The Bob Newhart Show

The Bob Newhart Show
title screen
Format	situation comedy
Created by	David Davis Lorenzo Music
Starring	Bob Newhart Suzanne Pleshette Marcia Wallace Peter Bonerz Bill Daily
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	6
No. of episodes	142
Production
Running time	30 minutes per episode
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Original run	September 16, 1972 – April 1, 1978
External links
IMDb profile

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 September 16, 1972 to April 1, 1978. Newhart portrayed a psychologist having to deal with his patients and fellow office workers. It currently airs on AmericanLife TV Network.

The other Bob Newhart Show was an NBC variety show which aired during the 1961–1962 season (see below).

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 (later 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 mean-spirited and neurotic 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, an extension of Newhart's stand-up comedy routines, where Newhart would play one side of a telephone conversation, the other side of which was not heard.

Cast

• Bob Newhart as Dr. Robert Hartley, psychologist
• Suzanne Pleshette as Emily Hartley, his wife, a school teacher
• Bill Daily as Howard Borden, their next-door neighbor, an airline navigator
• Peter Bonerz as Dr. Jerry Robinson, Bob's friend, an orthodontist
• Marcia Wallace as Carol Kester, their receptionist

Thorndale Beach North condominiums, 5901 N. Sheridan Road in Chicago's Edgewater community, used for exterior shots of the Hartley's apartment building.

Rimpo Medical Arts Center

• Larry Gelman as Dr. Bernie Tupperman, urologist (12 episodes)
• Howard Platt as Dr. Newman, cosmetic surgeon (4)
• Shirley O'Hara Debbie, temp receptionist (3)
• Phillip R. Allen as Dr. Walburn, another psychologist (2)
• Teri Garr as Miss Brennan, Dr. Walburn's receptionist (2)

Ratings

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

Honors

The show 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^[1]. In 2007, Time magazine placed the show on its unranked list of "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME".^[2]

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

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.

The "Hartleys" were also hosts for a segment of the CBS Television Fiftieth Anniversary broadcast.

The variety show

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 CBS series have been released on Region 1 DVD by 20th Century Fox.

Notes

External links

• "The Bob Newhart Show" (1961) at the Internet Movie Database
• "The Bob Newhart Show" (1972) at the Internet Movie Database
• The Bob Newhart Show on TVLand.com

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