Room 222 – Season One (1969 – 70/Shout Factory DVD)
Picture: C
Sound: C Extras: C+ Episodes: B+
One of the greatest triumphs in all of television history
was the first big hit for James L. Brooks and a series that has been lost for
far too long. Room 222 is the first show to truly deliver intelligence, diversity
and a realism (if melodramatic and limited by TV censors of the time) that is
one of those few TV shows that really changed TV for the better
permanently. Too bad it does not always
get he credit and as owned by 20th Century Fox, mysteriously
disappeared in the 1980s after being constantly shown in syndication. Now its first season is out on DVD from
Shout! Factory and this is long overdue.
The late Lloyd Haynes plays new teacher Pete Dixon, a
great educator who has just arrived to Walt Whitman High School in Los Angeles and
become the home room teacher in the title room.
Smart, able to communicate exceptionally well and individualistic, he
makes a difference in each show like so many teachers unsung do every day. There is also the principal (Michael
Constantine so good here) dealing with the stress of dealing with his job,
Denise Nicholas as a fellow teacher who becomes a love interest for Pete and
Karen Valentine as Alice Johnson, a student teacher with a big heart and high
hopes against a sometimes cold world.
The show was groundbreaking, a landmark and even inspired
smart commercials (like a few for toothpaste!) that tried to imitate its
style. Episodes and key guest stars include
the following, with some appearing in additional episodes:
1) Richie’s Story (Ty Henderson, Bruno
Kirby, Michael Gray)
2) Naked We Came Into The World (Teri
Garr)
3) Funny Boy (Richard Bull, Liam Dunn)
4) The Coat
5) The Flu (John Rubenstein)
6) First We’ll Eat, Then We’ll Strike
7) Teacher’s Dropping Out (Frank Campanella)
8) Our Teacher Is Obsolete (Helen
Klebb)
9) Triple Date
10) Fathers
& Sons (Bob Balaban, William Schallert, Richard X. Slattery)
11) Alice In
Blunderland
12) Clothes Make
The Boy (Bud Cort)
13) Seventeen
Going On Twenty-Eight
14) The Exchange
Teacher (Charmion King, Donald Moffat)
15) El Genio
16) Arizona
State Loves You (Larry Linville, Paul Winfield)
17) Operation
Sandpile
18) Play It
Loose (Woodrow Parfrey, Nancy Wilson)
19) Goodbye, Mr.
Hip
20) Once Upon A
Time There Was Air You Couldn’t See
21) The Whole
World Can Hear You
22) Ralph (Bruno
Kirby, Ron Rifkin)
23) I Love You
Charlie, I Love You Abby (Brad David, Cindy Williams, Kathleen Nolan)
24) The New Boy (Jamie
Farr)
25) Funny Money Mary
Gregory, Herb Edelman, Rob Reiner)
26) Just Between
Friends
Like Brooks’ later success with The Mary Tyler Moore Show, the amazing amount of up and coming
talent in each show, on top of excellent writing that is the epitome of the
last golden age of U.S. TV. It also
remains the best show at a high school ever made, leading to successful, truly
funny comedies like Welcome Back, Kotter
and much poorer shows that just happen to be at such schools. The acting is also very good without
pretension, cliché, making people look bad and always respecting the
intelligence of the audience. A real
winner on its 40th anniversary, it is the real version of must see
TV and we highly recommend it!
The 1.33 X 1 image was filmed and was always a good
looking show. Unfortunately, these
copies are not the best prints or best transfers with the best definition, but some
episodes look good and give one an idea of how well these were shot. Color, detail and depth (along with print
damage) are major issues on most prints and if any filmed show ever deserved
preservation and restoration for HD, this is it. What happened to the master film prints?
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is also on the weak side,
sometimes with warping and often with background noise, even a pop here and
there. The show even had a laugh track
at first, thankfully later abandoned.
The theme song by Jerry Goldsmith is one of the greatest of all time and
sets the tone for the show. The sound
deserves to be fixed up too.
Extras include a featurette on the making of the show
called Forty Years On that is good
and can never be long enough. Hope we
get more extras on the next sets.
- Nicholas Sheffo
