Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 6, 1995 TAG: 9503090034
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LYNN ELBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
In a heartbeat, he hits you with a sly look; the actor who gave us that ornery newsroom imp is doing fine. Asner's taken some punches, but he's still fighting the fight politically and in the TV trenches.
After a hiatus, his ``Thunder Alley'' returns to ABC (WSET-Channel 13) this week at a new time, 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. Asner plays retired stock car driver Gil Jones, a garage owner who's opened his Detroit home to his daughter and her brood.
The sitcom had uneven ratings in earlier outings, but the network is giving it another shot in the friendlier time period preceding top-rated ``Home Improvement.''
``We're all tight and solid,'' says Asner. ``I think the shows are better than they've ever been and, with our lovely time slot, I have great hopes.''
With a couple of TV's best programs under his moderately expansive belt - ``The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' and ``Lou Grant'' - what drew Asner to this particular bit of fluff?
``The rapscallion aspect,'' he says. ``It looked like it [the Gil Jones character] could contain the seeds of being a little devil. A middle-aged, old-aged, whatever you want to call it, devil. And I could have fun with it.''
Asner, it turns out, likes to have fun. His TV persona is that of the gruff Grant, with a big heart neatly obscured by peel-and-stick layers of cynicism. His personal image is liberal activist, serious man of the people.
But he's also a delightful storyteller, sharing memories of a checkered job history that nearly included becoming ``the man who held the franchise for Dean's Prophylactics'' - in Catholic Latin America.
He's a cautious sort, he says, who tends to pursue what he terms ``safe adventures.'' And the 65-year-old Asner confesses to a dreamy-eyed naivete.
``I'm always surprised when my side is defeated.'' So he's an optimist? ``No, I'm a romanticist. I don't even qualify to be an optimist. I'm beyond help.''
At another point, he describes his attitude this way: ``I've always just been so `There must be a pony in that tent SOMEWHERE.' ''
Then, to illustrate, he calls on his actor's bag of tricks - arranging eyes, brows and jaw into a blissful-idiot look that provokes his lunch companions to laughter.
As he spoons into turkey lasagna at a small, un-chic Los Angeles restaurant, Asner ticks off the current list of trends and people that threaten to undermine his hardy liberal idealism.
They include, in no particular order, America's ``rush into a two-tier society''; media he says underrepresent leftist views; weak Democratic presidents; Republican House leaders Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey.
Asner is unabashed about speaking out, despite a collision between career and activism that marred his ``Lou Grant'' experience and tenure as president of the Screen Actors Guild.
In 1982, when Asner supported the cause of leftist rebels in El Salvador, ``Lou Grant'' was canceled by CBS. The network cited declining ratings; Asner and other critics accused it of bowing to political pressure.
He still mourns the loss of the show, which took his character from the comedy of ``Mary Tyler Moore'' into drama. ``Lou Grant'' tackled serious issues thoughtfully and carefully, he says.
But Asner had more than his series to worry about then; he was also clashing with colleagues.
Charlton Heston and other conservative guild members led an effort to replace Asner as SAG president, complaining he had politicized the office with his El Salvador comments.
Asner remained in charge, but was wounded by what he called rumormongering.
It was a bleak period. Despite his multiple Emmys for ``Mary Tyler Moore'' and ``Lou Grant,'' job offers dried up.
Flash forward to 1995: He's still a liberal big mouth, conservatives are back in power, and he's back on television.
by CNB