 SATURDAYS WEREN'T ALWAYS FOR RERUNS
In the early 70's, more than a decade before NBC dubbed Thursday the night of Must-See TV, CBS touted Stay-Home Saturday. And was it ever worth staying home for classics like All in the Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Carol Burnett Show.
For six years a low-key comedy about a Chicago shrink, his schoolteacher wife and his goofy friends was key to that lineup. The Bob Newhart Show wasn't an overnight sensation. Audiences warmed to it slowly, and by season two – it's, most successful – it reached number twelve in the ratings. In 1978 its star decided to pull the plug while the show was still in its prime.
As psychologist Robert Hartley, the dry-witted Newhart played perfect straight man to wife Emily (Suzanne Pleshette); friendly but dim-witted neighbor Howard Borden (Bill Daily), an airline pilot; suitemate Jerry Robinson (Peter Bonerz), an orthodontist and skirt chaser; and husband-hungry receptionist Carol Kester (Marcia Wallace). At least as zany were Hartley's patients, led by neurotic real-estate agent Elliot Carlin (Jack Riley).
Emmy-nominated as outstanding comedy series in 1977, with acting noms for Pleshette that year and the next, the show became a classic in its own right: it received the Icon Award last year at the TV Land Awards. It also contributed to the unforgettable ending of another sitcom: Newhart, the 1982-90 series in which the comedian played Vermont innkeeper Dick Loudon and Mary Frann played his wife. In the final episode of that show, Newhart's character is knocked unconscious by a golf ball. When he awakes, he finds himself in bed with his previous TV wife – Pleshette as Emily Hartley – and he tells her of the strange dream he's had about owning an inn.
Almost thirty years after The Bob Newhart Show went off the air, the cast remains close, seeing one another at industry functions and personal events such as the recent baby shower for Newhart's daughter. Daily, who lives in Albuquque, makes it into L.A. whenever he can. At CBS Studio Center – where the show was taped – the old friends gathered recently for a reunion photo. Immediately the reminiscences – and the jokes – begin.
“I'm dyslexic,” Daily offers. “The only reason I took the show was that I could read ‘Bob.'”
Pleshette recalls a scene she shared with Daily. “I stopped. He said, ‘Why did you stop?' I said, ‘Because you called me ‘Enema.' He said, ‘No one will notice. It's an e word.'”
Newhart chimes in: “I called Mary Frann ‘Emily' once.” To which Pleshette – famous for the saltry humor she displayed on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show – replies, “I call out your name, still, at night: ‘Bob! Bob!' I've been in bed with you longer than any of my husbands or lovers.”
And despite Daily's e-word, Pleshette has words of praise – well, sort of- for her costar. “When we went into reruns and I started to watch the show,” she says, “I realized how brilliant Bill is. First of all, because he was like our child, and also because of the great skill with which he was able to act like an idiot.”
BOB NEWHART
HE KNEW THE SHOW WAS A CLASSIC: “When it went on Nick at Nite. On CBS we followed Mary Tyler Moore, and then there was Carol Burnett. I always thought it was a great show. I kind of resented that the people on it didn't get noticed – they made it look too easy. People thought we weren't acting, that we were ourselves. That's the hardest kind of acting. I'm glad the show is receiving the longevity it deserves.”
SHRINK RAP: “We considered making Dr. Hartley a psychiatrist, but they deal with more seriously ill people, who are schizophrenic or bipolar.”
FAVORITE EPISODES: “When we all get together to watch a football game at Thanksgiving. Every time the team scores, everybody takes a swig.” (The upshot: Bob and his buddies get so drunk, they order tons of Chinese food.)
THE GOOD OLD DAYS: “[On set] we laughed. That's all we did.”
SUZANNE PLESHETTE
SHE KNEW THE SHOW WAS A CLASSIC: "When the second Newhart show came on. They acknowledged how good we were."
CHEMISTRY SET: According to Newhart, Pleshette was cast after MTM Productions cofounder Arthur Price saw her on the Tonight Show. The real story, theactress claims, is that "Johnny was hosting. Bob and I were both on. Arthur Price said, "Oh, my God, why didn't we think of that?" It was a perfect match. We brought out the best in each other, kind of like Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. And we had the best married fights because Bob was uncomfortable doing love scenes."
