Saturday nights were a very special night in our house when I was 16. It was a difficult time: my mother was dying of breast cancer, and there was very little laughter or humor during that last summer in 1973—except for Saturday nights at 9 p.m.
That’s when “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” was on. We would all gather around the TV and forget about all the pain and trouble. Ted Knight was our star. He played Ted Baxter, the bungling, buffoon of a newscaster whose comic genius played off the incredible writing to deliver rarely seen humor. His performance demanded that all who watch him forget about their problems, if only for a few moments.
