Boston Public
| Boston Public | |
|---|---|
| File:BostonPublic.gif Boston Public slogan & logo | |
| Created by | David E. Kelley |
| Starring | Chi McBride Anthony Heald Loretta Devine Sharon Leal Jeri Ryan Fyvush Finkel Michael Rapaport Jessalyn Gilsig Nicky Katt Rashida Jones Thomas McCarthy Joey Slotnick Kathy Baker China Shavers Jon Abrahams Joey McIntyre Natalia Baron |
| Country of origin | USA |
| No. of episodes | 81 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 Minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | FOX |
| Release | October 23, 2000 – January 30, 2004 |
Boston Public was a popular American television series created by David E. Kelley and broadcast on the Fox Network from October 23 2000 through to January 30 2004. It centered around the Winslow High School, a fictional public high school located in Boston, Massachusetts. The show was named for the real public school district in which it takes place. It featured a large ensemble cast and focused on the work and private lives of the various teachers, students, and administrators at the school and their various personalities.
Its slogan, as it was depicted on the show's website at the time, was "Every day is a fight. For respect. For dignity. For sanity."
Reruns of the show air on TV One, in the United States, weekdays at 3:00 p.m.(eastern time) and the Show Case Diva channel, in Canada, weekdays at 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. (Eastern Time).
Rise and fall
Template:Spoilers At the beginning, it preceded Ally McBeal on Monday nights and received initial popularity and critical acclaim for its drama and ethnically diverse cast. However, the series had a hard time finding a direction or an audience. It was generally felt that the important 18-to-24 year-old demographic would not be interested in a drama about high school teachers, so attempts were made to focus more on the lives of high school students. However, this only caused critics to accuse of it copycatting. These problems, along with bizarre storylines and casting changes, caused its ratings to decline. The final nail in the coffin was when Fox moved it to the Friday night death slot for its 2003 season. The number of viewers plummeted accordingly, and it was cancelled after a truncated fourth season.
The last episode to air on its normal time slot was on January 30 2004. The final two episodes aired over a year later in syndication on the TV One Network. Neither episode wrapped up any of the character stories as the series was cancelled in the middle of its fourth season.
Social soapbox
The series often served as a soapbox about various contemporary issues, with a mostly liberal perspective. The title of each episode was a numbered chapter, similar to that in a high school textbook, and each character had a certain story arc, with the professional and personal lives often intersecting with a social soapbox about modern issues facing public high schools such as affirmative action, teenage pregnancy, school violence, bullying, obesity, racism, gay-bashing, school prayer, terrorism, political correctness, poverty, state funding for public education, and general teenager angst/alienation.
Criticism
The most notable criticism in the series was that major characters would literally vanish from the series without a trace. Other characters such as Harvey and Scott often experienced sudden and unexplained changes in their story arc or personality. For example, Scott works very hard to gain Jeremy Peters' trust while dating his mother; however, once he and Meredith are no longer dating, Scott quickly dismisses Jeremy, as if the only reason he was fighting to gain his trust was because he was dating his mother, which to many seemed out of character.
Conservative interest groups were unhappy with Harry's indictment against the National Rifle Association, episodes that were critical of conservative attitudes towards homosexuality, and explicit talk about sexual matters. They were also unimpressed with the sexual innuendoes and dialogue that often made its way into the series. According to the American Family Association, major television sponsors such as Kellogg's, Southwest Airlines, Merrill Lynch, Wendy's, Qwest, Papa John's Pizza, Hallmark Cards, Marriott, Home Depot, Kmart, Warner-Lambert and Campbell's Soup consequently stopped running ads during the series because of such criticism. These claims have not been verified by independent groups, however. [1]
Major cast
While the series won praise for its dramatic realism in shining the light on the challenges facing high school faculty and administrators, critics pointed out the bizarre story lines and characters that even if the series had been continued never seemed to make any sense.
Steven Harper (Chi McBride) was the tough high school principal with a heart of gold and constantly struggling with the hang-ups and problems of his employees and students. During the second season of the series, Brooke, his rebellious, liberal activist daughter, gets transferred to Winslow High, and he had try to build a relationship with her and his estranged ex-wife.
