Thoughts of Bob Newhart

Like so many of you of a certain age, I grew up watching The Bob Newhart Show on Saturday nights.

CBS’s Saturday primetime showcase in the 1970s was the greatest sequential collection of television comedy in history….imagine this lineup: All in the Family; M.A.S.H.; Mary Tyler Moore; The Bob Newhart Show; then one full hour of the Carol Burnett variety show. Free TV at its finest. Every one of those programs is now a classic and — even though they were very different forms of comedy — they were packed into three hours of weekly “must watch” television.

Newhart died a few days ago at 94. He lived a wonderfully full life and made millions laugh for decades. Known for his everyman looks and bone-dry wit, Newhart was one of the last of the old-style stand-up comedians who was always witty and even edgy at times, but his shows and performances were good for family entertainment.

Bob Newhart also wrote most of his own jokes and routines. It’s one thing to deliver lines in a masterful way–it’s quite another to come up with consistently original material. READ THIS GREAT STORY from Paul Harris, who interviewed Newhart multiple times, and shared this gem.

My favorite Newhart movie role came in the vastly underrated 1968 con-man caper, Hot Millions. This is one of those movies I’ll tape and re-watch every time it’s on (most of us have a “movies we’ve seen 20 times” file). The movie stars Peter Ustinov (who is absolutely fantastic), along with Karl Malden, Maggie Smith, and Cesar Romero who are perfectly cast. But Bob Newhart steals every scene he’s in and deadpans the nerdy wet blanket “bad guy” role to perfection. You can’t imagine anyone else playing that character. Hot Millions should be ranked much higher on best-all-time lists and appreciated more as a comedy masterpiece, even though some aspects of the campy heist movie are ridiculously dated now (which only adds to its appeal, in my opinion). The surprising ending twist isn’t to me missed, if you haven’t seen it.

Laughter never goes out of style.