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.
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.
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.
While investigating a group of Nazis, Billie comes upon information that one of their leaders used to be Jewish.
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.
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.
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.
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.
After Lou tells him that his stories are missing first-hand experience, Rossi checks into a mental institution as a patient under a made-up name to investigate reports of abuse. Lou clashes with a lawyer at the paper because he feels that censorship and fear of possible lawsuits are limiting what the paper can publish.
Billie uses a battered woman as a source for a story on spousal abuse but has trouble following through with it when the women's husband finds out. She later finds out that a co-worker has a problem with spousal abuse.
Staff members become nervous when a multi-millionaire with a penchant for ruining the credibility of newspapers makes an attempt to take over the Tribune.
Lou gets homesick with Christmas approaching. Billie does a story on a family that is homeless for the holidays and public donations begin to pour in. After Rossi improperly uses a quote, Lou punishes him by assigning him to a boring story that turns out to be a juicy story.
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.
The paper faces a public backlash after Lou runs a story about an NCAA investigation into the possible recruiting violations by a popular local college football team.
When a man saves the governor's life and then flees the scene, the paper launches a campaign to find his identity. When they find him and write a story revealing that he has a criminal record, he blames the paper for hurting his business and ruining his engagement. Billie is upset at the lack of support for a halfway house that is on the verge of closing due to lack of funding.
The paper does a story on a senior citizen whose apartment, decorated with art that reflects his life's work, is in danger of being torn down.
Charlie is devastated when his son joins a cult.
Rossi gets upset when a new female reporter comes in and is given the story about a possibly corrupt politician that he had unsuccessfully been investigating.
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.
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.
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.
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.
When Mrs. Pynchon plays host to the wife of the leader of a controversial Latin American country known for its torturing practices, Charlie Hume is anything but inviting to her.
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.
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.
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.
Art Donovan's mother is dying, but he is having trouble accepting this as fact. His relations with everyone in the newsroom suffer as his mother gets worse, and his colleagues try to help him come to terms with the inevitable.
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.
Lou visits his home town while on vacation and meets his old boss who now runs the town's newspaper. While there, an outbreak of an unknown cattle disease gets Lou's attention when it's suggested the disease could be transmitted to humans.
Lou clashes with the new media consultant who believes that the paper should do more trashy stories to cater to the younger crowds. One of those stories has Billie and Rossi investigating the "singles" scene by going out on dates through a computer service. While Rossi has trouble finding time with his date, Billie has trouble getting rid of her date.
Billie and Rossi pose as a married couple in order to uncover a black market baby selling operation.
Rossi uncovers conflicts of interest on the staff, including Lou, and writes a story that sets off fireworks in the city room. Mrs. Pynchon tells Rossi to keep an eye out for mistakes in the Tribune but doesn't realize just how far he'll go until he takes on a campaign by her pet charity.
Lou's little grandson is hard of hearing, but the boy's mother can't accept it. While Lou is absorbed by his family, Rossi gets in trouble over a construction company scandal.
While investigating a string of fires in the same neighborhood, Lou and Billie find a connection linking a building owner and members of a fire department to arson.
Animal's erratic behavior touches off a Tribune inquiry into the plight of the all-but-forgotten Vietnam veteran who is treated much differently from servicemen in other wars. Lou, in trying to help Animal and the likeable Sutton, discovers that years after Vietnam, too many veterans are still unemployed or otherwise under strain from their experience.
Looking for a place to invest a $5,000 windfall, Lou gets a shocking look at white collar crime when he uncovers a clever financial scheme run by a sharp con man. He learns there are shady characters only too willing to put his money in their pockets, but has trouble convincing at least one victim ? Charlie Hume ? of what's going on.
After Lou sees an Immigration Department sweep of his favorite Mexican restaurant, the Tribune uncovers a grim and unsettling picture of what's happening to illegal aliens. At the same time, Lou has to cope with a new addition to the city room staff ? Mrs. Pynchon's spoiled niece ? who turns out to be ill-equipped for the job of copy girl.
The city is thrown into panic when the Tribune's star columnist writes a column that Lou fears could incite a serial killer to strike again. The reporter who covered the so-called "Samaritan" slayings years before is assigned to draw up a profile that might lead to the madman, and the staff fans out to follow his clues.
