# RIP Bob Newhart **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, celebrity-death\ **Created:** [July 18, 2024, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-bob-newhart/1004433 "2024-07-18T20:01:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-bob-newhart/1004433/41 "2024-07-19T03:35:03Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I still consider George Carlin the best to ever do it, but poor George died…16 years ago. 16 years! I saw him live. People were laughing so hard they had trouble breathing. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-bob-newhart/1004433/42 "2024-07-19T03:41:46Z")
I guess Bob Newhart means different things to me as a poster than most, due to my comparative young age. I remember sitting with my folks who would watch “Newhart” every week (would have started when I was about 8-9) and so all my memories are entwined with it being a family thing. I was old enough to get some of the understated wit, although not all of it, but enjoyed watching my father laugh out loud at some parts. And now I feel like I should hunt down and listen to the old albums, because it sounds like I’d enjoy them immensely. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-bob-newhart/1004433/43 "2024-07-19T03:57:00Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > And now I feel like I should hunt down and listen to the old albums, because it sounds like I’d enjoy them immensely. Just go on youtube and look up his old bits on the telephone, where he only does his side of the conversation. It was great stuff then and it holds up for the most part. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-bob-newhart/1004433/44 "2024-07-19T04:06:48Z")
Very sad. I particularly loved _Newhart_, the series where he owned an inn in Vermont. It was such a warm and gentle show, much like Bob Newhart himself, and much like Bob himself, full of funny moments. He’ll be missed, but for us old-time TV junkies, he will live on in reruns. My old-time TV collection includes _Newhart_, and I’ve probably re-watched each episode at least three times and may be due for another cycle when my _Seinfeld_ binge-watch concludes. ---
**Author:** ![Sylvanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Sylvanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylvanz)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-bob-newhart/1004433/45 "2024-07-19T04:21:28Z")
I loved Bob Newhart. I watched both of his series and watched him on talk shoes. I liked Newhart best; not a fan of the series end, but I did laugh. I used to love when the mayor would exclaim wide eyed at Bob’s “terrible/hot/hair trigger temper.” And Newhart would give him this sort of gobsmacked expression that was somehow blank at the same time. I have to somehow watch that series again. Hubster and I bth loved it. RIP Bob ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-bob-newhart/1004433/46 "2024-07-19T04:32:40Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Who is left from that era of comedy? Uh, Bill Cosby(ugh!)? Nope, he’s dead too. (To me) ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-bob-newhart/1004433/47 "2024-07-19T04:59:17Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Just go on youtube and look up his old bits on the telephone, where he only does his side of the conversation. It wasn’t always on the phone. In one routine he’s an instructor teaching a new class of bus drivers. In another, he’s a police negotiator trying to talk a jumper to come in from the ledge of a building. Always it’s just his side of the conversation, but from the way he tells it it’s clear what he’s responding to. ---
**Author:** ![Kedikat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed655f/32.png) [@Kedikat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kedikat)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-bob-newhart/1004433/48 "2024-07-19T05:20:52Z")
One of a kind. Loved him. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-bob-newhart/1004433/49 "2024-07-19T12:53:34Z")
I really liked his first show - but recently tried to rewatch it and found it quite unfunny (not to mention many aspects that did not mesh well with current sensibilities. Not the least of which, mining mental illness for humor.) Never got into his second show - may have to give it a shot. But today I’ll pull up some of his older bits to listen to while I work. See how they hold up. If nothing, should be a pleasant bit of nostalgia. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-bob-newhart/1004433/50 "2024-07-19T13:30:42Z")
He might not appreciate that over on YouTube and in Yahoo people are commenting on stories re: the passing of Lou Dobbs with RIP. Bob Newhart, but I think it’s funny. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-bob-newhart/1004433/51 "2024-07-19T14:03:50Z")
