Product Description
-------------------
The Paper Chase was a 1 hour dramatic series premiering on CBS
in 1978. Based on the movie and novel, rural Minnesotan James T.
Hart (James Stephens) is unprepared for the life of a first-year
law student at an Ivy League law school. In his first class, he
elicits the ire of revered and feared contracts professor Charles
W. Kingsfield (John Houseman). But Hart is committed and smart.
In order to keep up with the never-ending workload, Hart joins a
study group for support. Each episode explores the trials and
tribulations, the successes and failures, the competition and
camaraderie that each student faces. This set includes 6 DVDs.
Director Georg Stanford Brown, Mark Cullingham Starring John
Houseman, Michael Tucci, Clare Kirkconnell, James Keane, James
Stephens, Special Features: Full Frame - 1.33 Audio: Mono -
English.
.com
----
The chase is finally over for this shining example of a
television series that didn't treat its viewers as if they had
skulls full of mush. Based on the accled 1973 film that was
adapted from John Jay Osborn, Jr.'s novel, this 1978 series is
literally old school. It presents education in general and the
study of law in particular as noble pursuits. The students for
whom we develop a rooting interest are the best and the
brightest, and in Professor Charles Kingsfield we have an
addition to the pantheon of great movie/TV teachers. James
Stephens anchors the series as Hart, an idealistic first-year law
student. In the Grade-A pilot episode, as in the film, he gets on
the wrong side of the intimidating Kingsfield, his role model and
inspiration, on the first day of class. How Hart gets back in his
good graces sets the stage for episodes in which classroom drama
proves to be just as compelling as the courtroom variety. Hart's
study-group classmates include third generation lawyer Ford (Tom
Fitzsimmons), genius Anderson (Robert Ginty), activist Logan
(Francine Tacker), newly-married Brooks (Jonathan Sagall), and
slob Bell (James Keane). The Paper Chase got the prestige
. James Brooks, who directed the feature film, developed
the series for television, Osborn wrote several of the episodes,
and the venerable John Houseman recreated his O-winning role
as Kingsfield, a TV first. While Kingsfield was a monolithic
character in the film, he is more accessible in the series. There
is much more interaction between him and the idolizing Hart.
Familiar faces in Season One include Marilu Henner as a
sympathetic waitress in the pilot episode, Don Porter (Gidget) as
Ford's demanding her in "The Man Who Would Be King," Robert
Reed as a professor who sexually harasses Logan in "Once More
with Feeling," and Kim Cattrall as a struggling law student's
wife in "Da Da." The Paper Chase was a critics' darling, but just
as bad grades could sink Kingsfield's students, so did bad
ratings result in The Paper Chase's cancellation after one year.
Following reruns on PBS, the Showtime network picked up the
series for three more CableAce Award-winning seasons. The Paper
Chase was no doubt to aspiring lawyers what All the President's
Men was to fledgling investigative reporters. Rarely syndicated,
the series is just as gripping as when it first aired, its
intensity and intelligence are undimmed. --Donald Liebenson