Steven was aided by the strict and stoic Vice Principal Scott Guber (Anthony Heald) who was forced to play the disciplinary bad cop to both the students and the faculty. As someone who grew up as an awkward Jewish teenager who was bullied because his peers mistakenly thought he was gay, Scott treated bigotry and bullying as serious a crime as cutting class or cheating on an exam. Later on in the series, it was revealed that Scott wanted to become a high school principal and never got over the fact that Steven did not write him a positive recommendation for a position he had applied for at a private school, as Steven felt that one needed to be more than an autocratic disciplinarian to be a good principal and that Scott needed to move past his stoicism and stern dedication to rules and regulations. Scott's stoicism appeared to be genuine, perhaps a result of being the victim of harsh bullying, and had a hard time relating to the women that he found attractive. His first real romantic relationship was with an equally stoic (and abusive) single mother, Meredith Peters (Kathy Baker). Later episodes showed a softer side to Scott.
Meredith had locked her academically gifted son, Jeremy (Kaj-Erik Eriksen), in the basement; in retaliation, Jeremy turned the tables, forcing Meredith to cut off her hand in order to break free. Jeremy was not happy about Scott dating his mother, but mother and son seemed to have reconciled through family therapy, although Meredith had a homophobic response when Scott told her that Jeremy was bisexual and she worked to sabotage her son's relationship with a male student, in favor of dating Brooke, Steven's daughter. However, Meredith was not happy with her son dating Brooke and worked to manipulate that relationship as well. It is unknown what happened to Jeremy; he is last seen in the hallway about to ask Scott a question, but Scott dismisses him without even turning around. It could be assumed that he would graduate and go off to college.
Meredith was fired after she hit a student with her prosthesis, then broke up with Guber when he failed to put their relationship above his job as an administrator, calling him a "weak, limp man." She was last seen leaving the birthday party (in an episode that was a teacher version of The Breakfast Club) planned for Harry with a threat that she would one day get her revenge on Scott for firing her and the rest of the faculty for their cruel comments about her disability and emotional problems. In the series' fourth and final season, Scott found love in Violet Montgomery (Sherilyn Fenn), a free-spirited woman who shared his taste in music and agreed to date him exclusively.
One of the two social studies teachers was Lauren Davis (Jessalyn Gilsig), the pretty head of the social studies department who had a reputation among the students as being something of a nun and later among the faculty as being a "prima donna perfectionist." Scott had a crush on Lauren, a relationship that never seemed to go anywhere until right before Lauren was written out of the show. Steven felt that she was being racist because she was tougher on her African-American students, an accusation she was willing to consider in order to save Harvey from being fired. She briefly dated Harry Senate, but broke up with him; later, she began dating Daniel Evans, a former student who turned out to be stalking Lauren. During Season Two, Lauren was outraged by a proposal to do background checks on teachers, then shocked when some of her students were hospitalized because they were so stressed out about her work assignments. When the third season premiered, Gilsig had left the show, and it was mentioned that Lauren had left Winslow High for a job at a private school.
Harvey Lipschultz (Fyvush Finkel) was a somewhat stereotypical elderly Jewish man. He was not a fan of political correctness, and his character seemed to switch from being a well-meaning liberal that once met with the football team and told them that they should not discriminate against a player who is rumored to be gay, while other times he came off as an Archie Bunker bigot or a simple comical buffoon of a bygone era. He served in the Second World War; on the night before he left to go to Europe, he had a one-night stand with an African American woman who later gave birth to a son, Lester, who was able to track down Harvey and introduce him to his family. After the war, Harvey came home and married a woman named Helen and remained faithful to her until she died, although she did have an affair. The stock market crash erased his life savings, and despite efforts by both Scott and Steven to get rid of him, Harvey was able to continue working after he agreed to attend racial sensitivity classes.
Harry Senate (Nicky Katt) was the literature teacher who was assigned by Scott to teach in the infamous "Dungeon" classroom after Marla walks out on the class. Harry was infamous for deploying unusual (and often dangerous) methods to try and reach his students, such as firing a gun off in class in a concerted effort to teach the unruly students in the classrooms a lesson in respect, agreeing to become the faculty sponsor for a student branch of the National Rifle Association only to later deliver a disparaging speech against the organization, which he linked to an American glorification of gun violence, and starting up a "Suicide Club" to get kids to open up about their feelings surrounding suicide. He was kissed by a student, Dana Poole, who later blackmailed him and almost lost his job for this and his other radical antics, one being his knowing of a student, Tyronn Anderson, had killed a rival gang member in self-defense. However, his great compassion and ability to persuade his students to never give up and do the right thing ultimately saved his job. Harry began a relationship with Lauren, and the two initially seemed happy but Lauren simply did not feel as is Harry was really opening up to her.
