The relationship between students and teachers is a complicated one, as it’s adults educating youngsters with critical information and ideas for their future in the very last place they want to be. Our relationship with TV teachers is different, though, because we are choosing to willfully show up to their class day after day, week after week. So it’s to our benefit that we’ve been exposed to some great examples of fictional educators who have given us enough insight and knowledge to last us a lifetime. Here are 11 of TV’s most memorable teachers. There may or may not be a pop quiz to follow.
Most students would find it strange to see their teachers do most anything outside of what their professional role normally requires, let alone sing and dance. But at William McKinley High, it’s rare to even get past fourth period without this happening. Leading the musical brigade is Spanish teacher turned glee club director Will Shuster in the comedy/drama/musical phenomenon “Glee.” Within the school’s confines he’s got friends and enemies and ex-girlfriends. Not to mention a hunger to please others and crippling moments of self-doubt. Frankly, if he didn’t have a college degree or look like a grown man, some might mistake him for one of the students. (Photo credit: Fox Broadcasting/Photofest)
Somehow TV’s most realistic portrait of a public school teacher is played by a cartoon character. Gloomy and apathetic, and often unable to wait for a smoke break between class or during lunch, Edna Krabappel ruled Springfield Elementary’s fourth graders with an iron-deficient fist. Though too many years had passed her by and too many men had left her cold, her libido seemed healthy, and with a little liquor in her, uncontainable. A long-suffering victim to Bart’s schoolroom hijinks, Mrs. Krabappel took it all with stoic stride, often simply laughing it off with a definitive “Ha!” Say what you will about this downtrodden teacher, at her core, the lady had class. (Photo credit: 20th Century Fox Television)
Do you know what a Sweathog is? Oooohhh! Ooooohhh! Gabe Kotter did because he used to be one. Then he returned to his alma mater to teach a roomful of these underachievers, hoping to bring something enlightened out of them all. (And maybe throw in a Groucho Marx impression or two in the process.) Society had given up on these inner city kids, but not Mr. Kotter, instead choosing to show them how to turn a troubled home life into the building blocks for life lessons. Have a problem you can’t solve on your own? Mr. Kotter could tell you how to do it and if you were lucky, an amusing story about his Uncle Herman as well. (Photo credit: ABC/Photofest)
While most Gifted and Talented teachers might try to aggressively challenge their students to strive further and further ahead with their academic strengths, what Charlie Moore saw in the young members of his class was a group of socially awkward misfits who also needed to learn how to fit in. Just because his students had big brains didn’t mean they didn’t have big adolescent problems, and Mr. Moore was there to give them all the encouragement and guidance they needed, reminding them that their pursuit for the highest GPA possible shouldn’t result in the failure to have some fun along the way. (Photo credit: ABC/Photofest)
Though Zack, Lisa, and Screech were all “Saved By the Bell” each week in the early 90’s, Miss Bliss was not so lucky, never graduating on with them from the 80’s. Before the “Bell” rang in LA’s Bayside High, the aforementioned students lived in Indianapolis and studied under the tutelage of Carrie Bliss in “Good Morning, Miss Bliss.” Zack was still a fast-talking conniver here at John F. Kennedy Junior High, but Miss Bliss saw his full potential, as she did all her students, and was resultingly adored. The magic of television transported the young trio (and Principal Belding!) to a new, wildly popular sitcom, but Miss Bliss stayed behind — left, we imagine, to bring joy to the mornings of countless other untelevised eighth graders for many years to come. (Photo credit: NBC Productions)
This would be the first college professor on our list if Ben Chang actually had the qualifications to be one. But that didn’t stop him originally from teaching Spanish at Greendale Community College on “Community.” Deranged and prone to destroying things, a real Spanish professor might go so far as to call him “loco.” Unmasked as a fraud, the campus was still never spared his mayhem as he went on to serve there as a security officer, dictator, and then, obviously, a math teacher. If community colleges want to improve their standing here in the US, they need to stop hiring and then rehiring nutty professors like Mr. Chang. (Photo credit: NBC/Photofest)
One of the things that made the “Wonder Years” so wonderful was how well it balanced the school life and home life of Fred Savage’s Kevin Arnold. And even though he walked around for years with Daniel Stern’s voice rattling around his head narrating all his doings, we rooted for him anyway. Like we did in his dealings with also stern math teacher, Arthur Collins. Unlike many of the teachers on our list, Mr. Collins never wanted to be Kevin’s friend, and once even corrected Kevin by reminding him that he wasn’t. But as Kevin struggled with polynomials and coefficients, Mr. Collins was there to support him in his path to understanding and achievement. Proof that a teacher needn’t be the friendliest or most fun to be a favorite. (Photo credit: ABC)
Mr. Feeny, “Boy Meets World”
Some might call a teacher who follows his students from 6th grade through college a stalker. On “Boy Meets World,” he’s called George Feeny. Mr. Feeny otherwise resembles a classic archetype of the TV teacher: a serious, hard exterior fortifying a deep, warm and fuzzy love for his students. His students love him back and are eager and grateful for his wise council and advice. And his wisdom was indeed legendary and vast, perhaps sizable enough to legitimately stretch from secondary school to undergraduate studies. (Photo credit: ABC/Photofest)
Mr. Garrison/Mrs. Garrison, “South Park”
In this time of increased transgender awareness, maybe everyone needs a teacher like Mr. Garrison/Mrs. Garrison. “South Park’s” complex third then fourth grade teacher takes the audacious approach of letting his sexuality all hang out in front of his students like a pair of Ms. Choksondik’s pendulous breasts. Facts are not Herbert-then-Janet-then-Herbert Garrison’s strong suit, so like his animated counterpart Mrs. Krabappel, (s)he’s also a realistic portrait of a public school teacher. (Though ours never channeled their mental illness through a puppet named Mr. Hat. They just showed theirs in actions like making us compete in an intense game of dodge ball right before class pictures or eating lunch in a room right after it hosted mass pig dissections.) (Photo credit: Comedy Central/Photofest)
