Newhart

Newhart
Created by	Barry Kemp
Developed by	Sheldon Bull
Starring	Bob Newhart Mary Frann Jennifer Holmes Julia Duffy Tom Poston Steven Kampmann Peter Scolari William Sanderson Tony Papenfuss John Voldstad
Theme music composer	Henry Mancini
Composer	Nelson Riddle
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	8
No. of episodes	184 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Barry Kemp Mark Egan Mark Solomon Dan Wilcox Douglas Wyman David Mirkin
Producer	Sheldon Bull
Running time	24 minutes
Production company	MTM Enterprises
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	October 25, 1982 (1982-10-25) – May 21, 1990 (1990-05-21)

Newhart is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS from October 25, 1982, to May 21, 1990, with a total of 184 half-hour episodes spanning eight seasons. The series stars Bob Newhart and Mary Frann as an author and his wife who own and operate the Stratford Inn in rural Vermont. The small town is home to many eccentric characters. TV Guide, TV Land, and A&E named the Newhart series finale as one of the most memorable in television history. The theme music for Newhart was composed by Henry Mancini.

Premise[edit]

Bob Newhart plays Dick Loudon, an author of do-it-yourself and travel books. He and his wife Joanna move from New York City to a small town in rural Vermont to operate the 200-year-old Stratford Inn. Although the town's name was never specified in the show, some media sources identified it as Norwich.^[1] The outside shot of the house is the Waybury Inn in East Middlebury.

Dick and Joanna run the inn with the help of sweet-natured but simple handyman George Utley and Leslie Vanderkellen, a bright, cheerful Dartmouth College student and heiress who takes a job as a maid to find out what it is like to be "normal". Next door to the inn is the Minuteman Café, owned by Kirk Devane, a pathological liar. Leslie leaves before season two to continue her studies abroad, to be replaced by her cousin Stephanie, who, unlike Leslie, is vain, lazy, and spoiled.

Near the end of season two, Dick becomes the host of a local television show, Vermont Today, where he interviews an assortment of bizarre and colorful guests. His vapid, neurotic producer, Michael Harris, falls in love with Stephanie, their relationship providing a satire of 1980s excess.^[2]

The town is populated by oddballs whose behavior never ceases to bemuse the sane, mild-mannered everyman Dick. Among them are Larry, Darryl, and Darryl, three brothers who normally work as woodsmen, but also support themselves with various odd jobs throughout the first two seasons, and are seen occasionally on the show. When Kirk moves away in the third season, the three brothers buy the Minuteman Cafe, and become series regulars for the remainder of the series. Larry always makes an entrance saying, "Hi! I'm Larry, this is my brother Darryl, and this is my other brother Darryl". Neither of the Darryls talk (until the series finale), but Larry's descriptions of their misadventures often venture into the surreal.

As the series progresses, the world around Dick grows increasingly illogical. The final episode reveals that the entire series was a dream of Dr. Robert Hartley, Newhart's character in The Bob Newhart Show.

Cast[edit]

Main[edit]

Recurring[edit]

"The Last Newhart"[edit]

The series finale of Newhart, titled "The Last Newhart", has been described as one of the most memorable in television history.^[3][4] The entire town is purchased by a visiting Japanese tycoon, who turns the hamlet into an enormous golf course and recreation resort. Dick and Joanna are the only townspeople who refuse to sell. The others accept million-dollar payoffs and leave in a farewell scene that parodies Fiddler on the Roof.

Five years later, Dick and Joanna continue to run the Stratford Inn, which is now located in the middle of the golf course. The other townspeople, now richer and older, unexpectedly return for a reunion. The two Darryls also speak for the first time on screen, yelling "Quiet!" at their wives in unison. Dick gets frustrated with the increasingly chaotic scene and storms out, shouting "You're all crazy!", only to be knocked out by an errant golf ball.

