MovieChat Forums > The Paper Chase (1978) Discussion > Continuity in characters from pilot to e...

Continuity in characters from pilot to episode 2

posted 11 years ago by jrails
3 replies | jump to latest

The pilot episode came out with a strong Ford character and somewhat cocky. Hart was a bit unsure of himself and by the end gained the admiration of the class. In episode two, all of a sudden Ford was transformed to someone dominated by his father's opinion, scared, having a nervous breakdown, etc etc. and was relying on Hart for support and advice. I can understand if they wanted to show a more human side to Ford, but that was a bit too much. I think Fitzsimmons who played Ford was overacting a bit much. My general feeling is that they modeled the pilot from the movie and afterwards decided to make changes to appeal to a television audience and changed some of the characterization somewhat. Still a wonderful series, it is just interesting to observe this all as an adult (I was a very young pre-teenager when I first watched the series)

[–] ElRaisuli 11 years ago

I think you're right. It was probably decided that they had to make the characters more sympathetic if they were going to be seen on a weekly basis. In the film most of the characters are not all that sympathetic, even Hart, who was too absorbed with his fascination for Kingsfield. Bell is downright nasty in the film. In the series he's just sort of grumpy.

There is something just a bit "forced" about some of the performances/dialog in the first season. James Stephens is fine, as is Houseman, obvioulsy, but some of the others seem to occasionally be giving "stage" performances on film. Don't get me wrong - I'm very fond of the series - but, even for it's day, a lot of the dialog does not seem "naturalistic" enough. It could well be a case of the written dialog for the supporting characters being a bit too "declamatory." Also, although the characters calling each other by their last names is a conceit of the situation, if it happens too often or in the wrong place, I think it can easily go "thud."

[–] chas77 11 years ago

I thought the Ford character from the movie was an interesting, cool -- yet arrogant -- dude. The TV version was an uptight, 2-dimensional, uh, dork. It is sad if you look at the movie then the TV version back to back.

Still a great TV series though.

[–] 11 years ago

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