The Paper Chase (TV Series) Billy Pierce (1984) User Reviews

Hey...that's Lynn Swann

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 9 October 2014]

SPOILERS

This is a very unusual episode of "The Paper Chase" because it featured a very unusual guest star--the famous pro football player, Lynn Swann (who made a HUGE name for himself with the Steelers back in the 1970s). Not surprisingly, he played an NFL star who was admitted to the graduate school following his sports career-- possible, though not necessarily likely. However, another 70s football star, Alan Page, apparently did the same thing in real life--so it isn't without precedent.

Like many episodes of the show, apparently a big NFL star, Billy Pierce (Swann) is a first-year student...though you never saw him in any episodes until this one! Well, being an ex-star, a lot of students (one in particular) want to be his friend. However, the limits of the friendship are tested when one guy is such 'good friends' with Billy that he appears to have helped him cheat on Kingsfield's mid-term exam. But he isn't sure--and isn't sure what he should do.

I think the most interesting thing about this episode is that it was NOT all neatly wrapped up in the end. Someone cheated and you think you know who did it but nothing, apparently, comes of it--much like in real life. Worth seeing.

Season two goes out with a whimper

[LCShackley · 5/10 · 31 May 2010]

Why did the producers of PAPER CHASE round off season two with episodes that ignore some of the main players? There are no scenes in the law review in #2.18 or #2.19, and almost no scenes with Hart and Ford, two of the primary characters.

As with the previous episode, this one depends on a central character we've never seen before, one of the many "students of convenience" who appear miraculously when the writers needed a new plot device. This time it's football great Lynn Swann, who puts in a decent performance.

The plot does have one of the hallmarks of the better episodes: namely, a group of students facing a Kingsfield exam. (One might ask how there could be two midterms in a row; the previous episode also dealt with a similar test.) But the main participants are second-tier cast members, including some we've hardly seen before (such as a thin Jon Lovitz), and much of the dialog consists of students shouting at each other, which becomes tiresome.

Did the writing staff run out of ideas for Hart & Ford? Or were the final two episodes just dregs that kept getting put off, rather than being mixed in with the better offerings? In any case, it's a shame that the season ended so half-Hart-edly.