Lou Grant (TV series)

Infobox Television
show_name = Lou Grant


caption = "Lou Grant" title screen
format = Drama
camera = Single camera
runtime = 60 mins.
creator = 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 = USA
network = CBS
first_aired = September 20, 1977
last_aired = September 13, 1982
num_seasons = 5
num_episodes = 114
preceded_by="The Mary Tyler Moore Show"
related="Rhoda" "Phyllis"
imdb_id = 0075528
tv_com_id = 84

"Lou Grant" is an American 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.

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.

"Lou Grant" ran from 1977-1982 and consisted of 114 episodes. It is one of only three shows in the history of American television to have weekly finishes of first and dead last during its run, the others being "Rhoda" and "Cheers". Fact|date=September 2008

Premise

Lou Grant worked at the fictitious "Los Angeles Tribune" daily newspaper as its city editor, a job he took after the WJM television station fired him. (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 included 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 had portrayed 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 widowed, patrician publisher, Margaret Pynchon, a character loosely based on Dorothy Chandler of the "Los Angeles Times". 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 all received multiple nominations for supporting Emmys.

The episode often had Lou assigning Rossi and Billie to cover news stories, with the episode's plots revealing problems of the people covered in the stories as well as frustrations and challenges reporters experienced to get the stories. The series frequently delved into serious societal issues, such as nuclear proliferation, mental illness, prostitution, gay rights, 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, one of the main writers of "M*A*S*H" from 1972 to 1977, 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.

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. 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.

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 and on Apple's iTunes Store. The first and second seasons can be watched for free on Hulu.com.

Bibliography

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

External links

* [http://epguides.lougrant.net "Lou Grant" episode guide]
* [http://www.lougrant.net/ The Unofficial "Lou Grant" Internet Resource and Archive]