Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries - Teacher's Only: Lynn Redgrave and Norman Fell

Teacher's Only aired from April 1982 until May 1983 on NBC.

Most of the action in this short-lived school comedy took place in the faculty lunchroom and lounge which was off limits to the students-hence the series title, Teachers Only. It was there that the faculty and staff of Millard Filmore High School talked about their successes and failures, both professional and personal. Diana Swanson ( Lynn Redgrave, late of House Calls) was a high-principled dedicated English teacher, popular with her students despite the rigors of her curriculum. Ben Cooper ( Norman Fell) was the gruff stuburn , but warm-hearted school principal who had developed an ulcer after many years of trying to balance the needs and wants of students, parents, faculty, and staff. Michael and Gwen ( Adam Arkin, Van Nessa Clarke) were fellow teachers, Mr. Brody ( Norman Bartold) the assistant principal, Lois ( Kit McDonough) the nosy clerk , and Mr. Pafko ( Richard Karron) the janitor.

When Teachers Only returned in the spring of 1983 there were a number of changes. It was still set in Los Angeles, but the school ( with no on-air explanation)was now Woodrow Wilson High. Only Diana, now a guidance counselor and Ben still the principal remained. The remainder of the cast, teachers Sam Keating ( Teresa Ganzel), Michael Horne ( Tim Reid) and gym teacher and coach Spud Le Boone ( Joel Brooks) and Ben's secretary Shari ( Jean Smart) was all new. Apparently, the problem with the series was its premise, not its cast. Despite the infusion of new cast members , ratings as low as those it had obtained a year earlier prompted Teachers Only to be canceled again.

A Review from The New York Times

TV: LYNN REDGRAVE IN COMEDY 'TEACHERS ONLY'

By JOHN J. O'CONNOR
Published: April 14, 1982

LYNN REDGRAVE departed from one situation comedy, CBS-TV's ''House Calls,'' reportedly because the producers would not allow her to breast feed her new baby on the set. She is now back in another situation comedy, ''Teachers Only'' on NBC-TV Wednesdays at 9:30, and it would seem that she should come up with another unusual excuse to get out of this one.

''Teachers Only'' is still another show with a high-school setting. This one is not quite so threatening, in an amiable sort of way, as the hostile corridors in CBS's ''Making the Grade.'' Miss Redgrave plays Diana Swanson, an idealistic teacher with an indefatigably chirpy manner and a brighter-than-white smile. She is, of course, surrounded by a battery of familiar types.

Cooper (Norman Fell) is the wary longtime teacher, never at a loss for a bit of wisdom. Dreyfuss (Adam Arkin) is the young funny guy always on the lookout for a date. Lois (Kit McDonough) is dizzy but sweet. Gwen (Vanessa Clarke) delivers wisecracks to order. And Pafko (Richard Karron) is the cretinous custodian, much in the blue-collar manner of the janitor in ''One Day at a Time.''

In the premiere episode, Diana becomes a smidgin too friendly with a student (Cindy Fisher) whose parents happen to be getting a divorce. Cooper warns his colleague not to get personal with the students (''It'll just break your heart'') but Diana's warmth is irrepressible. When the girl shows up at Diana's apartment, wanting to move in as a friend, the teacher comes to her senses and explains that such an arrangement would be impossible. The girl, however, runs away instead of returning home, complicating matters far beyond the point of normal believability.

The audience-response soundtrack is especially active for ''Teachers Only.'' Oohs and aahs of surprise, sometimes escalating into genuine gasps, are used loudly and frequently. The series will need all the ''sweetening'' it can find. Miss Redgrave works hard, but to diminishing effect.

Last week, public television ruffled the feathers of some Reagan Administration representatives with a documentary on Nicaragua that strongly suggested that the Sandinists might not be all bad. The public system will undoubtedly be going out on the Government limb again tonight, at 8 on WNET-TV, Channel 13, with ''Blood and Sand: War in the Sahara,'' produced by Sharon I. Sopher for the ''Non-Fiction Television'' series that presents independent documentary producers.

Miss Sopher begins with the statement that ''a war is being fought over the Sahara Desert and the United States is involved.'' The area in question is Western Sahara, about the size of Colorado and nestled between Morocco and Mauritania. Liberated from Spain in the mid-1970's, the region was claimed as a republic by refugees calling themselves the Polisarios. Their government in exile was recognized by 46 nations, Miss Sopher says, but not by the United States, which continued to support, through increasing arms sales, Moroccan claims to some of the territory.

The documentarian spent five weeks in the region last year, two of them in the field with Polisario rebels who are fighting much better equipped Moroccan soldiers. Contrary to official Moroccan and American estimates, she reports, the rebels are more than holding their own militarily. The inevitable result is an increase in Moroccan requests for more arms, with some of the tabs being picked up by Saudi Arabia, according to Miss Sopher. In addition, a Pentagon spokesman tells her that American advisers, or ''training teams,'' have been sent to Morocco.

In short, Miss Sopher poses the question: ''Does the United States have a realistic view of what is happening and why?'' Among other things, she offers a film clip of Secretary of State Alexander M.Haig Jr. making what one of his aides later conceded was a ''serious mistake.'' Testifying before Congress, Mr. Haig said that the Polisarios had made a direct attack on Moroccan territory. No such attack ever took place, Miss Sopher says. She adds that a request for a Haig interview was denied.

Although public-television officials in Washington were originally enthusiastic about the documentary, Miss Sopher says, they began confronting her with reservations in recent weeks. When they were unable to criticize her facts, she says, they began objecting to brief scenes of battlefield corpses and a goat being killed for meals. Although WNET is sticking to the original schedule for broadcast, the rest of the system's stations will evidently be able to make their own decisions about running or not running the program.

Miss Sopher has not produced a flawless document. Her treatment of the rebels sometimes gets stickily close to romanticizing. But she has presented a complicated story with unusual clarity and she has raised questions that are not likely to go away as the public gets to learn more of the situation in the Western Sahara. She concludes bluntly, showing President Reagan becoming indignant about the use of ''naked force'' in Poland. She believes, obviously, that that same degree of indignation would be appropriate in regard to the Western Sahara situation.

For the Official Home Page of Lynn Redgrave go to http://www.redgrave.com/

For a Page dedicated to Adam Arkin go to http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/adamarkin/

For a Website dedicated to Jean Smart go to http://www.topthat.net/JeanSmart/