''Teachers'' is an American

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

television series that 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 ...

. The show ran for six episodes from March 28 until its cancellation on May 2, 2006. Loosely based upon a 2001 UK series of the same name, it was developed by Matt Tarses, co-executive producer of the medical comedy ''

Scrubs Scrub(s) may refer to: * Scrub, low shrub and grass characteristic of scrubland * Scrubs (clothing), worn by medical staff * ''Scrubs'' (TV series), an American television program * Scrubs (occupation), also called "scrub tech," "scrub nurse," ...

''.

Overview

Set in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

, ''Teachers'' stars

Justin Bartha Justin Lee Bartha (born July 21, 1978) is an American actor. In film, Bartha has played Riley Poole in the ''National Treasure'' film series and Doug Billings in ''The Hangover'' trilogy. His television roles include David Sawyer in the NBC c ...

as Jeff Cahill, a skilled, irreverent young English teacher at the fictitious Filmore

High School A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

, whose apparent apathy toward his job masks his actual wisdom concerning teaching at an underfunded school.

Sarah Alexander Sarah Alexander (''née'' Smith; 3 January 1971) is an English actress. She has appeared in British series including ''Armstrong and Miller'', ''Smack the Pony'', ''Coupling'', '' The Worst Week of My Life'', ''Green Wing'', '' Marley's Ghosts ...

co-stars as idealistic

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

teacher Alice Fletcher, his only kindred spirit on the faculty, for whom Jeff also has romantic feelings. Alice does not reciprocate these feelings, but she is becoming fonder of him. Radio personality

Phil Hendrie Philip Stephen Hendrie is an American radio personality and actor. He is widely known for his voiceover talent throughout the radio and film industry. He came to prominence in the 1990s hosting '' The Phil Hendrie Show'', a radio talk show where h ...

plays Dick Green, an apathetic phys-ed and physics teacher, who spends his afternoons behind the gym. Deon Richmond plays Calvin Babbitt, the drama teacher whose attitude about teaching falls somewhere between Jeff's and Alice's. He often gets caught up in Jeff's schemes.

Kali Rocha Kali Rocha (born December 5, 1971) is an American actress. She is known for portraying Karen Rooney, the mother of the four Rooney children and the school's vice principal, on the Disney Channel sitcom '' Liv and Maddie''. She also co-wrote four e ...

stars as the uncaring, rule-abiding

Principal Principal may refer to: Title or rank * Principal (academia), the chief executive of a university ** Principal (education), the head of a school * Principal (civil service) or principal officer, the senior management level in the UK Civil Ser ...

Emma Wiggins.

Matt Winston Matthew Winston is an American actor. He is the son of special effects artist Stan Winston. Career Winston's television appearances include the HBO dramas '' Six Feet Under'' and ''John from Cincinnati'', and as Crewman Daniels in '' Star Tre ...

stars as Mitch Lenk, a math teacher and

lap dog A lap dog or lapdog is a dog that is both small enough to be held in the arms or lie comfortably on a person's lap and temperamentally predisposed to doing so. ''Lapdog'' is not a specific breed, but a generic term for a type of dog that is sm ...

to Principal Wiggins. It is implied that he is romantically interested in her.

Sarah Shahi Aahoo Jahansouzshahi ( Persian: آهو جهانسوز شاهی; born January 10, 1980), known professionally as Sarah Shahi, is an American actress. She played Carmen on ''The L Word'' in 2005, Kate Reed in the USA Network legal drama '' Fairly L ...

stars as Tina Torres, an attractive teacher from

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. She is Alice's possible rival for Jeff's affections, though it seems Jeff prefers Alice. It is revealed in Episode 05 ("Testing 1-2-3") that she does not have her teaching

license A license (American English) or licence (Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another part ...

, having gone to school, but taking jobs before she took her

finals Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

. However, she stated later in the episode that she will be taking them.

Cast

as Jeffrey "Jeff" Cahill *

as Alice Fletcher *

as Richard "Dick" Green * Deon Richmond as Calvin Babbitt *

as Emma Wiggins *

as Tina Torres *

as Mitchell "Mitch" Lenk

Production

Like many American sitcoms, ''Teachers'' was shot before a studio audience. The series began development under the title ''Filmore Middle'', which reflected its original

middle school Middle school, also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school, is an educational stage between primary school and secondary school. Afghanistan In Afghanistan, middle school includes g ...

setting. Though adapted for American television by Matt Tarses, a writer and producer of the critically lauded series ''

Sports Night ''Sports Night'' is an American comedy drama television series about a fictional sports news show also called ''Sports Night''. It focuses on the friendships, pitfalls and ethical issues the creative talent of the program face while trying to pr ...

'' and ''

'', ''Teachers'' was panned by many critics (including the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

s Tim Goodman) as unoriginal and clichéd. The show was quickly cancelled by NBC, the news coming on May 15.Television - News - 'Joey' axed as NBC unveils '06-07 schedule - Digital Spy
/ref>

Episodes

Ratings

Based on average total viewers per episode of ''Teachers'' on NBC:

References

External links

* {{Teachers (TV series) 2000s American high school television series 2000s American multi-camera sitcoms 2000s American workplace comedy television series 2006 American television series debuts 2006 American television series endings American television series based on British television series American English-language television shows Television series about educators Television series by Universal Television Television shows set in New Jersey NBC sitcoms