As news of the death of Bob Newhart started spreading around the entertainment world on Thursday, celebrities far and wide shared their thoughts. Carol Burnett, Conan O’Brien, Judd Apatow, and many others offered up tender memories of Newhart, who died at 94 years old.
Burnett, in a post on X, wrote, “I had the great pleasure of working with Bob and being his friend. He was as kind and nice as he was funny. He will be missed.” She included a photo of her and Newhart from what appears to be from the 1960s. O’Brien, who had Newhart on as a guest in his late-night show days, wrote also on X, “Bob Newhart taught countless generations of comedians that you could be funny, smart, uncompromising, and still win on your own terms. This is an immeasurable loss.”
Bob Newhart gained fame initially from his comedy album, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart. Issued in 1960, the album captured Newhart on stage at the Tidelands Club in Houston. It reached the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Mono Action Albums chart, staying there for 14 weeks.
Apatow, who directed an excellent documentary titled Bob and Don: A Love Story, shared his thoughts on X. He included a wonderful picture of Newhart with his wife, Ginnie. Apatow wrote, “Bob Newhart made the world a better place for a really long time.” Apatow’s documentary offered people an inside look at Newhart’s long friendship with fellow comedian Don Rickles.
Legendary comedian Ruth Buzzi, best known for her work on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, shared a photo on X, too. It’s of her and Bob in a sketch together. Buzzi wrote, “Seven decades of success as a comedian and not one disrespectful, vulgar or offensive joke. Comedy had a ‘greatest generation,’ too; that classy era was led by the likes of Bob Newhart. My dear friend, rest in peace. See you down the road. XOXO Ruthie”.
Bob Newhart Managed to Find Success on TV
Back in October 1961, way before his sitcom days, Newhart had a show simply titled The Bob Newhart Show on NBC. It gave him a chance to share his wit and humor with viewers. Sadly, the show didn’t catch on for a long run. It ended in June 1962. Newhart, though, stayed with his stand-up career. He showed up on variety shows and talk shows in that decade.
They would lead him to starring in his very own successful sitcom, The Bob Newhart Show, on CBS. Talk about a lineup, too. In the cast, you had Newhart, Suzanne Pleshette, Marcia Wallace, Peter Bonerz, and Bill Daily. Toss in Jack Riley and the other cast members who gathered in Bob Hartley’s psychiatrist’s office for group therapy.
Watching The Bob Newhart Show on Saturday nights in the 1970s gave CBS a powerful one-two punch. The Mary Tyler Moore Show was Newhart’s lead-in show. His show, though, acted as a lead-in for The Carol Burnett Show. In the hours since Newhart’s death was reported, plenty of video clips from his sitcom have been shared.
We also can’t leave out Newhart, his sitcom where he played a Vermont hotel owner. It ran for eight seasons on CBS. Cast members included Mary Frann, Tom Poston, Julia Duffy, and Peter Scolari. Daily even showed up on this show, too. Newhart fans have been treated to seeing that series’ final scenes.
After Bob gets knocked out by a baseball, the next scene finds him in bed. But it’s not the bed from Newhart. Oh no, as lights are turned on, fans recognized it as Bob and Emily’s bedroom from The Bob Newhart Show. And once Bob starts talking, a person on his left rolls over and turns on the light. It turns out that Pleshette appears as Emily in this scene harkening back to earlier days.
Henry Winkler shared a tender memory from early in his own career, way before hitting it big on Happy Days. Winkler wrote on X, “My second Job in Hollywood was the Bob Newhart show My first comedy album was Bob Newhart’s .. What a wonderful human being Rest in a Peace that is very funny”.
Bob’s ability to work with a telephone, provide dead-panned lines, and work “clean” stands the test of time. His work will be looked at for years to come. What the one-time Chicago accountant couldn’t do with numbers, he sure succeeded at making people laugh all over the world. His memory will live on for a long time to come.
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