Based on the film of the same name (which itself was based on a novel by John Jay Osborn, Jr.), The Paper Chase television series follows the first year of Harvard Law School student James T. Hart and his appreciation for Professor Charles W. Kingsfield, Jr., who has a general lack of interest in his students as individuals. In the tumultuous first year of law school, Hart and his first year peers support each other through their trials and tribulations at the notoriously challenging campus.

Running for a total of four seasons, the series aired on CBS from 1978 to 1979 and on Showtime from 1983 through 1986. James Stephens played Hart, the young law student from Minnesota who is completely unprepared for the Ivy League, and John Houseman reprised his Academy Award-winning role as Kingsfield, the feared and respected contracts professor.