A&E® announced today the series premiere of “Teach: Tony Danza” on Friday, October 1 at 10PM ET/PT. The seven-episode one-hour series chronicles the experience of the veteran film, television and stage star as he steps into the toughest role yet, as a first-year teacher at Philadelphia’s largest urban high school.
Long before his iconic acting career, which includes roles in “Taxi” and “Who’s The Boss,” Tony Danza received a degree in History Education. During the 2009-2010 school year, he took on his most challenging and rewarding role yet as he stepped into the classroom as a full-time teacher at Philadelphia’s Northeast High School. “Teach: Tony Danza” follows the first year-teacher as he instructs a 10th-grade English class with 26 students in back-to-back 45-minute periods.
“Teaching is something I always wanted to do. Getting the opportunity to do it at Northeast High School and seeing the difference a teacher can make was really a dream come true,” said Danza. “I hope the series shows what it’s actually like to be a teacher in a public school in America, and shines a light on some of the problems facing us all as we try to educate our children. I also hope it might inspire other people to think about how they might help.”
The series will look at the challenges Danza faced and the rewards he experienced as a first-year high school teacher. Under the watchful eye of Northeast Principal Linda Carroll and in-classroom teaching coach David Cohn, Danza applied incredible creativity and ceaseless dedication in his day-to-day tasks of planning lessons and executing them in the classroom, administering quizzes and exams, grading homework, engaging in small learning communities with other faculty, and meeting with parents. Beyond the real-life duties of teaching, Danza took on quite a few additional roles outside the classroom including helping the football team, the band, and the debate team, and organizing a successful fundraiser for the school. And he became a true member of the Philadelphia community, partaking in events with the mayor, singing the national anthem at a Phillies game and lending his support to a variety of charity and fundraising events.
“Teach: Tony Danza” is produced for A&E Network by Boutique TV, Inc. with Tony Danza, Leslie Greif and Adam Reed as executive producers and Donny Jackson and Erin Kelly as co-executive producers. Adam Freeman is executive producer for Boutique TV. Executive producers for A&E are Robert Sharenow and Neil A. Cohen.
