A laidback teacher provides needed guidance about life for a special class of exceptional students.A laidback teacher provides needed guidance about life for a special class of exceptional students.A laidback teacher provides needed guidance about life for a special class of exceptional students.
- Nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy
- 13 nominations total
Browse episodes
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe IHP program was based on a program at Walter Reed Middle School in Los Angeles, California. Khrystyne Haje (Simone Foster) was an actual graduate of the Reed IHP program.
- Quotes
Eric Mardian: [in response to Viki trying to find her birth mother] We're here to help you babe. We're looking for a tall blonde, killer body, killer legs, killer smile, a little spacey, but hot.
[as Miss Meara Walks in the classroom]
Eric Mardian: Mom!
- ConnectionsFeatured in America's Teenagers Growing Up on Television (1998)
Featured review
Hot House Plants
During the Seventies one of the most popular TV comedies was Welcome Back Kotter which in many ways was the mirror image of Head Of The Class in the Eighties. Kotter was about a teacher essentially babysitting some kids who were marked for life as losers and trying to tell them they necessarily didn't have to be. Head Of The Class was about the education system's cream of the crop, kids with high IQs and great potential. In a sense their home room teacher Howard Hesseman doubled as a guidance counselor.
High IQs and great potential doesn't immunize you from life's problems which are magnified in the teen years. Hessemann usually dealt in each episode with one of the kid's problems either academically or personal. Each kid had a specialty, Brian Robbins who did look like he could have been a James Dean wannabe was a writer. Dan Frischman was an overachieving math genius, son of a mathematics professor as well who never had a social life. His father's idea of fun was doing algorithms with his on. Tannis Vallely had a super IQ and just had trouble fitting in in high school as she was about 10.
Tony O'Dell had an interesting role, maybe the most interesting of the kids. He was a conservative thinking history enthusiast, but was never presented as a figure of ridicule. Hessemann who clearly didn't share his beliefs encouraged him to marshal his arguments and think objectively as the best of teachers do. O'Dell was also clearly looking too old for high school, but his performance was convincing.
William Schilling was the principal who treated these kids like hot house plants had his clashes every week with Hessemann. It was not unlike those that Gabe Kotter had with Mr. Woodman on Kotter. Except the roles were reversed as the principal scoffed at Kotter's concern for these losers and Schilling was concerned lest the egos of the geniuses be bruised. Both situations worked in their respective series.
Head Of The Class really died when Hessemann left. Still it was a wonderful show for the time we had it.
High IQs and great potential doesn't immunize you from life's problems which are magnified in the teen years. Hessemann usually dealt in each episode with one of the kid's problems either academically or personal. Each kid had a specialty, Brian Robbins who did look like he could have been a James Dean wannabe was a writer. Dan Frischman was an overachieving math genius, son of a mathematics professor as well who never had a social life. His father's idea of fun was doing algorithms with his on. Tannis Vallely had a super IQ and just had trouble fitting in in high school as she was about 10.
Tony O'Dell had an interesting role, maybe the most interesting of the kids. He was a conservative thinking history enthusiast, but was never presented as a figure of ridicule. Hessemann who clearly didn't share his beliefs encouraged him to marshal his arguments and think objectively as the best of teachers do. O'Dell was also clearly looking too old for high school, but his performance was convincing.
William Schilling was the principal who treated these kids like hot house plants had his clashes every week with Hessemann. It was not unlike those that Gabe Kotter had with Mr. Woodman on Kotter. Except the roles were reversed as the principal scoffed at Kotter's concern for these losers and Schilling was concerned lest the egos of the geniuses be bruised. Both situations worked in their respective series.
Head Of The Class really died when Hessemann left. Still it was a wonderful show for the time we had it.
helpful•162
- bkoganbing
- Aug 4, 2012
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Ganz große Klasse
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
![Robin Givens, Brian Robbins, Dan Frischman, Khrystyne Haje, Howard Hesseman, and Dan Schneider in Head of the Class (1986)](http://178.128.105.246/cars-https-m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZDU0NDNmODItODBjMi00NDhlLWExODktZTYzNmNlZmMxYTg0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzMwOTY2NTI@._V1_QL75_UY133_CR0,0,90,133_.jpg)