Original subtitles

Who can turn the world on with her smile?

Who can take a nothing day and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile?

Well, it's you, girl, and you should know it.

With each glance and every little movement you show it, love is all alone,

need to wait. You can never tell, why don't you take it? You're gonna

make it after all.

You're gonna make it after...

I have to make a personal call.

What's the matter with the phone in your dressing room? I think it's tapped.

Who would tap Ted's phone?

Maybe the FBI needs a few laughs.

Mary, you didn't let somebody into my office, did you?

Mr. Grant, I am the associate producer.

I'm just a little too busy.

If Grant starts shouting at me because I let Ted in his office, I am going to

just scream.

Don't let him.

Right.

You see the sign on that door? It says Lou Grant, not rec room. Mr. Grant, I am

the associate producer here. I mean, I don't mind typing your personal letters

and getting you coffee or straightening your desk.

But if you want somebody to keep Ted...

Fired?

Worse. I've been promoted.

Promoted? Well, that's wonderful.

To what?

Program manager.

Murphy just quit.

It's a big move up for me and a lot more money.

Oh, Mr.

Grant, I'm just so very happy for you.

Uh, Mr. Grant, why aren't you happy for you?

I'd be happy for me with that money.

sure you'd be very good in that job.

Maybe. But up there, I'm really going to have to work at being good. Yeah, I

think I know what you mean. Down here, you were good without even working.

At it.

It isn't going to be easy, Mary.

For example, my first job is naming my replacement here.

Oh, yeah, that's right. The new you.

Well, will it be anybody I know? Well, sure.

You'll be glad to know that my new policy as program manager is to...

Promote from within.

Oh, well, Mr. Grant, I just want to say that I don't want the job.

I didn't offer it to you, Mary.

I'm considering everybody.

Good, good, good, because there are so many really capable people from, you

know, within who are capable of handling the job. Like who?

I want you to think that I thought that you, you know, were in any way

considered.

Nobody is second in command.

Of course, I do seem like the logical person, don't I? Of course you are. But,

Mary, this isn't just you reaching for the next plateau. It's us.

Well, what if us does a rotten job and gets us all fired? Exactly.

Wait, Rhoda, I don't think I'd do a rotten job and get myself fired. I just

don't know if being the head of a newsroom is a woman's job.

There you go.

Woman's job, man's job, there's no... such thing.

Name one job a man can handle that a woman can't. A female impersonator.

Hopeless.

Rhoda, you think I should go after the job?

Mary, I think you ought to go after a handsome, successful guy. Get married,

pregnant, and then blame him when you don't have a career.

suggested I get it for her for her birthday.

Fast Wheels Drag Strip for a girl. Girl, boy, what difference does it make?

Girls are always supposed to get little girl toys.

Dolls, play stoves, little dishes.

It's all part of the plot to launch them nicely into their little roles as

housewives. That's where I went wrong.

Yeah, Mia, when I was a kid, we used to play Mommy and Daddy. I always played

Mommy's...

thing together.

Oh, don't look at me.

I was one of those cute little girls who always got dolls to play with.

That's right. I admit it.

That's me, victim of the system, Miss Helpless.

But Mary, you don't have to be. This is your chance.

Go after that job, Mary. Take the pieces of your life and put them together.

Phyllis, um, tell me, when she gets her life together, will she need batteries?

job is going to mean coming in early, staying late, working straight through

lunch hours, taking care of a million details, keeping the sponsors happy,

working late. It's exactly what I do now.

You know, about the job.

My job?

That's the one. Well, you'll be glad to know that you didn't get it.

You're not glad.

Well, no, it's just, you see, that I kind of decided that I wanted it after

Oh.

Mr.

Fanta, the fact that I said I didn't want it influenced your decision?

No.

Why wasn't I a great choice?

Does it have anything to do with my ability?

No, are you kidding?

It's not because I'm a woman.

114 times, Ted. I kept track.

No kidding?

Why would you want to keep track?

I don't know.

I just thought that maybe someday I might get to be news director.

Here, let me help you with that.

See, maybe I can take you to lunch today, Murray.

Say, Murray.

It still says Lou Grant here.

You're going to have to get yourself a new door.

You sure?

This is a table. Well, Mr. Grant, that's all we've got.

It's the uncluttered look.

Maybe, but when I dump everything in here on top of there, it's going to look

cluttered.

Well, I can order another desk for you, Mr. Grant, with drawers.

No, that's okay.

