Today i caught one of those "cable previews" showing the pilot for a television show called Filmore Middle. It's a sit-com about an eclectic group of teachers working at a New Jersey middle school that's not known for its academics. Justin Bartha stars as Jeff Cahill, the "cool" teacher who breaks all the rules and pretends not to care but really does. Deon Richmond plays Calvin Babbet, fellow teacher and right hand man. (I remember this guy from The Cosby Show; he played Rudy's friend Kenny -- he was funnier back then.) The virtuous teacher, Alice Fletcher, is played by Sarah Alexander whose English accent kept me entertained. She will predictably be the source of romantic tension. (Actor names courtesy TV Tome.)
The episode itself centered around this kid, Adam, who is remarkably unpopular but has potential. Mr Cahill "pulls a favor" to get him considered for admission to a private school. To get in, the kid needs to get a B on a history exam and his prospects don't look good. The history teacher just happens to be Ms Fletcher who is unlikely to bend the rules. Mr Cahill ends up giving the kid the answers to the test to help him out; but this plan is uncovered thanks to the usual clueless student mistakes. Cahill and Babbet convince Fletcher to give the kid a makeup, and they help him study for it. Test time comes and the kid is down to the last question: if he gets it right, he gets the B and goes to private school -- if he gets it wrong, and he stays put. The kid blows the question when clearly he knows the correct answer and gets a C which means he stays. The moral being he wanted to stay at a place where a teacher cared as much about him as Cahill did. Awww.
The show reminded me of Boston Public, only the kids where younger and it was far less dramatic. Plus it had that caring-teacher element of Boy Meets World. The friendship of Cahill and Babbet also seems reminiscent of Ed and Mike from Ed. I have to image its going to be a tough sell to get adults to watch a show about middle school in prime time.
I saw similar previews last year. It turns our one of those shows is now on the air. If fact, Medium is on NBC as i'm typing this. I wonder what will happen to this one.
Posted by Matthew at May 2, 2005 10:37 PMNice review, just wondering..on what channel did you see this? I really wanna know about this show.
Posted by: Jeanne at May 15, 2005 11:45 AMYes I caught this too - I thought it was awesome. So funny and clever and the cast were hilarious. I love the girl from Coupling! Is this a series or just a pilot?
Posted by: Lee at May 16, 2005 05:50 PMJeanne: The channel it was on was was our "cable marketplace" channel which normally runs advertisements for local real estate agents or city government announcements. It wasn't our local NBC affiliate or anything. For Comcast - (Grand Rapids, MI) it was channel 12.
Lee: As far as i know, it's just a pilot for now. I've seen some websites who think it may show up mid-season on NBC when it starts back up again. I thought Sarah was great as well.
I should also mention that some company actually called me up and asked me some questions about what i thought of the show. They ask a bunch of stuff including if i knew who Amanda Detmer was. At the time i couldn't put a face to the name, but i looked her up. I was wondering if they were thinking about plugging her into the show. If they did, it would probably either have to be in the Alice Fletcher role or maybe the principal's role. It would be a shame to see Sarah go, but you never know.
It's funny: they also asked if i had been a regular viewer of Saved By The Bell. That made me laugh.
Posted by: Matthew at May 16, 2005 06:58 PMmy name is sean, im 14, and i was feature extra on the filmore pilot. lol, what a title.
it's a great show, its hillarious. The scene that i was in was..... me and this other guy were outside the skol smokeing ciggarettes and the two main teachers come out and say GIME those and we hand um over and.... they start to smoke them hahahaha very funny show. i hope it makes it