Lou Grant
Lou Grant opening
Format	Drama
Created by	Allan Burns, James L. Brooks, Gene Reynolds
Starring	Edward Asner Robert Walden Linda Kelsey Mason Adams Jack Bannon Daryl Anderson Nancy Marchand Rebecca Balding
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	114
Production
Camera setup	Single camera
Running time	60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Original run	September 20, 1977 – September 13, 1982
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Linda Kelsey and Edward Asner as Billie Newman and Lou Grant in MTM's Lou Grant

Lou Grant was a popular and critically acclaimed television drama series starring Ed Asner as a newspaper editor. The series won 13 Emmy Awards, including "Outstanding Drama Series". Asner won the Emmy Award for "Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series" in 1978 and 1980. The series also won two Golden Globe awards, a Peabody award, an Eddie award, three awards from the Directors Guild of America, and two Humanitas prizes. Lou Grant is a fictional character played by Ed Asner in two shows on CBS. The first was Mary Tyler Moore in which the character was the producer of the fictional WJM-TV news. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... For other uses, see Drama (disambiguation). ... Allan Burns (born May 18, 1935) is a Jewish-American screenwriter and television producer. ... James L. Brooks (born May 9, 1940) is a three-time Academy Award, nineteen-time Emmy and Golden Globe-winning American producer, writer, and film director. ... Eugene Gene Reynolds Blumenthal (April 4, 1924, Cleveland, Ohio) is a former actor turned writer and producer/director. ... Edward Asner (born November 15, 1929) is an American actor known for his Emmy-winning role as Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and later continued in a spinoff series, Lou Grant. ... Robert Walden (born Robert Wolkowitz on September 25, 1943 in New York, New York) is an American television and motion picture actor. ... Linda Kelsey (born on July 28, 1946 in Minneapolis, Minnesota) is an American television actress. ... Mason Adams (February 26, 1919 – April 26, 2005) was an American character actor. ... Jack Bannon is an actor from Los Angeles, California. ... Daryl Anderson as Animal in Lou Grant Daryl Anderson (born on July 1, 1951 in Seattle, Washington) is an American television actor. ... Nancy Marchand (June 19, 1928 – June 18, 2000) was an American actress. ... Rebecca Balding is an American actress who was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... A single camera setup is the name given to the filming procedure used to film motion pictures. ... This article is about the broadcast network. ... is the 263rd day of the year (264th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also: 1977 (album) by Ash. ... is the 256th day of the year (257th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar). ... Image File history File links Lougrantscene. ... Image File history File links Lougrantscene. ... Edward Asner (born November 15, 1929) is an American actor known for his Emmy-winning role as Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and later continued in a spinoff series, Lou Grant. ... An Emmy Award. ... Year 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1978 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar). ... The Golden Globe Awards are American awards for motion pictures and television programs, given out each year during a formal dinner. ... The George Foster Peabody Awards, more commonly referred to as the Peabody Awards, are annual international awards given for excellence in radio and television broadcasting. ... Director Guild of America building on Sunset Boulevard. ... Humanitas Prize is an award for film and TV writing deemed to promote human dignity, meaning, and freedom. ...

Broadcast history

Lou Grant was a spinoff from The Mary Tyler Moore Show and premiered on CBS in September 1977. Unlike The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which was a 30-minute situation comedy, Lou Grant was a one-hour drama. In the last episode of the MTM Show, Lou Grant (and most of the rest of the cast) were fired from their jobs at WJM-TV. The show ran from 1977-1982 and consisted of 114 episodes. Mary Tyler Moore is an American television sitcom created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns that aired on CBS from September 19, 1970 to March 19, 1977. ... This article is about the broadcast network. ... Also: 1977 (album) by Ash. ... This article is about a genre of comedy. ...

