S1 • E1
Dreyfuss as a professor at a women's college who loses a much hoped-for endowed chair to one of his former students. This begins a series shocks and disappointments.
S1 • E2
The head of the department is a job like herding cats. He can't fire his new assistant and everybody wants his time. He is told to scale back on his teaching and Andrea Haskell volunteers to take over. Nell is struggling.
S1 • E3
The college is celebrating alumni Adelle Aldrich with an honorary degree. She served under Breckenridge Long. Max has to present the award. He is incensed but nobody knows the history. Nell is conflicting with her band mates.
S1 • E4
A nudie magazine is coming to campus and opinions vary including shunning any girls who would pose for it. Max is taken with a male visiting student but he chooses Andrea instead. Nell struggles to get her band off the ground.
S1 • E5
Max's AA sponsor slips. Lester wants his bar mitzvah and comes into conflict with Max's doubts about God. Andrea has to deal with boundary issues. Judith Bryant has trouble brewing at home.
S1 • E6
Max is feeling his age. A fellow professor dies and he buys the old guy's old house. Fixing it is another issue. The college implements a plagiarism computer program and Andrea finds some cheaters. Nell makes fake IDs. Lester is pissed.
S1 • E7
Judith's mentor is visiting the college. Two students uncover an issue with her personal civil rights story. Erica dips her toe into the dating pool. Max and Andrea are ordered to check out a teacher in order to get his superstar wife.
S1 • E8
Daniel Ellsberg has come to speak to her friend Andrea's class. A student speaks up against Daniel and Andrea throws her out. Max has to take on a class to teach military history. Nell looks for her mother's things. Lester does Lincoln.
S1 • E9
Erica's ex-wife visits and she doesn't know that Steve had a sex change. Some students are protesting the school song and Max suggests Nell rewrite it. Andrea suspects that Nell knows about her affair with Max. One student is obsessed.
S1 • E10
Max is getting sued by a student. He is also trying to pay for Nell's Columbia transfer. Lester goes to a dance.
S1 • E11
The one showcases 9/11. Campus has new security measures. "Things have changes." A favorite student is going to Pakistan to teach instead of Berekley. Nell as a singer gets interest.
S1 • E12
Max accuses Nell of dating music professor Felix Caldwell although she denies it. Meanwhile, his friend Josh Howlett faces a similar issue. All of it brings back Max's affair with Andrea. Lester accidentally outs Erica to her boyfriend.
S1 • E13
Max's father visits after a cancer scare. He pushes Max to get a health check. Max has to get a trainer and a colonoscopy. He keeps fighting with his father. He and Andrea get ready to do a radio interview together.
S1 • E14
It's alumni weekend. Alumni Kathryn Cahill is making a large donation although she has restrictions. Judith tells Max and Andrea to change her mind. Andrea fails right away and spends the weekend with her old friends. Max continues to try.
S1 • E15
Max and son Lester travel to New York City to visit his dying hospitalized father. They are joined by his sister and later Nell. Andrea is infuriated by her estranged mother suddenly showing up after losing her apartment.
S1 • E16
Max finally finishes his novel. Lorraine is angered by what she reads and starts passing out copies. Everybody hates their fictional avatars. Max and Andrea get locked in the basement janitor's closet while the janitors are on strike.
S1 • E17
Max is caught in the middle when the town proposes to build a mall in a parkland. He becomes the deciding vote which his mentor hopes to be against. Andrea gets a parking ticket and begins a relationship with the local cop.
S1 • E18
Professor Walter Thornhill has invited hated conservative Lyle Dumont to speak on campus. Nell and other students plan to disrupt the event. Max accepts her issue but also his right to speak. They end on opposite sides.
S1 • E19
Sensationalist TV reporter Dan Franklin is interviewing the professors. He connects with Andrea. Lester is dating the school's bad girl. Max finds them at an unsupervised party thrown by her. She and her friends smoke weed.
S1 • E20
Lester and his classmate have to take care of an egg. Jerry (Jay Thomas) is back after divorcing his superstar wife and becoming a male-advocate media guru. Nell considers selling her eggs. A great book agent is interested in Max's book.
S1 • E21
Famed writer Sidney McKnight (Peter O'Toole) has come to recruit Max for Harvard. Max's sister arrives after their father called for a family meeting. He is getting married to someone new. Andrea is desperate to quit smoking.
S1 • E22
Max is overwhelmed by work. People tell him to get a hobby and everybody has a different suggestion. His class on the constitution focuses on The Pursuit of Happiness. Nell needs money to apply for a special program.
Max Bickford
Andrea Haskell
Lester 'Pres' Bickford
Nell Bickford
Judith Bryant
Erica Bettis
Student
Brenda Vanderpool
Lorraine Tator
College Student