Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 20, 1993 TAG: 9302200365
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-15 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PATRICIA BRENNAN THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
`CLASS OF '96' COULD BE FOX'S BEST DRAMA
At first, it sounds like it must be " `Beverly Hills, 90210' Goes to College," but it isn't. It's better. It could be Fox's best series so far, not counting Matt Groening's animated "Simpsons.""Class of '96" is an hour-long drama series paired with the more offbeat "Key West" on Tuesday nights. Together, they give Fox its sixth night of original programming. On its own, "Class" gives Fox a critical success.
Set at fictional Havenhurst College, a school in the Northeast, the series focuses on seven freshmen of diverse backgrounds who live in the same dorm and become friends, to a greater or lesser extent, the day they arrive.
"Class of '96" is from Mandy Films Inc., in association with ABC Productions, the first time a network production company has agreed to do a series for a competitor.
The arrangement pairs executive producer Leonard Goldberg, who made some of ABC's more popular series and headed up Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., and his friend Brandon Stoddard, former head of ABC Entertainment and now chief of its production wing.
Goldberg said he knows that the series may be classified as another "youth ensemble" show. But he believes that writer John Romano, who won an Emmy nomination for "Hill Street Blues," and Peter Horton, who directed and acted in the pilot and will direct other episodes, make this one superior.
"Because of the talent of these two men, I think the show has a quality and tone that separates it from other shows," he said.
The seven students interact with other students and visitors to Havenhurst's campus, as well as faculty members whose roles are recurring. One is Horton, who plays a professor based largely on Romano's experiences as a teacher of English and literature at Columbia University. In ABC's "thirtysomething," Horton played college instructor Gary Shepherd.
"It's not about someone getting an abortion and someone getting AIDS and someone sleeping with so-and-so's roommate," said Horton. He called it the "minutiae of college experience."
If "Class" rings true to college freshmen, there may be another reason: Goldberg's daughter Amanda is a real-life member of the Class of '96 at the University of Pennsylvania. "I have a vested interest in this series," said her father, who named the production company for this series Mandy Films.
The pilot's credits listed Amanda Goldberg as assistant to the costume designer. After that episode, made in the summer, she left for Philadelphia to study English and art history - among other courses - at Penn, and to take extra classes at nearby Moore College of Art and Design.
But her imprint goes beyond a bit of design work. In the opener, Jessica Cohen (Lisa Dean Ryan) arrived at school in a chauffeur-driven car, riding with Daddy in the back seat. When she asked the driver to let her off before they got to her dorm, Dad picked up on her embarrassment: He knew she was as sensitive about being a rich man's child as he was about being poor.
"It was a wonderful little scene," said Goldberg. "That's been going on with me and my daughter since her first day of kindergarten. When we were almost there, she said, `You have to stop here.' Basically, they [children of privilege] like to be anonymous."
Jessica's roommates are drama student Patty Horvath (Megan Ward) and party girl Robin Farr (Lori Wuhrer). Elsewhere in Stillman are the guys, who share double rooms. Rich preppy Whitney Reed (Brandon Douglas), assigned to his father's old room, finds that his roommate is basketball player Antonio Hopkins (Perry Moore), whose father collects tolls on a New York City bridge. Entrepreneur/computer whiz Samuel "Stroke" Dexter (Gale Hansen) has been paired with David Morrissey, first in his blue-collar family to go to college.
"Class of '96" is shot in the classic stone buildings of the University of Toronto.