Hi,
There is this 70's (i think) Britcom they used to air on PBS back in the early 80's. The main character was a young male school teacher, it was kinda like "Head of the Class" or "Welcome Back Kotter". If anyone remembers the name of this show, please please post it! I'm dying to find it again and don't know where to start.

Thanks!
Martin. :wave:
sgm1970@hotmail.com

Hello from New Zealand,

Sounds like the sitcom, you are referring to is 'Please, Sir!' which was made by London Weekend Television. In the UK, it ran from 1968-72. There was 55 episodes and starred John Alderton as the young teacher in charge of a rough bunch of kids at a tough south London school, Fenn Street Secondary Modern. There was also a feature film made in 1971. A spin off from the series was 'The Fenn Street Gang' (LWT 1971-73, 47 episodes) which in turn had a spin off series 'Bowler' (LWT 1973, 13 episodes). 'Welcome Back, Kotter' (1975-79) was very similar to 'Please, Sir!' Hope this helps.

Thanks for the info - I did some research on that show, and it is similar, but I don't think it's the same one. I remember now it was produced in the early (1982ish) 80's. I remember an epiosde where the Boomtown Rats guest-starred and performed "I don't like mondays" - I searched for tv appearances by Boomtown rats & couldn't find any britcoms...lol. I'll keep looking, "Yes, Sir" sounds great, I'm going to try & seek it out too.
Thanks!
Martin. :wave:

Hi,

Well Britain has produced many school sitcoms, but the ones from the early 1980's include 'A J Wentworth BA' (Thames Television, 1982). This was set in the 1940's, so this one is ruled out. 'Educating Marmalade' (Thames, 1982-83). This focussed on the pupil in the title and was a children's sitcom. Finally, 'Pinkerton's Progress' (BBC2, 1983), which focussed on the Deputy Head.

The only British sitcom, that I can think of that had rock/pop stars performing on the programme was 'The Young Ones' (BBC2, 1982 & 1984). This was about four students from Scumbag College, however Boomtown Rats did not perform on the programme.

Do you know who starred in the programme? Was it a sitcom? Was it actually British? Sorry, I couldn't help more.

I'm going to go out on a limb here.

It's possible the show you are thinking about was SCTV.

They did a parody of the 60s Sidney Poitier movie "To Sir With Love" called "Teacher's Pet"

Eugene Levy played Ricardo Montalban as Peter Zachary, a newly arrived teacher at a tough English school

Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats appeared as some of the trouble making students and they performed "Elephant's Graveyard".

In the end, Mr. Zachary manages to get through to all these tough kids everyone else has given up on, but he chooses to move to the Carribean to become a masseuse.

Andrea Martin playing Cookie sings the song Teacher's Pet (a la Lulu singing the theme for To Sir With Love)

WOW! I guess I got my shows confused...I used to watch SCTV on PBS as well as this British show. But YES - The Bob Gehldoff episode was SCTV :)

Man, 20 years go by, the memory gets cloudy...lol.

Thanks for the info
Martin.

I'm happy that was sorted out... as I couldn't think of a British sitcom of that description. Well, the show in question turned out not to be British or a sitcom!!! Funny how the memory plays tricks on us! Personally though, it's the first time I have heard of SCTV!!! And to the best of my knowledge it has never screened in NZ...

Actually, I think the series I was looking for & got confused with that sctv episode was "Please, Sir" Thanks everyone for all the help!

That's ok!