The Faculty (TV series)

The Faculty
Genre	Comedy
Created by	Gary Murphy Neil Thompson
Directed by	Tom Cherones Will Mackenzie
Starring	Meredith Baxter Peter MacKenzie Jenica Bergere Peter Michael Goetz Nancy Lenehan Miguel A. Núñez, Jr.
Composer(s)	Ed Alton
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13
Production
Running time	30 minutes (with commercials)
Production company(s)	Meredith Baxter Productions Thompson-Murphy Productions ABC Productions
Release
Original network	ABC
Original release	March 13 – June 26, 1996

The Faculty is an American sitcom starring Meredith Baxter as a middle school administrator. The show aired on ABC from March to June 1996.

Baxter played Flynn Sullivan, a divorced vice-principal balancing the demands of her career with single motherhood. The Faculty was notable among school-based programs for its focus on activity in Hamilton Middle School's faculty lounge, rather than in the classrooms. Co-creator Neil Thompson called it "an adult-based show," and said that the relationships among the school's staff were the central element.

The premiere episode featured Sullivan's decision whether to expel a student for painting graffiti on a school wall that accused a teacher of having sex with a sheep.

Baxter said that the role of Flynn Sullivan appealed to her because it was a break with TV tradition, portraying an "intelligent, capable woman" who "isn't looked at a sexual object or as a target" and "doesn't need to be defended and protected and rescued." The Seattle Post-Intelligencer described Flynn as "90 percent dignity, 10 percent dizziness." Baxter said she "would love to go with less dignity" but compared the character to Mary Richards: "everyone around her can be a little nuts, but there has to be some center there that viewers can believe in."

In creating the show, Baxter knew she wanted to set it in a workplace as opposed to a family home, in contrast with her previous work (such as the hit 1980s sitcom Family Ties). She and her colleagues considered settings including a fashion magazine, an advertising agency and a newspaper before deciding on a school.

Baxter was also one of the show's executive producers, along with Thompson, whose parents and sister were teachers, and Gary Murphy.

The Faculty premiered on Wednesday, March 13, 1996 as a midseason replacement.

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