Bob Newhart Passes Away at 94

Buddy, I think we have to talk.

(00:02)
I’m a very lucky actor because I just kind of internalized what I’m feeling and somehow it comes out. It shows up on the face. I mean, I’ve never studied it, I’ve never been to professional acting school.

The one and only Mr. Bob Newhart.

I guess life begins at 80.

(00:19)
Oh, this is my own. I have to get into wardrobe in a few minutes, if we could speed it up a little bit.

Yeah, definitely.

I just assumed five, six years it was going to be over. I never thought it was going to go this way.

Bob, you’re being childish.

I am not.

You are too.

I am not.

You are too.

It’s been a great life. It’s just making people laugh, it’s wonderful. I love you America

And America loved you right back, Bob. In my last interview with the legend, he shared one of his sitcom secrets.

I had the lines on the back of a cereal box, the director, he said, “Cut, cut, cut, cut.” He said, “Bob, nobody turns a cereal box around.” I said, “Okay. You’re right. You’re right.” But that’s where the words were.

But before Bob Newhart was a prime time star, he was an Army veteran turned accountant who dreamed of becoming a comic.

(01:15)
What do you remember about the first time you did stand up?

So I walked out one night and with all the bravado I could summon up and … “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,” that’s all I had going. If that didn’t work, it was back to accounting.

(01:33)
I made this comedy record album in 1960 and it went crazy, far beyond anything I imagined. That’s the reason I’m here.

The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart was among the first modern comedy albums and an instant smash hit. In 1960 it was the top album in the country for 14 weeks, and became the first comedy release in history to win Album of the Year at the Grammys. In a shocker, Newhart was also named that year’s Best New Artist.

Well, they just kept calling out my name. I didn’t realize what winning Album of the Year meant.

(02:09)
Abe leave the beard on and the stovepipe out and get a shawl, okay.

You beat out some pretty impressive people.

Belafonte, Harry Belafonte. Frank Sinatra. I don’t think Frank was too thrilled about losing to a comic. I got to know Frank.

He forgave you.

I assume he did. I didn’t start my car for a long time.

(02:36)
And you shove it up your nose as well,

You love to do a phone call. You’re the king of that.

The audience is providing half of the conversation. I’m supplying answers and they’re supplying the question. So at the end of a telephone routine, they’ve done the heavy lifting.

(03:03)
Mrs. Harold? Yeah, I can’t understand you with your mouth full.

Bob took his phone gags and his disarming deadpan delivery to CBS in 1972 on The Bob Newhart Show, where he played a psychologist in Chicago. It ran for six seasons at a time when there were only three networks.

(03:20)
The Bob Newhart Show was like … It was appointment viewing.

Well, we were in at CBS Saturday Night lineup, All in the Family, Mash, Mary Tyler Moore [inaudible 00:03:33], and Carol Burnett. And we used to get Super Bowl numbers.

(03:38)
I’ve heard from every crackpot and loose screw in the county. Oh, your mother called.

Then on Newhart, he owned an inn in rural Vermont and had another impressive run. Eight seasons and 184 episodes.

It sounds trite, but we were family.

The big problem on the show is that everybody’s so damn nice.

We happen to truly adore each other. Bob is so clear about what he does and does well, and he is so confident in his talent that he allows everyone else to find their own rhythms and their own style and let their talent shine through.

I’ve discovered this unique formula, which was to get great writers and an incredible cast and then take all the credit yourself.

And they were both in syndication for a long time.

Yeah, yeah. Still Is, still are.

(04:41)
We’re doing something right and the people are watching. It’s fun, it’s fun to go to work.

The Newhart finale in 1990 is still talked about today as one of the most memorable in TV history.

All I can tell you is that there will be a couple of surprises in the final show.

(04:59)
You’re all crazy.

Yep, the entire series ended up being a dream. And the audience went wild when in this final scene, Bob woke up next to Suzanne Pleshette, his wife from his first sitcom.

My wife’s idea. We were at a Christmas party and I said, “I think this is going to be the last year.” And she said, right away she said, “You should end it on a dream sequence.” And I said, “Wow, what a great idea.” And Suzy was at the Christmas party, we told her, she said,” I’ll be there in a New York minute.” She said, “If I’m in Timbuktu, I’ll be there.”

[inaudible 00:05:38]. We always knew we were forever.

How were you able to keep that a secret?

The crew didn’t know. We actually put out a script to mislead the tabloids, where I get hit in the head and I go to heaven.

(05:51)
Nothing made sense in this place.

(05:53)
People told me they were alone in a hotel room and they were going, “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.”

(05:59)
I would rather leave a series a year too early than a year too late, and we’d gone off a winner.

How do you account for the fact that not just once but twice you have had long-running successful TV series?

America loves me.

No, you’ve accounted for it.

