Lou Grant: Season One

Lou Grant was one of my favorite television shows. I have fond memories of watching it with my family. Memories of certain episodes have stuck with me over the years.I have watched all the episodes in this season one dvd set on my flat screen HD television. The picture quality is very good considering the series started in 1977. When I play it in 4:3 picture mode on my television the picture looks the best but there are bars on the left and right sides of the picture. When I use the “screen to fit” mode on my television the picture appears in full on my television though it is a tiny bit stretched. I have been using the “screen to fit” mode and am happy with picture. The difference is barely noticeable.The episodes play fine. I did not notice any scratches or jumps in the video. The sound is excellent as well. Considering the first episode aired September 27, 1977, Shout! Factory did an excellent job with the transfer.While there is only one cast interview it is with Edward Asner and it runs approximately 26 minutes. As a big fan of the show it was enjoyable hearing Asner talk about the show. I hope future seasons will have interviews with other cast members.The episodes are not broken up into chapters. Some television show series will have an hour story broken up into four chapters making it easier to go to a favorite scene. This would have been a nice feature on the discs.In addition, there are no episode summaries except on the dvd box itself. Before each program there is a preview that was part of the original series but I do wish there was a preview on the discs themselves. I do like the fact that the summaries on the dvd box show the air date of each episode.Lou Grant remains one of my favorite shows ever. The moment the theme song starts I am transported back in time when I was a young teen watching this with my family. The episodes still hold up well and are relevant today.I have watched episodes of other television series that I loved as a teen and the acting and episode plots do not seem as good as I remembered them to be. The acting and plots in Lou grant are as good as ever. Some of my favorites in season one are Judge (where a judge is acting strange in court), Sports (where Lou takes on a legendary sports writer over whether a story should be written) and Renewal (where the Tribune tries to stop the destruction of a condemned building because a troubled man, played by Robert Earl Jones, painted beautiful murals on the walls of his apartment in honor of the family he never had.)I am very happy this series is finally is on dvd. Shout! Factory did an excellent job bringing it to dvd. I look forward to the rest of the seasons.

Mary Tyler Moores' boss left the comedy of tv news for the drama of the printed page, and this series was quality TV. It was made when there were only 3 major stations, so it had to be good. This well-cast show inspired me to combine the characters of "Rossi" the writer and "Animal" the photographer to a wonderful career as a photojournalist.Thank you, Mr Grant. You gave me "spunk," like it or not.Arrived timely and well packaged.

Thanks to Shout! for FINALLY bringing this series to DVD.An extremely well written (but not *over* written, as per certain far more recent tv news dramas) and well performed series looking at journalism and social and political issues in an engaging and easily accessible way. At the some time creating some well-rounded and lovable characters. Not only that, but there is plenty of humour too.To those who haven't seen this series, don't think it's dry and talky. It was an important series in its day, and remains as entertaining now as then.Well done again, Shout!

This is so good. With a few tweeks, it could be a series today. The acting is terrific, the stories are real sounding and each episode stands on its own. The DVD is well done and is sharp and not cluttered up with bonus features that aren't useful.All four seasons now available are good. Can't wait for the fith and final season which I hope comes out soon.

I remembered Lou Grant fondly as being a great show, but watching it again shows that this was an outstanding show. It is surprisingly not as dated as I had expected. Issues that they covered -- spousal abuse, immigration, women's place in the workplace, etc -- are still relevant today. It holds up really well. I will buy all the seasons.

Absolutely wonderful. Ed Asner remains in a class by himself.The lack of captions for the disabled/hearing impaired is inexcusable.

This is a great example of how the whole focus of entertainment used to be different. This is a quality show, with quality production values, great acting, and they obviously had a couple of great writers. You will not be sorry. This is a mature show. I'm so happy we can get these older shows as I am prettymuch incapable of watching the garbage they're pedaling today. Each episode is gold here. Topical, inspirational and engaging.

As advertised

Great show, good quality -- but not outstanding. This material was not been remastered, but is certainly recommended as it is a well-acted show, with very good stories.

This is DVD, not Blu-ray as described on Amazon site. Another disappointment is that there are no subtitles -- being hard of hearing, I depend on these. Having said that, the recording is so good that I was able to follow most of the dialogue. Quite good value.