These were my favorite "Lou Grant" episodes: a-day (or night)-in-the-life-of-the-newsroom stories. "Airliner," from the first season, was another such episode.
I can't deny I love this show, the entertainment value still holds to this day. The main principle of telling the truth and backing it up with facts...where the hell did those values vanish now with much fake news!
Thanks for posting. This was a great show. Just a tiny part seemed like Dragnet where there was some sort public education taking place on the story. All of these are a flashback to my high school/college days.
Wow. At 11:46 - the reference to the “beauty of the” Bic lighters: when they don’t work, just throw them away - then they became a plastic pollution nightmare. Still are. At least no one now would claim there’s beauty in throwing away zillions of little plastic lighters.
One of the reporters in this episode played the 'Dishonorable' Discharge Vet who Lou tried to get a job. Looks like he did! Always choke when Lou lets Donovan take the glory because Donovan Realises what Lou is doing. Was that a Racist remark that Lou makes when he tells an African Ancestry man to "stop hiding in the dark."??!! A Radio presenter on the BBC was vilified for saying she couldn't see a dark skinned person in the dark until he yawned. There used to be a Nightime Safety campaign slogan "Be Wise. Be Bright. Be Seen at Night." Wise for light skinned persons as well as those with darker skin. Too many wear black or dark colour coats etc today especially Office Workers. Risky at Night.
not really. the more things change, the more they remain the same. Microsoft crashes, hacks, networks crash, blackouts, hurricanes, same stuff happens, but there is no press in USA. Then plagiarism was a crime, now it's a commodity.
That's not Gordon Jump, although there is a resemblance. Jump only appeared on "Lou Grant" the first season (1977-78). He never showed up again after "WKRP in Cincinnati" started in September 1978. This episode originally aired Feb. 18, 1980.
Either 40 years has changed the weather patterns or this episode is more fiction than we thought. It is extremely rare to have those kinds of storms anywhere in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside or San Diego counties and even more rare for a city/county wide power-outage due to that "once in several blue moons" storm. Imagine, this mythical paper started in 1916, 64 years ago which is right around the age of Lou Grant himself (spoiler alert: Ed Asner who portrayed Lou Grant was born in 1929 and is still kicking today). It's cool to see how newspapers "used" to be printed. I am sure the remaining 20% that are still in business are running the same way, just not as many pages per edition.
Yeah, I'm a weather buff and it always made me laugh when they had rainy/stormy weather in LA. Just does not happen. It's like the Cave In episode's where the "weather guy" calls in sick ("Why do people insist on telling you their temperature and how times they've thrown up?) and later they don't have weather copy. 2-3 forecasts a year could cover LA.
Based on some references to his age on this program and the "Mary Tyler Moore" show, "Lou" would have been born in the mid-1920s. (Asner was indeed born in '29. He died at 91 on Aug. 29, 2021.)
"VDT" for "video display terminal" or "visual display terminal"? Boy, that was a long time ago, wasn't it. I don't even remember that term. And I was a computer programmer back in the early 1980s. Maybe we used that term and I just don't remember it.
Yep, I used a Vax terminal at my comm college in 1990 and a Silicon Graphics workstation at ISU. They are dummy terminals that are attached to a mainframe. The VDTs on this show would have been thrown out of windows in real life. Very unreliable.
Wow, latent racism at 11:30, pretty self explanatory. Try a gag like that now, Facebook and Twitter explode and you're off the air before the next commercial.
8:30 looked like another quake but it was just the camera shaking. 11:30 Wow, can we all say 80's racism? Glad in 2018 we have wireless cell tower security alarms but I suspect that in a situations like this, the cell towers would be down since they run on electricity as well
These were my favorite "Lou Grant" episodes: a-day (or night)-in-the-life-of-the-newsroom stories. "Airliner," from the first season, was another such episode.
Grafs! Books! Takes! Thirty! For a former newspaper guy like me, this is inside baseball. I love it!
What are books and takes? Former newspaper guy here too, but not terms I heard in my time.
What is a book? Is it a page with carbon attached?
I can't deny I love this show, the entertainment value still holds to this day. The main principle of telling the truth and backing it up with facts...where the hell did those values vanish now with much fake news!
Thanks for posting. This was a great show. Just a tiny part seemed like Dragnet where there was some sort public education taking place on the story.
All of these are a flashback to my high school/college days.
I don't remember A&E broadcasting these older shows.
Wagering on the Richter reading. Classic newsroom humor.
This reminds me of the New York blackout that they had in 2003
I think this is one of the best.
Wow. At 11:46 - the reference to the “beauty of the” Bic lighters: when they don’t work, just throw them away - then they became a plastic pollution nightmare. Still are. At least no one now would claim there’s beauty in throwing away zillions of little plastic lighters.
