Allan Burns The last project between Hayward and Burns would be as story editors for the sitcom "Get Smart". In 1969, Burns began a partnership with James L. Brooks after being impressed with the television pilot for Brooks's show "Room 222". Burns joined the "Room 222" writing staff and later produced the series. After "Room 222", television executive Grant Tinker hired Brooks and Burns to develop a television series for CBS starring Mary Tyler Moore. In 1970, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" premiered and became a critically acclaimed series, spawning spin-off series such as "Lou Grant" and "Rhoda". Brooks and Burns also
Lou Grant (TV series) in a Drama Series" four of the five years the series ran; Walden, Kelsey, and Adams all received multiple nominations for supporting Emmys. Ed Asner served two terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild, in which capacity during the 1980s he opposed U.S. policy in Central America, working closely with Medical Aid for El Salvador. The sudden cancellation of "Lou Grant" in 1982 was the subject of much controversy. The show had high ratings, the level of which should have justified its ongoing presence in primetime (it was in the ACNielsen top ten throughout its final month on the