Tenure
Tenure
Grey College English professor Charlie is being considered for tenure. he is well-liked by his students and does a good job in the classroom, but he can't get anything published.Jay is an expert on Bigfoot. Or thinks he is. He has evidence of the creature. Or thinks he does. The movie goes back eight months to when the anthropology professor is rejected for tenure, minutes after Steve Kim was approved. His response is to toilet paper someone's h... [more] Grey College English professor Charlie is being considered for tenure. he is well-liked by his students and does a good job in the classroom, but he can't get anything published.Jay is an expert on Bigfoot. Or thinks he is. He has evidence of the creature. Or thinks he does. The movie goes back eight months to when the anthropology professor is rejected for tenure, minutes after Steve Kim was approved. His response is to toilet paper someone's house.Charlie is reasonably happy with his life, wishing he could do better; Grey is apparently not a prestigious school despite its gorgeous architecture. His sister Margaret, however, is always harassing him about his lack of concern for their father William, a retired Princeton professor in assisted living. There is nothing obviously wrong with William and he hates where he is. He is still intelligent and demanding, and apparently not happy with his son's lack of career success. Charlie neither visits enough nor helps with the cost, though with his current career Margaret may be expecting too much of him. William does enjoy calling in to fund-raisers for PBS stations, not intending to contribute but just wanting someone to talk to. Charlie tries doing the same thing and meets Beth, who is likable and cute, and something similar to a romance develops .Charlie finds his efforts to get approved for tenure will be more difficult than he thought. His female department head (not attractive) dislikes him for reasons that aren't quite clear. Elaine is a cute new professor hired from Yale. She is likable and gets published in prestigious journals. She's not great in the classroom, which is encouraging for Charlie. However, Charlie does want to help her and in the process there is potential for a romance to develop. Meanwhile, since Elaine volunteered to be faculty advisor to the poetry club after Charlie turned down Stan's request to do so, Charlie and Stan start a second poetry club, allowing more adult material. Jay, not one to follow rules, tries to sabotage Elaine's efforts to succeed.Jay gets Charlie to come along to a presentation where the enthusiastic Dave wants them to sell a product which cannot be named on broadcast TV. This looks like a pyramid scheme.One more problem for Charlie: Robin likes him--really likes him--and wants a relationship which would clearly be inappropriate.So, will Charlie get tenure? Will he find romance with one of the women? Will William ever be happy? Will Jay find Bigfoot? [less]
