# Lou Grant: Anybody remember this show? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 5, 2017, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-grant-anybody-remember-this-show/779055 "2017-02-05T08:28:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2018, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-grant-anybody-remember-this-show/779055/61 "2018-03-24T18:54:27Z")
It was Mason Adams’ TV son, BTW, who was the Hare Krishna on\*\*\* Lou Grant\*\*\*. I once worked with a woman who was obsessed with trying to remember the name of Adams’ character on the show. It finally came to her one night when she was lying in bed: “CHARLIE HUME!!!” :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2018, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-grant-anybody-remember-this-show/779055/62 "2018-03-24T18:59:02Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > There was an episode on “Mary Tyler Moore” where Lou Grant turned 50 “Just think of it. Two thirds of your life is over” is how Ted Baxter consoled Lou). Asner must have been “born old”…a decade earlier he was on a few episodes of “The Untouchables” were he seemed middle aged even then. At the same time it seemed risky to cast Moore as Dick van Dyke’s wife when he was about a decade older. Actually, he turned 40, not 50. But he was a guy who always looked older than he was. On MTM, there was a photo on the wall of Lou’s office of him (Ed Asner in real life) playing football in high school and he looked gruff and middle-aged even then. “The teachers used to call me Sir.” ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2018, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-grant-anybody-remember-this-show/779055/63 "2018-03-24T21:56:17Z")
the one I remember is when lous boss had a mentally ill nephew who was supposed ot be taking journalism classes and wanted to write movie reviews so the editor got him a job on a pennysaver type of thing and he didn’t like it and didn’t show up after the second day and was missing come to find out hed been off his meds for weeks and his mom was looking for him and wasn’t in the classes… he just started showing up one day amd it got violent near the end … The odd thing was it took the conservative view of "some people cant be helped " ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2018, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-grant-anybody-remember-this-show/779055/64 "2018-03-24T22:09:09Z")
the one I remember is where lou’s editor had a mentally disturbed nephew who just showed up looking for a job as a movie reviewer and had supposedly started taking writing/journalism classes they got him a job at a pennysaver type of place but he didn’t like writing ads and didn’t show up then they got a call from mom saying hes been missing for weeks and not taking his meds then finding out he just showed up for the classes until the teacher realized he wasn’t enrolled which triggered his episode… I think he pulled a knife on someone… The odd thing is apparently everyone did everything they could (there was a debate on how kids were “coddled” these days ) but "some people just cant be cured/helped " not a very sympathetic ending … ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2018, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-grant-anybody-remember-this-show/779055/65 "2018-03-24T22:22:31Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > One of my favorite moments was when a reporter slipped a dirty word into a story as a joke. Lou blew up, fired the guy on the spot, and told him to clean out his desk and get out the hell NOW. Later Lou calmed down, apologized to the guy for yelling at him, and told him to take his time saying goodbye to everyone and THEN get the hell out. You can see the roots of that episode - and the Lou Grant drama character in general - in an episode of TMTMS when Mary polished off some night work (updating the obituaries of celebrities). Rhoda joined her while they downed some wine, which led them to satirize the obits (_“Raquel Welch… cause of death?.. Definitely didn’t drown!”_), and Mary accidentally leaving one of the joke obits in the files, only to be read on the air by Ted when the celebrity died unexpectedly the next day. Lou didn’t fire Mary, but IIRC he threw the book at her. He was comically earnest about the seriousness of the transgression - _“The news is… sacred!”_ The Lou Grant character started on TMTMS as a drunk buffoon, but became Asner’s portrayal of a scrupulously accurate journalist. Some would say, an overly-zealous portrayal. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2018, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-grant-anybody-remember-this-show/779055/66 "2018-03-24T22:31:10Z")
> [@koeeoaddi](#): > > This for me, too. At the time, I liked Billie, driving around “in the toolies” in her cute little beige VW and Art Someone-or-Other, who’s schtick I forget. … Those two characters were the source of or subject of the two lines from the show that, for some unknown reason, stick in my mind: Art, who always wore a three-piece suit, was summed up by one character as “born in a vest.” And diminutive Billie, dealing with a flat tire by the side of the road and approached by someone offering help, said “no, thanks: we midgets can change our own tiny tires.” (Which would be considered too insensitive a line to be used today.) Why on earth these echo in my memory is a mystery. An interesting point about the availability of these old shows: > [@](#): > > Remastering footage or clearing music rights for a TV show that hasn’t been readily available for decades often costs lots of money — and because the audience for such a project is typically very small, it can be difficult to recoup that expense from a streaming service that’s buying the rights to broadcast the show. DVD sales have often been a useful way to bridge that gap, but even in the heyday of the format, shows would often see only their first seasons released, with no follow-up sets. > > In 2016, a handful of companies, led by Shout Factory, are still trying to keep that fire burning, but success grows a little more difficult with every new year. > **[TV on DVD is keeping the medium’s history alive, against all odds](https://www.vox.com/culture/2016/12/28/14066518/tv-on-dvd-lou-grant-defenders)** > > Two essential, classic dramas — The Defenders and Lou Grant — were released on disc for the first time in 2016. Another show I’d really like to buy is _L.A. Law_, which took forever to come to DVD. Once DVDs are dead, so many old shows will be completely unavailable. That will be a real shame. