Ted Baxter was a fictional character on the situation comedy Mary Tyler Moore known by his signature phrase "good night and good news." He was played by Ted Knight. Since the show aired, references to the character have become a means by which to take a critical position of media figures.
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Character
Ted Baxter was the overbearing, pompous anchorman for the fictitious station WJM-TV in Minneapolis, Minnesota. While his massive ego consistently fueled his dreams of grandeur, his actual performance was the reverse. A running joke of the show was Ted Baxter's incompetence, evidenced by a steady stream of mispronunciations, malapropisms, and mercurial displays of temper. Constantly in fear of being fired, Ted Baxter is, in fact, the only character of the show to survive the mass-layoffs that featured in the final episode, a deft twist of plot that further cemented the satirical comment on mainstream media implicit in his character.[1]
References In Popular Culture
Ted Baxter has become an archetypal character for making reference to the nightly TV news anchor in a critical context. [2] On the US animated TV series The Simpsons, the recurring character of anchor Kent Brockman is an homage to Ted Baxter. The 2005 film Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy also makes extensive explicit and implicit references to Ted Baxter.
References In Media Culture
On the MSNBC news program Countdown, Keith Olbermann has used the character to disparage his rival Bill O'Reilly. He regularly refers to O'Reilly as "Ted Baxter" and reads O'Reilly's words in a Baxter imitation. [3]
See Also
References
- ^ Dalton, Mary & Laura R. Linder, The Sitcom Reader: America Viewed and Skewed (SUNY Press, 2005), 232-234
- ^ See, e.g. Frank Boyle, IBM, Talking Heads, and Our Classrooms, College English, 55:6 (Oct. 1993), 618-626.
- ^ See (inter alia) http://mediamatters.org/items/200602240005
| Mary Tyler Moore | |
|---|---|
| Main characters | Ted Baxter | Georgette Franklin Baxter | Lou Grant Phyllis Lindstrom | Rhoda Morgenstern | Sue Ann Nivens Mary Richards | Murray Slaughter |
| Recurring characters | David Baxter | Edie Grant | Gordy Howard | Bess Lindstrom Flo Meredith | Ida Morgenstern | Martin Morgenstern Dottie Richards | Walter Richards | Marie Slaughter |
| Spin-offs | Rhoda (1974-1978) | Phyllis (1975-1977) Lou Grant (1977-1982) |
| TV specials | Mary Tyler Moore: The 20th Anniversary Show (1991) The Mary Tyler Moore Reunion (2002) |
| Other | Episodes | DVDs | Mary and Rhoda (TV movie) |