A mother, obsessed with tracking the hit-and-run driver who killed her son, arouses Rossi's fighting instincts and leads to a human interest story with an unexpected payoff. Meanwhile, after Lou and Mrs. Pynchon have separate encounters with hostile citizens, Billie is assigned to find out if there's a story in the use of cars as weapons.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A series of Skid Row stranglings turn out to have special meaning for Lou, who discovers his former doctor is now a bum, and for Rossi, who has his own reason for hating drunks. Lou is astonished to find that his once skilled surgeon is defiant about living on Skid Row, and Rossi for once tries to get out of working on a story.
Romance hits the Tribune, but not the hearts and flowers kid: Lou gets an unexpected offer from Susan, and Billie meets teenagers who have babies to escape from home. Rossi finds good reason to be cynical in the story of a rock singer being sued for community property by his former live-in girlfriend.
Lou is the only witness to a neighborhood murder and is mystified by the way the police handle the case, thereby discovering a touchy area of crime. At the same time, a fatal fire in a gay bar poses a tough question for Lou: should the newspaper publish the names of the victims, knowing people will be hurt by the story. Lou is also puzzled to see a uniformed cop working a homicide case and sends Rossi to find out why, with disturbing results.
The hard drinking husband of a popular female politician makes headlines while the Trib staff makes news itself in a gossip magazine. The Trib learns a hard lesson about what happens when private lives become public from Rossi's tough coverage of elected official, Bonita Worth, and Lou's firing of a resentful reporter.
After agreeing to be guest speaker at Rossi's journalism class, Lou learns his "students" are tough state prison inmates who are angered by the shutdown of their newspaper. While Lou bucks the prison administration to help the hostile inmate editor, Hume gets the job of running the Trib during the period Mrs. Pynchon is on jury duty, and it's a learning experience for all.
A naked man on a church steeple and the editor of a sleazy porno magazine put Lou in hot water on two fronts with a common bond. The Trib's religious editor, Marcus Prescott, warns Lou he'll stir up a hornet's nest by allowing Rossi's probe into a disturbed member of the wealthy United Pilgrim Crusade.
Billie gets into the headlines when her stories questioning a big company's clean air standards brings on a costly damage suit to the Trib. Corporation Chief, Curtis Folger, may have engineered an on-again, off-again deal to get the city to ease pollution restrictions. When Billie goes after proof, she lands herself and the Trib in trouble.
While helping test a new drug, Lou learns about the "publish or perish" research at a medical center with a publicity seeking director. Eager for new grants and honors, Dr. Duncan puts pressure on youthful scientist, Todson, to speed up his experiments. At the same time, another young man surprises Lou with his occupation: human guinea pig.
To help with a story on the legalization of gambling, Lou befriends an elderly man who has inside tips for betting on the horses. Billie's new boyfriend uses her to feed his gambling addiction.
The unwilling Billie finds herself in the protective custody of a male chauvinist policeman because of what she knows in a grand jury case involving a popular game show host. Lou also learns about the irony of the law when he tries to be a Good Samaritan and painfully ends up as a target in a damage suit.
When a plane carrying a high school basketball team is believed to be missing, members of the paper travel to a small desert town to investigate.
Art's cousin Andrew displays violent feelings against women. His mother wants him to check into a mental institution, which Andrew accepts. Meanwhile, parts of an erotic novel keep popping up on the Tribune's computer monitors.
Andrew is put on trial for the murder of a young woman who lived in his mother's flat. Art wants to protect his cousin but realizes that the Tribune's coverage may work against the case.
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.
Rossi does a story on a child actress who is secretly unhappy about being deprived of a normal childhood and decides to run away. Lou tries to spend more time with a kid from his baseball team who is neglected by his divorced parents.
The paper is on the scene of a series of brush fires in the California Valley. Charlie, who is on the verge of separating from his wife, makes a last ditch effort to save his home from the fires as well as his marriage.
The paper does a series of articles on Native Americans. Animal tries to reunite a kid who ran away from a reservation with his uncle. Billie and Lou work on a story about a Native American couple who have different ideas about family.
When a well-liked teacher at a private school is accused of molesting a child in his class, Mrs. Pynchon feels that he is not getting a fair trial.
When Billie investigates claims that drug companies manufactured a drug that caused cancer, she finds out that her mother may have taken that drug several years ago.
Rossi visits a small town where book burnings are back in fashion and a young teacher loses her job for teaching too radical ideas. Back at the Trib', Charlie refuses to publish a satirical comic strip in lieu of being sued.