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2018, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-grant-anybody-remember-this-show/779055/67 "2018-03-24T23:45:56Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I,m going to check out the local used video store. Maybe they have it. It’s where I got all five seasons of Babylon 5. Check out YouTube. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-grant-anybody-remember-this-show/779055/68 "2018-03-25T00:33:13Z")
> [@N9IWP](#): > > Hill Street Blues is (or at least was) on H&I, one of the x.3 sub-channels I get locally. One of those has 21 Jump Street. Checking my listings, that’s also H&I. It seems to be on at 3am and 4am late tonight/early tomorrow morning. EDT. May vary by region (not all digital subchannels carry the same shows in every area) ---
**Author:** ![Temporary\_Name](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@Temporary\_Name](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Temporary_Name)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-grant-anybody-remember-this-show/779055/69 "2018-03-25T01:00:09Z")
Oddly I just mentioned this show about a week ago in another thread about the Showtime series Brothers; Robert Walden was in both shows. The only detail I remember about any episode of that show was that the hot shot reporter Rossi was rigorously neutral in all matters to protect his reporter’s objectivity. During the course of an episode he was pressured to join some organization but refused on moral grounds; he walked the walk as well as talking the talk. Period. At the end of the episode, his co-workers had signed him up for every organization known to mankind. He was subscribed to every crackpot publication for every extremist group also. Basically, they made it so any story he filed could be portrayed as a result of his strong and obvious bias. They were all laughing it off, but he was genuinely and sincerely at a loss as to how life could go on. Not just pissed, violated. It is my earliest memory of someone making a principled stance and being ridiculed as a result. Thank you Saint Daniel the Prophet, but I am learning my adolescent moral lessons from Laura Petrie. ---
**Author:** ![Temporary\_Name](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@Temporary\_Name](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Temporary_Name)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-grant-anybody-remember-this-show/779055/70 "2018-03-25T01:09:59Z")
Okay, a little more pondering produced two additional memories. The first is that the character Rossi was a forerunner of Larry Manetti’s characters on **Black Sheep Squadron** , and **Magnum P.I.** ; a diminutive Italian guy with feathered back hair who punched above his weight because he was not about to be limited by his height. The second was that I expected the rich widow who owned the paper to be similar to the rich woman who owned WKPR in Cincinnati. Mrs. Pynchon had a great deal more substance however. She was both a better business woman, and a better human being in my opinion. No disrespect to the other actress intended; the character from Lou Grant was just bigger from concept to completion in my opinion. They were similar however, at least in my mind. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-grant-anybody-remember-this-show/779055/71 "2018-03-25T01:32:42Z")
> [@Temporary\_Name](#): > > … > The second was that I expected the rich widow who owned the paper to be similar to the rich woman who owned WKPR in Cincinnati. Mrs. Pynchon had a great deal more substance however. She was both a better business woman, and a better human being in my opinion. No disrespect to the other actress intended; the character from Lou Grant was just bigger from concept to completion in my opinion. They were similar however, at least in my mind. Mrs. Pynchon was supposed to make us think of Katherine Graham, publisher of the Washington Post. She’s the one John Mitchell said would “get her tit caught in a wringer” if she didn’t drop the Watergate investigation. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-grant-anybody-remember-this-show/779055/72 "2018-03-25T06:06:36Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I,m going to check out the local used video store. Maybe they have it. It’s where I got all five seasons of Babylon 5. The first three or four seasons, perhaps; but the fifth and final is unlikely to be there. It was only released last Tuesday. Still have a look for whatever you can find–one of the things I like about _Lou Grant_ (and other shows from those days) is that every episode is pretty much self-contained, and you don’t have to watch from the very beginning of the series to understand what’s going on. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-grant-anybody-remember-this-show/779055/73 "2018-03-25T10:02:49Z")
Excellent show. You might also recognize Walden as Don Segretti, one of the chief ratfuckers from _All the President’s Men_. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-grant-anybody-remember-this-show/779055/74 "2018-03-25T13:13:41Z")
