THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 10, 1997 TAG: 9702080107
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: 88 lines
DID YOU SEE the first lady on Rosie O'Donnell's show the other day, doing her impression of Mary Tyler Moore?
``Ohhhh, Mr. Gra-a-a-a-nt . . . ''
Is Mary Tyler Moore hot or what? There was Hillary Rodham Clinton on TV with Rosie, saying how much she loves Moore. There is Moore on ABC tonight at 9 in a film that reunites her with Ed Asner, who was Mr. Grant to Moore's Mary Richards in the 1970s.
And soon Moore will be on NBC's ``Naked Truth,'' in which she plays Tea Leoni's mother. She's all over TV Guide this week. She's a frequent guest on David Letterman's ``Late Show.''
Moore is 60. She's a zillionaire thanks to a former husband who created the production company (MTM) named for her and now owned by the Family Channel folks in Virginia Beach. She looks thin and fragile.
Why is she working so hard?
Asner can't speak for Moore, but he has something to say about actors who won't retire: ``They'll keep working until the day they're put into a box and lowered into the ground. I feel that way. Acting is my job, my craft and my life. I've found nothing as pleasurable as acting.''
Producing is no fun at all, judging by the talk I had with Asner about the ABC film, ``Payback.'' He was one of the executive producers and, as such, worked three years to get the movie on the air.
Now that it's done, the worrying is still not over.
Moore has been telling reporters in Hollywood that she doesn't like the way ``Payback'' turned out. That's stunned Asner, who admits that Moore had problems with the original script.
``After I sought her out to do this project, she consented quickly,'' he said. ``Then she changed her mind about doing it, at which time I began looking to cast another actress. Then, after she saw a new script, Mary said she wanted to do it.
``It was wonderful to work with her again. I am in awe of her talent.''
They were once some team - Moore as the young producer Mary Richards in the WJM-TV newsroom in Minneapolis and Asner as the gruff but lovable boss, Lou Grant. As for the critical, hard-to-please Moore he worked with in 1996, Asner said: ``She was never that tough when we were doing `The Mary Tyler Moore Show.' She was the sweetest, most giving and generous creature you ever saw.''
And now?
``We all have our squirrelly moments,'' he said.
When Moore saw her criticism of ``Payback'' hit the papers in Los Angeles, she called Asner. ``Mary told me that the last thing she wanted to do was to hurt me or the film. I'll accept that,'' he said.
(Asner on May 18 at 7:30 p.m. will speak at Temple Israel in Norfolk in the Tidewater Jewish Forum series).
In ``Payback,'' Moore plays a woman who sees three cops beat a suspect senseless. When she reports the incident, events are set in motion that lead to the suspension of the rogue cops. Their careers go into the dumper.
For revenge, they begin harassing Moore's character (Kathryn Stanfill) and her family. Enter Asner as Jack Patkanis, an internal affairs officer who wants the bad cops off the force. Before the final scene, Patkanis and Stanfill face mortal danger.
It's about a notch and a half above your average made-for-TV flick.
There is talk of spinning off the Patkanis character into a weekly series as Asner did when he transferred Lou Grant from a Minneapolis TV station to a Los Angeles daily newspaper in 1977.
``Lou Grant'' is still the best TV show ever produced about us hard-working, poorly paid, harassed-by-mindless-editors print reporters. Oh, for a decent boss like Mrs. Pynchon.
Was ``Lou Grant'' dropped by CBS after only four seasons because Asner, the liberal, was off criticizing U.S. foreign policy when he wasn't in the TV newsroom?
``I am controversial,'' said Asner. But is that why ``Lou Grant'' was canceled? ``Who knows. . . ?''
Asner is interested in spinning off his Patkanis character into a weekly drama because he likes to work. That includes doing voice-overs on commercials, narration and giving voice to animated creatures. He'll soon be heard on the Family Channel's ``Dog's Best Friend'' film, with another MTM alumnus - Valerie Harper.
He'd love to do another sitcom. His last, ``Thunder Alley,'' didn't last long on ABC in the early 1990s.
``I just want to work as long as I can do good material that's tasteful,'' he said.
Ohhh, Mr. Gra-a-a-a-nt. ILLUSTRATION: ABC
Mary Tyler Moore and Ed Asner co-star in "Payback," tonight on ABC.
CBS
As star of her own show, Mary Tyler Moore ``was the sweetest, most
giving and generous creature you ever saw,'' says Ed Asner.