Bob Newhart: The comic genius of Bob Newhart

Bob Newhart, at left, with Mary Frann who played his TV wife on "Newhart" in the '80s

Source: https://www.tvinsider.com/1066732/newhart-fun-facts-series-premiere-40th-anniversary/

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It still goes down as one of the biggest surprise endings in television history. What makes it even more amazing is that it connected the two shows that Bob Newhart was known for.

Whether he was a Chicago psychologist or a Vermont innkeeper, Newhart brought his dry, deadpan sense of comic timing to the role he played.

He was an actor who so often could communicate so much without saying so much as a word. A look, a gesture, or a dramatic pause could have the studio audience in stitches.

I was sad to hear today that Bob Newhart had died at the age of 94.

Let’s talk
My first exposure to Bob Newhart was in the “Bob Newhart Show” where he played Bob Hartley, a psychologist in Chicago with a wide variety of interesting patients. Suzanne Pleshette played his wife Emily; Peter Bonerz played Jerry, a dentist who shared an office space with bob; Marcia Wallace played the secretary Bob and Jerry shared; and Bill Daily played Howard Borden, Bob and Emily’s next-door neighbour and friend, who was a pilot.

I recall several of his patients, specifically the smart-mouthed Mr. Carlin, played by Jack Riley; nebbishy Mr. Peterson, played by John Fiedler; and a patient played by Howard Hesseman who, in one episode, was obsessed with coming up with game show ideas.

For his efforts, Newhart was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy TV series in 1974 and 1976.

“The Bob Newhart Show” ran for six seasons from 1972 to 1978, for a total of 142 episodes.

The big screen
Bob Newhart had also been in a number of movies including “Hell is for Heroes”; “Hot Millions”; “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever”; and “Catch -22”.

I remember him best in “Cold Turkey”, released in 1971. “Cold Turkey” always seemed to be on in reruns. It is about a town that vows to quit smoking for 30 days to win $25 million tax-free offered by a tobacco company as a publicity stunt.

This is another movie I saw the first part of several times, but fell asleep before I could see how it ended.

To the rescue
The next time I encountered Bob Newhart, it was actually his voice.

I had seen commercials for this Disney cartoon that really looked interesting, so one weekend afternoon my Mom and my sister took me to the College Cinema in the Woolco Mall in Lethbridge to see “The Rescuers”.

A little girl named Penny sends out a cry for help with a message in a bottle. Two rescuers, Miss Bianca, voiced by Eva Gabor, and Bernard, voiced by Bob Newhart, answer the call and go on this awesome adventure to rescue her.

It was one of my favourite cartoons, and Bernard, a stuttering janitor, is a big part of the reason for that. In the days before movies on tape or demand, if I wanted to re-visit a good movie, the best I could do, beyong waiting for the rare occasion it would air on TV in the three-channel universe, was buy the book “The Rescuers” from Scholastic Books.

When I was watching “The Rescuers”, the voice of Bernard sounded familiar but I could just not place it. I waited for the credits. When I saw it was Bob Newhart, I thought that made so much sense. Bernard had the same comic timing as Bob Hartley did.

New England bound
At the dawn of the decade, Newhart appeared in two movies in 1980 – “Little Miss Marker”, with Julie Andrews, Walter Matthau, and Tony Curtis, and “First Family”, a comedy where he plays the President of the United States.

Then, in 1982, he took his sitcom show on the road to New England, playing a writer and innkeeper in Vermont in “Newhart”. It was a show that would run the rest of the decade.

Newhart played Dick Louden who wrote do-it-yourself and travel books. He and his wife Joanna, played by Mary Frann, move to rural Vermont to run the Stratford Inn. They are aided by handyman George Uttley, played by Tom Poston, and Leslie Vanderkellen, played by Jennifer Holmes. Next door is the Minuteman Café owned by compulsive liar Kirk Devane, played by Steven Kampmann. Leslie leaves after season one and is replaced by her cousin Stephanie, played by Julia Duffy. Dick goes on to host a local TV show, where his producer Michael Harris, played by Peter Scolari, gets together with Stephanie. The Loudens are periodically visited by three woodsmen – Larry, his brother Darryl, and his other brother Darryl. When Kirk leaves in the third season, the brothers buy the Minuteman and become regulars on the show.

“Newhart” is probably best known for its series finale. The world becomes increasingly illogical for Dick. Japanese developers build a golf course next to the inn and, when Dick refuses to sell, the course is built around him. As things grow more chaotic, Dick is hit in the head by an errant golf ball.

All the speculation leading up to the finale was that Dick would die and meet someone interesting in heaven.

When he comes to, he is in his bedroom – in Chicago. He looks around and wakes his wife. Instead of Joanna, it is Emily from “The Bob Newhart Show”. It turns out all of “Newhart” was a dream of Bob Hartley’s.

It was absolutely brilliant, and remains one of the most famous surprise endings in television history.

For his efforts, Newhart was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy TV series in 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1985. He was also nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 1985, 1986 and 1987.

“Newhart” ran eight seasons, from 1982 to 1990, for a total of 184 episodes.

The years after
Bob Newhart kept on acting for decades. He had two more sitcoms that were not nearly as successful as his two previous ones. “Bob” ran for 33 episodes from 1992 to 1993, and “George and Leo” ran 22 episodes from 1997 to 1998. He also had guest appearances in “Murphy Brown”; “The Simpsons”; “Mad TV”; “Desperate Housewives”; “NCIS”; “Hot in Cleveland”; and more.

There was a memorable three-episode run in “ER”, which garnered him an Emmy nomination in 2004 for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. He also appeared in several movies and episodes of “The Librarians”, where he earned an Emmy nomination in 2009 for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series.

His best role may have been as former children’s science TV personality Professor Proton in “The Big Bang Theory” and “Young Sheldon”. I remember one time he confronted Bill Nye “The Science Guy”, and had to say, “Back off bow tie!” It was brilliant.

Newhart won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 2013 for his role as Professor Proton in “The Big Bang Theory”, and was nominated again in 2014 and 2016.

He lent his voice to “The Rescuers Down Under” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie”; and appeared in movies such as “In and Out”; “Legally Blonde 2: Red, White, and Blonde”; “Elf”; ”Horrible Bosses”; and more.

Newhart has won three Grammys and been nominated twice more for his comedy albums. He won the Golden Globe for Best TV Star Male in 1962 for his first incarnation of “The Bob Newhart Show”, which bore little resemblance to the more famous one, and was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for that series as well.

He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999.

Parting thoughts
I still remember where I was on May 21, 1990, when I saw the finale of “Newhart”. I was living in res at the University of Alberta in Edmonton going to summer school. I wasn’t paying much attention to television, but I had read the speculation about how “Newhart” was going to end. The night it was on, my floormate Tony Paradoski, had it on and invited me to watch.

I still remember how utterly surprised I was.

Nothing else can better capture, in one scene, the comic genius of Bob Newhart.