Lou Grant - Season 5 (1981)

When Lou goes back to his home to settle his elderly aunt's estate, he meets an old flame and gets his first story assignment in years from Charlie.

Sharon McNeil gets a story about child pornography by promising not to reveal the names of her source. A promise her superiors at the Trib and the L.A. police department soon want her to break. Art goes out on a helicopter jump with some volunteer rescuers and young reporter Lance has big dreams involving dating Billie and becoming the first newsman in space.

Billie suspects the gold cross found in a time capsule has been switched for a fake. Her investigations unearth the reasons behind an old family feud between the extremely rich side and the less rich side of the Matheson family.

Charlie's nephew Scott comes to stay with him, and turns out to have a mental condition. But the young man refuses to take his medication. The staff is busy tracking an escaped zoo bear called Ziggy.

When his lawyer friend Burton Cary becomes a political candidate, Rossi finds learns he's not as clean-cut as he thought. Meanwhile the entire staff becomes a bit suspicious of Art after an argument with Jerry Hollister leads to the latter suing Art as well as the Tribune.

Rossi runs into a bass player that used to be in the famous Sonny Goodwin Quartet and sets about reuniting the four of them. Tribute reporters Crosley and Banks split up when Banks retires and Crosley soon falls behind on his assignment. This leads Lou to team him up with Billie.

Billie investigates the death of a woman in a house that is said to be haunted. This leads her to attend a séance and search out the owners of a Ouija board.

A stick-up at a Mr. Ginty's fast-food restaurant turns into a hostage situation with a group of birthday party kids. The possible trauma caused by this becomes a big part of the subsequent trial. Billie thinks one mother in particular is telling her son how to react and feel, but when she writes it down Lou finds her story too soft and rewrites it.

Charlie becomes a member of a news council and finds one member who seems to have a grudge against him and the Tribune. Mrs. Pynchon asks Billie to help her write an autobiographical piece but refuses to talk about one important subject: her taking over from her late husbands at the newspaper.

The Tribune hires an old acquaintance of Animal's from 'Nam: photographer Lee Van Tam. But Tam's domestic troubles interfere with his work. Lou tries to get out of meeting visiting relatives.

Rossi makes a bet with that he can get a story from anyone on the street. And the person he chooses is a woman who goes through the garbage who gets used by still viable food. He learns that she's a nun who runs a soup kitchen and feeds indigents. But he shifts the focus of the story to how people in a Third World country are starving which doesn't make the editors happy. And Mrs. Pynchon is instructing the staff to be less wasteful which makes them crazy.

Charlie worries about Mrs. Pynchon's recovery after her stroke. Rossi delves into the Los Angeles archives to find evidence of profits made from land that Japanese-Americans were forced to sell right after Pearl Harbor.

Billie is pulled from an assignment and the plane she was forced to leave crashes with no survivors. She and Lou research the lives of the three reporters for an obituary article. Rossi and Animal are searching for an endangered species of moth.

When one of the paper reporters' father comes to town to perform. It seems he was a folk singer in the 50's and he was blacklisted during the Communists Witch Hunts. They learn that one of the paper's reporters may have been involved with his blacklist.

Lou's kitchen sink is ruined by a plumber. Billie covers some people petitioning against a politician, who are subsequently sued by the object of their scorn.

The Tribune is up for an award, but Lou raises some questions about the sponsor. Billie comes up against her ex-husband while investigating a fireworks bill.

Tensions in the tiny Middle Eastern country Kular awakens the fear of nuclear war into a lot of people. Billie covers the recovery of a burn victim following the crash of a school bus.

Lance stumbles onto a fatal biking accident and the more he learns about it, the more it doesn't seem like an accident any more. Lou is dating interior designer Jessica but finds out she's been keeping a secret from him.

When a story about hostility between surfers only makes the situation worse, the Tribune is blamed. Billie and Ted have bought a house and are warned by a neighbor about a group home next door.

Lou is shot by a robber, who is in turn killed by policeman Vince DeMayo. Both Vince and Lou have a difficult time getting their life back in order.

Charlie lets two incompetent staff members go, but Mrs. Pynchon rehires them. Rossi and Abby plan to move in but find it difficult sharing an assignment. Donovan speculates his stewardess girlfriend may be pregnant. Billie eyes a job in Sacremento but Lou tells Charlie he won't let her go. Secretary Cheryl is after Lance but he is more interested covering a stolen weapons story.