> [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > Excellent show. You might also recognize Walden as Don Segretti, one of the chief ratfuckers from _All the President’s Men_. I’m surprised no one has mentioned this yet. Oh, wait, yes they did. 🙂 > [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > I also remember Robert Walden (Rossi) being so good as Segretti in All the President’s Men. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-grant-anybody-remember-this-show/779055/75 "2018-03-25T15:06:35Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > I’m surprised no one has mentioned this yet. > > Oh, wait, yes they did. 🙂 > > mmm Heh sorry, I didn’t read the entire thread. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-grant-anybody-remember-this-show/779055/76 "2018-03-25T15:39:35Z")
> [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > Heh sorry, I didn’t read the entire thread. No worries. It’s good to see that someone else appreciated his Segretti. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Temporary\_Name](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@Temporary\_Name](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Temporary_Name)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-grant-anybody-remember-this-show/779055/77 "2018-03-25T21:13:01Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Mrs. Pynchon was supposed to make us think of Katherine Graham, publisher of the Washington Post. She’s the one John Mitchell said would “get her tit caught in a wringer” if she didn’t drop the Watergate investigation. Thank you! I had no idea she was based upon a real person. I must not have been that young, but I seem to remember her as the first complex character I ever noticed who sometimes had my admiration- - but often times stirred negative emotions; resentment, anger, behaving unjustly, and the big one- fear. I am sure when I first viewed the character I thought she was just mean because she was a mean person. In later encounters, I was able to discern that sometimes she had to make decisions she did not much like. Might have been the first time I ever considered the fact that sometimes grown-ups had to do things they didn’t like doing. Looking at the dates, I hope to hell I knew that before then. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-grant-anybody-remember-this-show/779055/78 "2018-03-25T21:35:21Z")
> [@Temporary\_Name](#): > > Thank you! I had no idea she was based upon a real person. I must not have been that young, but I seem to remember her as the first complex character I ever noticed who sometimes had my admiration- - but often times stirred negative emotions; resentment, anger, behaving unjustly, and the big one- fear. I am sure when I first viewed the character I thought she was just mean because she was a mean person. In later encounters, I was able to discern that sometimes she had to make decisions she did not much like. Might have been the first time I ever considered the fact that sometimes grown-ups had to do things they didn’t like doing. Looking at the dates, I hope to hell I knew that before then. I remember how off-putting she was in the pilot, and how she gave Lou Grant a hard time when she was interviewing him for the editor’s position. He finally stood up, said “I’m sorry. When you said you wanted someone with strong opinions, I didn’t realize you meant _yours_!” and walked out of her office. She gave him the job, and my opinion of her was instantly transformed. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-grant-anybody-remember-this-show/779055/79 "2018-03-25T21:55:28Z")
The show went on for 5 seasons, but was cancelled despite decent ratings. Maybe. Wikipedia: [INDENT][INDENT][INDENT] **Cancellation** Ed Asner served two terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild, in which capacity during the 1980s he opposed U.S. policy in Central America, working closely with Medical Aid for El Salvador. The sudden cancellation of Lou Grant in 1982 was the subject of much controversy. The show had high ratings, the level of which should have justified its ongoing presence in primetime (it was in the ACNielsen top ten throughout its final month on the air).[citation needed] However, the CBS television network declined to renew it. It has been Asner’s consistent position that his political views, as well as the publicity surrounding them, were the actual root causes for the show’s cancellation.[2] [/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT] I’ve wondered about these allegations. Does anyone have any insight? Ookay, in 1980-81 Lou Grant was ranked 27th out of 30 by Neilson. [Top-rated United States television programs of 1980–81 - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-rated_United_States_television_programs_of_1980%E2%80%9381) During their fifth last season, 1981-82, they didn’t make the top 30 list. > **[Top-rated United States television programs of 1980–81](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-rated_United_States_television_programs_of_1980%E2%80%9381)** > > This table displays the top-rated primetime television series of the 1980–81 season as measured by Nielsen Media Research. But their last episode scored number 6: ['Lou Grant' bows out - UPI Archives](https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/09/13/Lou-Grant-bows-out/2956400737600/) Frankly, I’m not convinced. The bucks are made in syndication and Lou Grant had 5 seasons in the bank. I see that Lou Grant became available on DVD only in 2016: [TV on DVD is keeping the medium’s history alive, against all odds - Vox](https://www.vox.com/culture/2016/12/28/14066518/tv-on-dvd-lou-grant-defenders) ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-grant-anybody-remember-this-show/779055/80 "2018-03-25T22:00:01Z")
Marchand died while she was on the Sopranos as Tony’s mother. They killed off the character but had she lived their plan was to have her testify against her son Tony. She had earlier tried to have Tony killed but the plan failed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-grant-anybody-remember-this-show/779055.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-grant-anybody-remember-this-show/779055.md?page=5)