LOU GRANT: GHOSTS (TV)
Summary
One in this series of dramas, a spinoff of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," about a Los Angeles newspaper, its staff, and city editor Lou Grant.
In this episode, a group of teens hold a séance in a seemingly abandoned house and quickly flee the scene when its soon-to-be-ex-inhabitants, feuding married couple Howard and Constance Kraft, arrive unexpectedly. Young Emily, unable to escape unseen, hides in the house and is shocked when Constance falls over the second-floor balcony to her death. With Howard's guilt looking certain, Billie is sent to cover the "open and shut" homicide story. However, Sergeant Roche tells her that the house has long been considered to be haunted. Billie spots an odd plastic object on the ground and sees the teens running away; she later learns that the house has had many short-term inhabitants, all of whom experienced strange sounds and sensations, ever since the unsolved murder of a child a decade earlier.
Charlie explains that his wife, Marion, sometimes predicts the future with her "uncanny" dreams, and Billie questions Felix Cunningham, the well-known defense attorney hired by Howard. Felix states that he intends to create reasonable doubt of Howard's guilt by highlighting the many suggestions of supernatural power in the house, noting that Constance, whose sister Josephine claims to be a psychic, also believed the place to be haunted. The staffers debate the existence of spirits, and Billie eventually realizes that the object she found is a Ouija board planchette, meaning that the teens were likely inside the house around the time of Constance's death. She tracks down young Danny and Walter, who inadvertently reveal that Felix intends to call them as witnesses to the house's supernatural qualities; at Constance's funeral, Billie asks Howard about his questionable "poltergeist defense." Howard states that while he, too, is skeptical about the afterlife, he can see no other explanation, as he himself did not push his wife to her death. Josephine tells Billie that she intends to hold a séance in the house with the help of the renowned Dr. Lucille Haas; elsewhere, Lou is annoyed to find that he has been pick-pocketed, resulting in his wallet's disappearance. Lucille tells Billie that she has not witnessed apparitions herself and merely wishes to conduct research into such "way-out theories," and Mrs. Pynchon, doubtful about turning Constance's tragic death into an "amusing" story, tells Charlie that she had a strange out-of-body spiritual experience during her stroke, though he dismisses it as a mere trick of neurons.
Billie watches as precautions are put in place to prevent any human trickery during the séance, and she is shocked when Lucille and Josephine call upon the spirit world and a book flies from the shelf on its own. Animal takes time-lapse photos of the house and is baffled to spot a ghostly figure at the window, and Marion advises Lou to "look in the trash" for his missing wallet. She also warns Charlie that the office "new man" is in danger, and they wonder if she means Billie "Newman"; Billie herself receives a call from Josephine, who explains that the spirit of the murdered child is still trapped in the house. At the same time, Sergeant Roche tracks down Emily, who finally admits to witnessing Constance's death and overhearing the couple's fight about Howard's affair – with Josephine. Back at the house, Billie arrives to help Josephine "set free" the child's spirit, and they find an eerie child's doll hidden in the basement. Later, Billie tells the others about Emily's dramatic testimony in which she revealed the affair, suggesting that Howard has been guilty all along, though notes that the house no longer appears haunted after the doll's removal. Lou learns that his wallet has indeed been found in the garbage in San Francisco, and Animal continues studying the strange photos. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: CBS
- DATE: January 11, 1982 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:49:10
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:66317
- GENRE: Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama; Reporters and reporting; Halloween; Spirits; Murder
- SERIES RUN: CBS - TV series, 1977-1982
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Gene Reynolds … Executive Producer, Created by
- Seth Freeman … Producer
- Michael Vittes … Associate Producer
- Roger Young … Director
- Leon Tokatyan … Developed by
- Allan Burns … Created by
- James L. Brooks … Created by
- April Smith … Writer
- Patrick Williams … Music by
- Edward Asner … Cast, Lou Grant
- Robert Walden … Cast, Joe Rossi
- Linda Kelsey … Cast, Billie Newman
- Mason Adams … Cast, Charlie Hume
- Jack Bannon … Cast, Art Donovan
- Daryl Anderson … Cast, Dennis "Animal" Price
- Nancy Marchand … Cast, Mrs. Pynchon
- Jacqueline Brooks … Cast, Dr. Lucille Haas
- Milton Selzer … Cast, Felix Cunningham
- Penelope Windust … Cast, Josephine Bowers
- Lionel Smith … Cast, Sergeant Roche
- Peter Maloney … Cast, Alex Conrad
- Paul Comi … Cast, Howard Kraft
- Pat Finley … Cast, Constance Kraft
- Ellen Blake … Cast, Rose Racine
- Jane Davis … Cast, Emily
- Jim Calvert … Cast, Walter
- Mark Wellman … Cast, Danny
- Barbara Jane Edelman … Cast, Laura
- Anita Jesse … Cast, Emily's Mom
- Deirdre Hepburn … Cast, Teenager