Lou Grant

Lou Grant is a fictional character played by Ed Asner in two television series produced by MTM Enterprises for CBS. The first was The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970–1977), a half-hour light-hearted situation comedy in which the character was the news director at fictional television station WJM-TV in Minneapolis. A spinoff series, entitled Lou Grant (1977–1982), was an hour-long serious dramatic series that frequently engaged in social commentary, featuring the same character as city editor of the fictional Los Angeles Tribune. Although spin-offs are common on American television, Lou Grant remains one of a very few characters played by the same actor to have a leading role on both a popular comedy and a popular dramatic series.

Although the setting of The Mary Tyler Moore Show might have implied that he was a native

He was a heavy drinker, with a penchant for hiding whole bottles of scotch in his desk drawers.^[15] His personality was outwardly that of a tough loner and a workaholic man's man. The real Lou Grant was somewhat more complicated. He was quick to anger and had a violent streak, at times threatening the barely competent Ted Baxter and once causing him physical injury. However, those who understood him best, like Mary Richards, knew he was also painfully shy, with a particular awkwardness around women. With those few people he trusted, Lou was protective and could at times confide his emotional vulnerability. When he learned that Ted considered him his "best friend", he took pity on him, at least until Ted infuriated him again.

Lou's marriage began to slide as he and Edie both adjusted to life after parenthood. They briefly separated for the first time almost immediately after their youngest daughter got married and left the house.

Professionally, his career with WJM-TV ended in the final episode. Lou, along with Mary, Murray, and Sue Ann Nivens, was fired due to low ratings. Lou's sometime-nemesis, the vacuous Ted Baxter—the real cause for the ratings slide—was retained.^[18]

Lou Grant, a spin-off drama from the comedy show Mary Tyler Moore, opens with Grant relocating to Los Angeles, to work with as City Editor with an old buddy, Charley Hume, who is managing editor of the fictitious Los Angeles Tribune, His subordinates at that time included staff reporters Joe Rossi (Robert Walden); Billie Newman (Linda Kelsey); her predecessor, Carla Mardigian (Rebecca Balding); and photographer Dennis "Animal" Price (Daryl Anderson). His assistant city editor was Art Donovan (Jack Bannon). Charlie Hume was now his boss, who ultimately reported to publisher Margaret Jones Pynchon (Nancy Marchand). They, like those back at WJM, became his family. In the last episode of season one it is revealed that he has just turned 50, a continuity error from The Mary Tyler Moore Show; he would have turned 53 in 1978.^[4] There is one character on Lou Grant, reporter Rosenthal, who is mentioned frequently but never seen.^[19] Lou Grant was cancelled after the star, Ed Asner, publicly protested U.S. interventions into the politics of Latin American countries.^[20]

• During the second season of the Lou Grant series, the Toronto Sun newspaper arranged a series of press conferences, interviews and announcements (with participation from Asner), stating that Lou Grant was joining the Sun as their new senior city editor. Asner (as Grant) ostensibly worked in the newsroom for a day, and the March 23, 1979 issue of the Sun newspaper actually formally named Lou Grant as city editor on their masthead. The publicity stunt concluded with Grant being "fired" from the Sun after one day, allegedly for being "too disruptive to the flow of the newsroom" due to of all the news organizations following him around with cameras.^[21]

• In a 1984 episode of Saturday Night Live, on which Asner was a guest, Lou hired a team of mercenaries to "rescue" Mary Richards after she got stuck in the '70s in syndicated reruns. But Mary refused rescue on the grounds that she never ages and never gains weight, and that people still like her. Mary Richards and the rest of the Mary Tyler Moore Show characters hadn't existed anywhere, except in reruns, for several years. (Lou Grant had been cancelled about 2 years previously.)

• In 1996 the character appeared on "Call Waiting", an episode of
  Roseanne, in a dream sequence experienced by the show's lead. Roseanne (Roseanne Barr) was Mary and Dan (John Goodman
  ) was Lou, and the two got into a heated argument. Lou stomped out, but quickly returned and was then played by Asner. (He commented about not feeling like himself.) Asner was uncredited.

• In 1998, Asner appeared in a cameo role as an Associated Press editor in the miniseries
  More Tales of the City (based on the series of Armistead Maupin
  novels). Though not identified by any name in dialogue, the character's demeanor was similar to that of the Lou Grant character. However, the character was identified as "Jack Lederer" in the credits, and the character's apparent age -- if meant to be Lou Grant -- doesn't fit with the 1978 setting of the show (Asner was nearly 70 at the time of filming, while Lou Grant in the mid-to-late-1970s would have been around 50).

• In 2004, Asner unofficially reprised the role in a series of ads promoting
  Twin Cities station KSTP-TV
  , a real television station in the same market as the fictional WJM-TV.

• Additionally in 2013, Asner again reprised the role for a series of promos for The Mary Tyler Moore Show airing on MeTV.

Asner won five