Debuting September 16,
1972 and completing its original run August 26, 1978, The Bob Newhart Show was part of a highly rated Saturday night of adult comedies on CBS. The show was
produced by the same creative team as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, also
part of the winning lineup.
There are some obvious similarities between the shows. Both Bob Newhart
and Mary focus equally on the main characters' office and home lives. Both
employ an eccentric supporting cast to offset the temperance of the
main characters. And both exemplify the 1970s, though Mary Tyler Moore
expresses it more through wardrobe, while it is the set design on The Bob
Newhart Show that is quintessentially '70s.
Newhart plays Bob Hartley, a psychologist living in Chicago with his wife Emily, a schoolteacher.
Regulars include neighbor Howard Borden, a divorced airplane navigator; Jerry
Robinson, the orthodontist that shares Bob's office space; Carol Kester (later
married to Larry Bondurant), Bob and Jerry's saucy receptionist; and a colorful
cast of crazies whom Bob treats.
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.
