Head Of The Class' Dan Frischman Reminisces About The Show And The Lie He Told To Get The Part

What's kind of amazing is that Frischman was 27 years old when he landed the role of high school student Arvid Engen. As he reveals to Looper, "Thank goodness for my baby face I had that I was able to pull that off. I was prepared to lie at the audition and, indeed, the first thing they asked me was, 'How old are you?' And I said, '22,' which I thought was still a little old to be a high school student, but I figured I could pull that off."

Sure enough, Frischman got the job, and it wasn't until several seasons later that the question of his age came up again. "At our 100th episode party, by this time everyone knew how old I was — I was like 30 and playing a junior at high school — and I asked one of the producers, 'If you had known how old I was, would you have cast me?'" Frischman recalls. "And he said, 'Well, let me put it this way, I never asked you again.' In other words, he said, 'No.'"

Frischman was 32 when the sitcom finished its run, and says he was the oldest of the original ensemble of students. "The youngest was actually Tannis Vallely, who played a 13-year-old. [...] She was actually 13. But everybody else was in their 20s to begin with," says Frischman. "I think they had tried to do it with actual teenagers originally, but they couldn't find what they wanted."