RIP Bob Newhart
In the 2013 list of my favorite 63 TV shows of all-time, The Bob Newhart Show landed at number 33. That alone should tell you how much Newhart means to me. I just really identified with his humor - a stammering and deadpan intelligence that dryly usually got him through situations even with one foot stuck in his mouth and even in his sessions with clients in his job as a psychologist.
Newhart has passed away at 94 in Los Angeles due to a series of brief illnesses. The show costarred Suzanne Pleshette as his wife and aired on CBS for six seasons from 1972 to 1978. I remember watching it with my family in the basement of our house on Saturday nights. But I surely must have missed many weeks because of friend sleepovers and whatnot. That said, I no doubt ended up watching the show more in syndication because the excellent KPLR in St. Louis - Missouri’s first independent TV station - aired reruns all the time, of Newhart and tons of other great shows as well.
Also hilarious was his next show, titled Newhart, which began four years later - running from 1982 to 1990 - with the star playing a Vermont inn operator. The show had perhaps TV’s most classic meta ending with him waking up next to Pleshette (who wasn’t in the show) and realizing the whole eight years of Newhart had just been a dream.
Interesting facts about Newhart:
He was born in 1929 in Oak Park, Illinois and got a business degree from Loyola University of Chicago.
He was in the U.S. Army during the Korean War.
He started his career as an advertising copywriter, but he was honing his comedy and writing while there.
His 1960 album The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart hit number 1 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart and it garnered him two Grammys.
Newhart’s legacy grew with younger generations when he played Papa Elf in Will Ferrell’s now-classic Christmas comedy movie Elf.
Amazingly, he didn’t win his first Emmy until 2013, and it was for a guest appearance on The Big Bang Theory.
Despite all the TV and movies, Newhart always said standup comedy had been his favorite.
Newhart’s wife of 60 years, Ginnie, passed away last year. The two were introduced all those years ago by fellow comedian Buddy Hackett.