Harry and Lauren broke up shortly after Harry confided in her that he knew Tyronn killed someone; Lauren would later briefly date Daniel Evans. As for Harry, his more serious relationship was with Ronnie Cooke.
In the second season finale, Harry was stabbed by a former student and almost died. It took the near-death of Harry Senate for the faculty to realize how much they had come to love him as more than a colleague, but also as a close friend. Initially, Harry was supposed to die from his wounds; this was David E. Kelley's way of writing Nicky Katt out of the show so that he could pursue a movie career. When Katt became available again, but for only a part of the next season, Kelley and his writers allowed Harry to survive the attack, only to suffer from a slow mental breakdown that would ultimately provide Katt with a very different exit from the show.
A combination of post traumatic stress (as a result of the stabbing) and his inability to "save" some of his most troubled students prompted Harry's breakdown. Given the option of being fired or going on a leave of absence, Harry was dismayed but realized that his current mental state was affecting his ability as a teacher; he chose to take a leave of absence to get himself together, promising Steven that he would someday return. As he walked out of the building, Harry gave an incoming and idealistic teacher Kimberly Woods some good advice. Kelley admitted that Harry's choice to take a leave of absence was a way of allowing for his eventual return should Katt become available again; the show's premature cancellation prevented the possibility.
Ronnie Cooke (Jeri Ryan) was a college friend of Harry's, a successful, upper-middle class lawyer that decided that her true calling in life was to teach English at public high school. As a lawyer, Ronnie often acted as a legal advocate for the students. One of her first actions as a teacher was to help Danny Hanson organize his students to sue Harvey for emotional abuse, and she frequently helped students get out of one serious legal jam or another. She came to the defense of Steven when he was falsely accused of killing Patrick McCain, a racist parent, during a conflict in his office for the suspension of his equally racist son. In one way or another, Ronnie seemed to pick up where Lauren had left off, and became closer to Harry. However, Harry's mysterious emotional problems became more visible, causing him to have trouble showing compassion for himself and expressing his feelings to Ronnie. Yet, Ronnie and Harry seemed to be moving forward until Harry was stabbed by a former student and this—combined with whatever personal demons he faced—sent Harry on a downward spiral that ended in him taking a leave of absence and heading down to Florida to sort out his feelings and his life.
Ronnie soon got over Harry, and began an on-and-off relationship with Zach Fischer, and accepted a position from the mayor's liaison to issue a report on the school and make suggestions for budget cuts, a decision that made Zach jealous and angered Scott, who saw Ronnie as a glory-hound who was willing to cut funding for public education in order to further a political career. Eventually, Ronnie and Scott came to an understanding and were able to avoid budget cuts by cutting all funding on varsity sports.
Marla Hendricks (Loretta Devine) was a heavyset social studies teacher who suffered from severe bipolar maniac depression, and had to take pills to make it through a stressful day, which fairly seemed to be just about every day. She was a deeply religious woman, encouraging students to pray on school grounds, and was also frequently the one to give lectures to other faculty members, parents, or students about the financial and emotional challenges facing teachers, along with other topical issues such as bullying, multiculturalism, and the usage of the "N-word" by white people. While she was a religious person upset about raising kids in an "atheist nation", her faith guided her to offer more compassion rather than judgment of the students. She often conflicted with Harvey's teaching methods, and formed a bitter rivalry with Danny Hanson, whom she later got into a fistfight; eventually, they solved their differences somewhat, and even went out for beer. Her bold personality and willingness to challenge the school board and parents meant that she was not able to advance in her career into administration. During a time when she decided to have a baby, Marla asked Steven if he would consider helping her have a baby by donating his sperm. When Steven refused, she continued to try and get pregnant but failed. Marla had a miscarriage, but later got the chance of experiecing motherhood when she adopted a student named Rainy.
Danny Hanson (Michael Rapaport) was an English teacher hired to replace Milton Buttle. Danny came from a working-class Irish-Catholic home and had a populist political philosophy, a source of tension with his fellow faculty members as well as his wealthy fiancé, and a certain ambivalence about religion because he was sexually molested by his priest. His father may have also been abusive to him as was suggested in a storyline where he tracked down a gay student that ran away from his home after being beaten by his father. He also had a sister, Joanie, who was a drug addict and single mother to 5-year-old Allison. Like the other characters in the series, Danny was willing to do unorthodox things in order to help his students. However, his hotheaded, arrogant attitude got him into trouble in his professional and personal life; to name a few examples, when he walked in on his fiancé having sex with another man, he threw a phone at the man, and later started a class project on the "N-word." Danny formed a bitter rivalry with Marla, and accused her of being a racist; he later got into a fistfight with her but ultimately mended his differences with her. In the series' third season, Danny began dating Claire Ellison; they eventually married and gained custody of Allison while Joanie was in rehabilitation for drug addiction.