I mean, I belong on television. I don’t really belong in movies. I tried movies and they didn’t work.

Movies did work for you.

Well, Elf, Elf worked.

(06:29)
I’ll always be here for you.

(06:30)
It just makes you feel good. I got five grandchildren, so the first time they’ve ever seen me is an elf.

Bob Newhart, he was a pain in the ass. Always bothering me. I’m like, “What, Bob? I can’t show you how to do everything.” I just tried to take advantage of all my time with Bob. It was just great, those guys are living history.

Elf became one of the highest grossing Christmas movies of all time. That same year, Bob was also a big part of Legally Blonde 2 with Reese Witherspoon.

All day long I felt like white open-toed shoes after Labor Day.

I hate that feeling.

Bob Newhart, he’s such a national treasure.

As Elle it’s so easy to go over the top and make her a caricature, but Reese is too smart to do that. She pulls it back down to where you like her.

In his 70s Bob returned to TV to guest star and shows like ER.

Would you like to have dinner tonight?

(07:31)
The first intentionally dramatic role that I’ve ever done.

He popped up on Murphy Brown, Desperate Housewives, NCIS, and earned a new generation of fans on the Big Bang Theory as Sheldon’s TV idol, Professor Proton.

I can get as close to you as I want without my mom saying it’s going to ruin my eyes.

Is he dangerous?

(07:52)
I like Big Bang. I like the writing on it. I think the cast is incredible.

I was saying, that was the first person that we’ve ever had that I really thought, “Oh my God, you exist.” He’s like an icon, literally. He is an icon to me.

I love him so much. I love him so much. I love him so much.

I do too.

Me too, right. [inaudible 00:08:11].

I was on cloud nine all week.

It was one of his final appearances on prime time TV. And after seven nominations, the role earned him his first Emmy Eward in 2013.

Bob Newhart.

It’s heavier than it looks. Never got the whole one. And a standing ovation, that really threw me. I wasn’t prepared for that. It was emotional.

Bob’s lifetime date to the Emmys, his wife of 60 years Ginnie, who died in 2023.

(08:37)
How did you meet your wife?

Fixed up on a blind date by Buddy Hackett. Buddy Hackett said, “Bobby.” He said, “Bobby, you are Catholic, right?” I said, “Yeah, yeah buddy. I’m Catholic.” “Okay, I got a girl for you. She’s going with another guy, but I don’t think he’s right for her.”

Oh, he is wonderful.

Ginnie is the perfect wife. She really is.

She is, yeah. She is.

She just kind of stays in the background and keeps the family going. You can’t have a career like Bob has had because, I mean, really a great family. And that’s because of Ginnie.

They married in 1963, the year after they met, and went on to welcome four children and 10 grandkids.

(09:19)
What’s a perfect day for you nowadays?

See my kids, the grandkids. Ginnie and I, we sit and we watch movies at night. The comedian and his ego get in the way, but she cuts right to the bone and she’s been right time and time again. Oh, God, if she sees this. Comedians’ marriages tend to last. There’s something about laughter and the length of a marriage. Jack Benny, George Burns, Don Rickles. For some reason, laughter and marriage, they last.

And speaking of the late Don Rickles, he was one of Bob’s closest friends. Many considered them Hollywood’s real-life Odd Couple.

Oh, I think he did a little trick. That’s wonderful.

I mean, are you going to be gentle? I mean, this is your friend.

He was, until we did this.

We were opposites. I went to college in Chicago, Don graduated high school. But we had a great time together and traveled together, laughed together.

We have a great chemistry together. We are completely different and yet we’re very much alike. I tell that to everybody, because our values are very similar. Both wives want to do the same thing, spend, spend, spend.

Honey, he said that. I didn’t say that. I didn’t say it, sweetheart.

He’s worried about his wife.

He said the two of you were brothers of the heart.

I’m Catholic. Don was religious. We’d celebrate the Jewish holidays. They’d celebrate Catholic holidays, Christmas. And we do caroling here.

You guys lived close to each other.

He lived about a block away. I could walk over and get insulted and then …

Look what America did, made him the biggest thing in the world and now I just carry his books.

Do you consider yourself a legend?

They keep telling me. I guess maybe they’re right, I don’t know.

What do you think your fans will remember you for?

The stammer.

The stammer.

The stammer.

(11:44)
How fast were you going when Mr. Adams jumped from the car?

(11:49)
When a man comes up to me, he thinks I was in service with him. And when a woman comes up, she thinks I was her first husband. And I don’t know if that’s the kind of effect I have on people.

(12:01)
No, I’m very happy with my life. It all comes down to your family and your friends, and that’s what it’s all about. And all the other awards are … Don’t mean anything.

(12:16)
I have a theory that when it’s all over and you go up to heaven and there’s a God and he said, “What did you do?” I say, “Well, I made people laugh.”