Controversy
The cancellation of Lou Grant in 1982 was the subject of much controversy. Reportedly, the series had significant enough ratings in its last season to be renewed (it was in the ACNielsen top ten throughout its final month on the air), but CBS declined to renew it largely because of controversies created by Asner in using both the series and his presidency of the Screen Actors Guild as political soapboxes. Asner's outspokenness in directly opposing the U.S. government's intervention in El Salvador created problems for the network with its advertisers. Asner also gave one press conference, not long before the show was cancelled, in which he was asked whether he would support free elections in El Salvador even if those elected were communists. Asner responded that if that was what the voters chose in a free election then he would have to support it.
Read more about this topic: Lou Grant (TV series)
Famous quotes containing the word controversy:
“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
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