Journalism – real honest-to-God
journalism – is dead. I can’t pinpoint an exact time of death, but it’s been on
life support since the escalation of the Internet, and about ten years ago
finally gave up the ghost. There are still reputable journalists plying their
trade, but they do so in opposition to a tsunami of predetermined agendas,
arrogance and flat-out incompetence.
Which makes the experience of watching Lou Grant (1977-1982) the best dramatic television series about the profession, a bittersweet experience.
Lou Grant
understood the significance of responsible journalism without indulging in
self-aggrandizement. The whimsical opening credits sequence, in which the
lifespan of a daily newspaper is followed to an ignoble end, lets you know this
won’t be a genuflection to the Fourth Estate.
The show also got what made
print journalism interesting. It’s not the big “scoops” that win Pulitzers and
bring down governments. It’s the research and the legwork that are necessary
even for a lifestyle feature that will run on page 24. It’s the running down of
dead ends and interviewing people who don’t want to talk to you. It’s working
on a story for days and then having something happen that renders it useless.
The show is a procedural,
like Dragnet was a procedural. It
takes the mundane parts of a glamorized job and makes them compelling. When you
watch it you’ll understand how it was once possible for biased and imperfect
people, working within a clear chain of command, to produce something that
could accurately be called “news.”
We see this system at work
in the first episode. Reporter Joe Rossi (everyone’s favorite character unless
you had a crush on Billie) exposes a police department sex scandal. Rossi has a
strong anti-establishment streak and can barely conceal his delight when he
writes it up. Lou knows the story is legit, but orders Rossi to rewrite it so
the facts are more prominent than the reporter’s colorfully crafted condemnation.
The paper’s publisher, Margaret Pynchon, believes there are already too many negative
stories about the police and would rather not run it at all. But she prints the
article, because it’s the proper thing to do.
It’s a tribute to the
quality of the series that the novelty of building a drama around a sitcom character
almost seems like an afterthought.
This is not the grouchy
teddy bear Lou Grant from WJM News, who spent his days yelling at Ted Baxter
and ducking Sue Ann’s advances. There are occasional references to Lou having
moved to Los Angeles from Minneapolis, but when he takes the city editor post
at the Tribune, he becomes a real newspaperman.
And you don’t question it for a moment.
Ed Asner leads a sterling
cast; Robert Walden’s Joe Rossi became an archetype for bulldog journalism. Fans
so fondly recall Linda Kelsey as reporter Billie Newman that they may have
forgotten (as I did) that she replaced Rebecca Balding, who appears in the
show’s first three episodes.
Mason Adams, as Tribune editor Charlie Hume, brings some
of the good-natured cynicism inherent to portrayals of journalism since The Front Page in 1931. At a city desk
meeting someone brings in a story about a train wreck in Romania with numerous
casualties. It is relegated to an interior page, until someone mentions there
were two people from Los Angeles on the train. “Now, it’s a tragedy,” says Hume,
and it goes on page one.
In another episode, Charlie
explains to Billie his hesitation to approve a feature article on the gang
problems in East Los Angeles. “The people in West L.A. get nervous when we
write about the Chicanos,” he says, “and the Chicanos don’t read the Tribune.”
As wonderful as Adams is in
this, I can’t watch any of his scenes without hearing “With a name like
Smuckers, it has to be good.”
Lou may have left the
sitcom world, but Lou Grant can be a very
funny show when it’s appropriate. Much of the humor is provided by a
photographer nicknamed Animal (Daryl Anderson) and assistant city editor Art
Donovan, a dapper horndog played by Jack Bannon. Bannon happily inherited the comic timing of
his mother, TV icon Bea Benaderet.
Nancy Marchand may be
better known to TV audiences from The
Sopranos, but as Mrs. Pynchon she also brought humor to the series, especially
when Lou and Charlie are summoned to her office the way first-graders are
ordered to see the principal.
I just love this show. So
did enough viewers to keep it on for five seasons, and it would have continued if
CBS had not become fed up with Asner’s politics.
Lou Grant
won more than 25 Emmys, as well as Humanitas Prizes and Peabody Awards among
other accolades. By any measure this was outstanding television. But I think it
plays even better for anyone who worked in journalism – or ever wanted to.
If the
sounds of a typewriter make you more nostalgic than the songs
played at your prom, this is the show for you. After a few episodes you’ll long for the days when news came from a
newspaper, and not from a million websites and politically charged blogs of dubious
intent.
We have access to so much
more information now, and that’s good. But when you can’t tell the Onion headlines from those in the New York Times, it seems like we’ve lost
something even more precious. In its original run, watching Lou Grant helped the masses to
understand what goes into putting together that morning paper that arrived on all
of our doorsteps. Today, it plays like a eulogy for a once-proud vocation.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMr. Hofstede, do you think the terms "procedural" and "police procedural" have been overused in recent years when it comes to TV shows? Is it safe to say that "CHiPs," "Starsky & Hutch," and "T.J. Hooker" were police procedurals?
ReplyDeleteIn any case, film and TV historian Stuart Galbraith IV described "Lou Grant" as "unjustly forgotten" when reviewing a "Quincy, M.E." DVD set in 2014. Mr. Hofstede, do you think Mr. Galbraith was referring to the fact that "Lou Grant" had yet to be released on DVD in the United States at the time?
BTW, I didn't go to the prom when I was in high school.
Well, Stuart Galbraith IV is at least a TV historian by extension. He is definitely a film historian.
DeleteA procedural to me is a show that accurately portrays what a profession is like in the real world. I don't think T. J. Hooker clinging to the hood of a speeding car would qualify. Among police shows, outside of 'Dragnet' the one that comes to mind is 'Hill Street Blues,' though that got a bit quirky sometimes as well.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this! I've only seen a couple of Lou Grant episodes, and I don't remember them particularly well, but this makes me want to revisit the series and give it another chance. (Maybe starting after episode three might help?)
ReplyDeleteActually, I thought Rebecca Balding was pretty good! So feel free to start at episode 1. :)
Delete