Head of the Class

- Season 1

(1986)

Substitute teacher Charlie Moore incurs the wrath of Principal Samuels when he allows math whiz Arvid Engen to miss a practice session for the Academic Olympics in order to attend a school dance.

The class stages a mock reunion when Charlie expresses displeasure for his own high school reunion.

Dennis interviews Charlie for a school paper article.

Charlie receives love letters in his school mailbox. He suspects one of the girls in the IHP, but, in the end, the joke's on him.

Janice is feeling like an outcast in the IHP so she decides to throw a party for the class. After a disastrous start, she learns a lesson in friendship.

The teacher, whom Moore has been filling in for, comes back but says he won't takeover until next week. So Moore decides to make the best of his final week. But the man keeps on popping in while Moore is trying to conduct a class.

Mr. Moore feeling that the students to be more active, gets them to play volleyball. Later Dennis challenges some people to a game knowing that they don't stand a chance.

Moore is putting on his own version of Hamlet. He lets the class be the first ones to see it. He then asks them to write their critique of it. At class when he sees them; most of the class pan it.

Charlie spends Thanksgiving with Dr. Samuels.

Arvid Engen does a project with Sarah Nevins and there are feelings developing between them.

Samuels informs Moore that someone from the School board will be coming to observe the IHP he knows it's a woman and he wants Charlie to charm her. Charlie says no. But when he meets her, it's someone he knows, very well. It's not long that they're together but not long after that their old issues which led to their break up come up again.

The class enters an essay contest about the history of NYC, but Mr. Moore thinks they should write about what lead them to NYC for an extra assignment and some suprising family history is unveiled.

Eric takes delight in tormenting another teacher. The man is so frustrated that he turns to Charlie for help.

Moore tells the students to write a letter to the person who inspired them. And when they get their reply, he has them read the replies in class. Simone wrote to a poet and even included one of her poems. The man died but not after sending his response wherein he says her poem is awful. Upon receiving the letter, she rethinks her desire to be a poet. She, Moore and Eric attend a memorial for the man. And when Moore speaks he mentions that while he liked his poetry, he might not have liked him. And that's when everyone there starts expressing their dislike for him. ...

Mr. Moore learns the students are taking short cuts like reading abridged versions of books or listening to tapes instead of reading the actual book. He says it's like cheating. He also mentions that he's taking an extremely difficult economics class because he needs it to be an accredited teacher. And when the class tries to prep him by asking him some questions, he's unable to answer so they say he might fail and lose his job. They try to prep him but it's so intense he can't remember what they taught him so they provide him with a cheat sheet. Making him having to ...

When a rival school's team captain asks Maria out, the rest of the IHP students think that it's a tactic to beat them.

The IHP has an academic competition against some Russians and Samuels looks at them as the enemy while Moore encourages them to see this as an opportunity to make friends. When Jawaharlal gets sick, they hope Eric will fill in but because he doesn't want to be associated with them they send Simone to "talk" to him. He agrees but when Jawaharlal gets better he is not needed until the competition begins.

It's Valentine's Day, Moore tries to teach his class but all sorts of things arise. Alan and Arvid bicker over a girl. Eric pursues Simone. Darlene and Sarah fight when Sarah decides to bail on plans they have when she meets a guy. And Bernadette thinks Samuels is coming on to her, and Samuels thinking she's hitting on him.

When they're asked to contribute something for the 80s time capsule the school is burying, the students secretly come up with something special - their own music video for the song "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades" by Timbuk3.

After Charlie sets up Arvid at one of the city's top night clubs, he soon becomes very full of himself due to the new lush lifestyle he has gotten used to.

When Sarah's grades go down, Moore is worried. He talks to her and she tells him that her father is not home because his job takes him away for long periods. But when he talks to her father he learns that what she told him about her father is not true. So after talking to her father he thinks he knows what's going on and devises a way for Sarah to open up.

Arvid daydreams about Lori, and it affects his schoolwork.