Episode 1, embedded from Hulu.com:

A teacher I follow on Twitter posted that she was watching this show yesterday, so I clicked on her link and watched a few minutes in between chores. It had me choking up right from the start. Danza is so sincere and so frustrated all around. And he only has one class.

I ended up watching all three episodes yesterday. The first one, I watched twice, since I wanted Mr. Hawke to see it, too.

For the reality show, Tony Danza, TV star of the ’70s and ’80s (“Taxi” and “Who’s the Boss?”), takes on his first aspiration to become a teacher. He’s teaching English 10 in Philadelphia’s largest high school, Northeast. He says on the show that he actually went to college to become a teacher, but got caught up in boxing and TV.

In his classroom, he has a lot of the same challenges that I face: only 40-some minutes a day to get through lessons; students who refuse to read, do any homework, or contribute to class discussions; and a large scope of ability levels in the same class (some who can’t keep up; others who are bored because they think it’s too slow). I think he said he has 26 students in his class. That’s about average around GW.

As I said before, though, Danza only has this one class to teach. And he has an instructional counselor, I believe the guy is called, to sit in the classroom and go over lessons and how to handle behavioral issues, parents, special education challenges, etc. Of course, he is working as a football coach in the first few episodes, and he also is helping out the band and organizing huge productions for the mayor, so his plate is still full.

But imagine doing all of that with 125 students. Parent contact, grading, student conferences. It’s pretty overwhelming sometimes.

I really respect Danza for being involved in this show. You can tell that he is genuinely invested in teaching these kids. I love that he cries unashamedly. How many men would do that in real life, much less on national television?

I also love the shots of Philadelphia and Northeast. A real flavor of the city infuses the show.

I look forward to seeing more episodes, as they become available online. :)

You can see all the links to streamable (is that a word yet?) episodes here.