THEATER TALK to Feature Ed Asner, 12/14

Ed Asner – back on Broadway after 23 years in Craig Wright's play Grace at the Cort – celebrates his theater roots in Chicago and New York, and compares his acting experiences in New York and Hollywood, on the latest THEATER TALK. The interview, co-hosted by Michael Riedel of the New York Post and executive producer Susan Haskins, premieres at 1 a.m. on Friday, December 14 (2012; early Saturday morning) on Thirteen/PBS, followed in New York City on CUNY TV* Saturday at 8:30 PM, Sunday at 12:30 PM, and Monday at 7:30 AM, 1:30 PM, and 7:30 PM. After its initial broadcast, the interview may be viewed online at http://www.cuny.tv/show/theatertalk/PR2001461.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Asner's New York theater roots go back to the acclaimed off-Broadway production of Threepenny Opera, whose cast he joined in 1956. Asner then relocated to L.A. and after 13 years of playing character roles in TV dramas, he shot to fame portraying Lou Grant in the iconic sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show from 1970 to 1977. He then headed his own hit series, Lou Grant, from 1977 to 1982. Nominated for an astonishing 20 Emmy Awards, Asner has won seven. He also served as president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1981 to 1985, and is known for frequently riling Hollywood's conservative establishment. Asner last appeared on Broadway as "Harry Brock" opposite Madeline Kahn's "Billie Dawn" in the 1989 Broadway revival of Garson Kanin's Born Yesterday, "when they drove me out of town," claims Asner. "[The critics] ripped me a new one ... and I was never asked back from '89 until now."

THEATER TALK is the weekly series dedicated to the world of the stage. The program is jointly produced by the not-for-profits Theater Talk Productions and CUNY TV. It is taped in the Himan Brown TV and Radio Studios at The City University of New York (CUNY) TV in Manhattan, and is distributed to 60+ participating public television markets nationwide. THEATER TALK is made possible in part by The New York State Council on the Arts, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The TDF/TAP Plus Program, The CUNY TV Foundation and The Friends of THEATER TALK.

*CUNY TV, the City University of New York television station, is carried in New York City's five boroughs – on Channel 75 on Time Warner and Cablevision, Channel 77 on RCN, and Channel 30 on Verizon FiOS.