]. Although Charlie is not gifted himself, he thinks outside the box and is full of epiphanies, and thus has much to teach his class even as he finds himself clashing with the school's stuffy, by-the-book principal. Three months into the show's run, the VerySpecialEpisode comes in where the original teacher returns from his medical leave. This being a successful American sitcom, after spending most of the episode trying to impress the guy, Charlie finally succeeds by being himself; the guy was looking for a worthy replacement so that he could retire. This naturally infuriates the principal further, even as it ensures a [[StatusQuoIsGod stable status quo]].
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9	The series ran for five years with almost no cast turnover. This did stretch credulity after a time, but it didn't cause problems until Hesseman quit the show and the producers were forced to replace him with Creator/BillyConnolly (as SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute Billy [=MacGregor=]) in the fifth season. The series ended in 1991, and Connolly's character would get a spin-off called ''Billy'' which lasted a single season. A sequel series of the same name, starring Creator/IsabellaGomez and featuring Creator/RobinGivens reprising her role, premiered on Creator/HBOMax in November 2021; like ''Billy'', this series was also cancelled after a single season.
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11	This was also the StarMakingRole for Creator/RobinGivens and helped launch Creator/DanSchneider, responsible in some way for [[Series/NickVerse most every modern live-action hit]] on Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} until they parted ways in 2018, and Brian Robbins, who went on to produce and direct shows [[Series/TheAmandaShow with]] [[Series/AllThat Schneider]] [[Series/{{Smallville}} and]] [[Series/OneTreeHill without]] (as well as work with [[Creator/DisneyChannel the enemy]] [[Series/SonnyWithAChance sometimes]]) and is now the head of Creator/{{Paramount}}. Unlike Robbins, Schneider has yet to direct a big-screen movie, [[Film/{{Norbit}} which may be a wise move.]]
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13	----
14	!!Tropes found in this classroom include:
15	* AcademicAlphaBitch: Alan Pinkard is none too pleased that others in the high IQ class do as well as he does, even better sometimes. And he is really pissed that [[ChildProdigy 11-year-old Janice]] is in his high school - and more pissed that she leaves early to go to Harvard, which is where he wants to go. He and Darlene are neck-and-neck when it comes time to declare a class valedictorian, but the school's powers that be decide to make another girl, TJ, the valedictorian instead because of the challenges she'd had to overcome.
16	%%* AnAesop: Done OnceAnEpisode.
17	%%** AesopAmnesia
18	* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Shy, gentle Simone is drawn to leather-jacketed motorcycle-riding Eric. Subverted in that Eric's actually ''not'' much of a bad boy - he mostly just looks the part compared to his classmates.
19	* AlwaysALiveTransmission: In one episode, Mr. Moore takes an acting gig playing an InsaneProprietor in a series of late night commercials, all of which air live.
20	%%* AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle
21	* TheBGrade: In the pilot, Maria, a straight-A student, grounds herself just because she got a B.
22	* BackForTheFinale: Janice shows up again in the series finale to get her high school diploma, having just graduated from Harvard.
23	* BackstoryOfTheDay: In one episode, Jawarhalal is suddenly well-known for agreeing with everybody about everything. Until that episode it was never mentioned.
24	* BeYourself: This was frequently AnAesop on the show, such as in the episode where Arvid sends Eric's picture to his female pen pal because he assumes she wouldn't find the real him attractive.
25	%%* BollywoodNerd: Jawaharlal.
26	* BottleEpisode: Pretty much every episode takes place in that one classroom and the hallway just outside it; occasionally they also used the school theater or the principal's office.
27	* BreakTheHaughty: Alan was probably the most frequent victim of this. One of the biggest examples was "Alan Goes Crimson," in which Alan - convinced that he's about to receive early admission to Harvard - effectively tells off all of his classmates. When he ''doesn't'' get the early admission and must continue attending school with the other IHP kids, he has to eat a lot of crow.
28	* BrilliantButLazy: Applies to various characters, depending on how you define brilliance.
29	* CatchPhrase: Billy usually greets his students with a boisterous "Good morning, geniuses!"
30	* CheatersNeverProsper: Charlie has to take an economics course in order to keep his teaching certification (and his job) but is shown struggling with the subject matter, as it's out of his area of expertise. When he's gearing up to take his final exam, the IHP kids put together a composition book that contains all of the formulae he would need to ace the test (they said he would be given two workbooks at the exam - one to write the answers in, one to use as a workbook, and he could just substitute their workbook to use). The next day, when they ask how he did on the exam, he says he thinks he did fine - then pulls the workbook they gave him out of his desk, showing he didn't use it. When asked why he didn't use it, knowing he could lose his job if he failed the exam, he replies, "I wouldn't be the teacher you deserve if I did."
31	* CharacterizationMarchesOn: By season 3, Jawaharlal doesn't speak with much of an accent, if any.
32	* ChildProdigy: Janice is only 11 years old, yet is in the same high-level class as the the other students, who are aged normally for high school. Janice is so smart that she graduates early and goes on to Harvard after the third season.
33	* ChristmasEpisode: In season 5, Billy helps Viki track down her birth mother over the holidays.
34	* ChummyCommies: In one episode, the Class is up against a touring Soviet superteam in an academic trivia meet. They get to know each other a little and decide in the end to let the meet end in a draw rather than Sudden Death overtime.
35	* ClassReunion: In "Back to the Future", Charlie gets an invitation to his high school reunion, and he later has the class imagine what they would be like in 20 years, to help Eric deal with the praise he's been getting from his assignment.
36	* CommonMeter : Discussed, when someone points out that all Emily Dickinson poems may be sung to "The Yellow Rose of Texas."
37	* CourtroomEpisode: "Twelve Angry Nerds". Alan is caught cheating on a test, and the rest of the class acts out a courtroom procedure to decide his punishment.
38	* CousinOliver: Streetwise T.J. during the third season and then transfer student Jasper during the fourth season (after the show already added three new characters).
39	* DealWithTheDevil: In "The Devil and Miss T.J.," desperate to ace Mr. Moore's latest assignment and get into the IHP, T.J. meets a man and has him help her with the assignment. Only after finishing it does she realize that the man was actually the Devil, who plans to collect her soul at the end of the school day. The whole class has to help her and convince the Devil not to go through with it... [[spoiler:but of course, it was AllJustADream.]]
40	* DeanBitterman: Dr. Samuels. He specifically did not like Mr. Moore's teaching style and was afraid that it would ruin the IHP.
41	** One-off nemesis Mrs. Hartman falls into this. She objects to the class performing ''Theatre/{{Hair}}'' on stage because she sees the tie-dye, hippie themes of UsefulNotes/TheSixties as disrespectful to American history, but becomes much more sympathetic when it is revealed that her son was killed in the Vietnam War. She eventually relents and drops her objections.
42	* DevilsAdvocate: In a school debate club meet, Alan has to extemporaneously defend a position he is personally against. He wins the debate.
43	* EnemyMine: {{Invoked\|Trope}} by Mr. Moore on one occasion. The students were fighting each other, so he became a bad teacher, giving them a greater enemy that would force them to put aside their own differences.
44	* {{Expy}}: Alan was basically this show's version of [[Series/FamilyTies Alex P. Keaton]].
45	* ExtraLongEpisode: "Mission to Moscow" was originally aired as a one-hour special, but in syndication, it's split into two parts.
46	* FamousAncestor: In "The Way We Weren't," Charlie has the class research their family trees, and Darlene discovers that she is a direct descendant of Thomas Jefferson.
47	* FamousNamedForeigner: Jawaharlal Choudhury is obviously named after India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. It is very unlikely that an Indian or an Indian-American in his teens in the mid-1980s would have a name like Jawaharlal.
48	* FatComicRelief: Dennis, who comes up with a lot of {{Zany Scheme}}s and is a DeadpanSnarker.
49	* FieryRedhead: Shy, sensitive Simone is an aversion.
50	* FinalSeasonCasting: The fourth season premiere sees Janice, Maria and Jawarhalal being written out, with their places taken by new students Viki, Alex and Aristotle. Later in the season, recurring character T.J. and another new student, Jasper, also joined the IHP. The fifth season takes this a step further and replaces Mr. Moore with Mr. [=MacGregor=].
51	* ForScience: The reason Dennis wants to be Arvid's pheromone guinea pig.
52	* ForWantOfANail: Discussed when Mr. Moore brings up how the world (specifically America and Cuba) would be different if UsefulNotes/FidelCastro was a better baseball player, and went pro instead of becoming President of Cuba. Alan thinks it's silly, and compared it to UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan staying an actor instead of going into politics, which Mr. Moore thought was an excellent point.
53	* GenghisGambit: Mr. Moore once comes up with one, on the theory that he can reunite his fractious class by getting them all angry at him and immediately revealing that it was a trick.
54	* GeniusDitz: Viki's specialty is quantum physics, but she's a bit of a space cadet, especially in early seasons.
55	* TheGlassesGottaGo: In the first episode, when Arvid summons up the nerve to ask a girl to the school dance, one of the girls in the IHP class removed his glasses and his pocket protector to make him look better.
56	* GloriousMotherRussia: IHP Goes to Russia in one two-parter. Dennis hatches a ZanyScheme to sell the Russians blue jeans and Beatles tapes.
57	* GraduateFromTheStory: The entire cast graduates in the series finale.
58	* GrewASpine: In one episode, Jawarhalal is suddenly well known for agreeing with everyone about everything. Then the class goes to see Mr. Moore's off-off-off-Broadway post-[[{{Postmodernism}} post-Modern]] production of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''. Everybody hates it except Jawarhalal, who defends it to everyone. They're so caught up in trying to prove him wrong that until the end of the episode they never ask him why he likes it and don't notice that he's disagreeing with them, counter to his personality.
59	* HereThereBeDragons: Billy Connolly references this in the context of showing off the new world maps the school bought — he says that the other ones were so old they had "Here dragons be" indicators.
60	* HiddenDepths: Eric, ostensibly the least academic-minded of the IHP, is revealed to be a skilled writer, and at one point shows talent in fashion design.
61	%%* HighSchool
62	* HighSchoolSweethearts: Eventually, Eric and Simone; the final season shows them getting briefly engaged, then deciding to wait until after college.
63	* HistoricalCharactersFictionalRelative: While doing a genealogy project, Darlene discovers that she is probably descended from Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings. While her classmate Alan is overwhelmed by this revelation, Darlene herself is completely blase about it.
64	%%* [[HotTeacher Hot Vice Principal]]: Miss Meara.
65	* ImprobableAge: While all the students in Fillmore High's IHP program are gifted, young Janice is particularly off-the-charts bright. At the beginning of the series, she's in the advanced high school class at the age of ten, and is already being offered admissions and scholarships by various universities — her parents keep Janice enrolled in high school only to help foster her social development. Midway through the series (when the character is about 12) Janice departs, having accepted an offer from Harvard to begin studies as a sophomore. She makes a cameo at the conclusion of the series, having been gone for about a year in-universe (the final two seasons took place over a single nine-month school year). By that point, age about 13, Janice has graduated from Harvard and is lining up a job at IBM.
66	-->'''Dr. Samuels in the pilot, introducing the students to Mr. Moore:''' And little Janice. What can you say? She knows everything. [''{{beat}}''] She's ''spooky.''
67	* InkblotTest: The class is given a group psychoanalysis in one episode. Afterward, Mr. Moore takes it himself. When they get to the inkblots...
68	-->'''Mr. Moore:''' Fly... fly... fly... screen door.
69	-->'''Psychologist:''' Why a screen door?
70	-->'''Mr. Moore:''' Too many flies.
71	* InnerCitySchool: Played with. Although the show is set in New York City, they never show the poorer students, and instead focus on the academically gifted ones.
72	* InsaneProprietor: Charlie got an acting gig as "the King of low prices," a crazy late night commercial pitchman for an appliance store.
73	* InternationalShowdownByProxy: The IHP takes on a Soviet group of gifted students in an academic competition - twice.
74	* ItsAWonderfulPlot: Yes, even this show played with the formula. In "Moore Than You Know," Charlie's deceased uncle helps him to understand what a difference he's made in the lives of his students.
75	* IvyLeagueForEveryone: Most of the class members are accepted to one Ivy League school or another by the end of the series. Justified in that it was a show centered around geniuses.
76	* {{Jerkass}}: Dennis, to the point that the class just accepts that it's part of who he is even when his actions are unforgivable.
77	** Most of the class falls into this in "Fillmore vs Billy Jeans". When their bus breaks down and strands them at a truck stop, they think that the friendly locals are stupid hicks and have no problem letting them know it by blatantly insulting them to their faces.
78	* MidSeasonTwist: Mr. Moore was originally meant to be a substitute teacher... until the episode "Teacher's Teacher", in which the original teacher arrives and reveals that he was looking for someone worthy to replace him so he could retire. Mr. Moore then became the permanent teacher going forward.
79	* MixedMetaphor: Dr. Samuels was occasionally prone to these.
80	** In one episode he referred to teens in school as "a bubbling cauldron of raw human emotion." Charlie calls him on it: "Wouldn't that be cooked human emotion?"
