Ed Asner, who returns to series TV tonight in CMT’s new sitcom, “Working Class,” is a fresh-faced kid compared to his former “Mary Tyler Moore Show” co-star Betty White — who, at 89, has seen her career skyrocket after appearing in a Snickers ad during last year’s Super Bowl.
“I bet she doesn’t recover from a fall as well as I do,” says Asner, now 81 (he played Lou Grant to White’s Sue Ann Nivens on “MTM”). “The next time I see her I want to trip her,” he says gruffly (he’s kidding, he’s kidding). “It’s amazing how full her plate has been heaped, and deservedly so. I think Betty’s reached the stage where she can do no wrong.
“I have yet to get there.”
Hardly. Asner’s self-deprecating tone masks a storied career that encompasses not only “MTM,” but “Lou Grant” and hundreds of high-profile TV and movie roles (more recently “Studio 60,” “ER”) dating back to 1961.
(He’s done a lot of voiceover work of late, including the big-screen movie, “Up.”)
In “Working Class,” premiering tonight at 8, Asner plays Hank Greziak, a crusty Korean War veteran and neighbor/co-worker of series protagonist Carli Mitchell (Melissa Peterman), a divorced single mom who’s moved her family (three kids and her live-in slacker brother) to an upscale neighborhood she can’t quite afford.
Both Asner and Peterman — best known to TV viewers as Barbra Jean from “Reba” — say they’ve been challenged by the “Working Class” shooting schedule. Because of CMT budget constraints, they shoot two episodes every seven days, compared to the customary one episode every five days.
“It’s more about the money and cutting budgets . . . everyone is feeling the pinch a little bit more than they have,” says Peterman. “But I don’t feel like we’ve sacrificed anything. It’s harder on the crew and the writers.”
Peterman, a standup comedienne by trade who co-starred on “Reba” for six years, says it was weird looking over on the “Working Class” set and seeing Asner standing there.
“It’s like, ‘Good morning, Ed Asner, how was your weekend, Ed Asner?’ That all kept flashing in my head. This guy’s got seven Emmys — he could use them to tip people!
“The most surreal moment was when I went over to his house and brought my little boy with me and I was like, ‘Riley, put down the Emmy!’ When is that ever gonna happen?”
“Working Class” is shot without a studio audience, which Asner says took some getting used to.
“I’m sad we don’t have an audience but the producers and the crew certainly make up for it,” he says. “They work their a**es off and give us responses, and if you’re enough of a pro, it doesn’t take you long to realize their responses are dictated by how good you’re doing, and you use that as calibration. And it works.”
While the role of Carli wasn’t specifically written for Peterman — creator Jill Cargerman came up with the idea five years ago — she shares many qualities with her real-life alter ego.
“When I read this pilot I thought, ‘This has a Melissa feel’ and when I met Jill, she’s from Chicago and I’m from Minneapolis,” she says. “Jill is very open to having it be a collaborative process . . . and lets me infuse it with my point of view and my voice.
“I have a producing credit, so I get to say stuff [about the script] but that doesn’t mean they always listen — but I get better parking.”
Peterman describes Carli as “still looking for love. She wants to date and she’s not gonna get the cardigan-and-peasant-skirt-and-sweater set quite yet.
“She’s not done finding her life. She still wants to find love — she hasn’t given up — and still wants to find where her journey goes,” she says. “Like Carli says, ‘If no one is in jail today, we’re successful.’ I like that about her.”
Asner scoffed when asked if he’d ever consider retirement, regardless of what happens with “Working Class.”
“Why should I? As long as I’m delivering the goods and as long as it’s not physically taxing . . . I’ll tear a page from Betty’s book,” he says.
“I’ve had so many half hours that bit the dust that I didn’t think anyone wanted me again, but the way the people at CMT acted towards me — talk about a head trip. It’s like I’d just been discovered in an Egyptian tomb and came to life.
“All I could think of was, ‘What’s wrong with you guys? I’ve been out there.’
“I keep trying to run away from [characters like Hank] but they put new wrinkles on this guy, subtleties in his crustiness. He knows how to play ball — more so than any of the other encrustaceans I’ve played.”
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Cable news: Congrats to Laurie Goldberg and Elizabeth Hillman, who’ve gotten big promotions at Discovery Communications.
The LA-based Goldberg — who traveled roughly 398,000 miles last year — is now EVP, public relations, Discovery and TLC Networks. She’d been heading communications for TLC for over three years.
Hillman has been named senior VP, International Communications.
Over at A&E, they’re kvelling over their Wednesday night numbers, which lead the network to a prime-time victory in adults 18-49 and 25-54 (they didn’t do too shabby in total viewers, either). “Storage Wars” scored a series record with 3.3 million viewers (at 10:30) and 2.1 million viewers in adults 25-54; at 9, the 200th episode of “Dog the Bounty Hunter” became that series most-watched episode in over four years, snaring over 3 million viewers and 1.8 million in adults 18-49.
Syfy’s reality series “Face Off,” meanwhile, averaged over 1.4 million viewers Wednesday night and 896,000 adults 18-49 viewers — the best premiere night in that demo, for a new Sci Fi/Syfy reality series, since “Ghost Hunters” (October 2004).
Last, but not least:
* “Nothing Personal,” hosted by Steve Schirripa, premieres March 9 (10 p.m.) on Investigation Discovery. It takes a look at the heartwarming world of contract killings . . . Former “High Society” star Tinsley Mortimer sipping Veuve Clicquot at the “Clicquot in the Snow” party (Bryant Park) during Wednesday’s snowstorm.