The ‘Mary Tyler Moore Show’ co-creator remembers the actor who embodied the Lou Grant character as a ‘deeply good guy.’
Ed Asner, the famed character actor, activist and union leader who died Sunday at the age of 91, was the last surviving member of original core cast of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” The ground-breaking sitcom that ran on CBS from 1970 to 1977 led Asner to become the first TV actor to play the same character in a comedy, “Mary Tyler Moore’s” irascible WJM-TV news director Lou Grant, and in the CBS drama “Lou Grant,” where Asner took center stage as a new incarnation of the Grant character in Los Angeles as a big-city newspaper editor. In the “Mary Tyler Moore” pilot, Asner’s Grant delivers one of the classic TV comedy lines of all time as he interviews Moore’s eager Mary Richards for the associate producer job at Minneapolis’ TV station. “You’ve got spunk,” Grant tells Richards. With the perfect timing that came from his early stage experience, Asner paused just long enough to let her smile and nod before he barks, “I hate spunk!” In paying tribute to his longtime star, “Mary Tyler Moore” co-creator and producer James L. Brooks told Variety that Asner was the ultimate team player and consummate pro who helped set a harmonious and respectful tone for the work environment on “Mary Tyler Moore.