Marilyn Sudor (Sharon Leal) was the music instructor she found out that Jeremy Peters was being locked in the basement by his mother, and later encouraged another student, Aisha,(Tamyra Gray) to break up with her abusive boyfriend in order to pursue her dream of being a professional singer. Marilyn joined with Scott to take some dancing lessons but was quick to assert that they were going to just be friends. In the final season, she began dating Steven, and their romance became public after a student facing suspension for kissing Marilyn at a scholarship awards ceremony threatened to go before the school board because he felt that he was suspended for kissing the principal's girlfriend; eventually, Steven agreed to reduce the student's punishment so that it would not cause him to lose his scholarship or hurt his college application process.
In the third season, three new teachers were hired for being twentysomething, idealistic men and women. The first two were Zach Fischer(Jon Abrahams) and Colin Flynn (Joey McIntyre). The early storyline for both characters revolved around being mentored by the older and more experienced faculty while trying to relate to the students. Zach seemed to be a replacement for Harry with no mysterious personal demons who soon began to date Ronnie. Colin had a brief affair with Patricia Emerson, the mother of Becky Emerson, one of his star pupils, but broke it off when a jealous Becky threatened to reveal the affair in a poem she was going to read in public. The third character was Kimberly Woods (Michelle Monaghan), a young and somewhat naive woman in a "Teach for America" program whose class discussion on affirmative action results in racial violence that ended up putting Steven on trial for murder. Kimberly was later forced to leave Winslow High after an obsessed lesbian student stalked and threatened to kill her. Zach and Colin disappeared from the show in the final season with no explanation as to what happened to them.
Final season characters
In the fourth and final season, three new characters came onto the show. The first was Carmen Torres (Natalia Baron), the 21-year-old Spanish physics teacher who would clash with Steven over his insistence that she not speak Spanish in the classroom. Carmen later started a brief relationship with Jake, an undercover cop who was posing as a "bad boy" teenager in order to bring down a student who was selling drugs; Jake was murdered when the drug bust goes wrong. Carmen disappears in the middle of the final season. No explanation is provided.
The second character was Charlie Bixby (Dennis Miller), a smart-alecky, arrogant investment banker who was forced to teach math at Winslow High as part of his community service for being convicted of securities fraud. He is able to reach his students by devising math problems with references to illicit drugs and prostitution, and volunteered at the school's suicide hotline where he befriended a teenager whom he persuaded to not kill himself. He disappeared in the middle of the final season. No explanation is provided.
The final character was an eccentric art teacher named Henry Preston (Phil Buckman) who came on towards the end of the series and had to deal with the frustration of budget cuts. Later, he persuaded a student to focus his talents on mathematics and use art as a secondary hobby. In the final episode of the series, which was left unaired in the United States until WE: Women's Entertainment showed it more than a year later, Henry both slept with Ronnie Cooke, who had previously been acting as a therapist of sorts to Henry, and was suspended from the school after hugging a sobbing female student. The suspension caused the students to stage a sit-in in his favor.
Minor faculty members
There were some minor faculty members that served to comment on the current administration and teacher techniques and status.
Louisa Fenn (Rashida Jones) was the wisecracking, sassy high school secretary who briefly dated Milton Buttle until he broke up with her after meeting Lisa. Louisa learned of Milton's affair with Lisa and pondered ratting on him, but didn't; she did, however, gain a spiteful attitude towards Lisa. In the second season, she was discovered to be secretly writing "Dear Helen", a sex column, for the school paper. Louisa came from a biracial family (her father was African-American while her mother was Caucasian). Before mysteriously vanishing from the series, she started up an unofficial girl band with Marla and Marylin.
Milton Buttle (Joey Slotnick) was the nerdy, mild-mannered English teacher who was often on the receiving end of Sheryl Holt's online parodies. He met Lisa Greer at a Starbucks one day and started a relationship with her, only to find that she was a student at Winslow High. Despite this, he reluctantly continued his relationship with Lisa but was discovered and fired, though he continued dating Lisa. Eventually, he and Lisa broke up.