81	** In another he says he can smell trouble, "It's like a sixth sense." Charlie replies, "No, that would be one of the five."
82	%%* MyBelovedSmother : Eric's mom, by the sounds of it.
83	* NeverLearnedToRead: The IHP helps the star basketball player overcome his dyslexia in one episode.
84	* NewYearSameClass: The main cast stays in the same class for the whole series. {{Justified\|Trope}}, since these kids are in the advanced placement class, and the regular classes would be too easy for them; rather than give them to different teachers, therefore, the school arranges for them to remain in one classroom with one teacher who can challenge their extensive intellect.
85	* NiceGirl: Simone generally fits the trope, being shy, sweet, and something of a GranolaGirl. Subverted in the episode where she's elected the editor of the literary magazine and it goes to her head a bit.
86	* NoBudget: InUniverse. Mr. Moore directs ''Theatre/LittleShopOfHorrors'' as the SchoolPlay, for which he is given zero budget. He talks the principal into being in the show as Mr. Mushnick, then explains his concept for production. (Quote not guaranteed exact; we couldn't get someone to search it out.)
87	-->'''Mr. Moore''': You heard of Japanese [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noh Noh]] theatre? No sets, no costumes, no props. Because, you know... [[{{Pun}} no money]].
88	* ObsessedWithPerfectAttendance: In "And Then There Were None", Arvid shows up for class several days in a row despite being seriously ill, so as to not mess with his flawless attendance record. He quickly starts infecting his classmates. They end up taking sick days to the point where Arvid's the only one who shows up; by the end of the episode, the ''entire school'' is implied to be out.
89	* OneDegreeOfSeparation: Howard Hesseman <-> Dan Schneider, which provides the link between everyone connected to ''Series/WKRPInCincinnati'' (and by extension Loni Anderson's longtime husband Burt Reynolds) and approximately 40% of all currently-working comic actors of the millennial generation.
90	** Note that Schneider himself worked with Creator/KevinBacon (in ''The Big Picture''), as did Hesseman (in an '80s TV remake of ''Film/MisterRoberts'').
91	* ParallelPornTitles: Darlene blackmails Arvid with proof that he rented a movie called ''Buns of the Magnificent Seven.''
92	* PekingDuckChristmas: Or in this case, Thanksgiving; Mr. Moore and Dr. Samuels spend Thanksgiving together after bumping into each other in the same Chinese restaurant.
93	* PutOnABus: After the third season, Janice graduated (and was already a sophomore at Harvard), Jawaharlal's family moved to California, and Maria transferred to [[Film/{{Fame}} the New York High School of Performing Arts]]; Mr. Moore quit teaching after Season 4 to pursue an acting career full time ([[RetCon despite]] a VerySpecialEpisode earlier in the run where he decided to stop acting and dedicate his life to teaching).
94	* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Occasionally, such as cast changes caused by different actors leaving the show.
95	* RememberTheNewGuy: Sarah shows up in the second episode without an explanation as to why she wasn't in the pilot.
96	* ReplacementScrappy: Both Mr. Moore and Mr. [=MacGregor=] were InUniverse examples, at least for specific people.
97	** Dr. Samuels didn't like Mr. Moore, worried that he'd ruin the IHP with his unorthodox teaching style, but reluctantly put up with him because he was a substitute teacher merely holding down the fort until their real teacher returned.
98	** When Mr. [=MacGregor=] took over, the class took some time to get used to Billy, but Dennis and Arvid had the most extreme opinions of him. To Dennis, Billy was a replacement scrappy, while Arvid felt betrayed by Mr. Moore and latched onto Mr. [=MacGregor=] out of spite.
99	* SaveOurStudents: Somewhat of an inversion, in that Mr. Moore's kids are academically gifted and high-achieving but socially and emotionally underdeveloped.
100	* {{Scandalgate}}: The episode "Charliegate", which involves Dennis writing a controversial newspaper article about Charlie.
101	* ScatterbrainedSenior: Mrs. Russell. It is eventually revealed that she has Alzheimer's.
102	* SecondEpisodeIntroduction: Sarah Nevins, played by Kimberly Russell, is neither seen nor mentioned in the pilot episode. She is in the classroom from the second episode onward.
103	* SchoolPlay: Happened OnceASeason, except for Season 5; They put on ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' in Season 1, ''Film/{{Grease}}'' in 2, ''Theatre/LittleShopOfHorrors'' in 3, and ''Film/{{Hair}}'' in 4.
