‘Head of the Class’ Stars Discuss the History-Making 1988 Episode “Mission to Moscow”
The 1980s TV comedy Head of the Class, which followed the lives of a group of gifted high school students from Manhattan’s fictional Millard Fillmore High School, was notable for a number of reasons, including WKRP in Cincinatti’s Howard Hesseman turn as their oft-frustrated teacher, Charlie. But the show also made history in 1988, when the two-part episode “Mission to Moscow” became the first U.S. show to be filmed in the U.S.S.R.
At the recent Hollywood Show in Burbank, cast members including Dan Frischman, Jeannetta Arnette, Tony O’Dell, and Khrystyne Haje discussed the strange experience:
It was the first time an American sitcom had ever been filmed in the Soviet Union.
Warner Bros. Television/courtesy Everett Collection
Dan Frischman: It was during Perestroika. We were the first American production to film in Russia. It was a big deal.
Jeannetta Arnette: I thought it was really farsighted of the producers to do something that daring. It was great.
Everyone was trying to get out [then]. I remember they were bringing you their pictures and saying, “Could you maybe help sponsor me?” or, “I’d love to come to America.” It was not the best time to be in Russia. People wanted out. But it was thrilling to be there.
Tony O’Dell: One thing I remember about that episode is that Dan and I had dates for our escapades. The producers didn’t know it but the woman who played my date or Dan’s date literally did not speak English at all, but just learned enough English to be able to pass the audition. And they hired her, but she just went by alliteration and just memorizing the words. So when it came to say goodbye, she said, “We had a fun time with you. Can we see you again tomorrow?” That became one of our favorite little jokes to go back to. We had fun.
Khrystyne Haje: She asked us to sponsor her. She asked my family to bring her in. She was really lovely. I brought my brother and his daughter, and so my niece, who was maybe eight years old at the time, went to school in Moscow with her little sister. So my family had their own adventure in Moscow during Perestroika, while we were all filming elsewhere.
ReMIND Staff
Did ABC or the U.S. State Department talk to everybody before your trip? Were there any meetings about how to act, what to do, or what not to do?
Jeannetta: There was a protocol that we all had to observe and we were encouraged to bring all kinds of little gifts to curry favor for people. Bubblegum, cigarettes…
Khrystyne: … Makeup, all kinds of things. Bruce Springsteen T-shirts. But we had a tour guide who the show had hired and she gave us a very strict protocol.
Things have changed so much in Moscow, but at the time there were state stores, and you could only use American currency in that store. They all had the exact same things, but you were only allowed to shop there. You weren’t allowed to purchase anything from any place else. People would want to sell you black market on the street. You couldn’t buy anything.
She was so strict, but she got reported because she got caught buying something on the black market box. The woman who gave us the protocol got arrested, but was fortunate enough to get out of the gulag and make it home.
Jeannetta: I brought my mother with me and we were shooting, and all of a sudden a police car shows up and they had my mother. She had been walking in an area that they thought wasn’t appropriate and they brought her to the set.
It was an odd place. It was magnificent. The architecture, the art was spectacular. I think a lot of us went to St. Petersburg after that. It was a joy. It was great.
Tony: Dan and I shot some scenes in the subway system and every subway station had a different beautiful theme to it. One had chandeliers, gorgeous chandeliers. The next station had frescoes and paintings. No one dared do any graffiti. Or drop a gum wrapper. He’d be picked up. So these were beautiful stations.
What was the concert in Gorky Park like?
Khrystyne: Sasha Malinin, who had won a large festival, he was quite a rockstar at the time in the USSR, but he and I had a storyline. I had gone to the graveyards and met him there. Then he serenades me, but he was singing in a concert at the end, and it was really super fun. And there was food. There wasn’t a lot of food [otherwise].
Jeannetta: There was no food. No food. It was so tragic. There was no paper, just to get a napkin [was impossible]. The paper was too scarce. And I remember thinking, as we all did, how could this be the evil empire? The food was something that you wouldn’t see anything like it in our supermarkets. Obviously, things are better now. Well, in some ways; but it was shocking. The deprivation that we saw on a daily basis.
Tony: I remember seeing lines of people around the block, just waiting to get bread.
Khrystyne: We would go to a restaurant, and there would be 35 empty tables, and we’d say, Oh, can we have a table for four? “Not possible.” We were like, Well, there’s room for us. They did not have enough food. If you did not have a reservation, there was no food for you. So that was new for us, too. But the concert at Gorky Park had a ton of food.
Dan: Yeah, I thought the buildings were great. Some of the people were mean. It was like an entire country run by the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Be sure to set your DVR as the episodes happen to be airing early on March 9 on Rewind TV or watch it on YouTube.
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