Lou Grant dealt with social issues including gay rights, has died at age 91.Asner died Sunday of natural causes at his home in Tarzana, Calif., his family and publicist confirmed.He won seven Emmy Awards for playing journalist Lou Grant, an irascible yet soft-hearted and deeply ethical man.
He was the newsroom boss at struggling Minneapolis TV station WJM on The Mary Tyler Moore Show from 1970 to 1977. Then, in an unusual move, when that comedy ended, the spin-off for Asner was a drama, Lou Grant, with Grant working as city editor at the fictional Los Angeles Tribune.
The show ran from 1977 to 1982.Lou Grant saw the Tribune journalists covering a variety of stories involving social issues, including, “in the first season alone, domestic.