Judd Apatow has been doing documentaries on his favorite comedians. He recently did a short one on Newhart and Rickles called “[Bob and Don: A Love Story](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3cs7PyXPsU)”. Bob look quite frail in this so it was clear he didn’t have much time left. As he says near the beginning in quoting Don: “Keep my name alive.” One of my favorite bits in the documentary is them talking about when the Rickles moved into the Newharts’ neighborhood. One the one hand, having your best friends nearby is good. OTOH, it is Don Rickles. I remember another Newhart friend Buddy Hackett describing what kind of guy Bob was. “He’s the kind of guy who steps out of the shower to pee.” ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-bob-newhart/1004433/52 "2024-07-19T14:11:58Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > “He’s the kind of guy who steps out of the shower to pee.” That’s my kinda guy. I was about 8 when his first show was on. I wasn’t allowed to watch it, because it was on past my bedtime, but my parents watched it, and I’d try very hard to listen. Sometimes I’d catch something, and the audience would laugh uproariously, but I wouldn’t understand. I was convinced the show was “adult,” and that’s why I wasn’t allowed to watch it. When I was about 12, a local channel started running it on Sunday afternoon-- 2, I’m telling you _2_ (two!) episodes in a row! no one did that then. Who wanted to watch the same show in one day? Well, I did, and I had my own TV by then. It was B&W and 13 inches, but it was mine, in my room, and I watched that show faithfully, laughing all the way, and waiting for the dirty parts that never quite came, but there was some “adult” content that I figured might be what my parents were protecting me from. Was watching in on MAX or something recently, and realized it actually was just about my bedtime. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-bob-newhart/1004433/53 "2024-07-19T14:45:42Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Yep, just give Bob Newhart a telephone, and hilarity ensues. Even when he was alone on stage, the other guy got all the funny lines. He had that great quality, sort of like Norman Rockwell with art to invoke a sense of everyday reality in a simple conversation. We didn’t have to hear the other side of the conversation any more than Rockwell’s works needed captions to understand them. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-bob-newhart/1004433/54 "2024-07-19T18:38:03Z")
And don’t forget The Mrs. Grace L. Ferguson Airline (and Storm Door Company). That one still kills me. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-bob-newhart/1004433/55 "2024-07-19T19:10:31Z")
Well, now who’s gonna take the elevator up to the head and say, “Shoo, Ape!”? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-bob-newhart/1004433/56 "2024-07-19T19:49:14Z")
Nitpick: Second show and third show. He had an earlier show also called _The Bob Newhart Show_ in 1961-62 that nobody remembers. True, it was a variety show he hosted but the name is identical to his first sitcom. The program won a Peabody Award. The Peabody Board cited him as “a person whose gentle satire and wry and irreverent wit waft a breath of fresh and bracing air through the stale and stuffy electronic corridors. A merry marauder, who looks less like St. George than a choirboy, Newhart has wounded, if not slain, many of the dragons that stalk our society. In a troubled and apprehensive world, Newhart has proved once again that laughter is the best medicine.” I did see his third/fourth series, just called _Bob_. Going from _The Bob Newhart Show_ to _Newhart_ to _Bob_, he joked on Carson that his new show would just be called _The_. A perfect dry Newhart joke. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-bob-newhart/1004433/57 "2024-07-19T20:25:53Z")
My senior year in high school, I played the Purser in my school’s production of _Anything Goes_. I had one scene with a few lines and I used Bob Newhart as inspiration for my character. I wanted to be the one sane guy on a ship of crazy people. I put a few pauses and a bit of a stammer into my lines but I have no idea if anyone actually made the connection or appreciated my attempted emulation of Newhart. [![](https://i.imgur.com/VF8JNps.png) ](https://i.imgur.com/VF8JNps.png) ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-bob-newhart/1004433/58 "2024-07-19T20:49:14Z")
One of his performances that seems to be overlooked in all of the tributes is Judson in the _Librarian_ movies. The same understated, deadpan delivery he’s known for. And then near the end of the first movie Flynn asks him to send in the Marines; when Judson shows up all by himself Flynn asks him where the Marines are. Judson flashes a Marine tattoo and says “Semper Fi”. Then proceeds to kick ass. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-bob-newhart/1004433/59 "2024-07-19T20:56:19Z")
I got to meet Bob twice. I always thought that was so cool. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2024, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-bob-newhart/1004433/60 "2024-07-19T21:00:22Z")
I was hoping to one day see him in a scene like Bob Barker did in Happy Gilmore. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-bob-newhart/1004433.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-bob-newhart/1004433.md?page=4)