At the head of the table sits DEAN ARTHUR PEARSON (60s), a man who looks like he’s regretting every life choice that led him to this moment.
PEARSON > (Shuffling papers) > All right. Let’s bring this meeting to order. We have... let’s see... we have forty applications for the Victorian Literature position. We need to narrow it down to a shortlist of three by 5:00 PM. ELENA > (Without looking up) > We’re not hiring Marcus Chilton. PEARSON > Dr. Vance, we haven’t even started reviewing the— ELENA > He wrote an article three years ago calling the Brontë sisters "overrated melodramatists." We are a department that prides itself on the Brontës. He’s a non-starter. BERNARD > (Waking up with a snort) > What’s that? Are we talking about the sandwiches? I was told there would be sandwiches. SARAH > (Softly) > They’re coming at noon, Professor Hines. BERNARD > Right. Right. Good girl. (Pauses) What are we doing? PEARSON > We are reviewing candidates, Bernard. We have a stack of them. BERNARD > Let’s just hire the first one. They’re all the same. They all write about "identity" and "spaces." Whatever happened to books? Just books? ELENA > That is an incredibly reductive view of modern scholarship, Bernard. Some of us believe the study of literature evolves. BERNARD > And some of us believe it’s been circling the drain since 1985. Who’s the first one? Read it, Sarah. search committee script 75 pages
," has gained legendary status among fans and screenwriters because its original script was a massive . For a standard 30-minute sitcom, which usually clocks in around 25–40 pages, this "small phonebook" of a script was nearly double the length of a typical episode. At the head of the table sits DEAN