Welcome Freshmen

Welcome Freshmen is a television show that ran on Nickelodeon from 1991 to 1993 with reruns until 1996. The show took place at Hawthorne High School with a group of high school students and a bumbling vice principal. Game shows like Get the Picture and Nick Arcade had celebrity episodes starring some of the cast of Welcome Freshmen and Clarissa Explains It All.

Welcome Freshmen was filmed at Nickelodeon Studios in Orlando, Florida.

Seasons 1 and 2

The earlier episodes of the series consisted of comedy sketches that loosely followed a theme. Some of the comedy routines involved a tortoise named Mortise teaching children about safety, a documentarian named Mr. History who talks about past generations of freshmen, the bumbling, freshmen-hating, vice principal Mr. Lippman imagining himself as a stand-up comedian telling really bad jokes that insult freshmen, and a student named Billy Cushman who, though his appearance was occasional, provided not only a good example of how not to behave, but also a good example of flatulence.

Each episode had two or three short skits about the gang's misadventures in high school.

Recurring skits

• Home-Room Announcements-Mr. Lippman, the vice principal, doing the morning announcements (at the same time, imagining how he'd really like to say them).
• The Merv-U-Mentary-Merv's amateurish attempt at uncovering news and scandals at the high school.
• Mr. History-featuring the gang as high school students of a past time period.
• Mike Who-featuring close-ups of a sidelined high school basketball player driving the crowd wild with a single wave. Eventually cut after vice Principal Lippman said it was too distracting, resulting in a tense showdown between Lippman and Who.

Season 3

In the later episodes, the sketch comedy format was abandoned and Welcome Freshmen became a standard situation comedy.

In the third season, the gang became sophomores, except Walter who flunked and was held behind. Merv and Tara left, and new characters came in: Manny and Erin (incoming freshmen) and Grant, a junior who was Erin's brother and soon became Alex's boyfriend.

Cast

• Jocelyn Steiner as Alex Moore
• Rick Galloway as Walter Patterson
• Chris Lobban as Kevin St. James
• Veronica Alicino as Miss Topaz
• Arian Waring Ash as Erin Kelly (1992–1993)
• Janis Benson as Miss Petruka
• Brock Bradley as Grant Kelly (1992–1993)
• Nicholas Caruso as Manny Barrington (1992–1993)
• David Rhoden as Merv (1991–1992)
• Jill Setter as Tara (1991–1992)
• Mike Speller as Mr. Elliott Lippman
• Nick Barnes as Billy Cushman
• Phil Card as Mr. History
• Tracy Frenkel as Coach Roach and Coach Rochelle
• Jay Martel as Mr. Royd
• Al Arasim as Al Patterson
• John Parker Searles as Mr. Macbroom
• Mark Sarto as Mortise, the Safety Tortoise

External links

• Welcome Freshmen at IMDb
• Welcome Freshmen at TV.com
• Jump The Shark - Welcome Freshmen
• Graduating from Welcome Freshmen