FAVORITE MEMORIES: The friendships- and the fact that we were doing good work. I couldn't wait to get to work every day. We knew we had something special - behind the scenes, too, withe the writers and the crew. It was a rare work situation."
BILL DAILY
HE KNEW THE SHOW WAS A CLASSIC: "When I first read the script. I knew it was the best script ever. It just went on from there. Bob was so quiet - he didn't want to upstage you, so everyone had their moments. The show was subtle, charming, low-key, nonviolent. I'm so proud of it."
NAME GAME: "Our dog's name is Hi, Bob. Our license plate says, Hi, Bob."
FAVORITE EPISODE: "The only one that Bob uses lcips from is his [stnd-up] act. I hold up a wall for the whole show." (That's because Howard enters Bob and Emily's condo to find them standing with their hands against a wall. They're being robbed, and he thinks they're holding up the wall.)
HE COULD PLAY A PILOT BECAUSE: "I took a flying lesson in 1946 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I wanted a pilot's jacket. I soloed, but the propeller ripped the jacket. That's the last time I flew. I don't like flying, yet I've played a pilot on two classic shows." (The other: I Dream of Jeannie.)
PETER BONERZ
HE KNEW THE SHOW WAS A CLASSIC: "When it started to be broadcastfive, six, seven days a week in all the markets. No matter where you'd go, people talked to you about it. It became clear that it was more than just a pretty good show in reruns."
FAMOUS FAN: "I had occasion to call Bill Clinton. He said, "Yes, I remember the show. I used to watch it back in the days when I had time to watch TV."
CAREER MOVE: "The show was the first I did as a television director. I started the show as an actor and ended as a director. Bob was the easierst to direct, because the show was built around him and was a reflection of his persoanlity. You place him where he can behave as naturally as he can. He alwys wanted the rest of us to have very funny lines. He was always prepapred to give up funny lines for someone else."
HE COULD PLAY AN ORTHODONTIST BECAUSE: "My brother-in-law is a dentist. And when I was a child, coming from a working-class family, I didn't have a private dentist - I went to dental students at Marquette University. I spent a lot of time with the students and their instructors and developed a sense of the practice. Later, I was an engineering major, so I was interested - a dentist is involved in engineering, medicine and jewlry making."
MARCIA WALLACE
BOB KNEW BEST: "Bob said, 'No dogs, no kids.' He didn't want it to be Father Knows Best. So Bob and Emily were DINKs - double income, no kids - which was kind of unusual then."
CASTING CALL: "They did a pilot where it was part office, part condo, and Bob ran the condo association. [CBS chief] Bill Paley had mixed emotions about that - he wanted to see the marriage and the workplace, not the home. He saw me on The Merv Griffin Show; I was on with starlets, and I stood out because I was different. They took me to lunch [no talk about the show.]. There was no part then: I got to bring myself to the part.
IDENTITY THEFT: "People still come up and call me Carol. My mother used to call me Carol."
FAVORITE EPISODES: "I always liked one which is one of Bob's favorites: he goes on television to be interviewed and gets creamed by the host. You see vintage Bob Newhart. Thirty years later, it's still hilarious. I also loved the one where they get drunk on Thanksgiving. And there was one where I decide I want to be a shrink."
SHE COULD PLAY A RECEPTIONIST BECAUSE: "I'm an excllent typist. I worked for Studio Duplicating in New York. I typed the original script for Jerry Herman's Hello, Dolly!"
JACK RILEY
WHY THE SHOW IS A CLASSIC: "Because of Bob. He's so easy to take he's so funny. It started with [his comedy] albums - in 1961 he got the Grammy for album of the year!" (Beating out, among others, Frank Sinatra.)
STAYING POWER: "I was in the fear-of-flying workshop in the second episode. It was supposed to be a one-time shot. In all, they did about 130 episodes, and I did half, sixty-five. I was only on a contract for the last year."
FAVORITE EPISODES: "The Thanksgiving one where Emily goes out of town and Bob, Peter, Bill and I order Chinese food. And the one where I take Emily to my high school reunion."
HE COULD PLAY A NEUROTIC BECAUSE: "Once you say your're neurotic, anything goes. I just did my thing.
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