Boston Public

Boston Public was a popular American television series created by David E. Kelley and broadcast on the Fox Network from October 23, 2000 through 2004. It centered around the Winslow High School, a fictional public high school located in Boston, Massachusetts. The show was named for the real public school district in which it takes place.

Major Cast

While the series won praise for its dramatic realism in shining the light on the challenges facing high school faculty and administrators, critics pointed out the bizarre storyline lines and characters that even if the series had been continued never seemed to make any sense.

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Steven Harper (Chi McBride) was the tough high school principal with a heart of gold and constantly struggling with the hang-ups and problems of his employees and students. During the second season of the series, Brooke, his rebellious, liberal activist daughter, gets transferred to Winslow High, and he had try to build a relationship with her and his estranged ex-wife.

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Steven was aided by the strict and stoic Vice Principal Scott Guber (Anthony Heald) who was forced to play the disciplinary bad cop to both the students and the faculty. As someone who grew up as an awkward Jewish teenager who was bullied because his peers mistakenly thought he was gay, Scott treated bigotry and bullying as serious a crime as cutting class or cheating on an exam. Later on in the series, it was revealed that Scott wanted to become a high school principal and never got over the fact that Steven did not write him a positive recommendation for a position he had applied for at a private school, as Steven felt that one needed to be more then an autocratic disciplinarian to be a good principal and that Scott needed to move past his stoicism and stern dedication to rules and regulations. Scott's stoicism appeared to be genuine, perhaps a result of being the victim of harsh bullying, and had a hard time relating to the women that he found attractive. His first real romantic relationship was with an equally stoic (and abusive) single mother, Meredith Peters (Kathy Baker).

Related Topics:
Anthony Heald - Jewish - Kathy Baker

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Meredith had locked her academically gifted son, Jeremy (Kaj-Erik Eriksen), in the basement; in retaliation, Jeremy turned the tables, forcing Meredith to cut off her hand in order to break free. Jeremy was not happy about Scott dating his mother, but mother and son seemed to have reconciled through family therapy, although Meredith had a homophobic response when Scott told her that Jeremy was bisexual and she worked to sabotage her son's relationship with a male student, in favor of dating Brooke, Steven's daughter. However, Meredith was not happy with her son dating Brooke and worked to manipulate that relationship as well. It is unknown what happened to Jeremy; he is last seen in the hallway about to ask Scott a question, but Scott dismisses him without even turning around. It could be assumed that he would graduate and go off to college.

Related Topics:
Kaj-Erik Eriksen - Homophobic - Bisexual

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Meredith was fired after she hit a student with her prosthesis, then broke up with Guber when he failed to put their relationship above his job as an administrator, calling him a "weak, limp man." She was last seen leaving the birthday party (in an episode that was a teacher version of The Breakfast Club) planned for Harry with a threat that she would one day get her revenge on Scott for firing her and the rest of the faculty for their cruel comments about her disability and emotional problems. In the series' fourth and final season, Scott found love in Violet Montgomery, a free-spirited woman who shared his taste in music and agreed to date him exclusively.

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One of the two social studies teachers was Lauren Davis (Jessalyn Gilsig), the pretty head of the social studies department who had a reputation among the students as being something of a nun and later among the faculty as being a "prima donna perfectionist." Scott had a crush on Lauren, a relationship that never seemed to go anywhere until right before Lauren mysteriously vanished from the series. Steven felt that she was being racist because she was tougher on her African-American students, an accusation she was willing to consider in order to save Harvey from being fired. She briefly dated Harry Senate, but broke up with him; later, she began dating Daniel Evans, a former student who turned out to be stalking Lauren. During Season Two, Lauren was outraged by a proposal to do background checks on teachers, then shocked when some of her students were hospitalized because they were so stressed out about her work assignments. While Lauren was never fired, she suddenly was no longer seen in the series and no explanation was given to where she was.

