The Headmaster (TV series)

"Headmaster" was a half-hour television drama broadcast by CBS in the United States during the 1970-71 season.

"Headmaster" marked the return to series television of Andy Griffith, whose previous eponymous show had been one of CBS's major hits of the 1960s prior to his voluntary departure and a program which as still in production (as "Mayberry R.F.D."), when "Headmaster" was launched. With "Headmaster", Griffith fulfilled his desire to be cast as something other than a rural bumpkin dispensing folksy wisdom; here his character, Andy Thompson, was the headmaster of a prestigious California private school, the Concord School. His wife, Margaret (Claudette Nevins), was an English teacher; his best friend was the school's main athletic coach, Jerry Brownell (Jerry Van Dyke).

Despite being aired in the Friday night 8:30 Eastern time slot vacated by the popular "Hogan's Heroes", a theme song sung by Linda Ronstadt, and featuring arguably the biggest CBS star of the 1960s, "Headmaster" did not prove to be popular and was routinely beaten in the Nielsen ratings by both "The Partridge Family" on ABC and "The Name of the Game" on NBC. When this pattern became apparent, production of " Headmaster" was terminated, with the last first-run show being broadcast January 1, 1971, and the program replaced by a new situation comedy starring Griffith, "The New Andy Griffith Show". This replacement program met with little more success than "Headmaster", and was last broadcast on May 21, 1971. In June 1971, "Headmaster" returned to the time slot in reruns, with the last repeat episode being aired on September 10, 1971.

References

Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows"

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065299/ "Headmaster"] at the Internet Movie Database