104	* UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}}: The replacement replacement teacher came from there, which made for an interesting Revolutionary War episode.
105	* SecretAdmirer: In "Love at First Byte", Charlie gets letters from a secret admirer, and he believes they're coming from one of the students in the IHP. [[spoiler:They're actually from one of the class's computers, put out as a ploy by the students to get Charlie to start liking computers.]]
106	* ShareTheSickness: In the episode "And Then There Were None," Arvid is ObsessedWithPerfectAttendance and refuses to miss school, even though he has a severe and highly contagious case of the flu. He stubbornly continues showing up even when it's clear that he's making everyone around him sick, to the point that by the end of the episode, it's heavily implied that he has managed to infect ''the entire school''.
107	%%* SnapBack
108	* SpeakFriendAndEnter: Dr. Samuels gives the class an assignment: how do you measure the height of a building using a barometer? After several explanations, he asks the new sub Mr. Moore how he would do it. Mr. Moore says to the super, "If you tell me how tall this building is I'll give you this neat barometer.". This is a reference to a tale of [[http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/barometer.asp similar smartassery]] on the part of Niels Bohr (in his university days).
109	* SpinOff: ''Billy'', which is about Mr. [=MacGregor=] moving to California and marrying a single mother to prevent himself from being deported back to Scotland. It ran for half a season in 1992.
110	* SpotlightStealingSquad: Out of all the students, Arvid gets the most episodes revolving around him. Dennis and Alan also get a lot of focus.
111	%%* StatusQuoIsGod
112	%%* StrawmanPolitical: Of various flavors. And it's just not a [[TheEighties 1980s]] sitcom without a blatant [[Series/FamilyTies Alex P. Keaton]] ripoff, er, neo-conservative among the students.
113	* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: After Howard Hesseman quit the show, his Charlie Moore was replaced with Creator/BillyConnolly as new teacher Billy [=MacGregor=].
114	** Averted with Alex and Aristotle who were nothing like Janice and Jawaharlal but played straight with Viki for Maria. Like Maria, Viki was the fashionable, pretty girl with some airhead attributes but was also extremely brilliant.
115	* SwallowTheKey: In one episode, Dennis leads a protest in the cafeteria, handcuffs himself to a lunch tray rail at the serving line, and tells the teachers he swallowed the key. The janitor later has to cut the chain with a hacksaw to free him.
116	* TeenGenius: The majority of the teenage cast, although arguably Janice (who was really a ''pre-''teen genius) and Arvid in particular.
117	* ThanksgivingEpisode: "Cold Turkey". Both Mr. Moore (alone for Christmas) and Dr. Samuels (escaping his in-laws) find themselves at the same Chinese place on Thanksgiving. They bond.
118	* TimeCapsule: In "Video Activity", the class gets an assignment to make a time capsule to be rediscovered in 100 years. They decide to make a music video of them lip-syncing to "The Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades" by Timbuk 3.
119	* TitleIn: Every episode has a few {{Establishing Shot}}s with text clarifying the day and time when the next scene takes place.
120	* TrojanGauntlet: In one episode, as nerdy Arvid prepares for his date with the school bike, he ventures to the drugstore to purchase condoms. Of course, he is thoroughly embarrassed and thwarted at every turn. He finally prepares to leave the store when a completely random woman—who'd apparently figured out the reason for his nervousness—calls him out, telling him, "Don't you DARE leave here without those condoms!" She then proceeds to buy them for him, lecturing him on safe sex and responsibility.
121	* VacationEpisode: The class went to Moscow, the first American show to film there.
122	* VerySpecialEpisode: A number of these, such as the first season episode in which the IHP's regular teacher returns and the ItsAWonderfulPlot episode.
123	%%* ViewersAreMorons: And executives want to assure them that it's okay.
124	%%* WhoopiEpiphanySpeech: This too was done OnceAnEpisode.
125	* WimpFight: At the beginning of Season 5, Arvid and Dennis come to blows over the departure of Mr. Moore. For them, "coming to blows" involves a lot of weak slapping and nose-pulling.
126	* WorkingThroughTheCold: Arvid, in the episode where he has the flu and refuses to stay home from school.
127	* YouAreInCommandNow: Mr. Moore was originally meant to be a substitute teacher until the IHP's regular teacher came back. He gets promoted to be the regular teacher when the old teacher announces his retirement.
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Context Series / HeadOfTheClass