Lovable Lou Grant was an inspiration
Spring Brook Distillery a find in Queensbury
The Front Page
Morning Update
Monday, August 30, 2021
By Ken Tingley
For those reporters and editors of a certain retirement age, Lou Grant was our first role model.
He was our first experience with reporting and editing, the pressure of deadlines and the inner workings of a newsroom, first at WJM-TV in Minneapolis on the “Mary Tyler Moore Show” (1970-77) and later as city editor of the Los Angeles Tribune on “Lou Grant.”
Ed Asher became the prototypical editor. He was so convincing as that crusty old editor opposite Mary Tyler Moore, he was immediately recast in his own starring vehicle when the Mary Tyler Moore show concluded.
Those of us who later became editors secretly aspired to be Ed Asner’s incarnation. We longed to tell some young cub reporter, “You have spunk. … I hate spunk.” But few of us every had the insight or opportunity to deliver that line.
It was how we believed editors should be - high in moral character, short in patience and always with a heart.
There were few television shows that ever successfully portrayed newsrooms and the journalism they did lithe way “Lou Grant” did. It ran from 1977 to 1982 and tackled big, important issues that are often hard to explain and difficult to report. Just like real newspapers.
I was 20 years old and in my second year of college when “Lou Grant” premiered. I fell in love with the show and the difficult star reporter, Joe Rossi. I related more to Rossi than Lou. By the time it went off the air, I had already worked in four different newspaper newsrooms.
The show stirred something in me about righting wrongs and getting at the truth that always stuck with me. I suppose “All the President’s Men” finished the job a couple years later when I saw the Woodward and Bernstein movie as a senior in college.
The reporters and editors of my generation instantly knew who Lou Grant was. He was more than a TV character, he was something to aspire to and we all knew the “I hate spunk” line.
Ed Asner died over the weekend at the age of 91 and I suspect more than one old journalist shed a tear. Asner had a long and distinctive acting career with many amazing performances.
But he will always be Lou Grant to me.
-30-
Lifting our spirits
Some friends were visiting us this weekend and we were looking for something to do on a cloudy Sunday.
One of the great things about living in this region is that if you take the time to look a little bit, you can often be pleasantly surprised by what you find.
My wife suggested a visit to Spring Brook distillery after tasting some of their limoncello at the recent LARAC craft festival in Glens Falls.
Just off Ridge Road in Queensbury, the distillery was quiet on Sunday afternoon, but we came away with some delicious spirits for the winter ahead.
We also found a business that has gradually grown over the past six years and is planning on expanding further in the year ahead.
More on the book
The Last American Editor seems to be holding its own on Amazon.com. My publisher reported to me Sunday night that the book was sixth in the journalism writing reference category and 13th in journalism biographies.
You can buy the book on amazon.com or the Something or Other Publishing website.
LOVED Lou Grant. Didn’t he appear in G.F. one time? I think I got to see him in person!