That handmade Daddy coffee mug was the detail I remember most in this episode. Makes you realize that objects you may think are trivial have tons of sentimental value.
it was nice that they gave Mrs. Pynchon a bit more to do here, placing her in the vicinity of the fire, making her a part of the story, rather than just calling Charlie and Lou from her office and making a few snarky comments, as is usually the case.
This episode really spells out how dangerous the combination of Santa Ana winds and dry weather really are. Decades have passed and we still have tragedies like Paradise, California.
Seeing Animal driving around with his mobile radio phone reminded me how different the script would have been if it had been written in our digital era.
I was in my 20's when Lou Grant was on prime time. I was entranced with the pictures and the people who worked there. I never got beyond weekly suburban weeklies but I did write some good stories that ran with my own photos. I was as proud as if Imy work had landed on the front page of The New York Times.
I saw this when it originally aired when I was a kid. For some reason it has stuck out in my mind more than any other episode.. I think I just figured out why..
This episode's superb script won an Emmy nomination for its writers: Allan Burns and Gene Reynolds. Patrick Williams' scoring is right on the money throughout. All aspiring writers, please take note of the scene details and embellishments around 34:20. See if you can pick out the details that signify this as the work of a good writer. Sadly, even if you do pick them out and it is typical of your work, today's TV still probably won't pay you more than $50 as that seems to be the max budget for scripts these days. Looking at what passes for writing on TV these days, that's probably being generous.
@@mchobbit2951 We are definitely devolving. I was almost sucked into the Chicago Fire series a few years ago, but I could see after 9-10 episodes that it wasn't going to have an ending, and tuned in to watching Colombo on one of the "retro" channels instead. Luckily for me that I wasn't a NBC Mystery Theater viewer back in the 70's so all the episodes were all new to me! And there is no comparison between those two shows as far as craft...no comparison! Fugit about it...
@@mchobbit2951 I know what you mean. I do like a lot of modern television, but I've gotten so tired of how seemingly every show has to have a single, serialized storyline that spans an entire season. Whatever happened to episodic, done-in-one stories?
@@martinspencer5283 I do watch Netflix and prime, but the "new episode every week then summer off" format with the cliffhanger that we all know will be resolved in the first 10 minutes of the new season is dead to me. I'm also over everyone being a doctor, lawyer or cop so I'm mostly limited to horror and some thriller/historical content. There have been a few episodic horror shows in recent years, but not the revival of the episodic I was hoping for. When I am feeling like just chilling in front of the TV for 20 to 60 minutes I still turn to Lou Grant, the Twilight Zone and the like, knowing that there is no "mystery" encouraging me to binge or tune in again in a week.
Something I never understood was using such flammable materials for roofing Shingles made from tar and tar paper underneath, wooden shingles, materials that are just looking for trouble. Everyone of those homes could have been saved by using slate, Spanish tiles or aluminium. Charlies home was beautiful, with a cheapo asphalt shingle roof. I'm sure that even insurance companies gave discounts for good roofing, it's just crazy.
You need to put your mind in what the world was like in 1980 which I understand is very hard to do. It takes a lot of research but a lot of houses, probably a good portion of them was asbestos filled as insulation (today we use fiberglass and foam to insulate our homes). Asbestos is a huge fire retardant but causes mesothelioma, a cancer only found to be caused by asbestos. New construction was banned from using the cancer causing material sometime in the 1970s but existing construction had no mandate to remove the insulation and I don't know if it ever was.
You make great points; California home building codes have changed to address just that issue (especially for homes built in high brush, vegetation areas). Unfortunately, there’s evidence now that even the most flame-resistant homes are still burning! Fire 🔥 is incredibly powerful. “New California laws build on research into wildfire-resistant construction” www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/article/industrynews/new-california-laws-build-on-research-into-wildfire-resistant-construction/
FIRES IN CALIFORNIA had been always a big thing when the big fire in the Ninties has happened in the East Bay Tunnel lots of people had suffocated there. Because of saving measures they did not had enough vehicles with the fire dept. in those days. Still remember the newspaperphotos in the Chronicle the complete resident area there had been practically destroyed by the fire It almost destroyed the Berkley University as well but somehow the wildfire had been stopped before that hapd happened.