Kevin Riley (Thomas McCarthy) was the football coach who was fired when he told Scott that he knew that about the secret affair between Milton and Lisa in an attempt to get Scott and Steven to go easy on Milton. Kevin sued to get his job back in an episode that crossed over with the television series The Practice, but he lost his case and angrily snubbed Steven when he attempted to make peace with Kevin. The coach that replaced Kevin was a minor character who was rarely seen.
Dr. Benjamin Harris (Leslie Jordan) was an effeminate Southern chemistry teacher who got into trouble when he organized a school production of Susan Miller's It's Our Town 2 that centered around homosexuality. He later resigned after he was discovered having had cybersex with two 18-year-old female students that he thought were college students in an Internet chatroom.
Superintendent Marsha Shinn (Debbi Morgan) was the judgmental and hypercritical superintendent who once visited the school to complain about the unorthodox teaching methods of the faculty in an attempt to get Steven fired after he physically assaulted a school bully. Marla called her "The Dragon Lady". She apparently quit her job since a new superintendent showed up at the school in later episodes.
Mr. Bob 'Big Boy' Lick (Dwight "Heavy D" Myers) was the school's heavyset but compassionate counselor whom most students did not seem to like or trust, but both Steven and Scott often referred students over to him. He took a sabbatical during the final season without advising the administration and never returned.
Superintendent Elizabeth Vasquez (Elizabeth Pena) (presumably) replaced Marsha Shinn as the superintendent of schools. Unlike Shinn, she was less judgmental and was persuaded by Steven to not suspend or fire Scott for his role in the student riot; she even half-jokingly told Steven to keep Scott from talking to the athletes. However, she was fired in the middle of the third season.
Minor characters
Minor characters in the series were primarily (but not always) students who were introduced to make a comment on society in general.
Dana Poole (Sarah Thompson) was a popular student who kissed Harry, then tried to blackmail him. Despite this, Harry reached out to her and tried to help her when she became a stripper. As a college student, Dana returned to interview the high school faculty and staff about the low teacher salaries and began to date Harry, only to later break up with him at his birthday party because he lied to his co-workers about how long their relationship had been going on.
Susan Potter (Joanna Garcia) was a popular student who was caught giving oral sex in the school hallway to sway a student election.
Sheryl Holt (Lamya Jezek) was the editor of the student newspaper and webmaster of an online website, Holt 45. The website was a frequent problem for the faculty, as it often spoofed them and their private lives with graphic innuendoes.
Christine Banks (Lindsay Hollister) was an unpopular, overweight girl who was often bullied and got into trouble when she responded to the harassment with violence. Kevin persuaded her to earn respect from the students by being on the wrestling team, and it worked. However, Christine suffered a heart attack after playing a match, and later died.
Brooke Harper (China Shavers) was Steven's headstrong daughter who was transferred to her father's high school after being kicked out of a private school for kidnapping the school's mascot as part of an animal rights protest. She continued her political activism, including organization the students to stage a walkout over toxic chemicals and overcrowded classrooms in the school that ended up sparking a riot as the school athletes feared that these problems will be fixed by cutting the sports budget. Brooke once dated a 27-year-old man named Roland McClane as well as Jeremy Peters, but neither relationship lasted long. She always hoped for her parents to get back together, but had accepted that it was not going to happen. At the end of the third season, Brooke had graduated and had been accepted to Harvard University.
Marcie Kendall (Cara DeLizia) was a student whom Meredith slapped with her prosthesis during an argument, leading to Meredith being fired. In the third season, Marcie began Scott's assistant and was involved in the student walkout. Later on, she became pregnant by Brian Harrower, her boyfriend; overwhelmed by her impending responsibilities of being a mother, she decided to give up her baby for adoption.
Robin Chambers (L.B. Fisher) was a transgender student who caused an uproar and some gay-bashing when he chose to become a candidate for prom queen. He won the contest and ended up wining a dance with the prom king, who subtly came out as being gay to Robin; the two danced the night away. Neither student is seen again.
Patricia Emerson (Anne Archer) was the sultry, middle-aged mother of Becky Emerson who claimed to be the descendant of poet Ralph Waldo Emerson and even kept her maiden name when she married her husband, an arms dealer. She complained to Colin about his grade on Becky's assignment and, unhappy with her marriage, flirted with him, leading to an affair with the young teacher. Ultimately, she reconciled with her husband and ended the affair.
