Shout! Factory releasing first season of "Lou Grant"

As a "character", Trapper John left the comedy M*A*S*H and resurfaced in the more modern medical drama, TRAPPER JOHN, MD. Of course the actor changed, but you specified "character".

 

Got Season 4 today, and it looks like Season 5 is being released in May, amazon now has a listing for it. I am truly astounded that this complete series got a release, I really never thought it would happen.

 

"Trapper" John McIntyre (sp?) originated as a comedic character on M*A*S*H, but the spinoff series, "Trapper John, MD" was a drama set in a hospital...

Edited to say: Never mind my post-I see somebody beat me to it (I should have read the thread all the way thru before posting!)

 

Have you watched any of the fourth season episodes yet? If so, do they appear to be complete episodes? Actually, not having bought any of the seasons yet, I should ask if the episodes appear complete/uncut on all of the seasons?

 

Looks like 49 minutes each, I believe that is complete.

 

True - good catch.

 

Unless Shout Factory has finally released ALL of the "Name of the Game" episodes, I'm miffed at them. NoTG was hugely important imo. Easily on par with Judd For the Defense. Two giant, important... now overlooked shows there in the 1968-71 blip.

I never liked the Lou Grant show.. I didn't watch it much but when I caught it...it seemed so f-u-l-l of itself.

Anyway... Name of the Game. All episodes (including the rare Frank Sinatra 2pt episode). Dunno what Shout Factory is waiting for.

 

That was an interesting concept on paper that caused me to watch it a very few times. But I didn't like the show, was waiting for Ed to go back to his Mn version self (didn't hold my breath) and finally decided I didn't like the show anyway.

Other shows that had done pale switcheroos included changing Amos burke from a police chief to a spy.... or getting Mannix out of that 1967-super-high-tech-computer-crime-solving-corporation... and onto the streets as simply a gruff private eye (who beat up and shot about 6 guys every episode and was never arrested).

Would've been cool for MTM to have shown up in a second-incarnation Lou Grant episode as a... I dunno

 

Good news. I watched it when it originally aired. I liked it. Classic show.

 

I was hoping for a Blu-Ray since the show was shot and edited on film.

 

From what I understand, Ed Asner holds the unique achievement of winning an Emmy for both Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series for the same character.

 

It would have been nice, but I am surprised that Fox let anyone put this out at all to be honest. It really seemed like a show they wanted to keep hidden for some reason. (OK, I think there is a reason but I won't go into that here)

 

Pm me I'm curious.

 

I also wouldn't mind knowing boyjohn's reason for thinking they wanted to "hide" the show...

 

Does anyone know if Shout is planning a Lou Grant complete set? I know that eventually that they done it with other shows and a Hart to Hart complete set is coming out.
I've been enjoying Grant on Hulu, but they don't have all of the seasons. I haven't purchased any of the DVDs yet.

 

With their track record of releasing complete series, my guess would be that they'll do it at some point...

 

I had forgotten Lou Grant lasted five seasons. I just remember that it was replaced by Cagney & Lacey in that time slot, a show that I then refused to watch (as if it was their fault Lou Grant had been cancelled!) I also remember having a major crush on Billie.

 

I recently asked Shout and they said they gave up on putting out Name of the Game because they couldn't get copies of all the episodes.

 

The fifth season of LOU GRANT is now scheduled for release March 20, 2018.

Lou Grant DVD news: Announcement for The Complete 5th and Final Season | TVShowsOnDVD.com

 

There was a late-80's series called 'Tattinger's' starring Blythe Danner that went the other way. It was an hour-long drama (with some comedy) set in an upscale restaurant, and somehow morphed into, or was spun-off into, a half-hour comedy. Both versions were pretty short-lived.

 

That is such great news, I have been looking at the other four seasons sitting on my shelf for months wondering if they would ever be joined by the last one.

 

Hulu no like the part of the world I live in . Great news - will certainly check this out. Good show and Ed Anser and everybody else got the shaft when the show was cancelled ....

 

I'll tell you. They're waiting for Universal to either let them borrow the 35mm elements and do transfers for a fraction of Universal's in house costs or for Universal to get off their asses and do the transfers themselves. Until one of those two things happens, both highly unlikely, the show cannot come out. Universal did remaster around 44 shows for Encore back in the 90s, although with music replacements galore. I'm not even sure if those tapes even still exist or if they burned up in the fire. The only existing complete set of 16mm prints is at UCLA but those are in rough shape are were deemed unacceptable. Shout is not going to spend what would be hundreds of thousands of dollars to remaster the show for DVD because that's what it would cost with the astronomical in-house rates that Universal charges.

 

I'm frequently on the lot at Universal. Maybe I'll see if I can navigate to the correct office and become a productive nuisance.

 

Looking at this list of Season Five episodes with their airdates:

Lou Grant (season 5) - Wikipedia

...it had a rather unusual schedule. Still anchoring the Monday 10 PM slot, LOU GRANT didn't premiere in the fall until November. That was likely due to the Writers Guild strike. And then the schedule seemed fairly staggered, preempted almost once or twice a month for the rest of the season. So much so that the 24 episode season wasn't even concluded in late May. There were still two episodes left that ended up being aired in late August and mid-September of 1982.