Everyone swoons over the handsome, charismatic, popular new Italian teacher. When Tom's the only one who dislikes Giorgio, it's written off as jealousy, despite his best effort to prove the newcomer a pretentious, dishonest phony.

Hip young writer Tom Rhodes thought he could breeze back home after a few lackluster years in New York and one worst-selling -- albeit critically acclaimed -- novel under his belt, but his new life as a small town English teacher living on campus at Harkin Academy supplies some major lessons in and out of the classroom. First off, there's chemistry between the longhaired iconoclast with a blue-collar background and Harkin's high-strung, beautiful guidance counselor Nikki Harkin. Once the girl of Tom's teen-aged fantasies, Nikki's now hooked on therapy and apparently attached to a rich boyfriend. Tom hits another snag with wannabe-hip headmaster, Ray Heary, who digs his image but frowns on his casual teaching style, as does acerbic, highbrow history teacher Ronald Felcher. Meanwhile, Harkin's outlandish woman-child math teacher Amanda Reeves worships Tom, and young Milo views his maverick new teacher with skepticism -- especially on the night Tom catches the disconsolate student going o

An obnoxious millionaire buys the school, and wants Tom to be the new headmaster.

Harkin Academy's boys are agog when a movie star's gorgeous teen-aged daughter enrolls, but when smart, ""plain Jane"" Zoey's self-esteem plummets, an attentive Mr. Rhodes steps in to boost her confidence and inadvertently sparks Zoey's colossal crush on him. In the nick of time, Nikki and Amanda alert a clueless Tom to the fragile teen's feelings.

Tom is in hot water when he becomes a dorm supervisor and holds a pizza party, only to have the boys he's responsible for sneak out for a night on the town; Nikki tries to conceal her feelings for Tom's book.

Nikki becomes conscious of the fact that she's way too dependent on therapy, so she quits, a decision that only depresses her further.

Seeing the great picture that Tom accidentally shot on his film, Heary considers a career with his new-found talent, the art of photography.

At Halloween, a gift from Tom haunts Nikki, who's feeling guilty about Carl; Amanda's strange behavior spooks the staff; and Jake's scared silly over the prospect of a test.

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It's Parents Weekend, and wouldn't you know that the woman who picks Tom up in a bar for a passionate one-night stand turns out to be -- Zoey's mother.

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Mr. Heary is anxious to put on Tom's gritty, unpublished play for Thanksgiving. But one of the school's biggest backers wants to see something that has Pilgrims.

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Tom learns that even a sensitive man of the 90s can have his faults when a school study suggests that he and other Harkin Academy teachers have been favoring boys over girls.

It's a blow to former townie Tom when a night out ends up in a barroom brawl provoked by local toughs -- and Tom gets slapped with a lawsuit.

Tom is helped over a crisis of professionalism by spectral pep talks from the characters of Welcome Back Kotter.

Cupid's arrow is especially sharp on Valentine's Day: Carl breaks up with Nikki, Nikki blames Tom, and Ronald just wants to call the whole thing off and celebrate Lincoln's birthday instead.