John Houseman, taking advantage of the career momentum sparked by his Oscar win for The Paper Chase, does his patented curmudgeon bit in Hazard's People. Housman plays a criminal lawyer described in the promotional ads as "unorthodox," which is TV-ese for "obnoxious." He oversees three good-looking younger attorneys: one genius (John Elerick), one jock (Roger Hill), one feminist (Jesse Welles). The first case on the docket is the defense of a doctor (Michael Tolan) accused of murdering his girl friend. Hazard's People was (as should be obvious by now) a pilot film for an unsold John Houseman series. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi