Lou Grant
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...
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