Tonight ABC kicks off the new comedy Schooled, which is a 1990-something set spin-off of The Goldbergs. Barry Goldberg’s former girlfriend Lainey Lewis (AJ Michalka) hasn’t had much success in launching her music career, so she heads back home and applies for a job as the music teacher at her old high school, William Penn Academy. Lainey thinks that she’ll be able to relate to the students since they aren’t that much younger than herself. In a way that’s true, but she also realizes that she’ll need to quickly step up and take charge if she wants the students to see her as an authority figure. Helping Lainey navigate these new waters are the school’s new principal, Mr. Glascott (Tim Meadows), and the familiar Coach Mellor (Bryan Callen). This new peer relationship with her former teachers, and calling them by their first names is going to take some getting used to!

A while back, ABC had done a backdoor pilot for this spin-off that wasn’t picked up. They did air the episode last year (and it wasn’t very good). This is a completely re-worked version of the series, that is better, but is still missing those fun family relationships and sibling rivalry that The Goldbergs offers. This series is not a replacement for the original, but has the potential to be a fun 90s counterpart. It follows a lot of the same structure, with Lainey doing narration, photos/clips/interviews with the show’s real-life counterparts during the credits, and lots of great 90s music and fun pop culture references. It’s hard to tell after just one episode what the focus of the series will be—i.e. does it plan to follow the same students from season to season, will there be other regular teachers in the cast, will we see more Goldbergs cameos after the premiere, etc? But I’m definitely interested in seeing where it goes.

In tonight’s premiere, “Be Like Mike”, Lainey returns to William Penn Academy, where she has a hard time adjusting to being an authority figure; Coach Mellor struggles with Michael Jordan’s influence on modern-day basketball.

Tonight I’ll also be watching/recording The Goldbergs, Modern Family, Match Game, The Masked Singer, and I’m Sorry.

For additional suggestions on what to check out tonight, including a #OneChicago crossover, the second half of the The Masked Singer intros, and the final season premiere of You’re The Worst, check out the If We Controlled Your Remote… 1/9/19 post at TVisMyPacifier.com.