The Class is an American sitcom that originally ran on CBS from September 18, 2006, to March 5, 2007. The series followed the lives of eight very different alumni of the fictional Woodman Elementary School. The show was created by David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik's production company CraneKlarik in association with Warner Bros. Television. On May 16, 2007, CBS cancelled the series after one season.

Premise

The Class revolves around a core group of eight 28-year-olds who were all in the same third-grade class 20 years ago. A former classmate brings them all together for a party to celebrate his engagement to a girl he met in the class. However, she ends up dumping him at the party as the reunited classmates get to know each other. "They have separate lives and there are few connections that exist beforehand," Klarik said. "But through the course of the series, connections are made between the characters. It's about following their individual lives – there's no one living room where they gather."

Cast and characters

Starring cast

Recurring cast

Characters

[The main characters of The Class

From top-left clockwise: Lina Warbler, Duncan Carmello, Nicole Allen, Kyle Lendo, Holly Ellenbogen, Richie Velch, Ethan Haas, and Kat Warbler | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Theclasspromopic.jpg]

Recurring characters

Production history

Conception

The idea for The Class and the ...teacher came about when show creators David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik were cleaning their basement and they found a box of David Crane's school photographs of him with his third grade class. The pair wondered what the third graders were like now and if they were happy with their lives or not. Due to the overwhelming reputation of the creators, CBS, Fox, and NBC made bids for a full 13-episode season, the latter network was also reported to have offered a 22 episode commitment, prior to seeing a pilot. Ultimately, CBS won the bidding war with an undisclosed amount.

Casting

In December 2005, English actress Lucy Punch was the first lead to be cast for the show. Next to be cast, in January 2006, were Jason Ritter and Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Ethan Haas and Richie Velch, respectively. In February 2006 Jon Bernthal, Heather Goldenhersh, and Andrea Anders (who at the time was still part of the cast of Friends spin off Joey, which was on hiatus) were cast as Duncan Carmello, Lina Warbler, and Nicole Allen. Legendary sitcom director James Burrows was also announced to be directing the pilot. In March 2006 Eve star Sean Maguire was cast as Kyle Lendo. Last to be cast was Lizzy Caplan as the cynical Kat Warbler. Caplan was still part of The WB drama Related at the time. Related was cancelled due to the merger of UPN and The WB to create The CW. Also, during the middle of 2006, it was announced that Julie Halston, Sam Harris, and David Keith had been cast in co-starring roles. It was later announced that Roseanne ' s Sara Gilbert had been cast in the recurring role of Fern Velch, Richie Velch's wife.

Broadcast history

The Class premiered at 8:00 p.m. on September 18, 2006, on CBS, after being picked up by CBS before they had even seen the pilot episode, The Class Reunites, possibly due to the reputation of its creators, one of which created Friends, the other, a producer of Mad About You. Everybody Loves Raymond showrunner Phil Rosenthal stated that a proposed spin-off of his long-running series (focusing on Brad Garrett as Ray's brother) was passed over by CBS so that The Class could make it to series. As of October 9, 2006, CBS shifted the show to the 8:30 p.m. time slot, because its disappointing ratings were affecting the success of How I Met Your Mother in its second year. The ratings then began to steadily improve, and, on Monday October 23, 2006, CBS ordered six more episodes of The Class, bringing the episode order for the first season to 19. The pickup was conditional on the cost to CBS per episode being reduced compared to the initial episode order – this was the catalyst to Lucy Punch being fired from the show as there wasn't enough money to continue the show with eight main cast members, and also saw the total staff numbers halved. The Class was the first sitcom to show a live table read session and a live rehearsal. They were shown on Monday January 15, 2007 at 11am PST and Wednesday January 17, 2007 at 1pm PST, respectively. The webcasts were available after the live feed as well. The Class ended its first season on March 5, 2007.

Cancellation

On May 11, 2007, Zap2It reported that The Class had been canceled, with rumors it was to be replaced by The New Adventures of Old Christine. On May 15, 2007, Variety reported that The Class would not return for a second season. On May 16, 2007, The Class was officially canceled at the CBS Upfront presentation, and replaced with The Big Bang Theory. On May 17, 2007, Jesse Tyler Ferguson posted a message on his MySpace page relating to the cancellation, as did Sam Harris, explaining that the fate of The Class was undecided until the last minute. Shortly after the cancellation, fans of the show launched a campaign to try to save The Class. The campaign proved to be unsuccessful. The campaign consisted of sending erasers, because of their connection to a school and education, and sending in printed off Moroccan Chicken recipes because of a memorable episode of The Class which saw Lina cooking Moroccan Chicken for Kat, Ethan, Benjamin, Palmer, Richie, Kyle, Duncan, and Nicole.

Episodes

Every episode was directed by James Burrows.

American television ratings

Standard ratings

''Key: "Rating" is the estimated percentage of all TVs tuned to the show, "share" is the percentage of all TVs in use that are tuned in. "18–49" is the percentage of all 18- to 49-year olds watching the program. "Viewers" is the estimated number of actual people watching, in millions. "Rank" is the place in which the episode ranked up against all of the shows broadcast during the week that the episode was aired.''

Seasonal ratings

Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of The Class on CBS: Note: Each U.S. network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, or occasionally early June, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps.

Ratings competition

The Class aired against Prison Break on Fox, Deal or No Deal on NBC, Wife Swap on ABC, and All of Us on The CW. During the first few episodes The Class was up against 7th Heaven and then Everybody Hates Chris. The Class consistently surpassed Wife Swap, All of Us, 7th Heaven, and Everybody Hates Chris in the ratings.

Reception

Critical reaction

The Class received mostly mixed reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, 44% of 9 critics gave it a positive review, with an average rating of 7.4/10. Metacritic gave it a rating of 59 out of 100 based on reviews from 27 critic, indicating mixed or average reviews. The most positive reviews came from The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Hollywood Reporter.

Awards

The Class won the Favorite New TV Comedy Award at the 33rd People's Choice Awards. It was up against 30 Rock and 'Til Death. 30 Rock and ' Til Death were both renewed for second seasons while The Class was not. The Class was also nominated by the Art Director's Guild for Excellence in Production Design for a Multi Camera Television Series, this was for the Pilot episode, The Class Reunites. Mad TV won the award. In July 2007, The Class was nominated for the 59th Primetime Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Art Direction for a Multi-Camera Series, the show lost to How I Met Your Mother.

Won

Nominated