Best way to get to sleep on very hot nights is to soak the top sheet in water and then put it over you. It will have evaporated by morning but will certainly get you to sleep. As a SoCal native, I am really impress how they really captured what it is like to live in a Southern California wildfire scenario. Only fire I was close to was a fire in the Malibu hills around 1997 or so. I was 17 at that time. I was crossing the Santa Ana riverbed via bridge from Huntington Beach to Costa Mesa after dark and I could see it off in the distance. Fires didn't really happen in my town but in the hills but just seeing it kept me up all night. These gag at 16:08 was cleverly put in as a nod to another series in the MTM universe Rhoda. Rhoda often had one of her kinfolk (mother, father, or sister) in the place of work and Jack, her boss, often would yell out Morganstern and the wrong one would answer. Rest of the story is exampled in this scene. 23:15 The great Kurtwood Smith aka Reginald "RED" Foreman from that 70s Show. When in a fire, weather it is a brush fire or house fire, after family (and pets), pictures is the only thing you take with you. The best thing to do is now, gather up all of your pictures and put them in a metal box that latches (if you can, locks too) near your door with a handle on it. Everything else can be replaced.
95 degrees is too hot for those Californians, they wilt. But I come from Vegas and 95 in the summer is a low temperature. We are used too 100 days of temperatures over 100. Many days go to 110 degrees easy. 95 is nothing
So.... No one in SoCal had air conditioning in the 70s? Oh, and there was a factual error in the episode "Nightside" (the mention of the Santa Ana's made me think of it). The character Hal mentioned "The Santa Anas are easterly, they die when they hit the water". Not only incorrect, it's actually the opposite. The SAs get a stronger once they get off shore and don't have to contend with friction from the land. Can really stir up the out bound current and cause havoc on east side island shores.
A lot of homes in California in general, didn't have A/C for a few reasons. I lived in several houses in different parts of SoCal from birth to 1970, and none of them had A/C. And I know several people that had it... but didn't use it, because of the added electricity cost, and then of course in the 70s there was also the energy crisis, and the admonishment to the public to conserve. I'm with you, as far as just turn on the air!, but back in those days a lot of Californians were just tough and used to burning up even in their cars. As far as the winds; whatever you want to call them, the wind blew in from the warmer "Inland Empire" and "High Desert" areas and that's what the episode is referring to.
Yes, there was. However, during the late '70's, when this episode originally aired, we recognized and appreciated that we were also in the middle of the energy crisis. Consequently, even though air conditioning was used, it was relatively limited in the interest of conservation and keeping the power bill as low as possible.
While watching this episode in reruns, I realized how TV and the internet made newspapers basically obsolete. What sense is there in reporting fires after the burning's over? The immediacy of reporting news made newsprint redundant.
The BUSHFIRE episode also was great watched it several times by now but never got old - it was done so well. I like how the scirpst mix CATASTROPHIES of different kinds intelligentliy together here the wildfire - there the devorce of a liftime´s marriage
23:51 IHAVE PHOTOS I WISHED THE TRIBUNE WAS PPRINTED IN COLOURS - I grew up with newspapers having black&white printed pictures, never liked clour photos in newspapes . I think them to ordinary them untill this day.
It's always been one of my favorite "Lou Grant" episodes. The main story abut the fire is very dramatic and suspenseful, and then the secondary story about Charlie and his wife is also great.
That handmade Daddy coffee mug was the detail I remember most in this episode. Makes you realize that objects you may think are trivial have tons of sentimental value.
i was ajust a YOUNG kid when it was on, but even now i find it better than most other TV out there. You really think about things when you watch it
WOW! Ed Asher had a really killer physique even though he was past his prime here. He still was built like a bull.
He was definitely heavier in his MTM days.
@@1locust1 yep! On the show premiere, that’s one of the things people he encountered state: that he had definitely trimmed down.
Excellent episode.
it was nice that they gave Mrs. Pynchon a bit more to do here, placing her in the vicinity of the fire, making her a part of the story, rather than just calling Charlie and Lou from her office and making a few snarky comments, as is usually the case.
This episode really spells out how dangerous the combination of Santa Ana winds and dry weather really are. Decades have passed and we still have tragedies like Paradise, California.
