I just watched an episode of the late 1960’s comedy-drama “Room 222” on youtube.
The show takes place at a high school, and deals with the interactions of the faculty with each other and the students. Its outlook was gentle and progressive, and dealt with some fairly ground-breaking issues for the day. (More on that below…)
Two of the show’s main characters - teacher Pete Dixon (Lloyd Haines) and guidance counselor Liz McKintyre (Denise Nicholas) - are dating throughout the series. Both African American, they were dedicated, capable, and level-headed, and often dispensed the wisest advice to students. This was in contrast to many of the other adult characters, who ranged from long-suffering Principal Seymour Kaufmann (Michael Constantine) and lovable-but-ditsy Student Teacher Alice Johnson (Karen Valentine).
In “Ralph”, the episode I just watched (starting at around 3:36), Pete has taken a an additional job teaching night school twice a week, and Liz is gently reading him the girlfriend riot act over the increasingly scarce time he has to spend with her.
She notes that they won’t be able to attend a movie they’d wanted to watch the following night, grousing that “by the time I see that movie with you, it’ll be on TV”.
To which Pete quietly surmised, “Not unless they’ve got an X-rated channel”.
Now, “X-rated” didn’t mean quite the same thing it does now. Hell, the Best Picture Oscar that year went to “Midnight Cowboy”, which that line may have actually been a reference to.
But I find it startling honest and progressive that the two finest role models on the show were shown (albeit subtly) to be viewing such ‘filth’.
I remember (vaguely) Room 222. Is my memory faulty or was The White Shadow also a faculty member? Surely if you remember Room 222, you remember The White Shadow. I’m probably conflating the two high school TV shows in my head.
The more I think on it, the more I realize I’m mixing them up. Room 222 was on much earlier than The White Shadow. In fact, I probably only saw Room 222 in reruns as it is juuuust a bit early for me to remember a first run.
The show was trying to tackle the real issues of the day like drugs and sex. It’s not that surprising to refer to a movie in that manner at the time. You have to assume they were talking about something like Midnight Cowboy or an ‘art movie’, not out and out porn. That episode was in 1970, not long after that X-rated would be associated with hardcore porn. Even after then the reference could have been made in a humorous enough manner to be used on broadcast TV. It wasn’t the 50s, the old social barriers were being broken down all over the place.
They were definitely different series. “The White Shadow” was later. There was a spate of “wise teacher” shows, of which I think Room 222 was the first. Another was “Lucas Tanner”.
FWIW, they both took place at high schools in Los Angeles. Maybe that’s what you’re remembering?
Totally useless information: I was in 6th grade in 1970. My home room was Room 2. My last name begins with a letter towards the end of the alphabet, in 22nd place. So my books all had the label: “Room 2-22”.
Miss Brooks wasn’t nearly the “wise teacher” that Mr. Novak was. When I think back at my own favorite teachers, they all, in some ways, reminded me of Mr. Novak. Don’t forget, “Our Miss Brooks” was a sitcom, not a drama.
Rated X then was mostly equivalent to NC-17 now but porn movies used that designation too. NC-17 (or maybe some other intermediate designation) was created to differentiate the two.
oh great now I have its crushingly mellow theme song stuck in my head.
This might not help with the ‘x-rated’ query, but the only episode I remember is the banana-eating contest, and red-haired buddy with his mouth stuffed full, ready to keel over.
As a total non sequiter, when I first heard Sarah Palin back in 2008 it took me ten minutes to realize that she reminded me of Karen Valentine’s character from 222.
You have to remember the times; Fritz the Cat, Midnight Cowboy and A Clockwork Orange all got X ratings but drew huge audiences. On television at the time? Not even heavily edited for at least two of the three.
Two different shows, all right. 222’s Whitman was the idealized integrated school, decidedly more upper-class than Shadow’s Carver, where the “ghettoization” process was about 80% complete. Mostly black, a few white kids (mostly ethnics, in this case Italian) from dysfunctional families (single mothers, drunk fathers, etc).
FTR, my High School was a lot more like Carver, though there were more Hispanics mixed in and the ethnic whites were mostly Poles rather that Italians. (I’m neither, just your basic generic white dude.)
MAD Magazine did a brilliant satire of ***222 ***back in 1970.
Seymour Kaufmann, Principal (Michael Constantine): Isn’t it wonderful how “now” and “relevant” this series is? What makes it even **more **realistic is not having an **electronic laugh-track machine **to yuk it up whenever I say something funny!
"Black teacher" Pete Dixon (Lloyd Hanes)*, whom all the students love: I hate to have to tell him this, but there** is** an electronic laugh-track machine. It just never thought he ever said anything funny!
*Fun Fact: Lloyd Hanes was the Communications Officer (Lt Alden) in the second Star Trek pilot. He was replaced with Lt Uhura in order to, uhm, add another female crew member to the cast.
Wasn’t the Hitler-looking dude from Sparks in an R222 episode? Can’t remember if he said anything untoward, ungainly.
(hopefully something abrasive, because he looked like Hitler)
