When someone as famous and as renown as comedian Bob Newhart passes away, as Newhart did yesterday at the age of 94, there is nothing that The Grandstander can do in this humble little blog that can offer anything new to the story. Soon after the news of his death became public, the Internet was awash with stories and obituaries and tributes far beyond anything that I can add, so I won't be all that detailed here.
Newhart is perhaps best known these days for his two smash CBS sitcoms, "The Bob Newhart Show" (1972-78; 142 episodes) and "Newhart" (1982-90; 184 episodes). Both shows emphasized Newhart's low-key, put upon Everyman humor, as his Dr. Bob Hartley and innkeeper Dick Loudin dealt with the vicissitudes of life and dealing with the oddball cast of characters that populated his life. Both shows were funny and are now considered television classics, and the final episode of the second series was perhaps the most surprising and funniest finales in television history. When Series Finales are discussed, especially for sitcoms, the finale of "Newhart" is the one against which all others are measured.
However, if your pop culture awareness predates the 1970's, you knew Bob Newhart as an understated stand-up comic who appeared on Jack Paar, Johnny Carson, Ed Sullivan and countless other such television shows. He was an accountant in Chicago, by his own admission "not a very good one", when he decided to try his hand at comedy, and he never looked back. His comedy album "The Button Down Mind of Bob Newhart" won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1960 (other nominees that year included Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole). HIs routines where he would have telephone conversations with folks like Abe Lincoln, the Wright Brothers, and Abner Doubleday ("Uh, why four balls and only three strikes, Mr Doubleday?...Oh, no one's ever asked you that before.") are all classics. In fact, listen to THIS ONE, "Abe Lincoln vs Madison Ave". Still funny over sixty years after he debuted it.
He made movies, notably Mike Nichols' "Catch-22" in 1970 and the Christmas comedy "Elf" in 2003. As the years went on, his television presence lessened somewhat, but in 2013 he appeared on an episode of "The Big Bang Theory" as long ago television kids' science show host Arthur Jeffries, aka, Professor Proton. Yes, perhaps he did play "Bob Newhart" when he did that, but he stole the show from the Big Bang's regular cast and he ended up winning an Emmy for that performance. He played that same character in five more Big Bang episodes over the years and in three episodes of its spinoff show, "Young Sheldon."
Linda told me that she wasn't that familiar with Newhart's stand up bits, so today I downloaded an Anthology of Bob Newhart's classic comic routines, there are 24 of them on this album, and our plan is to one night turn down the lights, pour ourselves a couple of drinks, and turn our living room into a comedy club where we shall listen to the great Bob Newhart.
It was noted on the Today Show this morning that Bob Newhart was always gracious and accommodating, always worked clean, and was always funny, and it showed a great recent clip of him where he was asked by an interviewer if he was getting tired of working. His response was "how could you ever possibly get tired of making people laugh."
RIP Bob Newhart.
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