MovieChat Forums > Head of the Class (1986) Discussion > If they were they were the honors class

If they were they were the honors class


How come most of the cast spent 5 years in high school?

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DUH because it was a television show DUH. which way did they go George which way did they go.

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Just because the show lasted 5 years doesn't mean that each season was supposed to be a seperate school year. The show aired once a week. Did they only go to class once a week? Think also of "24" the show lasts a whole season but the entire season covers a single 24 hour period.

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24 really doesn't even cover a full 24 hours even though they bill it that way. It loses 15 minutes per hour to commercials just like everything else.


These kids actually only went to school once a week, for 20 minutes, for 20 days a year (or however many episodes there were).

I'd go to high school for 15 years if that were a scheduling option.

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24 really doesn't even cover a full 24 hours even though they bill it that way. It loses 15 minutes per hour to commercials just like everything else.
I don't actually watch 24, but I believe that they usually cut to commercial during times when he is driving somewhere in his car, or other situation lulls. Plus even Jack Bauer has to go to the bathroom sometime within 24 hrs.

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Kiefer Sutherland mentioned in an interview that the commercials counted in the 24 hours, although most series actually run over and have to be shortened for commercial television, I've seen "24" in some other countries that don't air commercials where it was shown and they still fade to black I think they add in footage that was cut out in the U.S. commercial airings. Without doing a side by side comparison it's hard to know what was cut out.

"24" currently airs on the Audience Network uncut, and that network doesn't air commercials.

I don't recall each season being the end of a school year. The original "Degrassi Junior High" and "Degrassi High" and the first 9 seasons "Degrassi: TNG" did end each school year at the end of the season.

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I read some trivia somewhere that said the entire series was meant to span only about 1 year on the show. Weird!

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Well, the show ran five years. They did try to do it in real time, though. The last two seasons are the senior year.

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The creators and producers of the show have said this:

Season One: 9th grade (which makes me laugh,m because those actors don't look 14/15)

Season Two: 10th grade

Season Three: 11th grade

Season Four: First semester of 12th grade

Season Five: Second semester of 12th grade.

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This is why the show was considered a joke by most critics (including the TV critic of The Toronto Star) and also why Doogie Hauser, M.D. was a better treatment of this concept than Head Of The Class; hell, Joe 90 was a better treatment of this concept.

What it seems to me is, the producers looked at Welcome Back, Kotter and thought that having a similar show-but about over-achievers instead of under-achievers-would work. However, it really didn't, for over-achievers like the Head Of The Class characters wouldn't be in a high school but in college like Doogie Hauser, and then in the profession that their skills have oriented them towards-especially Tannis Valley's character, who is the same age that Doogie Hauser was when he went to college/med school! As for Tannis Valley's character, going to college at her age wouldn't have been a problem if you consider that there was two similar pre-teen characters in the movie Real Genius-one male, and one female. Also, Tony Stark was 15-16 when he was at M.I.T., so it wouldn't have been out of place for these characters to be in college.

Overall, the show was badly planned and badly thought out, and Billy Connolly didn't destroy it as one person has said; it destroyed itself eventually.

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but if they are that smart, why wouldnt they have tested out of high school, and started college at age 15-16?

That's not really true. Bronx High School of Science, Stuyvesant and Brooklyn Tech - the three best high schools in the city - have all produced multiple Nobel Prize winners. None of them skipped high school. These characters are supposed to be at the same level as the best at those three schools. Dr. Samuels even mentioned going to beat Brooklyn Tech at the academic olympics in the premiere episode, although admittedly Tech is only the third best.

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To make matters worse, in the NYC school system, the best students usually skipped from 8th directly to 10th grade as incoming sophomores and spent only three years in high school.

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And they probably do the same here in Toronto where I live, and in other places as well.

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but if they are that smart, why wouldnt they have tested out of high school, and started college at age 15-16? the little girl says in the pilot her parents refused her going to college, because they wanted her to mature a little more. but other people in the class are beyond just honor students, when you see their academic abilities, so high school would be a total joke for them.


This is not necessarily true. First off, considering that the school even had an IHP meant that they were prepared to handle such gifted students. Lots of schools had programs/classes for gifted students in those times.

I'm sure that their regular teachers often gave them specialized assignments to challenge them, in addition to their in-class assignments. Plus part of the show was them learning to adjust socially.

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A long time ago I read that the show's IHP was based on Khrystyne Haje's (Simone's) real-life high-school program, also called the IHP. It was a special program for students w/IQs above 145.

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MASH was on for 11 years but the Korean War only lasted 3 years.

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