Running the Halls

1 9 9 3 (UK)
13 x 30 minute episodes

Karen Gilman (Pamela Bowen) was the headmistress of Middlefield Performing Arts Academy – a New England co-ed boarding school which functioned as a sort of Fame academy for the irremediably untalented. Karen ran the academy like a military leader and refused to put up with any nonsense from the students.

The school was an acne-free zone where the girls were peachy keen, the boys stripped to the waist on the slightest pretext, and even the spinster music teacher looked like Demi Moore.

Principal students were Holiday “Holly” Friedman (Laurie Fortier), Andy McBain (Richard Hillman), Molloy Simpson (Lackey Bevis), Nikki Watson (Senta Moses), Miles Taylor (Craig Kirkwood) and Mark “The Shark” Stark (Richard Speight Jr.) – who Karen Gilman had selected as her flunky to spy on the students and report to her on resentment in her ranks.

If The Wonder Years was the Rolls-Royce of teenage comedy, this NBC series was the Reliant Robin.

Mark G. ‘The Shark’ Stark
Richard Speight Jr.
Holiday ‘ Holly’ Friedman
Laurie Fortier
Nikki Watson
Senta Moses
Andy McBain
Richard Hillman
Headmistress Karen Gilman
Pamela Bowen
David Reese
Trevor Lissauer
Miles Taylor
Craig Kirkwood
Molloy Simpson
Lackey Bevis
Super George
Michael Bower
Sherman Renfield
William Marshall
Stanley Schnitzer
Karl Michael Maschek

Episodes

The Arrival | The First Mixer | Dance Squad | The Rowing Competition | Taylor Grades McBain | The Big Kiss | The Term Paper | Shark Moves In | McBain Chokes | The Conductor | The Watch | The Break Up | Rock Reunion