Ed Asner
Lou Grant is an American television drama series starring Ed Asner in the titular role as a newspaper editor. Unusual in American television, this drama series was a spinoff from a sitcom, The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Aired from 1977 to 1982, Lou Grant won 13 Emmy Awards, including “Outstanding Drama Series”. Asner won the Emmy Award for “Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series” in 1978 and 1980. In doing so, he became the only person to win an Emmy Award for both “Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series” and “Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series” for portraying the same character, recognizing his work on this series and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Lou Grant also won two Golden Globe awards, a Peabody award, an Eddie award, three awards from the Directors Guild of America, and two Humanitas prizes.
Michael: Tuesdays and Thursdays is a Canadian television sitcom that debuted on CBC Television in 2011.
Described by the National Post as a cross between What About Bob? and Frasier, the show stars Matt Watts as Michael, a neurotic young man who sees his therapist twice a week, and Bob Martin as David, his therapist who views Michael as an ideal guinea pig for the experimental psychiatric techniques he hopes will turn him into a bestselling pop psychology writer. Filmed in Ottawa, the show’s cast also includes Jennifer Irwin, Pablo Silveira, Martha Burns and Tommie-Amber Pirie.
Recess is an American animated television series created by Paul Germain and Joe Ansolabehere and produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. The series focuses on six elementary school students and their interaction with other classmates and teachers. The title refers to the period of time during the school day in which children are not in lessons and are outside in the schoolyard, in North American society. One of the main features of the series is how the children form their own society, complete with government and a class structure, set against the backdrop of a regular school.
Recess first aired on ABC from 1997 through to 2001, and reruns aired on Disney Channel in the United States. The success of the series saw it being distributed to numerous countries around the world, notably the United Kingdom, where it aired on multiple channels including Toon Disney and Disney Channel UK. In 2001, Walt Disney Pictures released the first of two films based on the series, Recess: School’s Out, which was distributed theatrically. It was followed by a direct-to-video second film entitled Recess Christmas: Miracle on Third Street that same year. In 2003, a third film entitled Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade was released, along with Recess: All Growed Down. Both were also direct-to-video. The characters also made an appearance in an episode of Disney’s Lilo & Stitch: The Series.
Freakazoid! is an American animated television series created by Bruce Timm, and Paul Dini for the Kids’ WB programming block of The WB. The series chronicles the adventures of the title character, Freakazoid, a manic, insane superhero who battles with an array of super villains. The show also features mini-episodes of adventures of other bizarre superheroes. The show was produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. The cartoon was the third animated series produced by the collaboration of Steven Spielberg and Warner Bros. Animation during the animation renaissance of the late 1980s and early 1990s. With Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs airing, rumors of Freakazoid! coming on the Hub Network are spreading on the internet.
Bruce Timm, best known as a major principal of the DC animated universe, originally intended it to be a straightforward superhero action-adventure cartoon with comic overtones, but executive producer Steven Spielberg asked series producer and writer Tom Ruegger and the Animaniacs team to turn Freakazoid! into a flat-out comedy. The show is similar to fellow Ruegger-led programs such as Animaniacs, and the humor is unique in its inclusions of slapstick, fourth wall firings, parody, surreal humor, and pop cultural references.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show is an American television sitcom created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns that aired on CBS from 1970 to 1977. The program was a television breakthrough, with the first never-married, independent career woman as the central character: “As Mary Richards, a single woman in her thirties, Moore presented a character different from other single TV women of the time. She was not widowed or divorced or seeking a man to support her.”
It has also been cited as “one of the most acclaimed television programs ever produced” in US television history. It received high praise from critics, including Emmy Awards for Outstanding Comedy Series three years in a row, and continued to be honored long after the final episode aired.
