Room 222
I've Got the Hammer, If You've Got the Thumb
TV Flash files “I've Got the Hammer, If You've Got the Thumb” as a desk essential hour — Room 222 (1969–1974) on ABC, season 5, episode 1, aired 1973-09-14, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S05E01: listed hour 99 of 112 in the Room 222 guide, first listed hour of season 5. It aired 1973-09-14 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “To Go with the Bubbles” (S04E23). Next is “Of Smoke-Filled Rooms” (S05E02).
Essential hour: “I've Got the Hammer, If You've Got the Thumb”. I've Got the Hammer, If You've Got the Thumb opens the last season as workplace idiom: school still the whole map.
Viewer FAQ
Where does I've Got the Hammer, If You've Got the Thumb sit in the Room 222 guide?
S05E01 is listed hour 99 of 112 — first listed hour of season 5, season 5 episode 1.
When did Room 222 S05E01 air?
I've Got the Hammer, If You've Got the Thumb aired 1973-09-14 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Where should I start?
Pete Dixon's classroom with the integrated faculty/student mix is the assignment: Haynes, Nicholas, Constantine, Valentine. Comedy-drama, so a topical hour and a warmer character hour both count.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Room 222 put an integrated Los Angeles high school on ABC and let race, the draft, and classroom politics sit inside a warm ensemble. Lloyd Haynes's Pete Dixon, Denise Nicholas, and Michael Constantine made 'relevance' feel like chalk, not a sermon. A comedy-drama hybrid that treated teenagers as citizens, not punchlines, right as the sixties turned.
An integrated Los Angeles high school on ABC, 1969, and the network night suddenly had chalk dust in it. Room 222 — James L. Brooks's comedy-drama through 1974, five seasons — let race, the draft, and classroom politics sit inside a warm ensemble. Lloyd Haynes's Pete Dixon, Denise Nicholas's Liz McIntyre, Michael Constantine's Seymour Kaufman, and Karen Valentine's Alice Johnson treated teenagers as citizens, not punchlines. History class at Walt Whitman High, humor and topical issues sharing the chalk.…
Filed against
- Lloyd Haynes as Pete Dixon
Lloyd Haynes taught the hour as Pete Dixon on Room 222 — an integrated Los Angeles high school on ABC, race and the draft inside a warm ensemble, relevance that felt like chalk instead of a sermon. Comedy-drama hybrid with actual…
- Denise Nicholas as Liz McIntyre
Denise Nicholas’s Liz McIntyre made Room 222 feel like chalk, not a sermon — integrated Los Angeles high school on ABC, race and the draft inside a warm ensemble, Lloyd Haynes’s Pete Dixon, Michael Constantine. Comedy-drama hybrid. TV…
- Michael Constantine as Seymour Kaufman
Michael Constantine’s Seymour Kaufman kept Room 222’s integrated Los Angeles high school from becoming a sermon with chalk — 1960s ABC comedy-drama hybrid, Lloyd Haynes’s Pete Dixon, Denise Nicholas, race and the draft sitting inside a…
- Karen Valentine as Alice Johnson
Karen Valentine’s Alice Johnson made Room 222 a classroom with a pulse — an integrated Los Angeles high school on ABC, race, the draft, and classroom politics inside a warm ensemble. Lloyd Haynes’s Pete Dixon, Denise Nicholas, Michael…