The scene shifts to nighttime in the bedroom of Dr. Bob Hartley (Newhart's character on The Bob Newhart Show) and his wife Emily (Suzanne Pleshette). Bob awakens, upset, and he wakes Emily to tell her about the very strange dream he has just had: that he was an innkeeper in a small Vermont town filled with eccentric characters. Emily tells Bob "that settles it — no more Japanese food before you go to bed." Bob mentions his marriage to a "beautiful blonde," and that Emily should wear more sweaters (in reference to Mary Frann's form-fitting tops) before the credits roll.

Several references are made to Newhart's former show, including the use of its theme song and credits. Although the Bob Newhart Show theme was missing from the final closing credit shot in the series' initial syndication run, the theme has been reinstated in the current version syndicated by 20th Century Fox Television. The MTM cat logo normally closed the show end credits with Newhart voicing-over the "meow", but for the finale, the cat's voice was Darryl and Darryl yelling "Quiet!"

Development of the episode[edit]

Entertainment Weekly stated in 1995 that Newhart's wife Ginny had conceived the idea for the finale, but the show's executive producers, Mark Egan, Mark Solomon, and Bob Bendetson, denied this in a letter to the editor, "[T]he final episode of Newhart was not 'dreamed up' by Bob's wife, Ginny. She had absolutely no connection with the show. ... We wrote and produced the Emmy-nominated script (with special thanks to Dan O'Shannon)."^[5]

In Newhart's 2006 book I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This! And Other Things that Strike Me as Funny, he stated that his wife had indeed proposed the ending of Newhart, which had been developed by the show's writers.^[6] He reiterated this in a 2013 interview, saying,

That was Ginnie's idea. ... She said, 'You ought to end in a dream sequence because there was so much inexplicable about the show.' She said, 'You should wake up in bed with Susie and explain what's so—" and I said, 'What a great idea,' and I gave the idea to the writers and they fleshed it out with the Japanese buying the town and our not selling."^[7]

Suzanne Pleshette, in a Television Academy interview, also said that the idea was Ginny's, having heard it from her over dinner with the Newharts several years before the finale was shot.^[8]

Interviews with Newhart, Pleshette, and director Dick Martin^[9] reveal that the final scene was kept a secret from the cast and most of the crew. A fake ending was written to throw off the tabloids that involved Dick Loudon going to heaven after being hit with a golf ball and talking to God, played by George Burns or George C. Scott. Pleshette was kept hidden until her scene was shot. When the scene began, many people in the live audience recognized the bedroom set from The Bob Newhart Show and burst into spontaneous applause. Pleshette and Newhart performed the scene in one take.^[9]

Reception of the finale[edit]

In November 2005, the series finale was named by TV Guide and TV Land as the most unexpected moment in TV history.^[10] The episode was watched by 29.5 million US viewers,^[11] bringing in an 18.7/29 rating/share, and ranking as the most-watched program that week.^[12]

In 2011, the finale was ranked number four on the TV Guide Network special, TV's Most Unforgettable Finales,^[13] and in 2013 was ranked number 19 in Entertainment Weekly's 25 Best TV Series Finales Ever.^[14]

In popular culture[edit]

In 1991, the cast of The Bob Newhart Show reunited in a primetime special. In one scene, Bob and Emily's neighbor Howard Borden (Bill Daily), quipped that he had dreamed about living for years as an astronaut, as scenes were shown of Daily in his earlier role as astronaut Roger Healey on I Dream of Jeannie. At the end of the special, Bob Hartley gets on the elevator, where he encounters three workmen: Larry, Darryl, and Darryl.

