Drexell's Class starred Dabney Coleman as Otis Drexell, a fifth-grade teacher at fictional Grantwood Elementary School in Cedar Bluffs, Iowa. Drexell's backstory revealed that he was a corporate raider who lost a large amount of money on a failed venture, dodged his taxes, and was arrested. At his sentencing, he was offered a suspended sentence if he worked as a teacher at the understaffed school to pay off his back taxes. Drexell was a divorced man whose two daughters lived with him. The cast also included two antagonists, rival teacher Roscoe Davis (Dakin Matthews) and Principal Francine Itkin (Randy Graff), who was later succeeded by Principal Marylin Ridge (Edie McClurg).
One of Drexell's few friends at the school was P.E. teacher George (Cleavant Derricks), who shared Drexell's love of sports and beer. Most episodes revolved around Drexell's unwillingness to teach his students lessons by the book, or trying to be a good father to his daughters. On one occasion, Drexell's ex-wife made an appearance; Drexell hoped she would remarry so he could stop paying alimony.
An early episode of the show had a montage of historically accurate flags, from the Red Ensign of Colonial America and showing how the American flag changed, with the current 50-star flag marked "1991" followed by the flag of Japan marked "2000". This had been criticized by Asian-American groups and the Veterans of Foreign Wars who considered that to be a joke in poor taste.
