''Lucas Tanner'' is an American drama series aired on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

during the 1974–75 season. The

title character The title character in a narrative work is one who is named or referred to in the title of the work. In a performed work such as a play or film, the performer who plays the title character is said to have the title role of the piëce. The title o ...

, played by David Hartman, is a former

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player and

sportswriter Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism has its roots in coverage of horse racing and boxing in the early 1800s, mainly targeted towards elites, and into t ...

who becomes an English teacher at the fictional

Harry S Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th Vice president of the United States, vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Frank ...

Memorial High School in

Webster Groves, Missouri Webster Groves is an inner-ring Greater St. Louis, suburb of St. Louis in St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. The population was 24,010 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The city is home to the main campus of Webster Universit ...

, a suburb of

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

. He changed professions following the death of his wife and child. Episodes often deal with the resistance of traditional teachers to Tanner's unorthodox teaching style. Regular co-stars included

Rosemary Murphy Rosemary Murphy (January 13, 1925 – July 5, 2014) was an American actress of stage, film, and television. She was nominated for three Tony Awards for her stage work, as well as two Emmy Awards for television work, winning once, for her perfo ...

, Kimberly Beck, John Randolph, and ten-year-old

Robbie Rist Robert Anthony Rist (born April 4, 1964) is an American actor. He is known for playing Cousin Oliver in ''The Brady Bunch'', Martin in ''Grady (American TV series), Grady'' and "Little John" in ''Big John, Little John''. Rist is also known fo ...

. Unusually, the show was actually filmed on location in Webster Groves to a significant degree, though John Marshall High School in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

served as the setting for the fictional Truman Memorial High School. However, the location filming gave ''Lucas Tanner'' a somewhat unusual "look" for a prime-time TV series. A 90-minute

pilot film is a Japanese adult animated short film directed by Masaaki Ōsumi, which was created around 1969. It is the first animated adaptation of the ''Lupin III'' manga series, created by Monkey Punch in 1967. The 12-minute film was created by Tokyo Movi ...

of the series aired on NBC the week of May 4, 1974; the pilot also starred

Kathleen Quinlan Kathleen Denise Quinlan (born November 19, 1954) is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her Golden Globe-nominated performance in the 1977 film of the novel ''I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (film), I Never Promised ...

and

Joe Garagiola Joseph Henry Garagiola Sr. (February 12, 1926 – March 23, 2016) was an American professional baseball catcher, and later a radio and television personality with a varied career. He played nine seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the ...

. This series was Hartman's last work as an actor. In November 1975, he began as co-host of

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

's ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'', often abbreviated as ''GMA'', is an American breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...

''. To date, he has not returned to acting.

Episodes

References

*Tim Brooks & Earle Marsh, ''

The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

'' (7th ed. 1999), p. 601.

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0071008, Lucas Tanner 1974 American television series debuts 1975 American television series endings 1970s American workplace drama television series 1970s American high school television series American English-language television shows Tanner, Lucas Television series about educators Television series by Universal Television Television shows set in Missouri Television shows set in St. Louis NBC television dramas