When television goes to college, it's usually to focus on the students, with their youth, dewy skin and lust for life undimmed by time, experience or perspective. These shows offer a hit of fantasy nostalgia for older viewers and a flattering mirror for younger ones. They're sexy by nature.
Stories that focus on professors and administrators are a different breed. (The 2021 Netflix series "The Chair," with Sandra Oh, was a rare recent example, and it died after a season.) If often as childish as their most difficult students, these characters may carry the added weight of moral exhaustion, aging bodies and/or minds, spouses or ex-spouses, and children; their days are mired in bureaucratic folderol, intra- and interdepartmental competition amid shrinking budgets, and the pressure of just holding on to a job. Not so sexy!
Even so, bookshelves' worth of literary works have been set in that milieu. Many writers have not only been to college but have also worked in them, and age tends to play better on the page than coming off an 80-inch, 4K flat screen.
