Georgette Franklin Baxter
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Georgette Franklin Baxter was a fictional character on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." She was played by Georgia Engel from 1972 until the show's end in 1977.
[edit] The dizzy one who landed the marblemouth.
Georgette was the somewhat dizty girlfriend (and later wife) of marblemouthed news anchor, Ted Baxter.
She made her first appearance at one of Mary Richards' legendary disastrous parties. She worked as a window dresser at Hempel's Department Store in Minneapolis, Minnesota along with Rhoda Morgenstern.
Georgette was introduced as Rhoda's co-worker, but over the years it was more or less implied that she was Mary's friend first. In fact it was Mary who said she felt responsible for introducing Georgette to Ted.[citation needed]
Georgette was indeed devoted to Ted. In fact, she was originally presented as Ted's "servant," but this later changed.[citation needed] Soon, Georgette became the one person who wouldn't take any of Ted's shenanigans lightly, either. Georgette expected Ted to behave like the human being she loved, not like the buffoon that Lou Grant, Murray Slaughter, and Mary mocked.
Eventually, after several starts and stops, they did get married in Mary Richards's apartment. They adopted a child named David (Robbie Rist), and later, she gave birth to a little girl named Mary Lou, named after her friends, Mary Richards and Lou Grant. This birth also occurred in Mary's apartment.
She and Mary got along fantastically, and she helped to somewhat fill the void that Phyllis Lindstrom and Rhoda left in Mary's life when they left for San Francisco and New York City, respectively.
Although Georgette was presented as a window dresser working with Rhoda, she held many jobs during the show's run. She worked in a car rental, as a Golden Girl (sort of an Avon lady), and again worked for Rhoda, when Rhoda opened up a business selling plants.
Georgette's character was a case of great timing, as Ted Knight, the actor who portrayed Ted Baxter, was making a lot of noise at CBS[citation needed], threatening to leave the show if his character was not made more dimensional. Indeed, until this point, Ted had been almost cartoon-like. Engel's performance of Georgette struck a chord with the producers[citation needed], who saw her as a way to humanize and make Ted a more dimensional character.
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