The Education of Max Bickford

An abrasive yet impassioned college professior goes through a midlife crisis.

As Max juggles various duties associated with being department chair,the Dean attempts to lighten Max's heavy course load by ordering him to teach a class with Andrea. In other developments, Max ajusts to a pushy new assistant; Nell has trouble relating to her roommate; and the board considers making the school coed.

A well-meaning student committee has voted to honor an elderly alumnus who was a former policy aide to Senator Breckenridge Long. Senator Breckenridge Long conspired long ago to prevent Jewish refugees from landing safely in the United States as they fled from Nazi Germany. This issue is very personal for Max because an aunt of his was denied a visa putting her back in the hands of the Nazis, Eventually, she died in a death camp. Normally, the department chair gives the award, but Max does not want to take part in this act. Max arranges a meeting with the wealthy alumna in order to find out if she took part in the conspiracy. Her story leaves Max torn as he learns that she took part in creating the policy. Max gives the woman the award, but speaks the truth about what the woman did allowing the crowd to know her history and make their own judgments.

Theo, Max's dream student, prepares to do his thesis on the Vietnam War. When Theo approaches Andrea Haskell to be his thesis advisor instead, Max feels rejected. Angry at Nell's behavior, Max accuses Nell of spending too much time at band practice, which is why her grades have suffered. When Nell's band performs for the first time Max secretly shows up at the club to watch.

Max is worried about his own resolve when his sponsor, who had seemed to be the model of self-control, ends up falling off the wagon after 22 years. While struggling to have faith in himself, Max, who has long questioned the existence of God, is surprised by and ambivalent about Lester's sudden intense desire to have Max join a Temple so he may be Bar Mitzvah'd -- something Lester believes his late mother, a Jewish convert, would have wanted. Meanwhile, Andrea wonders if she made the right decision after reluctantly agreeing to continue as the thesis advisor to Theo, the seemingly contrite visiting male student who made an unwanted advance toward her. And, Judith doesn't know what to tell her husband, Gil, when he finally shows her the first few chapters of the book he is writing -- and she finds them to be less than inspired.

Max is jealous when his son, Lester, seems to prefer spending time with his new friend's fun, active fireman father, and Andrea is surprised and angry to learn that some of her students plagiarized on an assignment. Less-than-handy Max is further disappointed when Lester isn't excited about helping him fix up the ""Handyman's Delight"" he just bought as an investment -- and the father-son relationship becomes even more strained when, after learning that Lester's new friend's father, Gary, let the two boys shoot at cans, he forbids Lester to see Gary. Meanwhile, Andrea -- who had just told her colleagues that the students of inspirational teachers don't cheat -- is deeply troubled by the plagiarists in her class and is torn about whether or not to expel them.