Lou Grant/Trivia

• Hey, It's That Guy!:
  • Seth Freeman directed 21 episodes. Freeman is best known for creating Lincoln Heights.
  • James Burrows directed an episode. Burrows is best known as co-creator and co-executive producer of Cheers.
• Hey, It's That Voice!: With a name like Mason Adams, you know it's Smuckers.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Lou Grant is one of the very few quality television series left that has yet to be released on DVD.
• Playing Against Type:
  • The character of Lou Grant itself was built on comedy (from The Mary Tyler Moore Show), but now was made serious. Ed Asner won critical acclaim for his interpretation of the character in both lights (and yes, there were still plenty of lighter moments on the show).
  • Emilio Delgado, who concurrently played Luis on Sesame Street, had a recurring role as national editor Ruben Castillo. Although he is generally genial (albeit focused), it is the fact that he had a role on a prime-time TV drama concurrently with his role on Sesame Street that makes the trope work here.
• Screwed by the Network: Despite having significant enough ratings in its last season to be renewed, CBS abruptly cancelled the show due to controversies created by Asner in using both the series and his presidency of the Screen Actors Guild as political soapboxes to protest the U.S. government's intervention in El Salvador.
• Technology Marches On: Averted in one episode in which the computer using City Room reporters make snide remarks about the one old timer who insists on using a typewriter... just before a City wide power outage.
• Write Who You Know: Mrs. Pynchon was inspired by real life newspaper publishers Dorothy Chandler of the Los Angeles Times and Katharine Graham of The Washington Post.