Characterization Takes Hold

"I'll never forgive Mary Tyler Moore for doing this to me." Ted Knight­Baxter, said in his most pompous voice.

"There I am sitting in my home looking over the ocean, economically secure for life, my marriage intact, my children happy, my future good.

"I'll never forgive her for doing this to me in only seven years. "

In addition to the happiness wealth, fame, security and recognition Mary Tyler Moore inflicted on him through seven years of her hit Saturday night TV series, Knight also achieved fame in his own home town of Terryville, Ct., and that's the hardest thing for an actor to get.

So when Knight, who is part of Baxter, just as Baxter is a part of Knight, was called home this year for "Ted Knight Day" to celebrate him as the home town's "Man of the Year", the Baxter in him didn't want to let go when it was over. He returned home to Hollywood and re­created the whole affair in a comedy with music which CBS will broadcast Tuesday, Nov. 30, 8 p.m. The whole hour is a "book" show, with some familiar names-Ed Asner, Fred MacMurray, Rue McClanahan, Ethel Merman, Phil Silvers and Loretta Swit-appearing in roles, not as themselves.

"We're just treading the waters with CBS," Knight explained. "I have a development deal with the network, so we slipped this in before 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' goes off next spring. It cost a lot of money and I hope people like it."

The show is titled "The Ted Knight Musical Comedy Variety Special Special."

The ego of Ted Baxter tells him CBS scheduled it opposite television's two most popular shows, "Happy Days" and "Laverne and Shirley" because it has confidence in him.

The insecurities which were a part of Ted Knight tell him the network may be sending him a message by putting his special in the doomsday slot.

Even though Knight is confident he will return to TV on a regular basis within a season or two after "MTM" leaves the air, there's the big question of what happens to Ted Baxter, the egocentric buffoon who set the standard for local TV news anchormen nationwide.

"Sometimes I don't know when I'm Knight or Baxter," he confessed. "Baxter slips in and out of me.

"And the people expect that. It would be foolish of me not to use him. He's pure gold. I'll be Baxter, at least a part of me will be Baxter, until the day I die.

"I do hope to extend him into more sophisticated humor," Knight added, indicating he doesn't want to spend the rest of life as a pompous ass.

Then he slipped back into Baxter and added, "The anchormen have shown exquisite taste to pattern themselves after Baxter.

"Everywhere I go, including among TV executives, people say, 'We've got a guy here just like you.' "

Regarding the decision to bring the successful and long­running "Mary Tyler Moore Show" to a halt after this season, Knight said, "It's better to go out with a flourish than to become predictable."

He added that the network decision to shift the show into the 8 p.m. "family hour" slot for the remainder of the season hasn't caused any changes in anything the show is doing.

"Even while the family hour litigation was going on and we thought we might be put into family hour, we went ahead with a show about a lewd and lascivious attack on Ted," he said. "We don't feel anything we do is objectionable to anyone, if it's handled properly.

"And Mary Tyler is the main gal always, and she wouldn't accept anything which wouldn't please her or a 15­year­old," Knight­Baxter snickered.