Bob Newhart, Dean of the Deadpan Delivery, Dies at 94

Doesn't get any easier.

Masterpiece.

He was still alive?

I enjoyed so many laughs from his 70s show. RIP

Well, damn.

He really was one of the good guys.

He was a good egg.

How did he die?

[quote] How did he die?

Of young age, Rose!

Maybe Emily is just having a dream.

Hello Bob!

Great theme.....even if some of the footage doesn't make sense.

So young.....

Such a brilliant comedian. R.I.P.

Predictions for the next two celebrity deaths-Annie Potts and John Ratzenberger.

There was no one like him. His comic timing and delivery was 💯

Hard to believe it took until 2013 for him to win an Emmy.

Loved him so much. Hers a short documentary on his friendship with Don Rickles, which is enchanting. Directed by Judd Apatow and produced by The New Yorker.

Bob and his late wife Ginny, who died last year, were best friends with Don Rickles and his wife Barbara. Bob was the last survivor of the group. I’m glad they’re all together again. Thanks for the laughs, Bob.

All the great ones are dying. What is left? Not much.

R.I.P. Bob

Best series finale ever.

I loved Newhart. It was the last huge television hit before the tech boom. At least it seems that way to me. The show had no internet, cable TV, cellphones, laptops, etc etc etc. Just about as soon as the show ended society changed. The show started in 1982. When it ended in 1990 it was a completely different world. I don't think there was a bad episode of this show. They never completely rearranged the show but managed small tweaks that kept it fresh. Especially when Bob got his show on public TV. The episodes with Julie Brown on Bob's show were some of the best.

How much more can we take??? Stop with the deaths oh Lord!

He was never funny. Ever.

Anne Meara R23

Susan Dey is contemplating her condolences.

^ don’t feed the troll.

Is Peter Bonerz now the only surviving cast member of “The Bob Newhart Show”?

It's only Julia Duffy and a couple of the Daryls for the 80's Newheart, right?

And yet Keanu Reeves still walks among us

Growing up in dullest suburbia, I idealized The Bob Newhart Show. That swank apartment, the credit sequence of an exciting city, witty adults, no children (in most episodes), lots of smart laughs.

Bye, Bob.

Plus Marcia Wallace. She was brilliant.

From Julia Duffy:

[quote]Second most important man in my life. Glad they're together but I feel so alone now. #RIPBOB. How I will miss being teased. I love you.💔

This one brings real sadness.

Loved him in everything he did

Lou Dobbs and now Bob Newhart?

What a world... what a world ☹️

Wow. I had no idea Peter Scolari was dead. Sads.

Well, this is just the cherry on top of a rotten day.

RIP to a funny gent.

Scolari was working on the paranormal satire “evil” when he died. He was greatly loved by the cast.

I’ve never seen Newhart. Does it still hold up today?

Thank goodness we still have Dick Van Dyke and Carol Burnett. And they're still working!

RIP...funny one.

This man endured.

I think of the first episode of Mad Men and the Bob Newhart album they’re listening to at the agency, and remember what a period piece that show is — that first ep was set in March of 1960. And the man who made that album just died in 2024.

Astonishing to think that a few days ago, 91 year old Carol Burnett got an Emmy nom.

I loved his show with Suzanne Pleshette. Also loved that his best friend was Don Rickles. Very talented man. I should go back and watch the Vermont show, which didn’t appeal to me in the 80s, although of course the ending was brilliant.

I’m sad to see the people I grew up with and enjoyed, dying. I Loved watching his first show with my parents. I loved that era.

He and Rickles were great.

I hope Carol Burnett and Dick Van Dyke stick around a few more years.

RIP :(

Oh no! What happened?

[quote] Oh no! What happened?

Fighting an oil rig fire on the Gulf of Mexico….

HE WAS 94!!!!

Well it's great that he was working right up until the end, R46!!

As much as I loved Bob, and I loved him, the real tragedy for me is finding out Peter Scolari died. I loved that guy. I don't know how his death didn't register with me.

They happen in threes. Richard, Bob, and Lou. R.I.P. to these television legends—even if Lou was a big trumper. They all were on my TV for as far as I can remember.

[quote] I’ve never seen Newhart. Does it still hold up today?

Yes, I think so.

Has Suzanne Pleshette commented?

Or Mary Frann?

Has Will Ferrell released a statement?

Funny to think he long outlived both his TV wives who were considerably younger than him.

R51 - No, but Carlene Watkins did. There just wasn't any media asking her.

Requiescat in Pace

Loved that Bob. RIP.

Never 👎 funny.

Always boring 😴

[Quote] Funny to think he long outlived both his TV wives who were considerably younger than him.

Oh yeah that’s unbelievably hilarious.

I loved both of his sitcoms.

Plus Newhart had Bill Daily. Was glad to see him get a good gig so quickly after I Dream of Jeannie. He was a vastly underrated comedic actor.

r59 He had two more:

"Bob" (33 episodes, '92-'93)

"George and Leo" (22 episodes, '97-'98)

I first became aware of him on the short-lived "The Entertainers" (1964) which featured Bob, Carol Burnett, Dom DeLuise, John Davidson, and Caterina Valente in a one-hour variety format.

He also has another variety series, "The Bob Newhart Show" in 1961-62.

He outlived Mary Frann by 39 years. She was only 55 when she died from a heart attack.

Sweater overdose.

Mary was so fat.

It's a miracle he lived to 94. He was a heavy smoker for decades who didn't quit until later in life.

He was a guest star on The Big Bang Theory a few times, playing a Bill Nye-type tv host from Sheldon’s childhood. While TBBT often sucked, there were several great guest stars, like Leonard Nimoy. RIP, Mr. Newhart.

R61 I enjoyed him best on those 2 shows.