But , hey at least Nestlé gets their water bottled .
yeah and now they come up with new words like climate change, but if they would take care of the ground in the area..
Seeing Animal driving around with his mobile radio phone reminded me how different the script would have been if it had been written in our digital era.
And probably just as bad as the crap on today
From Room 222 to MASH and Lou Grant, Gene Reynolds has always been in great TV.
I was in my 20's when Lou Grant was on prime time. I was entranced with the pictures and the people who worked there. I never got beyond weekly suburban weeklies but I did write some good stories that ran with my own photos. I was as proud as if Imy work had landed on the front page of The New York Times.
A young Red Foreman/Kurtwood Smith at the 23:19 mark.
I saw this when it originally aired when I was a kid. For some reason it has stuck out in my mind more than any other episode..
I think I just figured out why..
This episode's superb script won an Emmy nomination for its writers: Allan Burns and Gene Reynolds. Patrick Williams' scoring is right on the money throughout. All aspiring writers, please take note of the scene details and embellishments around 34:20. See if you can pick out the details that signify this as the work of a good writer. Sadly, even if you do pick them out and it is typical of your work, today's TV still probably won't pay you more than $50 as that seems to be the max budget for scripts these days. Looking at what passes for writing on TV these days, that's probably being generous.
+SallySallySallySally Excellent episode for Sure, many endearing scenes.
SallySallySallySally - Really only 50 bucks for a TV script? Looks like a pittance!
@@mchobbit2951
We are definitely devolving.
I was almost sucked into the Chicago Fire series a few years ago, but I could see after 9-10 episodes that it wasn't going to have an ending, and tuned in to watching Colombo on one of the "retro" channels instead.
Luckily for me that I wasn't a NBC Mystery Theater viewer back in the 70's so all the episodes were all new to me! And there is no comparison between those two shows as far as craft...no comparison! Fugit about it...
@@mchobbit2951 I know what you mean.
I do like a lot of modern television, but I've gotten so tired of how seemingly every show has to have a single, serialized storyline that spans an entire season. Whatever happened to episodic, done-in-one stories?
@@martinspencer5283 I do watch Netflix and prime, but the "new episode every week then summer off" format with the cliffhanger that we all know will be resolved in the first 10 minutes of the new season is dead to me. I'm also over everyone being a doctor, lawyer or cop so I'm mostly limited to horror and some thriller/historical content. There have been a few episodic horror shows in recent years, but not the revival of the episodic I was hoping for.
When I am feeling like just chilling in front of the TV for 20 to 60 minutes I still turn to Lou Grant, the Twilight Zone and the like, knowing that there is no "mystery" encouraging me to binge or tune in again in a week.
Something I never understood was using such flammable materials for roofing Shingles made from tar and tar paper underneath, wooden shingles, materials that are just looking for trouble. Everyone of those homes could have been saved by using slate, Spanish tiles or aluminium. Charlies home was beautiful, with a cheapo asphalt shingle roof. I'm sure that even insurance companies gave discounts for good roofing, it's just crazy.
You need to put your mind in what the world was like in 1980 which I understand is very hard to do. It takes a lot of research but a lot of houses, probably a good portion of them was asbestos filled as insulation (today we use fiberglass and foam to insulate our homes). Asbestos is a huge fire retardant but causes mesothelioma, a cancer only found to be caused by asbestos. New construction was banned from using the cancer causing material sometime in the 1970s but existing construction had no mandate to remove the insulation and I don't know if it ever was.
You make great points; California home building codes have changed to address just that issue (especially for homes built in high brush, vegetation areas). Unfortunately, there’s evidence now that even the most flame-resistant homes are still burning! Fire 🔥 is incredibly powerful.
“New California laws build on research into wildfire-resistant construction”
www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/article/industrynews/new-california-laws-build-on-research-into-wildfire-resistant-construction/
FIRES IN CALIFORNIA had been always a big thing when the big fire in the Ninties has happened in the East Bay Tunnel lots of people had suffocated there. Because of saving measures they did not had enough vehicles with the fire dept. in those days. Still remember the newspaperphotos in the Chronicle the complete resident area there had been practically destroyed by the fire It almost destroyed the Berkley University as well but somehow the wildfire had been stopped before that hapd happened.
