MAKING IT ALL SEEM WORTHWHILE : MOORE, ASNER STAND DIVIDED ON `PAYBACK'.

Byline: Andy Meisler The New York Times

Mary Tyler Moore's unmistakable voice cracked slightly with tension. ``Excuse me, sir!'' she said to a young man carrying a video camera, as all around her, in the elegant main courtroom of the Multnomah County Building here, people froze. ``Who are you shooting for?''

Moore was rehearsing an emotional trial scene in ``Payback,'' a television movie thriller to be seen on KABC (Channel 7) at 9 tonight that marks her first on-screen appearance in 20 years with Edward Asner, her former co-star and comedy soul mate.

Quickly the camera operator was surrounded by a swarm of production personnel. Then a smaller delegation was dispatched to explain things to Moore. ``Oh. Oh,'' she said, then brightened. ``Oh, yes!''

It was a ``Mary Tyler Moore'' kind of moment, as the actress's famous radiance spread smiles throughout the entire company.

The video crew was not, as Moore feared, from a show such as ``Hard Copy'' or ``Entertainment Tonight.'' It was on assignment for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, shooting background footage for a short documentary marking Asner's forthcoming induction into that organization's Hall of Fame.

Moore smilingly moved to one side of the courtroom, gave a short interview to the documentary maker and embraced Asner for the cameras before the two went back to work.

Reunions can be tricky things, particularly one involving one of television's most famous pairings and particularly when that team's appeal rested on a famously complicated apples-and-oranges, growls-and-smiles kind of chemistry.

As it turned out, making the film was an unexpectedly unpleasant experience for the stars, network and producers, leaving many wondering whether the stars had changed too much or the business had, or whether recapturing magic is too much to expect.

Little more than a month after shooting ended, Moore disowned ``Payback.'' In November, after viewing a rough cut of the film, she decided that she would take no part in its promotion or publicity. She declared in an interview that she was deeply dissatisfied with the way her talents had been used.

``It does no honor to the past relationship between Ed and me,'' Moore said at the time.

Asner just as strongly disagreed. ``I liked the film a lot,'' he said last year. ``I'm shocked and saddened. I hope it's just a momentary feeling that Mary's having. I hope it's not something she stays with, because she's wrong.''

On ``The Mary Tyler Moore Show,'' Mary Richards, a graciously ambitious career woman, and Lou Grant, her crusty but basically decent boss, built a friendship out of their disagreements. With far different mood, setting and characters, ``Payback'' seeks to present a platonic, prickly relationship that does not re-create those characters but inevitably reminds viewers of the old days.

In this case, the team is a working mother (Moore), who reluctantly joins forces with a no-nonsense police internal affairs investigator after a rogue cop frames her son for murder.

Moore, however, felt that something was lost in the transposition. ``Before we went into production, we talked about preserving the special aura that Ed and I have,'' she said. ``But now, I'm just a stereotypical hand-wringing mother.''

Mary Richards did plenty of hand wringing on ``Mary Tyler Moore,'' but she did many other things as well. In many ways her fictional relationship with Lou Grant seemed to sum up America's best thoughts about itself during the 1970s.

Asner and Moore have always acknowledged that their pairing came about because of an unlikely combination of chance and risk. In 1970, Moore, 32, was four years removed from her co-starring housewife role on ``The Dick Van Dyke Show.'' Directly behind her was a Broadway flop and several unimpressive movie roles.

Asner, 41, was a former auto worker and veteran dramatic character actor. At his audition, Asner performed the famous scene from the pilot episode in which Mary Richards, ex-secretary, asked Lou Grant, news director, for a job in the WJM newsroom.

``You know what? You've got spunk,'' said Lou to Mary, in a sound bite that foreshadowed their relationship, and much of the comedic style of the entire series. ``I hate spunk.''

On his first try, Asner gave the scene an ominous spin that had the producers checking their audition schedules. Pausing at the exit, he asked to try it again. Then he gave the scene a lighter, gleefully blustering reading. That eventually won him the part on a show that after a slow start became a Saturday night ritual for a wide spectrum of viewers, in large part because of the connection between Lou and Mary.

``For me, that was the heart of the show,'' said Allan Burns, one of the series' creators. ``It was a sort of love affair, unacknowledged.''

The series ended after seven seasons, still high in the ratings, when Moore called a halt. But what followed for her were several unexpectedly unsuccessful attempts, in several different formats, to showcase her talents in other television series. Her most favorable reviews came for her role in the 1980 movie ``Ordinary People,'' in which she played a kind of anti-Mary Richards; a materialistic, emotionally blocked woman.

In 1995 she published her autobiography, ``After All,'' in which she discussed many wrenchingly unhappy details of her private life. These included a dysfunctional childhood, two broken marriages, the accidental shooting death of her only son and battles with alcoholism and diabetes.

In 1996, after expressing dissatisfaction with her role, she pulled out of the short-lived CBS drama series ``New York News.'' However, last year she received good notices for her part as Ben Stiller's eccentric adoptive mother in the film ``Flirting With Disaster'' - her first true comedy part in some time. Moore currently is writing a book about her involvement in the animal rights movement.

Asner's career took a number of unexpected turns as well. In 1977, he pulled off the unusual feat of re-introducing his Lou Grant character in an hourlong dramatic format. The newsroom series ``Lou Grant'' won many awards before being canceled in 1982, at least in part because of Asner's increasingly visible off-screen role as president of the Screen Actors Guild and critic of the Reagan administration's Central American policy.

Since then he has worked fairly steadily, in television movies and miniseries and with recurring or regular roles in short-lived series such as ``The Trials of Rosie O'Neill,'' a drama, and two comedies, ``Off the Rack'' and ``Thunder Alley.''

But he has not been swamped with work. ``I never have enough offers - well, of quality stuff,'' said Asner. He has tried to solve the problem by forming his own production company; one aim for years was to find and produce a property in which he could star with Moore.

Although they were not the closest of friends, the two stayed in touch. Once several years ago they both tried to do a television remake of the Katharine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy film ``Pat and Mike.'' The project was not sold.

``The networks didn't want it,'' said Asner. ``They want stories about people 18 to 49.''

ABC wanted ``Payback.'' However, three years passed before negotiations were concluded and a satisfactory script was completed. Back in September, though, the talk was still of the expected benefits to be realized by reuniting the two actors.

Asner, who was also one of the producers of ``Payback,'' agreed. ``Sure, our relationship resonates in people's minds,'' he said. ``And that puts the onus on us to do a movie that puts different slants on our personas. And I think we've done it.

``Of course,'' he added, ``in some way or another I'll always be wedded to Mary in people's minds. And I'll always be happy about that.''

Happy was not a word that appeared to creep up a lot once filming began in Portland in September, either on the set or in front of the cameras. While ``Mary Tyler Moore'' was emphatically a comedy in which Mary Richards and Lou Grant bounced from clash to chuckle, ``Payback'' is a dark and tense thriller in which neither character finds anything to laugh about.

During breaks, Asner mingled with the cast and crew, while Moore spent her time in her trailer with her assistant. On the set, however, Asner and Moore appeared to slip comfortably into their new roles, improvising and offering suggestions. Sometimes they huddled together and conferred quietly.

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Photo

Photo: Mary Tyler Moore is disappointed with ``Payback,'' the TV movie that marks her first on-screen appearance in 20 years with Edward Asner. Asner disagrees. ``I liked the film a lot,'' he said last year.