Welcome Freshmen
Welcome Freshmen | |
---|---|
Also known as | School Students |
Genre | Comedy |
Created by | Robert Mittenthal |
Starring |
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Theme music composer | Peter Lauer |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 3 |
No. of episodes | 52 |
Production | |
Running time | 30 minutes |
Release | |
Original network | Nickelodeon |
Original release | February 16, 1991 – 1994 |
Welcome Freshmen is an American comedy series that ran on Nickelodeon from 1991 to 1994 with reruns until 1996. The show took place at Hawthorne High School with a group of high school students and a bumbling vice principal. Game shows like Get the Picture and Nick Arcade had celebrity episodes starring some of the cast of Welcome Freshmen and Clarissa Explains It All.
Welcome Freshmen was filmed at Nickelodeon Studios in Orlando, Florida.
Seasons 1 and 2
The earlier episodes of the series consisted of comedy sketches that loosely followed a theme. Some of the comedy routines involved a tortoise named Mortise teaching children about safety, a documentarian named Mr. History who talks about past generations of freshmen, the bumbling, freshmen-hating, vice principal Mr. Lippman imagining himself as a stand-up comedian telling really bad jokes that insult freshmen, and a student named Billy Cushman who, though his appearance was occasional, provided not only a good example of how not to behave, but also a good example of flatulence.
Each episode had two or three short skits about the gang's misadventures in high school.
Recurring skits
- Home-Room Announcements-Mr. Lippman, the vice principal, doing the morning announcements (at the same time, imagining how he'd really like to say them as a stand-up format).
- The Merv-U-Mentary-Merv's amateurish attempt at uncovering news and scandals at the high school.
- Mr. History-featuring the gang as high school students of a past time period.
- Mike Who-featuring close-ups of a sidelined high school basketball player driving the crowd wild with a single wave. Eventually cut after vice Principal Lippman said it was too distracting, resulting in a tense showdown between Lippman and Who.
Season 3
In the later episodes, the sketch comedy format was abandoned and Welcome Freshmen became a standard sitcom.
In the third season, the gang became sophomores, except Walter who flunked and was held behind. Merv and Tara left, and new characters came in: Manny and Erin (incoming freshmen) and Grant, a junior who was Erin's brother and soon became Alex's boyfriend. Eventually Walter moves up to sophomore as the teachers all threatened to quit if they had him another year.
Cast
- Jocelyn Steiner as Alex Moore
- Rick Galloway as Walter Patterson
- Chris Lobban as Kevin St. James
- Veronica Alicino as Miss Topaz
- Arian Waring Ash as Erin Kelly (1993–1994)
- Janis Benson as Miss Petruka
- Brock Bradley as Grant Kelly (1993–1994)
- Nicholas Caruso as Manny Barrington (1993–1994)
- David Rhoden as Merv (1991–1992)
- Jill Setter-Rusk as Tara (1991–1992)
- Mike Speller as Mr. Elliott Lippman
- Nick Barnes as Billy Cushman
- Phil Card as Mr. History
- Tracy Frenkel as Coach Roach and Coach Rochelle
- Jay Martel as Mr. Royd
- Al Arasim as Al Patterson
- John Parker Searles as Mr. Macbroom
- Mark Sarto as Mortise, the Safety Tortoise
Episodes
Season 1 (1991)
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
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1 | 1 | "How We Look" | Scott Fishman | Robert Mittenthal & Tim Hill (director) | February 16, 1991 |
2 | 2 | "Extra-Curricular Activities" | Scott Fishman | Robert Mittenthal & Tim Hill | February 23, 1991 |
3 | 3 | "Mind Games" | Scott Fishman | Robert Mittenthal & Tim Hill | March 2, 1991 |
4 | 4 | "Knowledge is Power" | Scott Fishman | Robert Mittenthal & Tim Hill | March 9, 1991 |
5 | 5 | "Growing Up" | Scott Fishman | Robert Mittenthal & Tim Hill | March 16, 1991 |
