Tony Danza

[+ WilliamM]

Tony Danza's book, "I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had" was just published. He appeared at the Philadelphia Free Library today to talk about the book. Tony drew a large audience, about 200 people.

 

Tony graduated college with a degree in Education. When his daytime talk show was cancelled several years ago, he agreed to do a reality TV show in which he actually teaches a high school 10th grade English class in Northeast High in Philadelphia. Before discussing the book, I want to say that Danza looks great for age 61. Tony is taller than I expected; he's also thinner. He wore a suit so I never really saw his superb ass.

 

The reality show only lasted until January, but Tony stayed for the full year. The school principal introduced Tony. She made it clear that he was very serious about the job, less interested in the reality show. I believe her because Tony told so many great stories about the students and his efforts to reach them. He admitted to often crying at the end of the day when things did not go well. I was surprised that he even said that being rich allowed him to do interesting field trips that most teachers could not afford (great story about the principal deciding to join one field trip). Tony has makes frequent visits back to the high school to do fundraisers, and keep in touch with his students.

 

I have not read the book yet, but I assume many of the stories are included there. My one concern is that too often Tony fell back on his night club/talk show skills to get laughs from the audience (mostly teachers). I believe in a one-on-one situation, Danza would be much more serious and an extremely good conversationalist on eduction in public schools & his show business life. And Tony is also very easy on the eye, whether he is straight or gay (datalounge often says he's gay).