Lou faces a burn-out on a particularly stressful day when everybody has something to complain about, one staffer quits, another is fired and on top of it all a 24 year old woman shows romantic interest in him.
The paper's long standing streak of having a daily newspaper published is threatened by a blackout.
The disappearance of Mrs. Pynchon's dog leads Rossi to the discovery of an underground dog-fighting ring.
Lou sticks his neck out to try and help Adam, who develops a serious drinking problem. However, when Adam's drinking problems gets worse and he expects Lou to keep covering for him, Lou regrets getting involved.
While the paper investigates a story on stolen guns, Lou himself becomes the victim of an Irish gun dealer who steals his identity to obtain weapons.
Checkbook journalism - payment for a new story- becomes an issue when a source wants money to document a dangerous motorbike scandal. Cold financial facts are also brought home to the staff when Hume takes a talented editor to task for padding his expense accounts.
With the staff short-handed, Lou decides to work the night shift.
When the paper decides to do a story on sexual harassment in the workplace, Billie finds that harassment is prevalent at the Tribune. A new female reporter develops a romantic interest in Lou, which creates a conflict of interest.
Billie is given a tough time when she tours with a political candidate to conduct an investigation.
Charlie and Lou do some thorough investigating when Charlie's new tenant seems to be using his house for suspicious purposes.
Charlie and Mrs. Pynchon are worried about misrepresentation when Billie poses as a employee at a chemical company to expose their dumping of hazardous materials.
Lou gets into hot water when the paper is sued for libel after writing a scathing story on a supermarket tabloid.
Rossi and a fellow black reporter clash when they are assigned to investigate the controversial police killing of a drug dealer who had earlier killed a cop.
Billie is assigned to do a story on a controversial business venture which may throw tenants out of the their apartments. However, she soon becomes biased after she meets and falls in love with one of the investors, baseball player Ted McCovey. Computer problems plague the office staff.
Lou and Rossi try to offer comfort to a staff reporter who returns to work the day after she is robbed and raped.
When Rossi and Billie come upon the hot story of illegally exported medical supplies, Lou holds off on publication due to the lack of tenable facts. However, a visiting reporter disagrees with Lou and has no reservations about exposing the story.
Charlie allows his father to move in after he is arrested for shoplifting. Lou tries to help an elderly neighbor who is being harassed by neighborhood kids.
Lou fears a possible letdown when the staff use their connections to try to help a reporter find her biological parents. A glowing review on Lou's favorite restaurant makes it harder for him to get a table.
When the Tribune is hit by a worker's strike, Lou sides with management but is sympathetic toward the union.
When Lou and Rossi investigate a secret society of survivalists, who believe that the world is going to end, they become stranded in a violent storm.
Animal becomes obsessed with finding out why a pretty young woman with a bright future would commit suicide. Someone tries to extort money from the paper by threatening to publish the newspaper's salary list.
Rossi is asked to cover a migrant workers strike in California's Central Valley and gets so involved he ends up in jail wit them. The fight between the two faction leaders becomes personal as more Tribune reporters gather at the location.
Rossi publishes a highly critical story on a controversial company that seems to have a lot to hide.
Rossi does a story on a controversial football player whose brutal hit left an opposing player paralyzed. Lou starts a relationship with a film critic.
When a veteran reporter attempts suicide, Lou tries to help him by reuniting him with his family. Charlie is upset that Mrs. Pynchon overlooked him for a newly created position.
Mrs. Pynchon is on the verse of buying 'Lively Arts' magazine when she suffers a stroke. Her nephew Fred Hill swiftly makes a grab for the Tribune's ownership. Lou chooses Billie over all the male reporters to cover college girls posing for 'Suave Magazine'.
Billie gets a marriage proposal from Baseball scout Ted McCovney. Lou meets up with his youngest daughter Janie, who feels he's always neglected her for work.
Kitty Larsen, a young woman on death row picks Rossi to tell her story. Although hesitant at first, he soon begins to like her. But Lou has personal feelings against her because she killed a reporter from the Trib'.
Lou is arrested for driving under the influence. His sentence includes attending a group meeting which culminates in a drunk driving test. Charlie sets up a 'Private Eye' hot-line at the Tribune for people to phone in crimes. Rossi is asked to write a success story about the initiative even though he is very skeptical about it's accuracy.