Premise

Lou Grant was the city editor of the fictional Los Angeles Tribune, a job he took after his firing from WJM. (Though Mary Tyler Moore Show viewers were introduced to the character as a television news producer, the character noted many times that he'd begun his career as a print journalist.) The rest of the main cast were Robert Walden and Linda Kelsey, who played general-assignment reporters Joe Rossi and Billie Newman, respectively (Kelsey joined the show in the fourth episode, replacing Rebecca Balding, who'd played reporter Carla Mardigian during the show's first three episodes); Mason Adams, who played managing editor Charles Hume; Jack Bannon, who played assistant city editor Art Donovan; Daryl Anderson, who played photographer Dennis Price, usually referred to as "Animal"; and Nancy Marchand, who played the patrician publisher Margaret Pynchon. Recurring actors who played editors of various departments included Gordon Jump, who later starred on WKRP in Cincinnati and Emilio Delgado, who simultaneously played Luis Rodriguez on Sesame Street. Asner won two Emmys for his portrayal of Lou; Marchand won Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series" four of the five years the series ran; Walden, Kelsey, and Adams were all nominated for supporting Emmys multiple times. Information Gender Male Age 45 (in 1970) Date of birth 1925 Date of death Unknown (still alive as of 1982) Occupation Television producer (19??-1977) Newspaper editor (1977-????) Family Allen Stevens (nephew) Spouse(s) Edie Grant (divorced) Children Three daughters (names unknown) Episode count 167 (The Mary Tyler Moore Show... Robert Walden (born Robert Wolkowitz on September 25, 1943 in New York, New York) is an American television and motion picture actor. ... Linda Kelsey (born on July 28, 1946 in Minneapolis, Minnesota) is an American television actress. ... Rebecca Balding is an American actress who was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. ... Mason Adams (February 26, 1919 – April 26, 2005) was an American character actor. ... Jack Bannon is an actor from Los Angeles, California. ... Daryl Anderson as Animal in Lou Grant Daryl Anderson (born on July 1, 1951 in Seattle, Washington) is an American television actor. ... Nancy Marchand (June 19, 1928 – June 18, 2000) was an American actress. ... Gordon Jump in 1979. ... WKRP in Cincinnati (1978–1982) is an American situation comedy (sit-com) that featured the misadventures of the staff of a struggling radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio. ... Emilio Delgado is best known for his continuing role as Luis on Sesame Street. ... Bob singing People in Your Neighborhood with Ralph Nader Alan and Gladys the cow on Sesame Street A picture of Bob, holding the Sesame Street sign in the rain Gabi Rodriguez Maria Rodriguez on Sesame Street Following is a list of human characters (and the actors and actresses who portrayed... Sesame Street is an American educational childrens television series for preschoolers and is a pioneer of the contemporary educational television standard, combining both education and entertainment. ...

The format of the episodes generally consisted of Lou assigning Rossi and Billie to cover news stories, and the episodes revealed the problems of the people covered in the stories as well as the frustrations and challenges the reporters went through to get the stories. The series frequently delved into serious societal issues, such as nuclear proliferation, mental illness, prostitution, and chemical waste, in addition to demonstrating coverage of breaking news stories, such as fires, earthquakes, and accidents of all kind. The series also took serious examination of ethical questions in journalism, including plagiarism, checkbook journalism, entrapment of sources, staging news photos, and conflicts of interest that journalists encounter in their work. There were also glimpses into the personal lives of the Tribune staff.

Gene Reynolds, James L. Brooks, and Allan Burns were executive producers, and Gary David Goldberg, better known for creating Family Ties and Spin City, was a producer. Eugene Gene Reynolds Blumenthal (April 4, 1924, Cleveland, Ohio) is a former actor turned writer and producer/director. ... James L. Brooks (born May 9, 1940) is a three-time Academy Award, nineteen-time Emmy and Golden Globe-winning American producer, writer, and film director. ... Allan Burns (born May 18, 1935) is a Jewish-American screenwriter and television producer. ... Gary David Goldberg (born June 25, 1944 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American writer and producer for television and film . ... For other uses, see Family Ties (disambiguation). ... Spin City was an American sitcom television series that ran from 1996 to 2002 on ABC, and was created by Gary David Goldberg & Bill Lawrence, based on a fictional local government running New York City, originally starring Michael J. Fox as Mike Flaherty, the Deputy Mayor of New York. ...

Controversy

The cancellation of Lou Grant in 1982 was the subject of much controversy. Reportedly the series had significant enough ratings in its last season to be renewed (it was in the ACNielsen top ten throughout its final month on the air), but the network declined to renew it because of controversies created by Asner in using both the series and his presidency of the Screen Actors Guild as political soapboxes. Asner's outspokenness in opposing U.S. intervention in El Salvador created a problem for the series and the network with advertisers and the public at large. Asner also gave one press conference not long before the show was cancelled in which he was asked whether he would support free elections in El Salvador even if those elected were communists; Asner responded that if that was what the voters chose, he would have to support it. ACNielsens Logo ACNielsen is an international marketing research firm, based in Schaumburg, Illinois. ... The Screen Actors Guild (S.A.G.) is the labor union representing over 120,000 film actors in the United States. ...

DVD releases

No DVD collection of the series has yet been released and the Fox Home Entertainment site has no references to the show. Amazon.com has an interest page with several requests. Television rerun rights are held by the AmericanLife TV Network. It is available for download on Amazon.com's Unbox service. The AmericanLife TV Network, formerly the GoodLife TV Network, describes itself as the only cable television network devoted to the baby boomer generation. ...

Revival

Asner has spoken occasionally of reviving Lou Grant in the form of two-hour made-for-TV movies, but as of 2007, no serious effort has been made in this direction, and two of the original cast - Nancy Marchand and Mason Adams - have died. Nancy Marchand (June 19, 1928 – June 18, 2000) was an American actress. ... Mason Adams (February 26, 1919 – April 26, 2005) was an American character actor. ...

References

External links

• Lou Grant episode guide
• The Unofficial Lou Grant Internet Resource and Archive

Bibliography

• Douglass K. Daniel, Lou Grant: The Making of TV's Top Newspaper Drama, Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1996.