Naked Classroom

To watch TV tell it, the U.S. teacher has long been a simple sap like "Mr. Peepers." Now comes a turnabout. He is "Mr. Novak," hero of a new weekly series about a dedicated young high school English teacher. In the resounding words of the producer, Teacher Novak "wages war five days a week against ignorance, intolerance, cruelty and injustice. For this, the board of education pays him $5,842 and gets more than its money's worth."

Last week, in prime evening time, NBC bravely sent Mr. Novak to war against ABC's Combat, and CBS's Marshal Dillon on the theory that he can divert millions of viewers from shooting to scholarship. His "Jefferson High," founded at MGM's Culver City studios, is based on research at 50 live high schools. In real life Novak is Actor James Franciscus, 29, onetime flatfoot on Naked City. He went to Taft and Yale and never attended a public school, but he is handsomer than TV Hardin and can speak real English out of both sides of his mouth.

All this has the warm endorsement of the National Education Association --and that may be part of the trouble. Each script gets a critical reading by N.E.A. members around the country. They want "the perfect image of the perfect teacher," says Executive Producer E. Jack Neuman, who at the same time has to satisfy TV's standard formulas. The result so far is neither strong drama nor strong documentary --but maybe it's progress.

In his first hour on the job last week, Teacher Novak confronted a "typical" U.S. high school. While hordes of undisciplined adolescents rush about to the beat of jazz music, a flock of frightened new teachers get a speech from the principal (Dean Jagger). Never get "personal" with students, says he; take all problems to administrators. Rejecting that edict, Mr. Novak gets personally interested in a bright kid who wants to drop out--and settles his problems in a 90-second confrontation. "A born teacher," mutters the principal magnanimously. "He knows when to break the rules."

Producer Neuman says that later shows will break the rules more freely, deal with such pressing problems as cheating, rebellious teachers, race prejudice, and at least one ten-minute drill in the classroom. This may not keep the boys away from Combat, but if Actor Franciscus can hold the girls, Mr. Novak will graduate with honors.

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