When Lou goes back to his elderly home to settle his aunt's estate, he meets an old flame and gets his first story assignment in years from Charlie.
Sharon McNeil gets a story about child pornography by promising not to reveal the names of her source. A promise her superiors at the Trib' and the L.A. police department soon want her to break. Art goes out on a helicopter jump with some volunteer rescuers and young reporter Lance has big dreams involving dating Billie and becoming the first newsman in space.
Billie suspects the gold cross found in a time capsule has been switched for a fake. Her investigations unearth the reasons behind an old family feud between the extremely rich side and the less rich side of the Matheson family.
Charlie's nephew Scott comes to stay with him, and turns out to have a mental condition. But the young man refuses to take his medication. The staff is busy tracking an escaped zoo bear called Ziggy.
When his lawyer friend Burton Cary becomes a political candidate, Rossi finds learns he's not as clean-cut as he thought. Meanwhile the entire staff becomes a bit suspicious of Art after an argument with Jerry Hollister leads to the latter suing Art as well as the Tribune.
Rossi runs into a bass player that used to be in the famous Sonny Goodwin Quartet and sets about reuniting the four of them. Tribute reporters Crosley and Banks split up when Banks retires and Crosley soon falls behind on his assignment. This leads Lou to team him up with Billie.
Billie investigates the death of a woman in a house that is said to be haunted. This leads her to attend a séance and search out the owners of a Ouija board.
A stick-up at a Mr. Ginty's fast-food restaurant turns into a hostage situation with a group of birthday party kids. The possible trauma caused by this becomes a big part of the subsequent trial. Billie thinks one mother in particular is telling her son how to react and feel, but when she writes it down Lou finds her story too soft and rewrites it.
Charlie becomes a member of a news council and finds one member who seems to have a grudge against him and the Tribune. Mrs. Pynchon asks Billie to help her write an autobiographical piece but refuses to talk about one important subject: her taking over from her late husbands at the newspaper.
The Tribune hires an old acquaintance of Animal's from 'Nam: photographer Lee Van Tam. But Tam's domestic troubles interfere with his work. Lou tries to get out of meeting visiting relatives.
Rossi makes a bet with that he can get a story from anyone on the street. And the person he chooses is a woman who goes through the garbage who gets used by still viable food. He learns that she's a nun who runs a soup kitchen and feeds indigents. But he shifts the focus of the story to how people in a Third World country are starving which doesn't make the editors happy. And Mrs. Pynchon is instructing the staff to be less wasteful which makes them crazy.
Rossi pursues a story about land claims by Japanese-Americans who sold cheaply prior to their forced internment during World War II, but Lou and Charlie try to stop him from following through with a key source. Billie traces a scam to a politician.
At the last minute, Billie is pulled from a plane that crashes. She writes the obituaries of four Tribune staffers killed. Animal has to face the dilemma of reporting the impending extinction of a moth without tipping bug collectors to its location.
When one of the paper reporters' father comes to town to perform. It seems he was a folk singer in the 50's and he was blacklisted during the Communists Witch Hunts. They learn that one of the paper's reporters may have been involved with his blacklist.
The proliferation of litigation on various fronts is pursued: Billie's story on a political recall movement leads to people she named in her story being sued by the target of the recall; Lou hires Animal's brother to represent him in legal action against a crooked plumber; meanwhile, the Tribune considers switching law firms.
Billie covers a story about a fireworks bill from the Tribune's Sacramento bureau where she encounters her ex-husband, who is now an aggressive lobbyist on behalf of the fireworks industry. Meanwhile, Lou raises ethical questions about the sponsor of an award for which the Tribune is nominated.
As the Tribune covers the fate of a girl being treated in a burn unit, the possibility arises that a confrontation in the Middle East will lead to a nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, and the burn unit is mobilized.
A rookie reporter gets in over his head when covering the death of an environmental agitator that might not have been accidental; meanwhile, Lou dates an unfaithful woman.
The Tribune is blamed for inflaming rivalries between surfer gangs. Billie and Ted differ on the place of a group home in their neighborhood.
Lou is shot in an armed robbery in a parking lot, and the robber is soon killed by a police officer who has trouble dealing with his actions.
A bad day for Charlie involves firing misfits and dealing with static from reporters over their assignments; meanwhile, Donovan suspects his girlfriend is pregnant.
Interview with Ed Asner, star of Lou Grant.
