Students Day On The OTN.

On the last post, there was a comment offering up "Mr. Novak" as a potential candidate for the OTN.
Coincidentally enough, I was going to offer it up myself today.
So I will.
"Mr. Novak" was a very well done dramatic series about a high school teacher.
Sort of a serious "Mister Peepers"
But then, the sixties were a much more serious time than the fifties.
It ran for almost three seasons, beginning in 1963.
Mr. Novak was portrayed very sincerely and rather interestingly by James Franciscus.
The principal, Mr. Vane, was played by Dean Jagger, who, with his stuttering style, managed to steal every scene that he was in.
The two of them had a sort of Doctor Kildare-Doctor Gillespie relationship, similar to the way Richard Chamberlain and Raymond Massey played them.
The show was very intelligent, and very well written.
Two things stand out: One, I was going to High School at the time, and all the actors and actresses playing students seemed to be about five years older than me.
Two, was Mr. Novak's car.
He had what I think was a 1963 Dodge Lancer station wagon.
The Lancer was a compact car.
This was the only version of its station wagon that I have ever seen.
It served two purposes: It showed how little Mr. Novak cared about appearing "cool", unlike all of his students.
It also gave insight on just how little income High School teachers were making.
Where has the show been, and why can't we see it now?

The other series for Students Day ran in 1962 and 1963.
It was called "Fair Exchange"
About two families, one British and one American, who swapped daughters so they could be exchange students in each others countries.
The two fathers were war buddies, and they worked it out.
It may have been the only one-hour sitcom on record.
I was quite taken with it.
It had quality writing, it had Eddie Foy Jr., who was hilarious as the american father (and everything else he ever tried his hand at), and it had two young ladies as the exchange students who were the cutest things going, at the height of their cuteness.
The British girl was Judy Carne, who set my heart and my loins aflutter.
This was before she married Burt Reynolds, and got into legal troubles, and did other things to knock the bloom off the rose.
The American girl was Lynn Loring, precisely as adorable, who went on to become a major executive at one of the major studios.
I remember passing her office on the studio lot where she worked, sticking my head in the door, seeing her, and saying "I loved you on "Fair Exchange"
She, of course, looked at me as if I had three heads.
Perhaps she didn't want to be reminded of her past.
I did, and still do.
There was a bit of a kerfuffle when it was cancelled after only one season.
But it was kerfuffle enough by its cult following to get it renewed for a second season.
Sometimes we do have power.

Until next time,

Mark Rothman, CEO of the OTN.

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My books ,"Show Runner" and it's sequel,"Show Runner Two", can be found at the Amazon Kindle Store.
Along with the newer ones, "The Man Is Dead", and "Report Cards".
You can search by typing in my name, Cindy Williams, Laverne & Shirley, The Odd Couple, or Happy Days.
Check them out.
You don't need a Kindle machine to download them.
Just get the free app from Kindle, and they can be downloaded to an IPhone, IPad, or Blackberry.
The paperbacks, "Mark Rothman's Essays" and my new novel, "I'm Not Garbo" are not
e-books. But they are available for people without Kindle.
I have many readings and signings lined up for those, and the thing about Kindle is you can't sign one. If you'd like one of the paperbacks, personally autographed, contact me at macchus999@aol.com.
And now, we've got my reading of my "Laverne & Shirley Movie" screenplay on YouTube.

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