The guy writing his mother was one of my favorite characters.
I believe that would be Mr. Ray Oliver. www.imdb.com/name/nm0646969/?ref_=tt_cl_t13
Airdate Feb. 18th, 1980. 5:00 "I'm writing my mother". "Oh, she got a terminal at home?" This was a joke back then.
I think this is my favorite one
One of the reporters in this episode played the 'Dishonorable' Discharge Vet who Lou tried to get a job. Looks like he did! Always choke when Lou lets Donovan take the glory because Donovan Realises what Lou is doing. Was that a Racist remark that Lou makes when he tells an African Ancestry man to "stop hiding in the dark."??!! A Radio presenter on the BBC was vilified for saying she couldn't see a dark skinned person in the dark until he yawned. There used to be a Nightime Safety campaign slogan "Be Wise. Be Bright. Be Seen at Night." Wise for light skinned persons as well as those with darker skin. Too many wear black or dark colour coats etc today especially Office Workers. Risky at Night.
How different things are with today's technology. Of course most of the excitement would be gone.
not really. the more things change, the more they remain the same. Microsoft crashes, hacks, networks crash, blackouts, hurricanes, same stuff happens, but there is no press in USA. Then plagiarism was a crime, now it's a commodity.
Wow, the doctor in "Blackout" is a reporter in "Depression"
Noticed Gordon Jump as a looter. He was one of the editors in the budget meetings in some of the early episodes.
That's not Gordon Jump, although there is a resemblance. Jump only appeared on "Lou Grant" the first season (1977-78). He never showed up again after "WKRP in Cincinnati" started in September 1978. This episode originally aired Feb. 18, 1980.
26:00 in, vandals stealing obsolete technology.
SCOTUS: You can now carry a gun without having a legitiment reason
Very disappointing, but, regrettably, also very true.
@johngreen3543 *legitimate 🙂
So does "books" = "paragraphs"?
There were several words that would indicate the space used. "Graphs" was another.
Either 40 years has changed the weather patterns or this episode is more fiction than we thought. It is extremely rare to have those kinds of storms anywhere in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside or San Diego counties and even more rare for a city/county wide power-outage due to that "once in several blue moons" storm. Imagine, this mythical paper started in 1916, 64 years ago which is right around the age of Lou Grant himself (spoiler alert: Ed Asner who portrayed Lou Grant was born in 1929 and is still kicking today). It's cool to see how newspapers "used" to be printed. I am sure the remaining 20% that are still in business are running the same way, just not as many pages per edition.
Yeah, I'm a weather buff and it always made me laugh when they had rainy/stormy weather in LA. Just does not happen.
It's like the Cave In episode's where the "weather guy" calls in sick ("Why do people insist on telling you their temperature and how times they've thrown up?) and later they don't have weather copy.
2-3 forecasts a year could cover LA.
Based on some references to his age on this program and the "Mary Tyler Moore" show, "Lou" would have been born in the mid-1920s. (Asner was indeed born in '29. He died at 91 on Aug. 29, 2021.)
Please..... A mid-west thunderstorm in LA? For a city that "doesn't have weather", that seems like a stretch.
It's been known to happen, but if you don't live there you don't hear about it.
I remember as a kid when San Francisco had a big lightning storm and it made the CBS Evening News.
power transformers can actually get blown by freaky things like wildlife: birds. Not like CA isn't known for blackouts or storms.
Looters are a-holes
"VDT" for "video display terminal" or "visual display terminal"? Boy, that was a long time ago, wasn't it. I don't even remember that term. And I was a computer programmer back in the early 1980s. Maybe we used that term and I just don't remember it.
BruceK10032 Dummy terminals are generally referred to as the VDTs. Vax workstations, etc.
Yep, I used a Vax terminal at my comm college in 1990 and a Silicon Graphics workstation at ISU. They are dummy terminals that are attached to a mainframe.
The VDTs on this show would have been thrown out of windows in real life. Very unreliable.
In England we used to call them VDU's... visual display units
4:25 Back when you could openly leer and not get nailed with sexual harassment. Ah, the 70s. (Not saying it was a good thing)
Zoomer30 - was a GREAT thing -
That wasn’t sexual harassment that was sexual interest.
Wow, latent racism at 11:30, pretty self explanatory. Try a gag like that now, Facebook and Twitter explode and you're off the air before the next commercial.
8:30 looked like another quake but it was just the camera shaking. 11:30 Wow, can we all say 80's racism? Glad in 2018 we have wireless cell tower security alarms but I suspect that in a situations like this, the cell towers would be down since they run on electricity as well