TiVo has bad scheduling data for Nick at Nite which is making it difficult to relive memories of Head of the Class, an ABC sitcom from 1986 to 1991. Head of the Class is special for its ability to represent gifted children on TV, lace its dialogue and stories with history, literature, and other academic material (admittedly nothing beyond a high school education, but what other sitcom expects even that much from its audience?), star Howard Hessman and eventually Billy Connolly, and still be a crappy eighties sitcom with shallow characters, simple, preachy plots, lame gags and an atrocious ill-timed laugh track (later seasons only?). When did it jump the shark?

Thankfully, N@N gave me a sample of three different seasons before I gave up on trying to relive this part of my childhood, and the pilot came close enough to redeeming both the Billy Connolly Christmas episode ("Viki's Torn Genes") and the Darlene-is-a-descendant-of-Benjamin-Franklin episode ("The Write Stuff," I think?) that I might be willing to try a few more. I'm disappointed to hear the NASA episode is considered terrible (as is all of Season 4), since it's the only one I actually remember anything about...