The Daily Star - Stay Tuned
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The Daily Star, Oneonta, N.Y., Friday, April 18, 2014 18 By Cassie Dresch TV Media S ummer holidays — every- one's favorite academic absence — may be on the horizon, but there's one class that's just getting underway over on CBS. Based on the hit, foul- mouthed comedy of the same name from 2011, "Bad Teach- er" comes to the small screen looking to pass the grade with flying colors, and the series premieres Thursday, April 24, on the eye network. To better understand the premise of the TV show, it's probably best to delve into the movie and what made it so popular in the first place. In the movie, Cameron Diaz ("The Mask," 1994, "Shrek," 2001) plays the seductive, gold-dig- ging middle school teacher, Elizabeth Halsey, who curses, drinks and smokes in front of her students and plays videos for them instead of planning lessons. Life is peachy for Miss Halsey; she's young, thin, ridic- ulously attractive and engaged to be married to her wealthy beau. That is, until he dumps her and she's forced to actually put forth effort to make money ... for breast implants that she desperately wants, believing that's what will secure her happiness. Miss Halsey embarks on a life-changing journey through the middle school halls and a class field trip, surrounded by a cast of equally funny charac- ters, including Justin Timber- lake ("Inside Llewyn Davis," 2013) as the wealthy substi- tute teacher Miss Halsey has her eye on, Jason Segel ("How I Met Your Mother") as the awkward gym teacher who's smitten with her and Lucy Punch ("Ben and Kate") as the resentful teacher who is suspi- cious of Miss Halsey's motives and teaching methods. It's an interesting concept for a movie, but its reception was mixed among critics. More often that not, it received weak reviews and below-average ratings — review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes went so far to say that "in spite of a promising concept and a charmingly brazen perfor- mance from Cameron Diaz, 'Bad Teacher' is never as funny as it should be." And that's where executive producer and show creator Hi- lary Winston steps in. The comical Winston, who was a writer for NBC's "Com- munity" for its first two sea- sons, drew her inspiration for the television show from the movie — the plot line and characters will be similar — but has chosen to go in a slightly different direction. "In the film, she was already a bad teacher," Winston told social news and entertainment website BuzzFeed last month, "but you need to start at the beginning of the story with television, and I loved the idea of this fish out of water coming into a school for the first time with the kind of attitude Cam- eron Diaz's character has in the movie." Playing TV's bad teacher is the wonderfully charming Ari Graynor ("Fringe," "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist," 2008). Her character, Meredith Davis, is the alluring, outgoing trophy wife who loses all "her" money when her rich husband kicks her to the curb. Penniless and powerless, she steals someone's identity and be- comes a teacher at a swanky elementary school with the goal of nabbing a student's wealthy single father and get- ting back to her lavish, luxuri- ous lifestyle. Like the movie, it's the cast of characters around her in the teacher's lounge that really brings the story to life. Once again, there'll be the ever-present, pining PE teacher, except this time he's Mere- dith's former classmate. Joel the gym teacher will be played by "Veronica Mars" alum Ryan Hansen. The bad teacher also gets a best friend in the TV show. Opposites attract as Sara Gilbert ("Roseanne," "The Big Bang Theory") plays Irene, an introverted, slightly geeky teacher who is really excited to make a friend. Of course re- sentment and suspicion rear their ugly heads as Kristin Da- vis ("Sex and the City") goes all-in as the uptight faculty president, Ginny, who is Mere- dith's rival and suspects some- thing's amiss with dear Miss Davis. Rounding out the faculty is principal Carl Gaines, the head of this assorted group and played by funnyman David Alan Grier ("In Living Color," "Jumanji," 1995). An intriguing facet of the TV show promises to be the kind of jokes that are made. The movie was rated R for its con- tent — excessive swearing and heavy drinking and mari- juana, oh my! — but the small screen adaptation will be con- siderably less raunchy because the audiences are just so differ- ent. The cast of "Bad Teacher" Class is in session CBS goes for a passing grade with 'Bad Teacher' Featurestory