TERYYVILLE-Television star Ted Knight's return home to this community will be the subject matter of a CBS special tentatively scheduled for Dec. 8.
Knight, a native of Terryville and one of the star performers of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, disclosed plans Friday morning for reenacting today's events in Terryville as a situation comedy on national television. Tentative plans, Knight said, call for the signing of Fred MacMurray to play the role of the chief executive of Terryville for the television special.
Ned Shankman, Knight's manager, discussed plans for the special which will depict the return home of a star to he small town of his boyhood.
Shankman said the television audience will feel as though they "are watching a play" similar to "Our Town" by Thornton Wilder. Writers in Los Angeles are currently preparing scripts for the show, which will be taped in a recreated Terryville in midAugust, according to Shankman.
The idea for the show came when members of Plymouth's Bicentennial Committee, including its chairman, J. Francis Ryan, first wrote to Knight asking him to return to Terryville for today's parade. Those involved with the show and its planning were "touched" by the local writers and decided the concept of Terryville's "Ted Knight Day" to be "a great idea."
A comedy based on events of today including Plymouth's Bicentennial parade, the judging of the beard contest on Terryville center's Baldwin Park and the testimonial dinner tonight for Knight, will provide the material for the December showing.
Knight will be in Terryville until Sunday when he will depart for his California home. With him also is his press agent, Don Demesquita.
Knight rode the entire route of the parade through Terryville today and will greet more than 500 local persons tonight during the dinner. Several of his relatives still live in town.
[The Bristol Press, Saturday, June 12, 1976]