Lou Grant

Lou Grant won an Emmy Award in 1979 for Outstanding Drama Series.

1979 - Did You Know? Margaret Thatcher was elected British Prime Minister 3 Mile Island nuclear accident 63 Americans taken hostage is Iran on November 4, 1979 Spacecraft Voyager I shows photos of rings around Jupiter Gas was $.86/gallon! ESPN network was launched Sahara Desert experiences snow for 33 minutes in February Pol Pot regime falls in Cambodia One Child policy implemented in China John Wayne died

Lou Grant was a spin-off from the Mary Tyler Moore Show that starred Ed Asner in his continuing role as Lou Grant. After everyone was fired at the TV station on Mary Tyler Moore, he moved to Los Angeles and became the City Editor of the L.A. Tribune newspaper. Lou Grant ran for five seasons from 1977 through 1982, and won several of its 62 Emmy nominations. Other cast members included Robert Walden as Joe, Linda Kelsey as Billie and Mason Adams as Charlie. Nancy Marchand was Mrs. Pynchon, owner of the newspaper. In this episode that aired in March 1979, Norbert plays Bovic, a Croatian radical. The opening scene of him shows him watching a film of a nuclear bomb exploding. Later on, he passes an envelope to Joe at the newspaper offices, and tells him "Freedom or death." When Joe opens the envelope, he is stunned to see plans for a nuclear device enclosed, along with a list of demands from the terrorists, including that their story be told, and also that two of their fellow countrymen be released from prison, or else the group will detonate an Atom Bomb in downtown LA. The newspaper team calls in a government representative who tells the newspaper to sit on the story. In the meantime, Billie enlists the advice of a friend, a physicist that use to work with a nuclear program, while Joe talks with the manager of a plutonium manufacturing plant. They are both stunned to learn that a small group of individuals could indeed gather the materials to manufacture a bomb, and that some weapons grade plutonium is "unaccounted for." Bovic calls Joe to ask why their demands haven't been printed. Joe agrees to meet with him to talk about it since time appears to be running out. The terrorist group calls themselves the Ides of March in honor of several of their fellow countrymen that were killed on that date, and the next day is March 15. Lou and Joe believe that the group is planning to detonate the bomb in downtown LA the next day. The Feds follow Joe to the location where Bovic and his group are living. Bovic shows him the bomb, with threats that their demands are met just as the Feds burst through the door and arrest everyone, including Joe. It turns out the bomb was not operational, but later that day the newspapermen find out that a small shipment of plutonium enroute from Phoenix to LA was stolen...

1979 Trivia Top songs: Billy Joel -- Just the Way You Are BeeGees -- Saturday Night Fever The Village People -- YMCA Barry Manilow -- Copacabana Bob Seger -- Old Time Rock and Roll Sister Sledge -- We are Family Best Picture, 1979 Oscars: Kramer vs Kramer Other Popular Movies: Alien, The Muppet Movie, Norma Rae, 10,The China Syndrome, The Electric Horseman