PILOT REVIEW: Schooled

SCHOOLED

Starring: Tim Meadows, Bryan Callen, and AJ Michalka

Created by Adam F. Goldberg and Mark Firek
Written by Marc Firek, Directed by David Katzenberg

IN SHORT: School of Rock with the Mean Girls principal

THE PREMISE:
Schooled is a spinoff of The Goldbergs and set a few years after the popular 80s sitcom. We're now in the 90s (although there appears to be no set timeline just like the parent series) and Lainey Lewis (AJ Michalka) is trying to find her place in life. With some help from Beverly Goldberg, she returns to William Penn Charter School as the new music teacher under Principal Glascott (Tim Meadows). Still there is gym teacher and coach Rick Mellor (Bryan Callen) who is trying to adapt to 1990s kids.

THE REVIEW:
I wasn't super excited about this spinoff because Lainey, Glascott, and Coach Mellor are not my favorite parts of The Goldbergs and I felt like it might just feel exactly like the 90s version of The Goldbergs. But while it is structurally and tonally very similar, it's a different show that can surprisingly have the same amount of heart as the parent show. The show smartly used Beverly Goldberg right at the beginning but then got her out of the way. She's a great character but she would have overpowered this show in the pilot and this show needed to be able to separate itself.

In a "sum is greater than the parts" situation, the three educators at the center of this show worked quite well together. There was some funny dynamics between Meadows and Michalka and while Callen is a little bit more of a caricature, he had a really nice scene with Michalka at the end of the episode. There was also a very funny moment when Lainey did not know what a syllabus was and it played well. Despite the obvious reminder of Mean Girls, Tim Meadows is a gifted comedian in this setting and has good comedic timing and AJ Michalka certainly proved her worth as a lead character. I thought she was better in this episode than she's ever been on The Goldbergs.

What I like about this show as it seems to want to be about teachers what The Goldbergs is about families. That there's a camaraderie and a higher purpose. As a teacher myself, I appreciated a show that extols the virtues of the profession (even with plenty of gags about it too). I so often have felt that shows that have school elements get it wrong so easily (I'm sure lawyers would say that about SVU too). This show has some "that can't actually happen in a school" moments but it seems intent on having a heart and portraying the ups and downs of teaching in a mostly realistic way. So, my skepticism going in turned into me possibly getting hooked on yet another feel good ABC comedy. A nice "real life" nod at the end was cool too.

BOTTOM LINE:
I'll be curious to see how this is received and how it does in the ratings. It's hard to imagine that people who like The Goldbergs won't like this one. Although they are in different realms, it is not hard to see that they are related.