Editing Lou Grant (section)

==Unofficial appearances==
*During the second season of the ''Lou Grant'' series, the ''[[Toronto Sun]]'' newspaper arranged a series of press conferences, interviews and announcements (with participation from Asner), stating that Lou Grant was joining the Sun as their new senior city editor. Asner (as Grant) ostensibly worked in the newsroom for a day, and the March 23, 1979 issue of the Sun newspaper actually formally named Lou Grant as city editor on their masthead.  The publicity stunt concluded with Grant being "fired" from the Sun after one day, allegedly for being "too disruptive to the flow of the newsroom" due to of all the news organizations following him around with cameras.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://torontosunfamily.blogspot.com/2007/01/mr-lou-grant.html | title=Mr. Lou Grant | date=January 2, 2007 }}</ref>

*In a 1984 episode of ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'', on which Asner was a guest, Lou hired a team of mercenaries to "rescue" Mary Richards after she got stuck in the '70s in syndicated reruns. But Mary refused rescue on the grounds that she never ages and never gains weight, and that people still like her.  Mary Richards and the rest of the ''Mary Tyler Moore Show'' characters hadn't existed anywhere, except in reruns, for several years.  (''Lou Grant'' had been cancelled about 2 years previously.)

*In 1996 the character appeared on "Call Waiting", an episode of ''[[Roseanne (TV series)|Roseanne]]'', in a dream sequence experienced by the show's lead. Roseanne ([[Roseanne Barr]]) was Mary and Dan ([[John Goodman]]) was Lou, and the two got into a heated argument. Lou stomped out, but quickly returned and was then played by Asner. (He commented about not feeling like himself.) Asner was uncredited.

*In 1998, Asner appeared in a cameo role as an Associated Press editor in the miniseries ''[[More Tales of the City (TV miniseries)|More Tales of the City]]'' (based on the series of [[Armistead Maupin]] novels). Though not identified by any name in dialogue, the character's demeanor was similar to that of the Lou Grant character.  However, the character was identified as "Jack Lederer" in the credits, and the character's apparent age -- if meant to be Lou Grant -- doesn't fit with the 1978 setting of the show (Asner was nearly 70 at the time of filming, while Lou Grant in the mid-to-late-1970s would have been around 50).

*In a 2000 episode of the short lived ''Ellen Show'', series regular Cloris Leachman reunites with Mary Tyler Moore.  Cloris had played Phyllis on the Mary Tyler Moore show and its spinoff, Phyllis.  Though the Mary and Cloris reunion was advertised well publicized, Ed Asner had a surprise cameo as Santa Clause.  Mary called him "Mister Clause," in homage to the fact that her character had always called Lou Grant "Mister Grant." 

*In 2004, Asner unofficially reprised the role in a series of ads promoting [[Minneapolis-St. Paul|Twin Cities]] station [[KSTP-TV]], a real television station in the same market as the fictional WJM-TV.

*Additionally in 2013, Asner again reprised the role for a series of promos for ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' airing on [[MeTV]].