''Bad Teacher'' is an American

single-camera The single-camera setup, or single-camera mode of production, also known as portable single camera, is a method of filmmaking and video production. The single-camera setup originally developed during the birth of the classical Hollywood cinema ...

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

created by Hilary Winston, based on the 2011 film of the same title. The series aired on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

from April 24 to July 26, 2014, as part of the 2013–14 American television season. On May 27, 2014, CBS, which had already canceled the show after three episodes, removed it from the schedule. However, the remaining episodes later aired as part of a summer

burn off In American broadcast programming, "burning off" is the custom of quickly airing the remaining episodes of a television program, usually one that has already been or is planned to be cancelled, without the intent to attract a large number of vi ...

in July 2014.

Plot

Meredith Davis is

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...

d from her rich husband, who leaves her with nothing due to a

prenuptial agreement A prenuptial agreement, antenuptial agreement, or premarital agreement (commonly referred to as a prenup), is a written contract entered into by a couple prior to marriage or a civil union that enables them to select and control many of the leg ...

that she clearly did not read. She moves in with her friend's family, whose stepdaughter Lily inspires her to come up with a plan – become hired as a teacher at Lily's school,

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

Middle School, meet and marry a rich single father, and return to the extravagant lifestyle to which she was accustomed. Using a fake résumé and her feminine charm, she gets Principal Carl Gaines to hire her. The faculty includes Joel, a former high school classmate who is now a gym teacher; Irene, a shy fellow teacher who becomes excited to have a new friend; and Ginny, faculty president who resents Meredith and is suspicious of her. Although an incompetent teacher, Meredith imparts life lessons to Lily and her friends.

Cast

Main

Ari Graynor Ariel Geltman Graynor (born April 27, 1983) is an American actress, known for her roles in TV series such as ''I'm Dying Up Here'', ''The Sopranos'' and ''Fringe'', in stage productions such as '' Brooklyn Boy'' and ''The Little Dog Laughed'', an ...

as Meredith Davis, a former housewife who poses as a middle school teacher, in hopes to find a rich divorcé so that she can resume her upper-class lifestyle *

Sara Gilbert Sara Gilbert (born Sara Rebecca Abeles; January 29, 1975) is an American actress best known for her role as Darlene Conner on the ABC sitcom '' Roseanne'' (1988–1997; 2018), for which she received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations, and ...

as Irene, a

socially awkward A social skill is any competence facilitating interaction and communication with others where social rules and relations are created, communicated, and changed in verbal and nonverbal ways. The process of learning these skills is called socia ...

teacher at Richard Nixon Middle who is eager to become friends with Meredith *

Ryan Hansen Ryan Hansen is an American actor, entrepreneur and comedian. He is best known for starring as Dick Casablancas on the noir drama series ''Veronica Mars'' (2004–2019), as Kyle Bradway on the Starz comedy series ''Party Down'' (2009–2010), and ...

as Joel Kotsky, the school's gym teacher who knows Meredith from high school and is attracted to her, despite her obviously questionable motives *Sara Rodier as Lily, the stepdaughter of one of Meredith's friends and an unpopular student at the school *

Kristin Davis Kristin Landen Davis (also listed as Kristin Lee Davis; born February 23, 1965) is an American actress and producer. She is known for playing Charlotte York Goldenblatt in the HBO romantic comedy series ''Sex and the City'' (1998–2004). Sh ...

as Ginny Taylor-Clapp, a self-serious and overzealous teacher who is immediately suspicious of Meredith * David Alan Grier as Carl Gaines, the recently divorced principal of Richard Nixon Middle who takes an instant liking to Meredith

Recurring

*Caitlin Kimball as Kim Superfine, a student teacher who works with Ginny * Stuart Allan as James Pfaff, a student *