I think they were both on YT for free as early as last year as I didn't watch G. & L. when it first aired. I enjoyed every show of the 1st season.

Bearking.....

He outlived Mary Frann by 26 years, but yes, there was a 39 year age difference between the age she was at when she died, and the age Bob was at when he died earlier today.

Rumour has it that Julia Duffy was the sweet heart and Mary Frann was the cunt.

I love the Bob Newheart statue in Chicago.

Maybe it’s one of those things I once knew & forgot, but I didn’t know that Suzanne Pleshette was Jewish.

Deservingly so, his obituary is above-the-fold in today's print edition of the NYT.

He also didn't deserve the trashy, low-level "DEAD TO ME" bullshit,. so thank you, DL.

Thank you, OP, for not using the tiresome "dead to me."

A great photo in the New York Times obit

[quote] I should go back and watch the Vermont show, which didn’t appeal to me in the 80s, although of course the ending was brilliant.

I am surprised that the ending is universally lauded. Never watched 'Newhart', so I don't feel strongly either way. But just like the shower scene of Bobby Ewing how was this Newhart ending not derided for invalidating the entire show?

Will Dick Van Dyke receive as much love as Bob Newhart is receiving when he departs?

^ Yes, but he'll have to die first

R80 obviously flunked Reading Comprehension 101.

[quote]Growing up in dullest suburbia, I idealized The Bob Newhart Show. That swank apartment, the credit sequence of an exciting city, witty adults, no children (in most episodes), lots of smart laughs.

Agreed, R30. Growing up outside a small town in nowhere, American TV in the late Sixties and early Seventies was an occasional glimpse into lives lived in cities, a promise of where I would one day live. Newhart's show resonated especially, as you describe: mart people, quick wit, bustling cities as hives of activity, lives behind every balcony, every window.

That Newhart played a psychologist wasn't unimportant, and that family was only a tangential aspect of the series was also interesting. In 142 episodes, Bob's TV sister was the most prominently featured of any family member, and the actress Pat Finley appeared in only 15 episodes total. No children, very minimal roles for parents and other relatives, instead it was a life of colleagues, neighbors, friends - a primer for many small town gays of a certain time frame who knew instinctively as young kids that their futures were to be found by going away to big cities.

Looking now at the Edgewater apartment building used for the exterior shots of Bob's apartment building, I think what a dog of a building, but I remember the promise it had when I was 10, 12, 14 years old.

^ Obviously r81 flunked humor 101 🙄

[quote]But just like the shower scene of Bobby Ewing how was this Newhart ending not derided for invalidating the entire show?

1. It wasn't a documentary.

2. "Dallas" continued on after that episode. The "Newhart" ending was the final episode of the series.

R82 very nicely stated. I felt the same way.

My friends lived adjacent to that Edgewater building. It's no great structure but it tickled me to think about it when I walked by.

Obviously r81 gave himself SEVEN upvotes in the last hour 😂 Obviously he thinks quite a lot of himself and is most butthurt

I've been watching reruns of TBBT on TBS and just saw a few episodes with him as Professor Proton. Oddly enough, he's always looked like an old man.

If you want to live a long life go into television. The TV Academy website memorials are here. I've scrolled through 10 pages and almost every person died at 90+

CBS will air a tribute show Monday night.

I dusted off my TBNS DVDs last night and watched an episode from each season.

Marcia Wallace really stands out. She was great in this and she should have worked more. I hope The Simpsons paid her well and she finished out with lots of cash in the bank. Her life was a series of unfortunate events. She husband died young, her house burned down, she had a nervous breakdown, she got breast cancer.

Bob disappeared in the final season. There is a whole run of episodes where he was out and the show centered around Emily. I watched the one where Emily kisses an old flame and Carol, Jerry and Howards set out to break up the fling. Very, very funny.

The neighbor, Howard, was basically their child. He was so scattered and irresponsible that it was the same as giving them a teen.

[quote] But just like the shower scene of Bobby Ewing how was this Newhart ending not derided for invalidating the entire show?

Because it was a joke and played on nostalgia. "Dallas" (and the smarter "St. Elsewhere") played that nonsense straight.

[quote] The neighbor, Howard, was basically their child. He was so scattered and irresponsible that it was the same as giving them a teen.

R90 There was a certain amount of absurdity as part of the gentle humor of TBNS, such as Howard being an airline flight navigator. Imagine the reactions of the other characters if they were on a flight that Howard was navigating!

A 2019 interview

Not long but he talks about timing and Newhart finale

There's a clip out there somewhere with Bon talking about how the producers wanted to give him a baby to mine more humor after a few seasons on The Bob Newhart Show. His response apparently was that he thought it was a terrific idea and only wanted to know who they were going to get to play Bob. LOL

Frann seems like a good sport in the blooper from Newhart.

She was laughing all the way to the bank; but yeah, good for her for being a good sport.

She could have said, 'Well, BOB' but that might have gone over people's heads.

Newhart had a short-lived sitcom (33 episodes) in the 1992-93; his wife in that was younger than Frann, whom I'm sure was younger than Suzanne.

The short lived series was titled simply "Bob" and Carlene Watkins played his wife.

Where can I stream Newhart? Or TBNS? I'm getting burnt out on falling asleep to Frasier and 30 Rock

I’ve been watching the 80s one of Amazon Prime, R97. It hold up reasonably well, but I skipped the first two seasons before Stephanie and Michael became prominent characters.

R14: Annie's fine, sends her love.

[quote]Because it was a joke and played on nostalgia. "Dallas" (and the smarter "St. Elsewhere") played that nonsense straight.

Again -- "St. Elsewhere," like "Newhart" was the finale. "Dallas" sticks out like a sore thumb because the series continued on.