The BEST episodes of Lou Grant

#1 - Hostages

Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/27/1977

A gunman, upset with a story about his brother who was wrongfully shot by a store-owner during a robbery, holds the newspaper staff hostage demanding a new story.

#2 - Cophouse

Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/20/1977

After landing the city editor job at the Los Angeles Tribune, Lou Grant's first major story is a sex scandal concerning the LAPD and underage girls. However, in order to get it published he must deal with a reporter that is reluctant to bring down the police and Mrs. Pynchon who has a difference of opinion with him.

#3 - Pack

Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/27/1980

Billie is given a tough time when she tours with a political candidate to conduct an investigation.

#4 - Charlie

Season 5 - Episode 24 - Aired 9/13/1982

A bad day for Charlie involves firing misfits and dealing with static from reporters over their assignments; meanwhile, Donovan suspects his girlfriend is pregnant.

#5 - Nazi

Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/18/1977

While investigating a group of Nazis, Billie comes upon information that one of their leaders used to be Jewish.

#6 - Hoax

Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/4/1977

When Lou gets a tip from a friend who claims to know the whereabouts of a missing millionaire, members of the staff initially have doubts about following it and dismiss it as a hoax. The man begins to gain credibility when he is able to retrieve information that only the missing man would know.

#7 - Henhouse

Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/11/1977

#8 - Scoop

Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/8/1977

Pressured to get the latest scoop at any cost, Lou ends up in hot water after running two of Rossi's exclusive stories which turn out to be false. So when Billie has information about a possible fake kidnapping, Lou is reluctant to run the story.

#9 - Murder

Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/30/1978

Billie is upset because her story, about a courageous black woman who is slain in her own apartment, is relegated to the back pages while Rossi's story, about an elderly white woman who fights off burglars, makes the front page.

#10 - Judge

Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/15/1977

When Lou goes to a courthouse to look into a report of inappropriate behavior by a senior judge, he angers the judge by trying to leave in the middle of a trial and is put in jail. Upset by this treatment, he gets the newspaper staff to further investigate the judge's erratic behavior.

#11 - Schools

Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/20/1978

Lou, Charlie, and Donovan interview students from an inner city school for the purpose of awarding a college scholarship to a journalism major. While Charlie and Donovan recommend a straight-A student, Lou pushes for a student who kicked a drug habit and got tutoring to improve his grades. Rossi and Billie uncover disturbing trends of violence at the same inner city school.

#12 - Pills

Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/25/1978

Rossi is handed records which prove that a doctor is illegally prescribing drugs. When the story runs and it is suspected that the records may have been obtained by illegal means, Rossi is told to either reveal his source or go to jail.

#13 - Spies

Season 1 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/27/1978

When the paper finds out about the son of a wealthy businessman being secretly detained by authorities, Lou decides to have Rossi investigate. However, when a CIA agent thwarts the investigation before it begins, everyone begins to suspect there is a CIA informant working at the paper.

#14 - Mob

Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/23/1978

Lou and Rossi visit a California resort in preparation for the Trib's annual tennis tournament. They are perplexed at the number of mob bosses they see at the resort, and begin to investigate.

#15 - Hooker

Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/16/1978

After a homicide occurs in the city, Billie finds out that the victim was a prostitute who worked at a "spa" business. While investigating, she strikes up an unlikely friendship with the victim's co-worker who does not seem to fit the stereotypical profile of a hooker.

#16 - Physical

Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 3/20/1978

Lou reluctantly goes for a physical and finds out that he has a thyroid condition that requires surgery. At the paper, he offers advice to an intern who wants to become a reporter. Rossi learns that he has a good chance at a Pulitzer prize for his story on mental hospitals.

#17 - Poison

Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 3/6/1978

After Rossi's friend reveals that he has damaging information about the unsafe conditions at a nuclear plant, he is "accidentally" struck and killed by a car. Eager to prove that it was no accident, Rossi continues the investigation into the nuclear plant.

#18 - Airliner

Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/3/1978

News breaks of an airplane carrying over 300 people that is unable to land. Members of the staff scour the list of passengers aboard and find out that Charlie's daughter is on that flight.

#19 - Barrio

Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/1/1977

Surprised by the paper's lack of coverage on the shooting of a Hispanic woman by a gang, Lou allows Billie to go into the Hispanic community to write a story. While in the community, she meets the victim's son who is fueled with anger and seems headed down the wrong path.

#20 - Aftershock

Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/25/1977

When a member of the staff passes away, Lou does everything he can to comfort the widow which causes her to depend more on him and fall in love with him. After a small earthquake hits, Rossi interviews a scientist who claims that his insects are predicting a more serious one in the upcoming days.

#21 - Home

Season 2 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/26/1979

A helpless old lady in a wheelchair is dumped in a county office because of a bureaucratic wrangle, and this sets the staff onto a searing Tribune expose of shoddy nursing home practices. Billie gets a job at a nursing home for a shocking insider's report on care for the elderly, while Lou learns from a retired hat maker that, in too many cases, this country's old people are regarded as non-persons.

#22 - Hollywood

Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/17/1979

Lou is intrigued by the closed restaurant down the street, which turns out to have been the scene of a famous murder 25 years earlier. Animal is sent in for pictures, and becomes friends with the reclusive owner, the woman who found the celebrity's body 25 years ago.

#23 - Convention

Season 2 - Episode 20 - Aired 3/5/1979

The city room hears that a radical group plans to kidnap a VIP at a publishers' convention attended by Lou and other Tribune executives. Lou, a reluctant delegate at the convention, fends off the aggressive job-hunting tactics of flamboyant newsman Jack Riley as Rossi and Billie try to get a lead on the kidnapping report.

#24 - Marathon

Season 2 - Episode 21 - Aired 3/19/1979

In a news-packed day, Lou feels the pressure as he sets up coverage of a tunnel cave-in and a human fly climbing a skyscraper, knowing that a resentful Donovan has been offered a better paying job. The hard pressed Lou also has to answer questions of a Swedish tour group, cope with a familiar kook (Mr. Dreyfus) who brings news of outer space, and find an assignment for a youthful city room intern.

#25 - Bomb

Season 2 - Episode 22 - Aired 3/26/1979

Could an individual build an atomic bomb? Lou gets a terrifying answer when a terrorist threatens to detonate a nuclear device and provides the Tribune with detailed plans as proof. Facing the terrorist's deadline in checking out the story, Rossi has another personal problem: he's been dating Hume's daughter and knows his boss doesn't like her to get interested in any reporter ? especially Rossi.