PLYMOUTH - Ted Knight cut the comedy Saturday night.
Although he's a comic actor, he told his old hometown friends gathered at a testimonial in his honor that they knew him too well for him to use his "socko" material on them.
He was so overwhelmed that he cried.
It was a touching end to an exhausting weekend for Knight, who originally came back here to serve as grand marshal of the Plymouth Bicentennial Parade.
Knight, who plays a bumbling Ted Baxter on TV's Mary Tyler Moore Show, stepped into his role just long enough to greet the 500 people that attended the dinner.
"Hi guys," came the familiar words. "I can hardly wait to see what I'm going to say to something as wonderful as that (the accolades that were heaped on him)."
He then proceeded to thank the members of his family that had traveled from over the eastern coast to see him and the friends that helped him decide to go into show business.
He reminisced about the first time he'd heard of the magic of Hollywood, said he was deeply honored by the appearance of so many friends and then broke off.
The tears had welled up earlier too while different local groups were making presentations.
When it was all over, the people swarmed around the star, as they had all weekend. And he hadn't forgotten any of them. They were amazed that he was such a downtoearth guy with no airs.
In fact, a resident who had occasion to talk to his producer described him as a "sweet and unusual man."
[Waterbury Republican, Sunday, June 13, 1976]