The ‘Mary Tyler Moore Show’ co-creator remembers the actor who embodied the Lou Grant character as a ‘deeply good guy.’<\/b>
\nEd 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 \u201cThe Mary Tyler Moore Show.\u201d 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, \u201cMary Tyler Moore\u2019s\u201d irascible WJM-TV news director Lou Grant, and in the CBS drama \u201cLou Grant,\u201d where Asner took center stage as a new incarnation of the Grant character in Los Angeles as a big-city newspaper editor. In the \u201cMary Tyler Moore\u201d pilot, Asner\u2019s Grant delivers one of the classic TV comedy lines of all time as he interviews Moore\u2019s eager Mary Richards for the associate producer job at Minneapolis\u2019 TV station. \u201cYou\u2019ve got spunk,\u201d 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, \u201cI hate spunk!\u201d In paying tribute to his longtime star, \u201cMary Tyler Moore\u201d 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 \u201cMary Tyler Moore.\u201d Brooks said Asner always kept his eye on what was good for the show, not just his own interests. \u201cHe was a beautiful actor,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cHe was an able team player. He was just as deeply a good guy as everybody sensed he was.\u201d Brooks said Asner\u2019s time in the improv group Second City was important to his future versatility. Asner won three Emmys (and racked up seven consecutive nominations throughout the series\u2019 run) for supporting comedy actor for \u201cMary Tyler Moore\u201d and two more Emmys for lead drama actor for \u201cLou Grant,\u201d which ran from 1977 to 1982. Asner was consistently generous with other actors and always looking to create a collaborative atmosphere on the set, Brooks said. Asner and Moore developed an on-air rapport that was a go-to asset for the writers. \u201cWhen Lou said \u2018Mary come in to my office,\u2019 we were never on more solid ground,\u201d Brooks said of the two-hander scenes that Asner and Moore often had in Grant\u2019s tiny office. Asner had a naturally endearing sheepishness to him that writers wrote in to the Lou Grant character. When Asner auditioned for \u201cMary Tyler Moore,\u201d Brooks recalled that a few minutes after he left, Asner came bustling back into the room and earnestly asked to do it again. \u201cI can do it so much better than that,\u201d Brooks remembered Asner saying at the time. Brooks noted that Asner also had a great chemistry with Betty White, who joined \u201cMary Tyler Moore\u201d in Season 4 as the lascivious \u201cHappy Homemaker\u201d TV personality Sue Ann Nivens. Asner also commanded respect for his work as a union leader and activist on controversial political issues such as America\u2019s intervention in Central American in the 1980s. \u201cHe really cared about the causes he got involved in,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cPeople respected that someone at his level cared to get involved at all.\u201d Asner is the fourth major player from \u201cMary Tyler Moore\u201d to die this year. Gavin MacLeod, who played news writer Murray Slaughter for the series\u2019 entire run, died in May at the age of 90. Cloris Leachman, who played Richards\u2019 friend and landlord Phyllis Lindstrom, died in January at 94, the same month that saw the passing of Allan Burns, Brooks\u2019 co-creator and longtime writing partner, at age 85. Moore died in 2017 at age 80. Brooks credited Asner for being a person who was always \u201chumble before the task.\u201d He was an enormous part of the success of \u201cMary Tyler Moore,\u201d the show that blazed trails for the portrayal of single women on television. \u201cHe was a man for all seasons,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cHe was one of the good ones.\u201d<\/p>\n