On the February 11, 1995, episode of Saturday Night Live, which was hosted by Bob Newhart, the closing sketch ended with a redux of Newhart's final scene, in which Bob Hartley again wakes with his wife Emily (special guest Suzanne Pleshette) and tells her that he had just had a dream of hosting Saturday Night Live. Emily responds, "Saturday Night Live, is that show still on?"—this during a period when SNL was heavily criticized for its declining quality.^[15][16]

In 2010, Jimmy Kimmel Live! presented several parody alternate endings to the television show Lost, one of which mirrored the finale of Newhart, complete with a cameo appearance by Bob Newhart and with Lost star Evangeline Lilly in place of Emily/Pleshette.^[17]

The final scene with Newhart and Pleshette was later parodied in an alternate ending to the television series Breaking Bad, where star Bryan Cranston wakes from a dream next to his Malcolm in the Middle co-star Jane Kaczmarek, and they assume their respective roles of Hal and Lois. Hal recounts the events of Breaking Bad in humorous fashion as though he is horrified that he could do those things, albeit as Walter White. Lois reassures him that everything is all right, and the final shot is of Walter's hat.^[18]

The final scene of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson parodied this as well. After revealing that Bob Newhart had been playing the on-set pantomime horse Secretariat, Ferguson wakes up as his The Drew Carey Show character Nigel Wick, in bed with his co-star Drew Carey. The two then discuss the crazy possibility of Wick being a talk show host and Carey losing weight and becoming a game show host. (The shot continued with a parody of the twist ending of St. Elsewhere and then the closing song from The Sopranos finale.)

Reception[edit]

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Newhart was a solid ratings winner, finishing its first six seasons in the Nielsen top 25. Despite not finishing in the top 30 for its last two seasons, Bob Newhart stated in an interview with the Archive of American Television that CBS was satisfied enough with the show's ratings to renew it for a ninth season in 1990. However, Newhart, who was anxious to move on to other projects, declined the offer, promising CBS that he would develop a new series for the network, which he was under contract to do. This resulted in the 1992 series Bob, which lasted two seasons.

Awards[edit]

Nominations[edit]

Emmy Awards[edit]

The show was nominated for 25 Emmy Awards but never won.

1983

• Outstanding Comedy Series – Sheldon Bull, Producer; Barry Kemp, Executive Producer
• Outstanding Video Tape Editing For a Series – Andy Ackerman

1984

• Outstanding Comedy Series – Sheldon Bull, Producer; Barry Kemp, Executive Producer
• Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series – Tom Poston
• Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series – Julia Duffy

1985

• Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series – Bob Newhart
• Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series – Julia Duffy

1986

• Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series – Bob Newhart
• Outstanding Sound Mixing For a Comedy Series or Special – Andrew MacDonald, Sound Mixer; Bill Nicholson, Sound Mixer; Craig Porter, Sound Mixer; Richard Wachter, Sound Mixer
• Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series – Tom Poston
• Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series – Julia Duffy

1987

• Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series – Bob Newhart
• Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series:
  • Tom Poston
  • Peter Scolari
• Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series – Julia Duffy
• Outstanding Writing For a Comedy Series – David Mirkin ("Co-Hostess Twinkie")

1988

• Outstanding Editing For a Series (Multi-Camera Production) – Michael Wilcox, Editor
• Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series – Peter Scolari
• Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series – Julia Duffy

1989

• Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series – Eileen Brennan
• Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series – Peter Scolari
• Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series – Julia Duffy

1990

• Outstanding Editing For a Series (Multi-Camera Production) – Michael Wilcox, Editor
• Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series – Julia Duffy
• Outstanding Writing For a Comedy Series – Bob Bendetson, Mark Egan and Mark Solomon ("The Last Newhart")

Golden Globe Awards[edit]

Newhart earned six nominations for Golden Globe Awards.

• Television Series – Musical or Comedy (1984)
• Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy: Bob Newhart (1983–1986)
• Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television: Julia Duffy (1988)

Other awards[edit]

Newhart was nominated for one Casting Society of America award and four nominations for TV Land Awards. Newhart won a total of four Viewers for Quality Television Awards.

Home media[edit]

20th Century Fox released season one of Newhart on DVD in Region 1 on February 26, 2008.

In November 2013, Shout! Factory announced it had acquired the rights to the series. It has since released the entire series in individual season sets.^[19][20][21]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Newhart at IMDb
• Newhart at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television