Cameron Diaz’s bad teacher produced a failed TV show with the Big Bang Theory star

Cameron Diaz has made many films during her career, Despite her recent hiatus, which seems to be the end of her acting career …But if you haven’t seen her 2011 comedy “Bad Teacher,” you’re missing out. If you haven’t seen the 2014 TV version of “Bad Teacher,” which happened to star Sarah Gilbert — a veteran of “The Big Bang Theory” — this… is probably for the best.

Let’s start with the original film, in which Diaz plays Elizabeth Halsey, a “bad teacher” who barely cares about her job and is thrilled at the idea of ​​quitting after she marries her wealthy fiancé Mark (Nat Faxon) — only for Mark to break up with her because she’s too selfish and treats him terribly. Stuck in her job as a middle school teacher, Diaz develops an unbridled obsession with a new teacher named Scott Delacourt (Justin Timberlake) — much to the dismay of her work nemesis and fellow teacher Amy Squirrel (Lucy Punch), whose exterior hides a dangerously dark mind. When Elizabeth finds out that he usually dates big-breasted girls, she decides she’s in desperate need of a breast augmentation and hatches a crazy plan to evade her class’s standardized test scores for a reward. Along the way, she forms an unexpected bond with the school’s equally important but very friendly gym teacher, Russell Gettys, who plays him. “How I Met Your Mother” and “Shrink” star Jason Segel.

The film was a box office success, earning $216 million on a modest budget of $20 million, but it did not fare well with critics. However, CBS decided to launch a television series adaptation with Diaz as producer… and the series flopped after only 13 episodes, leading to the series being canceled midway through its inaugural season. So what happened and who played Gilbert? (hint: no The character is based on Elizabeth.)

In the CBS sitcom adaptation of “Bad Teacher” of the same name, Ari Graynor — who you may know from projects like “Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist” and “For a Good Time, Call…” — plays Meredith Davis, a character based on Elizabeth Halsey with a few slight variations. Meredith is recently divorced — not about to get married — and needs to find a job, eventually landing at Richard Nixon Middle School thanks to her friend’s daughter Lily (Sarah Rudier), who happens to be a student there. Like Elizabeth, Meredith is not well suited to the job and immediately clashes with stricter teachers like Jenny Taylor Clapp (star of “Sex and the City” and “And Just Like That…” Kristin Davis), but she makes an unlikely friend: Sarah Gilbert’s character Erin, who has difficulty making friends and worships Mainly Elizabeth.

The cast of “Bad Teacher” is faithfully quotable amazing. Graynor, Gilbert, and Davis are all very funny performers, flanked by comedic heavy hitters like David Alan Grier (as newly divorced middle school principal Carl Gaines), Veronica Mars, and Party Down veteran Ryan Hansen (as the immediately impressive gym teacher Joel Koutsky Meredith).

The show was unfortunately an instant flop. It debuted on CBS on April 24, 2014, and was effectively canceled by May of that year, although the rest of the episodes eventually aired during CBS’ summer break. Honestly, as much as I respect everyone involved with the show, that might have been the case For the better.

With all due respect to the creative team and TV cast of “Bad Teacher,” I don’t think this particular movie should have received much critical acclaim. never It was turned into a TV show. Why? Well, it’s a lot of fun to watch a character as abrasive, gross, and annoying as Elizabeth Halsey throughout the course of a movie, but that kind of character archetype doesn’t usually work for an entire TV series that comes out every week, especially on network TV.

I’ve watched “Bad Teacher” a few times actually. It’s something I’ll always put on hold if I see it, and I think it’s a really funny and charming movie that always makes me laugh, especially since Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel are great in it. (Unfortunately, even though I’m not a fan of this guy, Justin Timberlake is also pretty funny in his role.) The thing that I think is really great about this movie is that at the end of the day, Elizabeth Diaz doesn’t necessarily need to become a better “person”; She doesn’t have to be more lively or palatable to anyone, and even though she learns some lessons about opening up to others when she eventually agrees to go on a date with Russell, she still gets away with all her bad deeds (even if she’s generally a little nicer to anyone). It’s incredibly refreshing to watch a movie where a female anti-hero gets away with everything and doesn’t apologize, and I doubt the TV show could have kept that feeling fresh week after week.

I can hear you all screaming, “But wait! What about “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” a show where no one changes or gets better? This is different. Firstly, “Always Sunny” is a unique phenomenon, lightning in a bottle, and secondly, everyone On the show he acts like a gorgeous, unrepentant jerk. The longevity of the “Bad Teacher” TV show was never going to succeed, and that’s okay. Fortunately, you can now stream the film on Netflix.