TV Review - Schooled (2019)

Before a TV series goes on the air, it goes through a development period. The network will get pitched an idea or a pilot episode will be brought to them. Some times, they'll test it. If there's problems, they'll make changes. The lengths of those changes vary depending on the people involved. Most often, the average TV viewer will have no clue about those changes. When a TV show premieres, it's easy to assume that it's the way it was meant to be. That's not always the case and this TV series created by Adam F. Goldberg and Marc Firek is a perfect example. Goldberg is best known for his ABC series The Goldbergs (2013). It became a relative hit for the network, which is now in its sixth season. The success prompted this spin-off, which has been in the works for the past two years.

A backdoor pilot was produced. It apparently tested very well, but, for some reason, ABC decided not to go forward with the series, which likely would have aired in the summer or fall of 2017. Goldberg was allowed to air the backdoor pilot in January 2018. Normally, the episode would have been scrapped, but Goldberg wanted to keep pushing for the series to be recognized. After, the backdoor pilot aired, it was announced that the series would be picked up. Unfortunately, for the near year that this show was in limbo, some things would need to be changed because the actress who was going to star in the show had been cast as a regular in another series.

What didn't change is the fact that this series is set at William Penn Academy, the fictionalized version of William Penn Charter School, in northwest Philadelphia. It's the school that Goldberg himself attended in the 1990's, having graduated in 1994. To that end, this series is set in the 90's. At the end of each episode, the show interviews the real teachers and students who attended around the same time as Goldberg and who are depicted in the series itself. It's clear that Goldberg isn't mocking these teachers or students. He's just lovingly spoofing them.

At the end of the first episode, the show interviews Matt Ryan, the quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons. Ryan is one of the highest paid players in the NFL. However, he's ten years younger than Goldberg, so he never attended William Penn concurrently with this show's creator. Ryan's presence in this series therefore doesn't make total sense. Having a famous football player, at least played in teenage form by Hunter Doohan, is perhaps a way to attract viewers and add more credence to this show. It reeks of desperation though, but that kind of celebrity is probably just a one-off. The focus seems to be more on the teachers.

AJ Michalka stars as Lainey Lewis, a character from The Goldbergs. She's an aspiring rock star who can't quite fulfill that dream, so she takes a job as William Penn's new music teacher. The first, couple episodes have her awkwardly and brazenly trying to fit into her role as a person who has to relate to students and even teachers in a different way that's less selfish and self-centered but more compassionate and nurturing.

It's a dynamic that we've seen in recent shows like A.P. Bio (2018) or Bad Teacher (2014). Goldberg doesn't go the same route as those other two shows by making Lainey completely insufferable or just an outright awful person. The comedy isn't derived that way. In terms of a depiction of school and the tone of the series, the show feels like it's somewhere between Glee and Community, but not as funny or engaging as either of those.

When it comes to sitcoms about school-age students and teachers or principals, this show is so far not as funny or engaging as The Facts of Life (1979), Saved By the Bell (1989) or Boy Meets World (1993). The reason is because those shows treated their characters with a bit more intimacy than this show does. Here, each character feels like a Saturday Night Live sketch in practically every episode. They don't feel like fleshed-out people or people with lives or existences beyond the scenes they have in school.

Sometimes, what helps is if the show goes home with its characters. If all we see of these characters is them in the work environment, that can leave an impression that can be disconnecting or hollow. Maybe Goldberg's show will go home with some of these characters to help us to empathize with them more, but the first, four episodes don't really do that. It tries with one character in the third episode.

Bryan Callen (MADtv) co-stars as Rick Mellor, the gym teacher and coach for various sports teams at the school. He constantly wears a white polo shirt and short, blue shorts. He's a former, wrestling champ or Olympian who is a pretty tough, traditional and old school person. He values athletic ideals. He's pretty focused on fitness, but the third episode has him focused on being a father. However, he's such a cartoon character of what a gym teacher should or would be. Plus, he makes every personal decision in the school, so because we never go home with him and see who he is outside this setting, it's impossible to empathize or even take any part of him seriously.

Brett Dier (Jane the Virgin) plays CB, the English teacher who tries to be cool and who plays it cool all the time, despite having been a dweeb back in high school. His character is similarly a cartoon. It's emphasized in the fourth episode when he literally is imitating Jim Carrey from Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.

It's not to say that these characters couldn't be better utilized. It might not seem likely, but there is actual proof that they can be. That proof is the backdoor pilot. That one episode utilized a lot of the same characters along with new ones and it did so in a way that was funny and even highly engaging.

Tim Meadows (Saturday Night Live) plays John Glascott, the principal of William Penn. He was a character from The Goldbergs. In the backdoor pilot, the show was more centered around him. Unlike the other characters, we go home with him. We don't do so in a literal sense, but the show introduces his sister Lucy Winston, played by Nia Long (NCIS: Los Angeles and Third Watch).

Long is the actress who left when the show was in limbo. Michalka essentially fills the gap that Long left, and arguably Michalka doesn't accomplish that. Long is much more skilled, much more in tune and much funnier in this setting. It's not that Michalka is a bad actress, but she's not as seasoned as Long and plus Goldberg gave Long's character much more to work with. In the backdoor pilot, Lucy had two daughters who attended the school. Lucy takes a job at the school to keep a watch over them. Having the show be about three black women navigating in this space and in this time period represented a pathway for this series that was much more interesting than the nebulous pathway laid out for Lainey. Even watching Coach Mellor bounce off Lucy was more interesting in that backdoor pilot than watching Mellor bounce off Lainey here.

Rated TV-PG-L.
Running Time: 30 mins.
Wednesdays at 8:30PM on ABC.