Episodes could revolve around topics ranging from the conflict-of-interest riddled nature of how scientific ideas are vetted by peers, to those rare but gut-wrenching cases of academic dishonesty and faking data, to the intense deliberations over thesis defenses. Academia is a very non-rational endeavor.

Academics know all too well that their world can be quite vicious and petty, occasionally inspiring, sometimes sloppy, but altogether human. A show portraying this would be therapeutic to those of us inside this world, and insightful to those of us who are not.

The Ivory Tower would be in the grand tradition of the television world’s obsession with shows that are based around professions. We already have the staples of law, medicine and law enforcement — all of which are extremely well represented. While about 40,000 law students graduate in the United States each year, and there are only about 16,000 yearly medical graduates, there are many shows depicting the lives of such graduates: Law and Order , but I am hard pressed to even determine what the positions are of the main characters. Are they postdocs? Research scientists? It’s unclear, because the whole academic component behind the show is almost beside the point.