The Shame of the Cities

Lou yearns for the excitement of old when he was an investigative journalist so Mary encourages him to seek out a story. Lou investigates a local politician, but is disappointed to find no dirt on him at all. Mary convinces him to put together a documentary of the squeaky clean politician anyway.

Well done newsroom episode with a nice appearance from Sheree North as Lou's girlfriend Charlene. It is a fairly standard episode and Mary has the funniest bits - especially the fantastic final act.

James Jeter whose brutish visage added to the sense of menace in cult film Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) appears briefly as a skeptical bar patron.

Nothing particularly remarkable about this episode but its amplified a bit by a couple of stand out moments.

The episode focuses on Lou trying to get back out onto the reporting field. He spends most of the episode focused on trying to get any smidgen of dirt on the cleanest politician in the world. All for the sake of making a documentary. The whole episode comes together at the finale bar scene where their last minute happy-go-lucky documentary is unveiled (to a quickly dwindling audience).

The drunk conversation afterwards between Mary and Lou is something to behold. Best/saddest part of this episode is that this is the last we see of Charlene. I would have loved to see her as a series regular. Especially since after Rhoda left the show has a much heavier focus on the male cast. Georgette and Sue Ann are great but they aren't there enough (well, sometimes Sue Ann is there too much).

Lou is depressed. He is in a rut at the station. He longs for the good old days in Detroit when he went up against gangsters and thugs to report the news. Mary suggests that he find some graft or illegal activities in Minneapolis and do some hard news on it. He picks a politician that he suspects has been double dealing. Unfortunately, he is so squeaky clean as to be unbelievable. So Mary figures they should make their documentary on him as an honest, kind, upstanding citizen, a pillar of politics. Of course, it's a disaster. Watch it unravel. Really good last scene where Mary gets snockered.