The Bob Newhart Show

Okay, the Bob Newhart Show wasn't for everybody. I never got a chance to watch it on television. Now on DVD, I am discovering it for the first time. The writing is smart and the acting is smarter than ever with Bob Newhart in the title role as a Chicago psychologist, Susan Pleshette as his wife and third grade school teacher. They are great couple on screen. Surprisingly, they don't have children in the show which is a big plus because the show works better without them. Marcia Wallace is wonderful as his secretary. The show is smart, funny, savvy, relevant, and most of all timeless. It's a classic sitcom that might be overlooked because it's not dirty or stupid like most sitcoms are today. The Bob Newhart Show and others of that era are classic and timeless and relevant to today's life. Too bad, shows like that aren't being developed for television today. It's our loss, isn't it?

This was part of the great CBS Saturday night line-up which included "Mary Tyler Moore", "All in the Family". Bob Newhart's deadpan reactions to all the craziness that was going on around him was what helped to make this show special. Its surprising how it never received an Emmy, or for that matter a nomination. Maybe it was because it was part of such a legendary prime time line-up that it got lost in the shuffle. Also, maybe it was due to the fact that it had such a strong ensemble that no one particular member of the cast stood out. Besides Newhart, Suzanne Pleshette, Peter Bonnerz, Marcia Wallace and Bill Daily all made this show what it was, but the funniest character on the show had to be Elliot Carlin. He definitely was one of the most acerbic characters ever created for television. This still is one of the classic situation comedies of its era and it was very much more of an intellectual show.

I loved this show as a kid (I was 10 in 1975)... it was a show that actually made sense to me (yeah, yeah, I watched all the other 70's shows too...). It was adult without being sexy (I hated that in TV shows... nothing's grosser than Marion & Howard getting "frisky")-- the characters were wry, the situations were plausibly ridiculous (?!?!?), and the writing was intelligent. I knew, even then, that there was a difference between intelligent humor and (gawd help us) pratfall humor (think: Jack Ritter), and what I preferred. I also dug that I "got" it, and that Bob was a nebbishy kind of guy, who stumbled along through life, really making it on his wits (certainly wasn't his good looks). Gave a geeky girl a certain hope for her future.

Bob Newhart and MTM put together a winning formula when they debuted the Bob Newhart Show in the Fall of 72. This was Deadpan comedy on the part of Newhart at it's best. Psychologist, Dr. Bob Hartley, deals with the day to day problems of his zany and quite real patient's. Jack Riley's, Elliot Carlin being one of the most notable of the group, with his bizarre problems and abrasive attitude towards other group members, especially the wishy-washy Mr. Peterson.

Bob's life outside his group was a bit less zany but just as interesting and funny. His relationship between his wife Emily, played by the sultry Susan Pleshette, was a very real relationship. Newhart and Pleshette complimented each other quite well.

I think everyone loved his wise cracking secretary, Carol, and the bumbling antics of his neighbor, Howard Borden.

"The Bob Newhart Show" is possibly the most brilliant of the "adult sitcoms" of the early 1970's. Along with "The Odd Couple" and "Mary Tyler Moore", this show exhibits a subtle, mature humor that has all but disappeared from television today. Great actors make this show with a simple "situation" -- adults working, talking, eating, and going to bed -- hilarious and reflective. Bob Newhart's unique comedic style finds a perfect outlet in "The Bob Newhart Show." For the uninitiated, it might be compared to "Seinfeld" in that it is a "show about nothing" that derives humor from the interactions between people and not "jokes."