Newsletter – December 12, 2025
CREDIT: PHOTOFEST
Ed Asner stood at the end of my gurney and put his hand on my ankle by way of encouragement as he was talking to someone else. He moved on before I could thank him but I sure appreciated the warm assurance.
You may remember Ed Asner from his portrayal of Santa Claus on the movie Elf. Like my daughter says, the holiday season hasn’t really started until we sit down to watch Elf. It’s a Christmas favorite in the Margerum household and I love to pull my “World’s Best Cup of Coffee” mug off the shelf to salute the holidays.
Maybe you remember Asner as the voice of the curmudgeonly Carl Fredricksen in the animated movie Up. He flew his house to South America by equipping it with balloons.
My memories of him date back much further to “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” in which he played Mary’s boss in the newsroom of WJM-TV.
In the very first episode when she interviewed for her job, he asked inappropriate questions about her personal life and she stood up and reprimanded him for it. In response, he walked around his big desk with a half grin on his face and told her, “You know what? You got spunk.”
She modestly tried to thank him for the compliment but he interrupted her.
“I hate spunk.”
That got a huge laugh from the live audience and the relationship was established. The series ran for nine years.
His character, Lou Grant, was one of the few—maybe the only—to get a spin-off from a sitcom to create a drama. He was given the job of City Editor at a Los Angeles newspaper in a series that began immediately and “Lou Grant” would run for five years. Ed Asner won Emmy Awards for the same character in each series.
This was the Ed Asner I knew and loved even though, like Mary, I was a little intimidated by him.
I was on a gurney donating blood along with many more actors in the Screen Actors Guild and Asner was there because he was the SAG President. Maybe he could sense my fear, actors are practiced at sensing the emotions in other people. I hate needles, and his hand on my ankle was just the reassurance I needed. I breathed a little easier after that.
The only words he could’ve said to improve on the moment would’ve been:
“You know what? You got spunk.”
TTFN
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Last week, a few hours after my newsletter went out, I saw a social media post from Judy Norton that an autographed CD version of her Christmas music is available through her website: judynorton.com.
I had only mentioned where I saw it downloadable.
Downloads are handy but so difficult to wrap, don’t you think?
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Eric Margerum 