Well, anyway, you've got lots of cabinet space.

I'll just put everything away for you. Almost everything. I like to keep this

close by.

Right here in my...

get you one right away.

Don't want Murray to get mad at me.

Listen,

if you need anything, you know my extension, right?

You're right.

I'm free.

50.

And that's it.

Oh, good.

That's it?

Oh.

My creative movement class.

We used to finish with things like...

So for that, I...

what you're going to say. So do I. Goodbye, Mary.

Hey, Rhoda. What?

Where are you going?

Oh, I thought I'd, you know, hang around the ballerina union hall. See if I can

keep up with you.

How can they do this to us?

Phyllis, I'm the one who didn't get the job.

But Mary, don't you see that this affront to you is an affront to all

I know.

you're just going to take this humiliation. To tell you the truth, I am

delighted that Murray has the job instead of me. Oh, Mary. I mean it.

Mr. Grant made the whole thing look so easy.

Poor Murray already. He's overworked and pressured. The poor man's absolutely

miserable. Yes, and it's always a man who gets those opportunities.

Phyllis, I don't want the job. Mary, we have to decide on a course of action for

you. I've got to get through to you.

I'm free.

Hello?

Oh, hi.

Well, it was really wonderful.

No, really, it was a wonderful evening.

Well, listen,

it's kind of hard to talk right now.

Oh, you go right ahead. We can discuss this later.

I'll put you down for that.

Okay? We'll confirm.

Lunch. That's all I do on this job is go to lunch.

You know what I have to do when I go on all these lunches? I have to eat lunch.

What about a drink, Murray?

Thanks, I could use one. What are you drinking, Mary?

Oh, I'll have a Mai Tai, unless you're out of gardenias.

Good to see you guys.

Somebody put waste paper in my waste paper basket.

Oh, I think I know what you mean. I found that and I put it in the bar.

Oh, good.

Good. Mrs.

Thorne, tomorrow maybe we could move my desk.

the news itself.

The whole format.

It lacks sparkle.

Sparkle? Lou, it's the same format we had last week when you were there.

The same one we had for the past eight years. That's just the point. It still

has my imprint on it. I want to see your imprint.

Imprint? Yeah, let me show you what I've been doing here. I don't even know what

my imprint is.

way we beat him to the punch and get a whole new audience. How does that sound?

Terrific. That way we can all get home an hour earlier.

You know, my wife was always complaining... Mr. Grant, it's so great

How come nobody ever thought of it before? Somebody did.

Oh, who?

Me.

But that's when I was down there and couldn't do anything about it.

Now, I'm up here.

And I can do something.

He has lots of ideas. Great, great ideas. In fact, we were talking about

just today.

Like what?

You know.

Which one?

Well, any one. They're all good.

Oh, well, here's one that we sort of like.

Now, look, the news is really like a newspaper, you know. I mean, you got the

hard news, you got sports and features.

But the one thing we don't...

That wasn't the good one that I was thinking about.

What one was it?

You know.

No, I don't know, Mary.

Mary, the film clips?

The rear projection?

Oh, no, I didn't like that one. Mary, you did. You loved it. No, I didn't like

it. Mary, don't you remember both of them? Mary, I said I didn't like that

Now, look, Lou, here's something just off the top of my head.

Now, I heard about this new show they have in L .A.

where the anchorman works in front of a large...

Near the end of the show, they could ask Ted questions, and he could... Forget

it, Lou. It's a lousy idea.

Murray, you misunderstood me.

I didn't mean you had to leave your imprint right...

I'm sorry. I forgot. I've got this important meeting.

Oh, that's all right.

Mary!

want me to sit behind my desk and look like a program manager.

Take the money and smile.

That's not me, Mary.

No, sir, it certainly isn't. I don't mind taking the money, but that smiling

killing me.

I had to smile through everything.

Remember that meeting with Chuckles the Clown the other day? Yes.

We were smiling at each other all the way through it.

Then I realized that his smile...

to do something up there. What's that?

I got him to fire me.

Terrific. Then I got him to give me my old job back.

Terrific.

I think you're the best program manager the station ever had.

They'll never see my like again.

Grant, I made you a nice fresh cup of coffee, and can I get your signatures

there? Thanks, Mary.

You know, I like what that job up there could have been, but I miss being down

here. I missed your coffee. I missed the pressure and the deadlines. I

especially missed my lower drawer.

Murr, you're Lou.

What are you doing in Murr's office, Lou?