The Paper Chase

James Hart (James Stephens), a farmboy from Minnesota, starts his first year of law school. Being unprepared for his first day of ""Contracts"" he is shrouded by Professor Charles W. Kingsfield, Jr. (John Houseman), pronouncing the hapless Hart as ""dead"" in his class. This means that he will never call on Hart and his part of the classs ""Socratic dialogue will be at an end. Hart finds out that Kingsfield shrouds one student each year and that student remains deceased all year long. Kingsfield is the reason Hart has chosen to come to this school; we are shown a couple of his nightmares now that he is the ""former Mr. Hart"". Another student, Franklin Ford III (Tom FitzSimmons), is organizing a study group and invites Hart to join. The members of the study group decide to have each member do an outline of one of the classes that they can then copy for each member of the group. Hart wants to do the Contracts outline but the others worry that Hart cannot be effective if he is shrouded. In

Hart asks Kingsfield to answer a question before he thoroughly researched the case himself. As a penalty, Kingsfield gives Hart additional research that is due the following morning. Hart is lost in thought while bicycling across campus, and is struck by a car driven by Leanne Laski, the president of the Law Review. Meanwhile, Bell misplaces his Property outline (actually stolen by Ford, as a prank). Elsewhere, Logan is arrested when her off-hand legal advice to some high school girls results in a riot at the girls private school.

As part of Prof. Rolfs prison internship program for first year students, Logan is assigned to help in a hearing of a political activist, Eric Ryerson, who was put in solitary confinement for stabbing a fellow prisoner. Ryerson convinces Logan that the prison establishment is only supressing him for his political activism and Logan is taken in, emotionally as well. Kingsfield is not in favor of this program because he believes that the students are not ready scholastically and that it takes away valuable time from their other studies. Logan is banished to the back bench in his class for being late as a result of her work in the program. Hart displays his fluency in Spanish, acting as interpreter of another prisoner, Sanchez - the prisoner who was stabbed. At first Sanchez denies that it was Ryerson who stabbed him (because he and other prisoners are afraid of Ryerson), but we find out that Ryerson stabbed him because Sanchez would not give Ryerson a cool pair of sunglasses. THINKING L

This episode focuses on Tom Clayton, the guy with the ""photographic memory"" in the study group. Early in the episode Kingsfield intimidates Tom to the point he is incapable of speaking and freezes up. In an effort to ""start at the very beginning"" and teach him how to talk again, Kingsfield tells him to say ""da da"". In this episode Toms wife, Karen, announces shes pregnant. Faced with stresses due to his (losing) struggle with law school and the further complication of having a child, Tom goes on a drinking binge and falls behind in Kingsfields class. In an all-night cram session, where members of the class impersonate Kingsfield, Tom is helped to learn to synthesize the material he so easily memorizes into fully developed ideas and he is able to make a good showing in the actual class the next day.

This is one of the standout episodes written by the John Jay Osborn, Jr., the author of the original book and screenplay for the 1974 movie. Moot court is the chance for first year law students to compete against each other (in teams of two) in a courtroom setting in front of a distinguished panel of judges, including Kingsfield. To win is a high prestige – Kingsfield himself won this competition when he was in law school there. Teams are drawn at random and the pairings are: Hart and Logan (a pseudo romantic relationship ensues), Bell and Raymond Livingston (a new character introduced for this episode), Anderson and Gagarian (minor emphasis on this pair), and other minor pairings. Raymond Livingston is being put through law school by the military, he is black, and from an economically challenged background. He is highly motivated to achieve in all endeavors of his life and unhappily finds himself in a team with the lazy, slovenly Bell who doesnt care to win (his main focus has al

This episode features Elizabeth Logan. Supreme Court Justice Reynolds pays a visit to campus to commemorate a milestone anniversary of women being admitted to the law school. During a question and answer session in Kingsfields class, Logan confronts the judge as to why he has never hired a female law clerk. Professor Kingsfield attempts to stifle her, yet she persists, but does not get an answer from the judge. News of Logans audacity quickly spreads across campus, and to national womens activist organizations, who send a bunch of demonstrators/hecklers to campus for the judges celebratory speech. Much to Logans dismay, the outsiders have turned it into an embarrassing circus.

A struggling Jonathan is so desperate to pass Kingsfields midterm, he hires someone to steal a copy of the test. He tricks the rest of his study group into believing that it is an old Kingsfield exam, making them unwitting accessories to his cheating.

A new student, Paul Chandler, joins the class mid semester. He is wheelchair bound yet athletic and handsome. The study group welcomes him in and in their interactions we gradually see that contrary to the good initial impression Chandler makes, he is manipulative, takes advantage of his situation, and is highly competitive. We also learn that through his mother he is friends (on a first name basis) with Kingsfield. Chandlers competitive nature reveals its dark side when he sets his sights on Hart. He tries to seduce Logan, thinking that she is Harts girlfriend, he applies to a need-based scholarship that Hart is trying hard to win, and both he and his mother try to use their relationship with Kingsfield to win the scholarship. Finally, in Kingsfields office, he experiences a life changing moment where he sees himself as what he is and turns over a new leaf.

Kingsfield hires Hart to help his assistant on an important appellate case, an unprecedented distinction for a first year student. The assistant, much sought after and soon to graduate, dumps most of the work on Hart so he can go to job interviews. When Kingsfield finds out, he fires the assistant, leaving Hart to carry the burden alone.

Kingsfield has his students form groups to argue both sides of a case of their choice. When Harts study group selects a case that the professor lost early in his career, they start to question his ethics after they learn that he did not file what appears to them to be a routine appeal. Even Hart has his doubts after a now-prominent attorney who assisted Kingsfield on the case refuses to shed light on the matter.

Although this was not the last episode shown, as the production numbers tell, it was the last one produced. I remember that the last episode was about Hart falling in love with a Russian gymnast. John Houseman did not appear as Kingsfield in this episode. I heard that, because the network had caused the scripts to be ""dumbed"" down to this level, that Houseman refused to be in it. A visiting professor played by Pernell Roberts had to help Hart with his love life. I also understand that Houseman refused to do the Showtime seasons unless it was understood that this episode would never be reshown.

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Tom Ford defends a student who assaulted a teacher. Rose goes on a date.

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