Robin Givens Joins ‘Head of The Class’ reboot as grown-up Darlene Merriman

Robin Givens is reprising her role as Darlene Merriman in HBO Max’s Head of the Class reboot 35 years after the original sitcom aired.

The new Head of the Class is inspired by ABC’s 1980s sitcom of the same title. It will revolve around a group of overachieving high school students who meet their greatest challenge — a teacher, who wants them to focus less on grades and more on experiencing life. Givens’ character, whose last name has changed to Hayward, was a member of the original Individualized Honors Program (IHP) and is now a parent to one of the kids and a lawyer with a degree from Stanford.

In an interview with EW, Givens shared her excitement about reprising her role on the show, “I can’t begin to put it into words,” she said. “It was so much more emotional for me than I could possibly say. It was like a flood of emotions that stuck with me. I grew up on Stage 5. I was younger than my youngest son. Just even talking about it, thinking about it now, it’s just really emotional for me. I didn’t realize that was going to happen. It’s hard to really process. I certainly didn’t think about coming back and being a parent [on the show].”

All ten episodes of the family comedy debut November 4 on HBO Max.