Watch Lou Grant Online - Full Episodes

Lou Grant (Ed Asner) arrives in Los Angeles to interview for a position with the Los Angeles Tribune. Grant has not worked for a newspaper in 10 years. The 50-year-old, though, convinces managing editor Charlie Hume (Mason Adams) and publisher Margaret Pynchon (Nancy Marchand) to hire him as city editor.

Grant's staff includes reliable assistant city editor Art Donovan (Jack Bannon) and reporters Joe Rossi (Robert Walden) and Billie Newman (Linda Kelsey). Rossi is a brash, aggressive, competitive and confident reporter who believes all his stories are worthy of the front page. Newman is a young and smart former women's section feature writer who has to prove on a daily basis that she is tough enough to compete in the world of hard news. The friendly Donovan is the perfect complement to the gruff Grant. The staff photographer is the sloppy but talented and resourceful Dennis Price (Daryl Anderson). Price is called The Animal by everyone in the newsroom.

Pynchon, who is frequently seen with her small dog, took over the newspaper from her late husband. She runs the Tribune from her office in the tower and is rarely seen in the newsroom. Pynchon holds everyone, especially Hume and Grant, to a high standard established by her late husband.

In the first season of Lou Grant, the Tribune's newsroom has to tackle a number of important social issues, including prostitution, gay rights and child abuse. In one episode Rossi goes undercover and enters a mental institution as a patient. Grant and his staff also deal with numerous journalistic concerns, including checkbook journalism, the changing role of newspapers and just how far to go to get a story. The reporters and editors are dedicated to their profession and have little time for their social lives.

The one-hour drama series includes 114 episodes and originally aired from 1977-82.