Lou Grant (1977)

A Few Tears and a Smile for TV Done Right

Lou Grant was TV done right. I don't have cable and my old dad made sure my sister and I grew up without TV. But we did see the Lou Grant show, because my dad and a few pals of his were avid Bob Dylan bootleg record collectors and Ed Asner's brother Ben owned a record store in KC called Capers Corners. Ben was a funny guy and he had a hip store. My dad loved to go in there whenever he could, because Ben always had interesting things, not to mention rare TMoQ and CBM bootlegs you couldn't find anywhere else.

One of my dad's friends, who was also a Capers Corners Customer, had all the Lou Grants on Betamax and my sister and I loved to go to his house, because he had a TV and let us watch, so we kind of grew up a bit with Lou, both on his show and on the Mary Tyler Moore show. My dad and his pal loved Ben, so by association they loved Ed, even though they didn't know him.

Back then the Lou Grant show must have shocked people, because it was no ordinary sitcom. It dealt with the issues of the day in a way that probably made some in government feel a bit uncomfortable. It was good, hard hitting TV and, like I said in my opening paragraph, it was TV done right.

Ben Asner passed away two decades ago and I still remember how sad my dad was. My old dad passed away two years ago and I'm still sad. And I'm sure I'll be even more sad when they finally release this on DVD, but I'll be first in line to get it and I'll watch The Lou Grant Show with a few tears a slight smile for Ben and my dad.

Reviewed by Stephanie Sane October 27, 2008

One of the best dramas of all time

I love this show. I keep hoping it will be put out on DVD. Its a refreshing look at what real TV should be. Its well acted, well written and engaging. Even 30 years later, many if not most of the shows topics are still as relevant now as they were then. Great show but I don't want to buy it only on amazon's unibox thing. I want DVD copies I can play at my parent's house on a DVD player as easily as I can on my own DVD player. July 3, 2008

five star show minus all the stars ever for no DVD

The writer's strike is still going on as I write this so I won't download any of these $1.99 episodes because of that, but this was a wonderful show, great characters, terrific writing by writers who get no residuals from these downloads. Too bad the show is one of the few remaining TV shows still not out on DVD. I'd buy the yet-to-be-released DVDs if the WGA gets what it wants -- fair payment for hard work. November 23, 2007

backup from England

I totally agree with all these people. 30 years later I still remember this show, and every few months I check amazon to see if it's been released yet. It was an absolute classic; great characters, superb stories, and the thing was, everybody looked REAL. No perfect teeth, Hollywood bone-structures or Hair-To-Die-For. They looked and talked like ordinary working people. And the stories dealt thoughtfully with REAL ISSUES.

It was one of the finest series ever made on either side of the Atlantic, and it's criminal that it is still unreleased on DVD. Wake up Fox!! September 5, 2007

Journalists Can Improve The World

I remember when Edward Asner visited in 1984 the provisional news edition office of the catalan channel TV-3, in Barcelona. The late chief editor Albert Viladot asked him if he noted something different in the city since the last time he came. He asked friendly that he saw the change on the signs in the streets, written in catalan.
About the series I especially like the episode Native City, when Lou went to Goshen, the city where he was born, after the death of his aunt. There he discovered an atmosphere of discouragement because of the next close down of the glass factory, and a dark future to its inhabitants. He also rediscovered Carol, an old love of his far youth, a catholic, of polish origin.
I point out the open credits when appear Lou putting a sheet of L.A. Tribune under his bird'cage, and the kitten mewing instead the lion roaring.
I dislike the bullfighting posters in the dinning room.
This series depicts in a successful and entertaining way, the everyday problems of the north american society of late seventies.

July 14, 2007

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