Lou Grant

You could put J.L. "Fat Man" McCabe (of Jake and the Fat Man fame) in there and have Conrad race against himself ...

 

When on the Mary Tyler Moore show his newspaper journalism career was referenced numerous times...he started out young as a copy boy and worked at papers in Detroit, San Fran and Minneapolis. He repeatedly references the newspaper background as being "real" journalism, while he's heading up the struggling WJM news.

That actually makes a good transition working on a comedy for a struggling TV shows, which ends with him getting fired, then moving back into newspapers where he excels at a major daily. Great writing done on both shows...I've started to notice some of the same names in the credits for both shows...notably writer David Lloyd.

 

Oh, okay. See, I knew who most of the people were on Mary Tyler Moore, but I didn't actually pay attention to the storylines or anything. I think I was seven when it went off the air and for whatever reason the reruns didn't get shown often on stations where I live.

 

unlucky for you Double J...I must be about the same age...but have fond memories watching TVLand reruns of Mary Tyler Moore with my mom on late nights while in high school

 

Yeah, that would have been cool. Unfortunately, TV Land didn't come to Canada until about 10 years ago, and I don't think I ever saw MTM on its list of offerings. Poo.

 

Speaking of writing ... many episodes were written by Charles Einstein, who covered baseball for the SF Chronicle and Examiner in the 1960, but before that worked for the old INS in New York. He also wrote a book about Willie Mays, "Willie's Time." His half-brother was actor Albert Brooks, who may be more familiar to some of you as "Super Dave" Osborne.

 

Bob Einstein, Albert's brother, is "Super Dave" Osborne.

 

Lou Grant was the news director at WJM-Minneapolis, entering TV after a career working at newspapers in Detroit and other papers throughout the Midwest. At one of his stops, he worked with Charlie Hume, who later would go on to become managing editor of the L.A. Tribune. When Lou found himself out of work, after WJM's new owners fired everyone except anchorman Ted Baxter, called his old friend Charlie to see if he knew of any job openings in the "serious" world of newspaper journalism. </LouGrantGeekMode>

But, yes, it's pretty impressive how a half-hour sitcom character made a great transition to hourlong drama.



Wrote this before I realized Flexmaster also responded with the same info.

 

Lou had a great career. Of course, there was that story about the Japanese bombing San Diego ...

 

Bob Einstein, a different half-brother, is actually "Super Dave" Osborne. Albert Brooks (birthname Albert Einstein) is also famous, though, as an actor (the excellent Broadcast News, for instance) and writer/director (the brilliant-but-now-somewhat-underrated Lost in America, for instance).

 

Enjoyed the program when I saw it. Problem was it seemed to be up against MNF.

Seems like Walden has disappeared. Recall him playing Segretti and in LG, but not anything else. Thought he was a damn solid actor. Big hockey fan, IIRC.

 

@ Hack...great minds think alike

@ Liut ... when I get obsessed with something like this I always check out the cast on IMDB...Walden has done a series of guest-type spots on TV over the years, but few main characters...here's his link...

IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0907107/

and images...
http://www.google.com/search?q=Robert+Walden&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=Mkl&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&prmd=imvnso&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=VrqlTta5D-aUiQLLi7Fo&ved=0CEwQsAQ&biw=977&bih=695

He's my favorite character on the show.