Rebecca 'Becky' Emerson (Courtney Peldon) was the beautiful but nutty daughter of Patricia Emerson who developed a crush on Colin and was devastated when she learned that he was sleeping with her mother. As a result, she threatened to expose Colin's affair at a poetry until she saw her parents together again and decided not to. Later, she became the anchorwoman of the student television station and was about to air footage of a married teacher having sex with another woman in a classroom, but was persuaded from doing so by Danny. In the series' fourth and final season, Becky became Scott's assistant and once gave him surprisingly insight advice.
Devon Rick (Matt Lutz) was a gay teenager on the football team who watched as his boyfriend was beaten up by their homophobic teammates. The incident prompted Scott to start up a Gay-Straight Alliance and lecture the school on the evils of homophobia. Eventually, Scott persuaded Devon to come out and identify the students who beat up his boyfriend.
Dave Fields (David Conrad) was liaison to the Mayor pushing for standardized testing and budget cuts. He persuaded Ronnie to act as his eyes and ears in the school and even offered her a possible political career, but Ronnie eventually rejected his offer of romance and politics.
Riley Ellis (Andrea Bowen) was a 12-year-old prodigy looking for a normal friendship while attending Winslow High. Steven persuaded Brooke to be her friend, but Riley rejected the friendship when she realized that Brooke was only doing it to try and get close to a male student that she had a crush on. She later became Becky's friend and worked with her in the student television station.
Taylor Prentice (Verne Troyer) was a little person (or dwarf) ex-professor who helped underachieving students ace exams and later dated Marla. They eventually broke up.
Peter Feldman (Miko Hughes) was a student who, after being electrocuted in Danny's class, came to believe that he was Jesus Christ reborn. As such, he began to come to school dressed in ceremonial robes, offering advice to Danny and even using student fees to help a homeless man. Eventually, it was discovered that the reason behind his assuming the identity of Jesus was that he witnessed a young boy get hit by a bus one afternoon.
Julien (Thomas Dekker) was a student who came out to his father, who beat him and his mother. Julien ran away from home, prompting Danny and Claire to track him down and get him to live with his mother who had finally left her bigoted and abusive husband.
Cast
- Chi McBride as Steven Harper
- Anthony Heald as Scott Guber
- Loretta Devine as Marla Hendricks
- Sharon Leal as Marilyn Sudor
- Jeri Ryan as Ronnie Cooke (2001-2004)
- Michael Rapaport as Danny Hanson (2001-2004)
- Natalia Baron as Carmen Torres (2003-2004)
- Fyvush Finkel as Harvey Lipschultz
- Jessalyn Gilsig as Lauren Davis (2000-2002)
- Nicky Katt as Harry Senate (2000-2002)
- Rashida Jones as Louisa Fenn (2000-2002)
- Thomas McCarthy as Kevin Riley (2000-2001)
- Joey Slotnick as Milton Buttle (2000-2001)
- Kathy Baker as Meredith Peters (2001-2002)
- China Shavers as Brooke Harper (2001-2003) (as China Jesusita Shavers)
- Jon Abrahams as Zack Fisher (2002-2003)
- Joseph McIntyre as Colin Flynn (2002-2003) (as Joey McIntyre)
- Michelle Monaghan as Kimberly Woods (2002-2003)
- Cara DeLizia as Marcy Kendall (2002-2003)
Trivia
- East Boston High School was used as Winslow High's exterior.
- Guber's name is derivative of the Latin word "gubernare", which means "to control, to govern, to restrain, to rule".
- In the episode "Chapter Four", Fyvush Finkel gives a poor performance of "If I Were a Rich Man" from the musical Fiddler on the Roof. In real life, Fyvush Finkel starred in that musical for over 12 years.
- Fyvush Finkel and Kathy Baker both co-starred on Picket Fences.
Famous locations
The Dungeon was a classroom in the ground floor of the high school where a large number of the troublemakers (and often, underprivileged African-American or Hispanic) kids were put.
The Basement was a lounge for high school seniors but often used for various extracurricular activities. Zach and Ronnie have sex in the basement one evening while stranded inside the school at the start of winter break. A high school senior, Henry Frears, once rented out the room for students to have safe sex, thus promoting a high school trial with selected students as the jury. Another group of seniors were also caught using the room to sell test answers.
References
External links
