Lou Grant is a fictional character played by Ed 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 in Minneapolis.

Although the setting of The Mary Tyler Moore Show might have implied that he was a native Minnesotan, Lou Grant in fact established that he was born in the fictional rural town of Goshen, Michigan[3] in 1925.

At some point in his youth and early adulthood he developed a lifelong affection for westerns, particularly those starring John Wayne.

[1] Soon after high school, he married Edie MacKenzie (Priscilla Morrill), at an age young enough to have four grandchildren before he turned 50.

[10] He started his career in print journalism as a copy boy[11] but it is unclear whether this was in Detroit,[12][13] Minneapolis or San Francisco[13] as he worked for papers in all three cities.

He was quick to anger and had a violent streak, at times threatening the barely competent Ted Baxter and once causing him physical injury.

[18] Lou Grant, a spin-off drama from the comedy show Mary Tyler Moore, opens with Grant relocating to Los Angeles, to work with as City Editor with an old buddy, Charley Hume, who is managing editor of the fictitious Los Angeles Tribune, His subordinates at that time included staff reporters Joe Rossi (Robert Walden); Billie Newman (Linda Kelsey); her predecessor, Carla Mardigian (Rebecca Balding); and photographer Dennis "Animal" Price (Daryl Anderson).

Charlie Hume was now his boss, who ultimately reported to publisher Margaret Jones Pynchon (Nancy Marchand).

[19] Lou Grant was cancelled after the star, Ed Asner, publicly protested U.S. interventions into the politics of Latin American countries.