6 | 6 | "Technology" | Scott Fishman | Robert Mittenthal & Tim Hill | March 23, 1991 |
7 | 7 | "Money" | Scott Fishman | Robert Mittenthal & Tim Hill | March 30, 1991 |
8 | 8 | "Authority" | Scott Fishman | Robert Mittenthal & Tim Hill | April 6, 1991 |
9 | 9 | "Express Yourself" | Scott Fishman | Robert Mittenthal & Tim Hill | April 13, 1991 |
10 | 10 | "Careers in the Making" | Scott Fishman | Robert Mittenthal & Tim Hill | April 20, 1991 |
11 | 11 | "Language" | Scott Fishman | Robert Mittenthal & Tim Hill | April 27, 1991 |
12 | 12 | "What We Eat" | Scott Fishman | Robert Mittenthal & Tim Hill | May 4, 1991 |
13 | 13 | "Getting Even" | Scott Fishman | Robert Mittenthal & Tim Hill | May 11, 1991 |
Season 2 (1992)
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
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14 | 1 | "Friends" | Tim Hill | Robert Mittenthal & Tim Hill | 1992 |
15 | 2 | "Conformity" | Tim Hill | Robert Mittenthal & Tim Hill | 1992 |
16 | 3 | "Choices" | Tim Hill | Robert Mittenthal & Tim Hill | 1992 |
17 | 4 | "Bullies" | Tim Hill | Robert Mittenthal & Tim Hill | 1992 |
18 | 5 | "The Grass is Always Greener" | Tim Hill | Robert Mittenthal & Tim Hill | 1992 |
19 | 6 | "Holidays" | Tim Hill | Robert Mittenthal & Tim Hill | 1992 |
20 | 7 | "Dating" | Tim Hill | Robert Mittenthal & Tim Hill | 1992 |
21 | 8 | "Health" | Tim Hill | Robert Mittenthal & Tim Hill | 1992 |
22 | 9 | "Ecology" | Tim Hill | Robert Mittenthal & Tim Hill | 1992 |
23 | 10 | "Communication" | Tim Hill | Robert Mittenthal & Tim Hill | 1992 |
24 | 11 | "Success" | Tim Hill | Robert Mittenthal & Tim Hill | 1992 |
25 | 12 | "Competition" | Tim Hill | Robert Mittenthal & Tim Hill | 1992 |
26 | 13 | "Secrets" | Tim Hill | Robert Mittenthal & Tim Hill | 1992 |
Season 3 (1993-94)
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
27 | 1 | "Things Change" | Michael Berry | Tim Hill | January 2, 1993 |
28 | 2 | "The Harvest Ball" | Michael Berry | Gena Van Winkle | January 9, 1993 |
29 | 3 | "To Walter's Dad with Love" | Michael Berry | Michael Rubiner | January 16, 1993 |
30 | 4 | "The People vs. Walter" | Ron Smith | Rob Dinsmoor | January 23, 1993 |
31 | 5 | "Othello the (Sopho)moor" | Ron Smith | Anne Bernstein | January 30, 1993 |
32 | 6 | "Shiny Top" | Bob Lampel | David Potorti | February 6, 1993 |
33 | 7 | "I'm Dead" | Ron Smith | Clifford Fagin | February 13, 1993 |
34 | 8 | "Manny in Love" | Bob Lampel | Veronica Alicino | February 20, 1993 |
35 | 9 | "Requiem for a Lightweight" | Bob Lampel | Alan Levy | February 27, 1993 |
36 | 10 | "The Lippdromeda Strain" | Adam Weissman | Howard Nemetz, Simon Rakoff, Tim Hill, & Michael Rubiner | July 3, 1993 |
37 | 11 | "Erin for Office" | Adam Weissman | Gena Van Winkle | July 17, 1993 |
38 | 12 | "Getting What You Want" | Adam Weissman | Tim Hill | July 24, 1993 |
39 | 13 | "What Rhymes with Liar" | Helen Smith | Robert Leighton | July 31, 1993 |
40 | 14 | "Year's End" | Adam Weissman | Tim Hill | December 26, 1993 |
41 | 15 | "Drawn and Quoted" | Tim Hill | Story by: Robert Leighton Teleplay by: Rob Dinsmoor | January 15, 1994 |
42 | 16 | "Math, Lies & Videotape" | Tim Hill | Michael Rubiner | January 16, 1994 |
43 | 17 | "The Genius" | Tim Hill | Story by: Robert Leighton Teleplay by: Anne Bernstein | January 22, 1994 |
44 | 18 | "The Stuff" | Adam Weissman | Robert Leighton | January 29, 1994 |
45 | 19 | "Marathon Woman" | Adam Weissman | Story by: Michael Rubiner & Jed Spingarn Teleplay by: Jed Spingarn | February 5, 1994 |
46 | 20 | "Reachin' for the Stars" | Adam Weissman | Story by: Veronica Alicino & Michael Rubiner Teleplay by: Veronica Alicino | February 12, 1994 |
47 | 21 | "The Courtship of Walter's Father" | Adam Weissman | Jay Martel | February 19, 1994 |
48 | 22 | "Safety Last" | Adam Weissman | Tom Wargo | February 16, 1994 |
49 | 23 | "Hawthorne Confidential" | Adam Weissman | Rob Dinsmoor | 1994 |
50 | 24 | TBA | TBA | TBA | 1994 |
51 | 25 | TBA | TBA | TBA | 1994 |
52 | 26 | TBA | TBA | TBA | 1994 |