Lou Grant (TV series)

Ed Asner, Nancy Marchand and Mason Adams (1977)

Lou Grant works as city editor of the fictional Los Angeles Tribune daily newspaper, a job he takes after being fired from WJM-TV in Minneapolis at the end of the sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show. (Grant mentions several times on Mary Tyler Moore that he had begun his career as a print journalist.)

Given the shift from comedy to drama in this show, Lou becomes a less eccentric character: more diplomatic, sober, and professional. The only other character from the earlier series is a single appearance by Flo Meredith, a veteran journalist (played in three episodes by Eileen Heckart) with whom Lou had a fling.

The rest of the main cast includes: general-assignment reporters Joe Rossi (Robert Walden) and Billie Newman (Linda Kelsey); managing editor Charles Hume (Mason Adams), an old friend of Lou's who has convinced him to move from Minneapolis to Los Angeles; assistant city editor Art Donovan (Jack Bannon); photographer Dennis Price (Daryl Anderson), usually referred to as "Animal"; and widowed, patrician publisher Margaret Jones Pynchon (Nancy Marchand), a character loosely based on a composite of real-life newspaper executives Dorothy Chandler of the Los Angeles Times and Katharine Graham of The Washington Post. Recurring actors who play editors of various departments included Gordon Jump and Emilio Delgado; Peggy McCay has a recurring role as Charlie Hume's wife Marion.

The episodes often have Grant assigning Rossi and Billie to cover news stories, with the plots revealing problems experienced by the people being covered as well as the frustrations and challenges faced by the reporters as they worked to get the story. The younger reporters are frequently seen turning to Lou for guidance and mentorship over some of the hard questions and moral dilemmas they experience as they work on their stories. The series frequently delves into serious social issues, such as nuclear proliferation, mental illness, prostitution, gay rights, domestic violence, capital punishment, child abuse, rape, and chemical pollution, in addition to demonstrating coverage of breaking news stories of all kinds.

The series also undertakes 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 are also glimpses into the personal lives of the Tribune staff.

When The Mary Tyler Moore Show ended its run, that series' co-creators and producers, James L. Brooks and Allan Burns, had a commitment to create a new show starring Ed Asner. They decided that it was easier to retain the popular Lou Grant character and make it a spinoff series. Mary Tyler Moore had already established that the character had a previous newspaper career. Brooks and Burns' decision to make the spinoff series a one-hour realistic drama instead of another 30-minute sitcom was influenced by the 1976 film All the President's Men, and how that movie depicted the operation of a major newspaper.[1]

Gene Reynolds, who was producing the TV show M*A*S*H at the same time, was also brought on as a co-creator and executive producer. Reynolds, Brooks and Burns had previously worked on the series Room 222, and Lou Grant made occasional reference to Walt Whitman High School, the setting of Room 222. Gary David Goldberg was a producer for the series. The theme music Lou Grant was composed by Patrick Williams.

Lou Grant aired on CBS from September 1977 to September 1982. A total of 114 episodes were produced. In the second half of the 1990s, in syndication, the show was carried on cable TV's A&E Network.

Lou Grant won several critical honors during its run, including 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Peabody Award, and two Humanitas Prizes.

Asner won two Emmys for his portrayal of Grant; Marchand won an Emmy for "Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series" four of the five years the series ran; Walden, Kelsey, and Adams all received multiple nominations for supporting Emmys.

The cancellation of Lou Grant in 1982 was controversial. Asner served two terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild, during which he voiced opposition to U.S. government policy in Central America and worked closely with Medical Aid for El Salvador. Up until his death in 2021, Asner consistently stated his position that his political views, as well as the publicity they attracted, were the root causes of the cancellation of the show.[2] CBS denied that the cancellation had anything to do with Asner's politics, citing a fall in ratings for the last two seasons.[3] The show's ratings had fallen from an average 19.6 rating over the previous three seasons to 16.6 in its final year, finishing the season 43rd among primetime network series.[4]

Shout! Factory has released all five seasons on DVD in Region 1.[5][6][7][8][9][10]

Bibliography

Notes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lou Grant (TV series).

• Lou Grant at IMDb
• The Unofficial Lou Grant Internet Resource and Archive (site of Daryl Anderson)
• The Canonical Lou Grant Episode Guide
• Lou Grant at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television