Related Topics:
Jessalyn Gilsig - Racist - African-American

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Harvey Lipschultz (Fyvush Finkel) was a somewhat stereotypical elderly Jewish man. He was not a fan of political correctness, and his character seemed to switch from being a well-meaning liberal that once met with the football team and told them that they should not discriminate against a player who is rumored to be gay, while other times he came off as an Archie Bunker bigot or a simple comical buffoon of a bygone era. He served in the Second World War; on the night before he left to go to Europe, he had a one-night stand with an African American woman who later gave birth to a son, Lester, who was able to track down Harvey and introduce him to his family. After the war, Harvey came home and married a woman named Helen and remained faithful to her until she died, although she did have an affair. The stock market crash erased his life savings, and despite efforts by both Scott and Steven to get rid of him, Harvey was able to continue working after he agreed to attend racial sensitivity classes.

Related Topics:
Fyvush Finkel - Political correctness - Gay - Archie Bunker - Second World War - African American

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Harry Senate (Nicky Katt) was the geology teacher who was assigned by Scott to teach in the infamous "Dungeon" classroom after Marla walks out on the class. Harry was infamous for deploying unusual (and often dangerous) methods to try and reach his students, such as firing a gun off in class in a concerted effort to teach the unruly students in the classrooms a lesson in respect, agreeing to become the faculty sponsor for a student branch of the National Rifle Association only to later deliver a disparaging speech against the organization, which he linked to an American glorification of gun violence, and starting up a "Suicide Club" to get kids to open up about their feelings surrounding suicide. He was kissed by a student, Dana Poole, who later blackmailed him and almost lost his job for this and his other radical antics, one being his knowing of a student, Tyronn Anderson, had killed a rival gang member in self-defense. However, his great compassion and ability to persuade his students to never give up and do the right thing ultimately saved his job. Harry began a relationship with Lauren, and the two initially seemed happy but Lauren simply did not feel as is Harry was really opening up to her.

Related Topics:
Nicky Katt - National Rifle Association

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Harry and Lauren broke up shortly after Harry confided in her that he knew Tyronn killed someone; Lauren would later briefly date Daniel Evans. As for Harry, his more serious relationship was with Ronnie Cooke. After Harry was stabbed by a former student and almost died, post traumatic stress and personal demons prompted a slow mental breakdown. Given the option of being fired or going on a leave of absence, Harry was dismayed but realized that his current mental state was affecting his ability as a teacher; he chose to take a leave of absence to get himself together, promising Steven that he would someday return. As he walked out of the building, Harry gave an incoming and idealistic teacher Kimberly Woods some good advice.

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Ronnie Cooke (Jeri Ryan) was a college friend of Harry's, a successful, upper-middle class lawyer that decided that her true calling in life was to teach English at public high school. As a lawyer, Ronnie often acted as a legal advocate for the students. One of her first actions as a teacher was to help Danny Hanson organize his students to sue Harvey for emotional abuse, and she frequently helped students get out of one serious legal jam or another. She came to the defense of Steven when he was falsely accused of killing Patrick McCain, a racist parent, during a conflict in his office for the suspension of his equally racist son. In one way or another, Ronnie seemed to pick up where Lauren had left off, and became closer to Harry. However, Harry's mysterious emotional problems became more visible, causing him to have trouble showing compassion for himself and expressing his feelings to Ronnie. Yet, Ronnie and Harry seemed to be moving forward until Harry was stabbed by a former student and this?combined with whatever personal demons he faced?sent Harry on a downward spiral that ended in him taking a leave of absence and heading down to Florida to sort out his feelings and his life.

Related Topics:
Jeri Ryan - Florida

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Ronnie soon got over Harry, and began an on-and-off relationship with Zach Fischer, and accepted a position from the mayor's liaison to issue a report on the school and make suggestions for budget cuts, a decision that made Zach jealous and angered Scott, who saw Ronnie as a glory-hound who was willing to cut funding for public education in order to further a political career. Eventually, Ronnie and Scott came to an understanding and were able to avoid budget cuts by cutting all funding on varsity sports.

