The Headmaster(1970)

The Headmaster is an American comedy-drama that aired on CBS during the 1970-71 season, marking Andy Griffith's return to series television. Griffith plays Andy Thompson, headmaster of Concord School, a prestigious private California institution, alongside his wife Margaret, an English teacher, and his best friend Jerry Brownell, the school's athletic coach. The series represented Griffith's deliberate departure from the rural characters that defined his hugely successful 1960s show, instead positioning him as an authority figure in an academic setting. Despite airing in the Friday 8:30 p.m. slot previously held by the popular Hogan's Heroes and featuring a theme song by Linda Ronstadt, The Headmaster struggled in the Nielsen ratings against ABC's The Partridge Family and NBC's The Name of the Game. The show was cancelled after its final first-run episode on January 1, 1971, replaced by The New Andy Griffith Show, which also failed to find an audience.