He's still Ted Baxter, even with a new name

LOS ANGELES-Some roles are so memorable that they dog an actor's footsteps the rest of his career. Ted Knight, also known as Ted Baxter, doesn't care.

"I've never really wanted to shake Ted Baxter," says Knight. "People want to see that character."

Knight developed Ted Baxter's special blend of pomposity, vanity and nincompoopery over seven seasons on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. As Knight describes him, "Ted Baxter gave the whole world a superiority complex." Along the way Knight picked up two Emmy awards as best supporting actor in a comedy.

"Oh," he says, "it might hurt in stage work, but I've done all that. I want to do light comedy. I like making people laugh. That's better than self­indulgence around the stage."

[Knight finds new closeness in a family role]

Knight is making them laugh again in the new ABC comedy Too Close for Comfort at 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays on ABC. In that he plays an over­protective father whose two beautiful young daughters take up residence in the downstairs apartment.

"Playing Ted Baxter was an asset," he says. "I'll be able to reach back into my memory banks and modify little bits of things. Ted's a very adaptable character."

Such an indelible character and association with the hit series also gave Knight an identity he had never before had as an actor. He'd been in numerous stage productions, on radio, and had done 300 guest roles on television. Still, few people could put the name with the face.

He says, "I may have been anonymous to the public, but I was highly regarded by the film community. I never lacked for employment."

Knight says his show is taped with four cameras, compared to filming the Moore show with three cameras. He believes tape provides less margin for error-it allows instantaneous playback-and that the extra camera saves a lot of camera dolly traffic across the stage. He says, "It's easier on the actor. It's less of a tightrope you're walking."

He says his new character is more closely associated with his own life than Ted Baxter. "We're both fathers of teen­agers," he says. "We're both trying to cope with a nuclear society. It's a simple format, but therein lies the possibility of much complexity in the future.

"I don't believe in anything extreme," he says. "Just sensible. I don't smoke, and I drink very lightly."

He laughs and assumes a bit of a Baxter pose. He says, "You can say, 'Ted Knight sat there eating his health food, looking trim, virile and several years younger than his true age.' "

Knight, who was born Tadewurz Wladzui Konopka in Terryville, Conn., says there are no immediate plans to make his new character Polish, although it's something to think about. "Hey," he says, "I might mention that to the producer. Why not? "