Cheapo isn't so cheap
95° and 5% humidity? Try even hotter with 95% humidity. Thats usually our summer in North Carolina. 🤕😰😢
The point that wooshed over your head is that the dry air fuels the fire.
Best way to get to sleep on very hot nights is to soak the top sheet in water and then put it over you. It will have evaporated by morning but will certainly get you to sleep. As a SoCal native, I am really impress how they really captured what it is like to live in a Southern California wildfire scenario. Only fire I was close to was a fire in the Malibu hills around 1997 or so. I was 17 at that time. I was crossing the Santa Ana riverbed via bridge from Huntington Beach to Costa Mesa after dark and I could see it off in the distance. Fires didn't really happen in my town but in the hills but just seeing it kept me up all night. These gag at 16:08 was cleverly put in as a nod to another series in the MTM universe Rhoda. Rhoda often had one of her kinfolk (mother, father, or sister) in the place of work and Jack, her boss, often would yell out Morganstern and the wrong one would answer. Rest of the story is exampled in this scene. 23:15 The great Kurtwood Smith aka Reginald "RED" Foreman from that 70s Show. When in a fire, weather it is a brush fire or house fire, after family (and pets), pictures is the only thing you take with you. The best thing to do is now, gather up all of your pictures and put them in a metal box that latches (if you can, locks too) near your door with a handle on it. Everything else can be replaced.
95 degrees is too hot for those Californians, they wilt. But I come from Vegas and 95 in the summer is a low temperature. We are used too 100 days of temperatures over 100. Many days go to 110 degrees easy. 95 is nothing
So.... No one in SoCal had air conditioning in the 70s?
Oh, and there was a factual error in the episode "Nightside" (the mention of the Santa Ana's made me think of it). The character Hal mentioned "The Santa Anas are easterly, they die when they hit the water". Not only incorrect, it's actually the opposite. The SAs get a stronger once they get off shore and don't have to contend with friction from the land. Can really stir up the out bound current and cause havoc on east side island shores.
A lot of homes in California in general, didn't have A/C for a few reasons.
I lived in several houses in different parts of SoCal from birth to 1970, and none of them had A/C.
And I know several people that had it... but didn't use it, because of the added electricity cost, and then of course in the 70s there was also the energy crisis, and the admonishment to the public to conserve.
I'm with you, as far as just turn on the air!, but back in those days a lot of Californians were just tough and used to burning up even in their cars.
As far as the winds; whatever you want to call them, the wind blew in from the warmer "Inland Empire" and "High Desert" areas and that's what the episode is referring to.
There was such a thing as air conditioning in the seventies.
Yes, there was. However, during the late '70's, when this episode originally aired, we recognized and appreciated that we were also in the middle of the energy crisis. Consequently, even though air conditioning was used, it was relatively limited in the interest of conservation and keeping the power bill as low as possible.
While watching this episode in reruns, I realized how TV and the internet made newspapers basically obsolete. What sense is there in reporting fires after the burning's over? The immediacy of reporting news made newsprint redundant.
Is Charlie's son still with the Hare Krishnas?
Another excellent episode - Mason Adams is particularly good, and Peggy McCay is always interesting.
I loved the Paul Newman jokes. They all landed so perfectly.
So THAT'S where the big orange in GTA V came from (set in a fictional LA).
So many people die going back into a burning house.
Are you sure this is the complete episode?
The ending seemed abrupt and unresolved as far as the whole "firebug" element goes.
The DVD episode never resolved whether he was really the firebug or not.
The BUSHFIRE episode also was great watched it several times by now but never got old - it was done so well. I like how the scirpst mix CATASTROPHIES of different kinds intelligentliy together here the wildfire - there the devorce of a liftime´s marriage
23:51 IHAVE PHOTOS I WISHED THE TRIBUNE WAS PPRINTED IN COLOURS - I grew up with newspapers having black&white printed pictures, never liked clour photos in newspapes . I think them to ordinary them untill this day.
It's always been one of my favorite "Lou Grant" episodes. The main story abut the fire is very dramatic and suspenseful, and then the secondary story about Charlie and his wife is also great.
Billie is obnoxious in this episode. Nothing new there.