Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
TV teachers failing us with disturbing lack of class
Teachers have one of the hardest jobs out there, but you wouldn’t know it by watching television. Three new comedies this year portray teachers as inept, inappropriate or some unfortunate mix of both: TV Land’s “Teachers,” TruTV’s “Those Who Can’t” and “Vice Principals,” which premieres Sunday on HBO.
Comedy is the key word here, and poking fun at teachers helps the shows mine humor, to varying degrees of success. But in the grand scheme of workplace television shows, teachers get a particularly bad rap.
It wasn’t always this way, according to Mary M. Dalton, a media scholar and professor at Wake Forest University. Earlier portrayals of teachers on television, starting with the 1950s NBC sitcom “Mister Peepers,” tended to be overwhelmingly respectful of the teaching profession.
“Now, it’s like we’ve turned a corner and it’s disheartening,” says Dalton, who co-authored the 2008 book “Teacher TV: Sixty Years of Teachers on Television.”
Dalton says that in the past 15 years, public discourse about the education system has had a negative influence on teacher roles on television, inspiring some teacher characters who appear “burned out, incompetent, unfulfilled, immature, irresponsible and worse.”
Dalton says she stopped watching CBS’ “Mike and Molly” after the fourth-season premiere in 2013. Molly (Melissa McCarthy) jumps out of her fourth-grade classroom window shortly after passing out a statemandated standardized test, effectively ending her teaching career. Her parting words to her confused students: “Don’t settle! Follow your dreams! Wherever they may take you!”
Here’s a (by no means complete) list of memorable shows featuring teachers and school administrators, ranked from the most respectful of the profession to the least.
“Boy Meets World” (1993) “Boston Public “(2000) “Saved by the Bell” (1989) “Degrassi: The Next Generation” (2001) “Welcome Back, Kotter” (1975) “Glee” (2009)