Lou Grant Lou Grant Louis Grant is a fictional character played by Edward 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. A spinoff series, entitled "Lou Grant" (1977–1982), was an hour-long serious dramatic series which frequently engaged in social commentary, featuring the 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
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