THE BOB NEWHART SHOW

'''The Bob Newhart Show''' is the name of two different television series, both starring comedian Bob Newhart. The better-known is a situation comedy produced by MTM Enterprises, which aired on CBS from 1972 through 1978. Newhart portrayed a psychologist having to deal with his patients and fellow office workers. (The other ''Bob Newhart Show'' was an NBC variety show which aired during the 1961-1962 season.)
It was nominated for an Emmy as "Outstanding Comedy Series" in 1977. Newhart was nominated for Golden Globes as "Best TV Actor - Musical/Comedy" in 1975 and 1976. TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time listed it as #44 on its list.

Contents

Premise

Ratings

Post-show appearances

The other series

DVD Releases

Trivia

External links

References

Premise

The popular CBS series starred Newhart as Robert Hartley, a Chicago psychologist. The show divided most of its action between the character's home life and work, with Suzanne Pleshette as Hartley's supportive (though occasionally sarcastic) wife Emily, and Bill Daily as their friendly, but inept neighbor, airline navigator Howard Borden. At the medical complex where Hartley had his psychology practice, Marcia Wallace played his joke-loving receptionist, Carol Kester-Bondurant, and Peter Bonerz appeared as Jerry Robinson, an orthodontist who shared the office suite. Two of Hartley's more memorable regular patients were the exceptionally mean-spirited Elliot Carlin (Jack Riley) and the milquetoast ex-Marine Emil Peterson (John Fiedler). (Carlin was ranked 49th in TV Guide's List of the 50 Greatest TV Characters of All Time.) Most of the situations involved Newhart's character playing straight man to his wife, colleagues, friends and patients.

Ratings

The show ranked in the Top 20 for its first 3 seasons (it followed the popular Mary Tyler Moore Show), but schedule changes eventually pushed it to #53 by its final season (1977-78).

Post-show appearances

Newhart and Pleshette reprised their roles from the show for the surreal finale of ''Newhart'' in 1990, in which it was revealed that the entire later ''Newhart'' series had been just Bob Hartley's dream.
The entire cast assembled for the one-hour clip show ''The Bob Newhart Show 19th Anniversary'' in 1991. On the show, one of the things they did was analyze Bob's dream. During the discussion, the Hartleys' neighbor, Howard Borden (Bill Daily), recalled, "I had a dream like that once. I dreamed I was an astronaut in Florida for five years", as scenes from ''I Dream of Jeannie'' featuring Daily were shown. (Jeannie ran for five years on NBC.) This was a reference to Dallas and Larry Hagman, who starred in the ''Jeannie'' series and in ''Dallas,'' since part of the story line in the last season of ''Dallas'' was that the prior season was just a dream.
The "Hartleys" were also hosts for a segment of the CBS Television Fiftieth Anniversary broadcast.

The other series

Newhart was the star of a comedy variety show with the same name. It ran from 1961 to 1962 on NBC, and won an Emmy and a Peabody Award. Neither should be confused with two other series in which he starred, ''Newhart'' or ''Bob''.

DVD Releases

The first four seasons of the show have been released on Region 1 DVD by 20th Century Fox.

DVD Name	Ep #	Release Date
The Complete 1st Season	24	April 12 2005
The Complete 2nd Season	24	October 4 2005
The Complete 3rd Season	24	April 11 2006
The Complete 4th Season	24	September 5 2006

Trivia

★ Many running gags permeated ''The Bob Newhart Show''. One such gag involved showing Bob Newhart in one-sided telephone conversations, which resembled his stand-up comedy routines from the 1960s. Another running gag involved characters saying "Hi, Bob" frequently. According to The Internet Movie Database, actors said "Hi, Bob" 256 times during the run of the series. This inspired a drinking game of the same name where participants watched the show and chugged their drinks whenever that phrase was uttered on the show.

★ Elliot Carlin was in ''every one'' of Dr. Hartley's therapy groups.

★ In 2004, TV Land commemorated the show with a at Navy Pier. The statue was originally placed in front of 430 Michigan Avenue, the building shown as the site of Dr. Hartley's office, but was moved.

★ The opening credits of the third season were changed slightly throughout the season to reflect the continuing progress on the construction of Water Tower Place.

External links

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References