Head of the Class (1986)

Charlie Moore (Howard Hesseman) is a struggling New York City actor and director who works as a substitute teacher while awaiting his big break. His current assignment is to "watch over" a class of student prodigies. When he sees them, he sees that Principal Dr. Harold Samuels (William G. Schilling) has more or less shut them out from the rest of the world, so he tries to show them that there's more to life than just studying and winning academic competitions. Samuels doesn't exactly think that he is a positive influence on the students, but when one of the students' parents, who is also on the school board, sees how he got his son to get out of his shell, that he "asked" Samuels to make Moore the permanent teacher. So every week he helps the students with their personal problems, in addition to their academic ones.