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Marla Hendricks (Loretta Devine) was a heavyset social studies teacher who suffered from severe bipolar maniac depression, and had to take pills to make it through a stressful day, which fairly seemed to be just about every day. She was a deeply religious woman, encouraging students to pray on school grounds, and was also frequently the one to give lectures to other faculty members, parents, or students about the financial and emotional challenges facing teachers, along with other topical issues such as bullying, multiculturalism, and the usage of the usage of the "N-word" by white people. While she was a religious person upset about raising kids in an "atheist nation", her faith guided her to offer more compassion rather than judgment of the students. She often conflicted with Harvey's teaching methods, and formed a bitter rivalry with Danny Hanson, whom she later got into a fistfight; eventually, they solved their differences somewhat, and even went out for beer. Her bold personality and willingness to challenge the school board and parents meant that she was not able to advance in her career into administration. During a time when she decided to have a baby, Marla asked Steven if he would consider helping her have a baby by donating his sperm. When Steven refused, she continued to try and get pregnant but failed.

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Danny Hanson (Michael Rapaport) was an English teacher hired to replace Milton Buttle. Danny came from a working-class Irish-Catholic home and had a populist political philosophy, a source of tension with his fellow faculty members as well as his wealthy fiancé, and a certain ambivalence about religion because he was sexually molested by his priest. His father may have also been abusive to him as was suggested in a storyline where he tracked down a gay student that ran away from his home after being beaten by his father who also beating his wife. He also had a sister, Joanie, who was a drug addict and single mother to 5-year-old Allison. Like the other characters in the series, Danny was willing to do unorthodox things in order to help his students. However, his hotheaded, arrogant attitude got him into trouble in his professional and personal life; to name a few examples, when he walked in his fiancé having sex with another man, he threw a phone at the man, and later started a class project on the "N-word." Danny formed a bitter rivalry with Marla, and accused her of being a racist; he later got into a fistfight with her but ultimately mended his differences with her. In the series' third season, Danny began dating Claire Ellison; they eventually married and gained custody of Allison while Joanie was in rehabilitation for drug addiction.

Related Topics:
Michael Rapaport - Catholic - Populist - Molested - Gay

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Marilyn Sudor (Sharon Leal) was the music instructor she found out that Jeremy Peters was being locked in the basement by his mother, and later encouraged another student, Aisha, to break up with her abusive boyfriend in order to pursue her dream of being a professional singer. Marilyn joined with Scott to take some dancing lessons but was quick to assert that they were going to just be friends. In the final season, she began dating Steven, and their romance became public after a student facing suspension for kissing Marilyn at a scholarship awards ceremony threatened to go before the school board because he felt that he was suspended for kissing the principal's girlfriend; eventually, Steven agreed to reduce the student's punishment so that it would not cause him to lose his scholarship or hurt his college application process.

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In the third season, three new teachers were hired for being twentysomething, idealistic men and women. The first two were Zach Fischer(Jon Abrahams) and Colin Flynn (Joey McIntyre). The early storyline for both characters revolved around being mentored by the older and more experienced faculty while trying to relate to the students. Zach seemed to be a replacement for Harry with no mysterious personal demons who soon began to date Ronnie. Colin had a brief affair with Patricia Emerson, the mother of Becky Emerson, one of his star pupils, but broke it off when a jealous Becky threatened to reveal the affair in a poem she was going to read in public. The third character was Kimberly Woods (Michelle Monaghan, a young and somewhat naive woman in a "Teach for America" program whose class discussion on affirmative action results in racial violence that ended up putting Steven on trial for murder. Kimberly was later forced to leave Winslow High after an obsessed lesbian student stalked and threatened to kill her.

Related Topics:
Jon Abrahams - Joey McIntyre - Michelle Monaghan - Affirmative action - Lesbian

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