Welcome Freshmen facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Welcome Freshmen
Genre	Comedy
Created by	Robert Mittenthal
Starring	Jocelyn Steiner Rick Galloway Mike Speller Jill Setter (1991-1992)
Theme music composer	Peter Lauer
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	49 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Release
Original network	Nickelodeon
Original release	February 16, 1991 (1991-02-16) – 1994 (1994)

Welcome Freshmen is an American comedy series that originally aired on Nickelodeon from 1991 to 1994. 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, freshman-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 as a stand-up format).
• 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.
• Mortise the Safety Tortoise

Season 3

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

In the third season, the gang became sophomores, except Walter who flunked and was held behind. Merv and Tara left, with Merv skipping the rest of high school and going straight to college, and Tara and her family moving to a Biosphere. New characters came in: Manny and Erin (incoming freshmen) and Grant, a junior who was Erin's brother and soon became Alex's boyfriend. Eventually Walter moves up to sophomore as the teachers all threatened to quit if they had him another year.

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 (1993–1994)
• Janis Benson as Miss Petruka
• Brock Bradley as Grant Kelly (1993–1994)
• Nicholas Caruso as Manny Barrington (1993–1994)
• David Rhoden as Merv (1991–1992)
• Jill Setter-Rusk 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

Characters

Main characters

• Walter Patterson: the dim-witted, good-natured, optimistic and laid-back surfer of the group. His stupidity and clumsiness are often the butt of jokes.
• Kevin St. James: the cynical, selfish and egotistical one of the group. He is a smooth talker, a ladies' man and often makes fun of his friends especially Merv, Manny and Walter.
• Alex Moore: a beautiful, popular and fashion-obsessed girly girl. Often vain and materialistic, she is obsessed with her status and has no issues manipulating others for personal gain.
• Tara: the eco-conscious feminist activist of the group. Besides Walter, she is among the nicest of the group though she joins in making fun of others at times.
• Merv: the confident, outgoing and arrogant nerd of the group. Merv is a con artist who uses his smarts to rip off people. He is often seen as an insufferable know-it-all and the butt of his friends' jokes.
• Mr. Elliot Lippman: the tyrannical and incompetent principal of Hawthorne High. He often serves as an antagonist to the main character's schemes though they do not take him seriously.

Additional characters

• Manny Barrington: introduced in the final season, a naive and short-statured nerdy freshman. He befriends the main group who are a grade above him despite them treating him poorly and laughing at his expense.
• Grant Kelly: Erin's brother, a junior who becomes Alex's boyfriend. Introduced in the final season.
• Erin Kelly: a musically talented freshman who often dresses in a grunge fashion. Introduced in the final season.

Episodes

Season 1 (1991)

Season 2 (1992)

Season 3 (1993–94)