Van Halen would release their final album with frontman David Lee Roth for almost 3
decades in 1984 appropriately titled 1984. One of the biggest singles off
the album would be hot for teacher. But whatever happened to the teacher
or teachers in the video? That’s what were going to explore in today’s video.
The YouTube channel Grunge released a video a few years back about whatever happened to the women
from the van halen video, but they got something completely wrong. There’s actually two women
who play the teacher not one. Something we’ll talk a bit about a little later in this video.
Formed in the mid 70’s Van Halen would go on to become one of the most successful rock bands in
history despite having several different frontmen. The original lineup consisted of guitarist eddie
van halen his brother alex on drums, bassist michael anthony and frontman david lee roth.
Creative differences led to Roth eventually leaving the group in 1985, but one year prior,
the band would put out their final album with Roth for almost 3 decades tilted 1984.
The album spawned several huge singles including panama, their first and only number hit on the pop
charts jump and today’s topic hot for teacher. By the early 80’s mtv became a new avenue for
artist to sell their music through videos. Some band’s took it one step further making
outlandish and over the top music videos, which van halen did. Bassist michael nahtony revealed
in the book I want my mtv “the van halen approach to videos was like this is the party you’re in
our living room come on in and join the party. The original director for 'hot for teacher' was
fired as the band wasn’t happy with their initial footage. They soon hired a fellow named Pete
Angelus who along with frontman David Lee Roth directed the video. Angelus had the idea to get
children to represent the four band members when they were in grade school. By his own admission
the kids soon started to mimic the members of Van Halen they were portraying "it was weird like the
little alex became argumentative and difficult to find on set, the little edward became shy, and of
course the little dave started running his mouth. The video opens with a protagonist named Waldo
a kid who was voiced by SNL and The Simpsons actor Phil Hartman. Waldo is a weird kid whose
an outsider who doesn’t fit in. While the video shows what happens to the kids later on in life
it’s not fully clear what comes of Waldo although it’s insinuated he becomes a pimp.
The video was also notable because the members of Van Halen would do a choreographed dance number
that was taught to them by one of the dancers from Michael Jackson’s beat it video and if you watch
closely you can see the band’s drummer Alex van halen is about half a beat behind every one else.
And of course we get to the most memorable part of the video, the teachers.
But for the longest time it was unknown who the teacher's identity was It was rumored at
one point that Hockey Player Wayne Gretzky’s wife Janet Jones was the teacher in the video, but that
wasn't true. It came out years ago that the woman who starred in the video is named Lilian Mueller.
But there’s a twist, there’s actually 2 teachers in the video.. So whose the other woman you're
maybe asking? Well it’s a canadian woman named Donna Rupert who was interviewed in the book I
want my mtv. She would say the following “this is something that nobody knows. There are two girls,
two blond teachers in the video. I was the one wearing a tiara and dancing with David Lee Roth.
There’s a second girl who drops to her knees on the desk wearing a wife beater & does the stripper
dancing that wasn’t me. But It transitions so quickly to me again so you think its me
through the whole thing. Rupert would claim she was paid $2,500 for appearing in the
video & she would play the chemistry teacher while Muller would play the phys ed teacher.
Let's talk about these women's stories. Rupert was the runner in the Miss Canada pageant
in 1981 and had a successful career in modeling moving to LA in the 80’s. She would appear in
around 40-50 national commercials including cars soft drink fashion and fast food ads.
She was handpicked by artist Christopher Atkins to pose with him on the cover of
playgirl magazine , but she would only appear on the cover. When the opportunity to audition
for a van halen music video came up She was told by her agency told her not to do it
because appearing in rock videos at the time wasn’t a good career move for models.
She would admit in the same book what the audition process was like recalling “at the audition there
were 5 of us standing for what seemed like forever turning around in our bikinis in a
room with van halen and the director. I thought kill me, i can’t believe i have to do this.”
She would go on to have a family, move back to Canada and start her own kidswear line that was
sold throughout North America. Today she works as an artist painting contemporary impressionist
art that’s inspired by the landscape of the Canadian prairies. Her career as an artist
has been pretty successfu.l A major US poster company a few years ago published some of her
artwork & according to the Calgary Herald, her work can be found in major box stores
including Target, Pier 1 and Bed Bath and Beyond. As for the other woman Lillian Muller was born in,
1951, in Norway. She came up in a low income family and had dreams of making it on her own.
She would become a successful model in London walking catwalks and appearing in French Vogue
according to her website. Men’s magazine playboy discovered her and she was playmate of the year in
1976 and appeared almost 30 times in the magazine throughout her career gracing the cover 9 times
from 1976 to 1999. Years before showing up in Hot For Teacher she would appear in Rod Stewart’s
music video for da ya i’m sexy six years prior. Mueller would also go on to make numerous
television appearances including magnum PI and remington steele. By the time she appeared in Van
Halen’s hot for teacher video she was in her 30’s and admitted she thought she would never get the
part recalling to yahoo "I was in my early 30s at the time. I was a little old for the role,"
Mueller would claim she never got romantically involved with any of members of Van Halen , but
did admit to casual relationship with tom selleck and hugh hefner. She would
be engaged several times throughout her life but never got married although she would have
a daughter whose currently attending college. In her later years she would end up going back
to Norway and appearing in numerous television shows in her homeland and has been vocal about her
lifestyle choices including being a vegetarian since she was in her early 20’s. She’s since
become a published author, public speaker covering topics including health, fitness, beauty and
anti-aging. In 2010 the animal rights organization peta named her the sexisest vegaterian over 50.
Now in her 70’s she’s not appearing in any new music videos, but does do ads for for AARP.
A few years ago Comedian David Spade would tell radio host Howard Stern that he dated the teacher
in the video, but he wasn’t clear which women he actually dated.Here's what he had to say. David
dated the hot for teacher girl from the van halen video. She was unbelievable. This is big news to
me. Do you ever go on the internet and watch the van halen video just to remind yourself. No, I am
so mad at myself that I messed it up. The two of you were lovers for a short period of time. Yeah i
guess that's a gross way of putting it. Well, i'm trying to put it a classy way. Well I was a little
pipsquek from a to z, but i was always shocked that she was so nice and liked me and she actually
liked me. You know what's troubling about being not six four. How tall are you. I'm six
four of five, six five, six five. Robin knows she tracks it but it's really um profiling when
people see me because they know they can take me. So, I remember this happens all the time
when you're with a girl. I was with her at a bar and a guy stepped between us at a bar
and a guy stepped between us and started talking to her. Yeah and i was sitting there having a
drink and I go is this guy joking? Right and then she goes oh i'm with him and he goes yeah okay
and she goes yeah i am and he goes well you're gonna be with me now and i go
now see here sir. Well you wanna know something. Randy Skinner who worked for Van Halen’s label
recalled seeing the filming of the video and thinking it would never make it on mtv.
The video would of course make the network of course cause several controversies. TV Show host
Phil Donahue wuld single out the video and claim it was having a harmful effect on America’s Youth.
In addition to that the crotch grab the band members did was censored with black bars on the
NBC’s program Friday Night Videos. But the network eventually relented and removed the black bars.
According to the videos director Pete Angelus he would reveal in the book I want my mtv “there was
a big to do in the press from women’s groups about how the teachers were disrespectfully represented.
I didn’t see it that way. It was a fantasy that every boy goes through in school.”.
But perhaps my favourite outrage was Tipper Gore co-founder of the useless organization the
parents musica resource center who was quoted as saying “the images frightened my children.
They frightened me. That does it for today's video guys thanks for watching. Be sure to hit the like
button and subscribe and we'll see you again on rock n' roll true stories. Take care.