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Bob Newhart
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The Bob Newhart Show was the forerunner to two of Newhart's other sitcoms, Newhart and Bob. All three are vehicles for Bob Newhart's buttoned-down comic persona. Newhart's trademark telephone routine is worked into every episode, providing him with the best means to showcase his patented deadpan delivery. Surrounded by neurotics, depressives and other mentally unstable people at his psychology practice, Bob has plenty of opportunity to underreact. A top-notch supporting cast—including Suzanne Pleshette, Bill Daily, Peter Bonerz, Marcia Wallace and Jack Riley—serves as an excellent balance to Newhart's low-key sensibility.
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Bob Newhart is one of a handful of television performers to have starred in two highly successful series. His subtle, ironic humor and deadpan delivery served him well as the star of The Bob Newhart Show in the 1970s and Newhart in the 1980s. In both programs he had opportunity to display his greatest strength as an actor--his ability to be a great reactor. While the characters he portrayed were a bit quirky, those surrounding him were so much more bizarre that he seemed an island of sanity as he responded to their zaniness. This calm, controlled style ... allowed him to take on some risky subjects--death, for instance--without offending his audience. As Newhart once told an interviewer, this style "has allowed me to say outrageous things with the facade of someone who didn't look like they would be saying outrageous things."
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The Bob Newhart Show has become an American standard of classic television. Although it was continually deprived of Emmy awards (not even a single nomination!) during its initial run, it ultimately was duly recognized during the 2005 TVLand Icon Awards. Upon its second season and thereafter, the show was constantly ranked in the Nielsen Top 30, and for good reason. The ensemble cast had quickly gelled into a comedic collective that married top-notch writing with precision delivery. As noted by Newhart above, the show was one of the CBS anchor programs that dominated Saturday nights, season after season. It was TV worth staying home for and its relevance hasn't diminished a bit some three decades later.
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Bob Newhart is perhaps the only man in the world who can talk to himself on the phone without people looking at him strangely. He of the world-famous one-way phone conversations is ... a household name to generations, thanks to his two extremely successful, long-running television series. And he is picking up new fans every day, from youngsters to college students, who watch re-runs of his great TV hit series, and who attend his comedy concerts in large numbers. Newhart still performs in comedy concerts, opting to continue live performances before sellout audiences all over the country and the world.
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Bob Newhart was born in Chicago on September 5, 1929. He began performing his unique brand of comedy on television variety shows in 1960, beginning with The Jack Paar Show. Other programs like The Ed Sullivan Show, The Dinah Shore Chevy Show and The Garry Moore Show provided Newhart with most of his early airtime. Then came the first manifestation of a Bob Newhart show—The Bob Newhart Show, which ran from 1961 to 1962.
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In 1959, Bob Newhart was introduced by a Chicago deejay to the head of talent at Warner Bros. Records, who immediately signed him to a contract. Thus was born The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, which became the best comedy album to go to #1 on the charts. Newhart was an immediate sellout in comedy concerts, in nightclubs and on theatre stages all over America.
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Bob Newhart