Lucas Tanner (1974-1975)
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Premiere:
September 11, 1974
# of Seasons: 1
# of Episodes: 21
Finale:
April 9, 1975
Creators:
Jerry McNeely
Original Title:
Lucas Tanner
Genres:
Drama
Production Companies:
Groverton Productions
R.B. Productions
Universal Television
Countries:
US
Lucas Tanner is an NBC television drama that aired during the 1974-75 season. The title character, played by David Hartman, was a former baseball player and sportswriter who becomes an English teacher at the fictional Harry S Truman High School in Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. Episodes often deal with the resistance of traditional teachers to Tanner's unorthodox teaching style. Regular co-stars included Rosemary Murphy, Kimberly Beck, and ten-year-old Robbie Rist. Unusually, the show was actually filmed in Webster Groves, rather than on a Hollywood backlot. That gave it a somewhat unusual "look" for a prime-time TV series. A 90-minute pilot film of the series aired on NBC the week of May 4, 1974; the pilot also starred Kathleen Quinlan and Joe Garagiola. This series was Hartman's last television series as an actor—in November 1975, he began a long-running stint as co-host of ABC's Good Morning America.