Madison De La Garza Madison Lee De La Garza (born December 28, 2001) is an American actress. De La Garza is known for playing Juanita Solis on '' Desperate Housewives''. She is the younger half-sister of singer Demi Lovato. Early life and family Madison Lee De La ...

as Kelsey, a student *

Grace Kaufman Grace Kaufman (born April 29, 2002) is an American actress, known for her roles including Kate Burns in the CBS sitcom '' Man with a Plan'' (2016–2020), Bronwen in the CBS sitcom ''Bad Teacher'' (2014), Ashley Chandler in the TNT action-drama s ...

as Bronwen, a student *

Kat Foster Kat Foster is an American actress known for her role as Steph Woodcock on Til Death''. Early life and education Foster was born in Oakland, California and graduated from The College Preparatory School. A classically-trained dramatic actress, ...

as Brie, Meredith's friend at whose house Meredith lives after the divorce *

Brett Gelman Brett Clifford Gelman (born October 6, 1976) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his role as Murray Bauman in Netflix's horror-supernatural series '' Stranger Things'' and as Martin on the BBC comedy ''Fleabag''. Gelman bega ...

as Doug Pilaf, the school's eccentric math teacher *

Colin Hanks Colin Lewes Hanks (born November 24, 1977) is an American actor. He has starred in films including '' Orange County'', ''King Kong'', '' The House Bunny'', '' The Great Buck Howard'', and the ''Jumanji'' film series. His television credits includ ...

as Coach Donnie, the school's other gym teacher

Production and development

The show was first reported to be in development on October 5, 2012, and received a

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

order on January 23, 2013. Don Scardino became attached to direct the pilot on March 13, 2013. On February 18, 2013, David Alan Grier was the first to join the cast in the role of Carl. On February 19, Ari Graynor was cast in the lead role of Meredith. On February 21, Ryan Hansen was cast as Joel. On March 6, Sara Gilbert was cast as Irene. On March 13, Kristin Davis was cast as Ginny. Sara Rodier was also cast in the role of Lily, though this casting news received no announcement. On March 19, 2013, Caitlin Kimball joined the cast in a recurring role, portraying Kim. On May 13, 2013, it was reported that the series would not receive a fall 2013 commitment from CBS. The series was absent entirely from the CBS 2013–14 schedule announced on May 15, 2013, however a series pickup was announced a week later on May 22. The series premiered at 9:31PM on April 24, 2014. At its 2014–15 upfront presentation on May 10, CBS announced that the series had been canceled after airing only three episodes. After the fifth episode aired on May 22, the planned broadcasts of the sixth and seventh episodes were pulled from the schedule – being replaced with reruns of ''

The Millers ''The Millers'' is an American sitcom television series that was created by Greg Garcia and stars Will Arnett as Nathan Miller and Margo Martindale as Carol Miller. The multi-camera series aired from October 3, 2013 to July 18, 2015 and ran 3 ...

'' that had been previously scheduled to air at 8:31PM.

Episodes

Reception

Critical response

The series holds a rating of 51/100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, indicating "mixed or average" reviews, based on the reviews of 22 critics. On another review aggregation website,

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, it was given a score of 56% with an average rating of 5.2 out of 10, based on 25 reviews. The website’s consensus reads: " Ari Graynor's comedic talents are largely wasted on ''Bad Teacher'', which reboots the same shtick from the movie with none of the edge". Ben Travers of

Indiewire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...

gave the pilot a D. Mitch Salem of ShowBuzzDaily.com gave the verdict of "Change the Channel". Verne Gay of ''

Newsday ''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and f ...

'' also gave the show a D.

U.S. ratings

References

External links

* * {{IMDb title, 2714046, Bad Teacher 2014 American television series debuts 2014 American television series endings 2010s American school television series 2010s American single-camera sitcoms CBS original programming English-language television shows Middle school television series Live action television shows based on films Television series by CBS Studios Television series by Sony Pictures Television Television shows set in Los Angeles 2010s American workplace comedy television series Television series about educators