Series Description

The Bob Newhart Show was a 30 minute comedy series on CBS about a psychologist's strange relationships with patients, friends, and family. And yes, it's very confusing! Bob Newhart had 3 TV shows named after him. Check out his other two series, "Newhart (1982)" and "Bob (1992)".

Bob Newhart Show Cast

Bob Newhart .... Bob Hartley
Suzanne Pleshette .... Emily Hartley
Bill Daily .... Howard Borden
Peter Bonerz .... Jerry Robinson
Marcia Wallace .... Carol Kester/Bondurant
Jack Riley .... Elliot Carlin
Florida Friebus .... Mrs. Lillian Bakerman
John Fiedler .... Mr. Emil Peterson

Bob Newhart Show Trivia

You might be able to make a case that this series actually returned to the air in 1982 and ran until 1990. During those years, Bob Newhart starred in another hit series titled, "Newhart (1982)" In that series, he played the part of a Vermont Innkeeper married to a woman whose part was portrayed by actress Mary Frann. At the end of that series' final episode, Bob gets hit in the head by a golf ball and is knocked unconscious. When he recovers consciousness, he's in bed with his wife. She turns to ask him what is wrong and it's not actress Mary Frann ... it's Suzanne Pleshette! Bob answers her by saying that he had a dream about being an Innkeeper in Vermont. Yes! It turns out that the entire "Newhart (1982)" series was simply a dream of psychologist Bob Hartley and, therefore, technically, a part of this series!!!

Bob and Emily lived in apartment #523. Bob's office was located in suite #715. The building used for the outside shots of Bob's office building was the Bay Federal Bank Building on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois.

It must have been fate that got Suzanne Pleshette her role as Emily Hartley! She happened to appear on "The Tonight Show" on the same night as Bob Newhart. The producers for the Bob Newhart Show thought that Suzanne and Bob really complimented each other and that's how she got the role!

The actor who appeared in many episodes and played the mailman at Bob's office building was, "Bill Quinn". Bill just happened to be Bob Newhart's real-life father-in-law! The role was certainly not any charity, however. Bill appeared on television several hundred times over a 65 year career! Bill's best known rolew were probably as "Mr. Van Ranseleer" on "Archie Bunker's Place" and as "Sweeney the Bartender" on "The Rifleman".

There's no doubt that Peter Bonerz is best known to the public as the dentist, Jerry Robinson on the Bob Newhart Show but you've probably seen much more of his work and never realized it! After getting some directing experience on the Bob Newhart Show, Peter went on to become a very busy director! In addition to tons of TV movies, Peter directed mutiple episodes of "E/R", "Alf", "Wings", "Murphy Brown", "Friends", "The Hughleys", and "Good Morning, Miami" among others!

When Bob Newhart first read the outline for the show, he decided that there were a couple of things he wanted changed. His character was originally supposed to be a psychiatrist but Bob felt that would demand seriously unstable patients that wouldn't be appropriate for a comedy series so they changed his character to a psychologist. Bob and Emily were also supposed to have children but Bob felt that would be too much like all the other "kids with a nutsy father" series so they "erased" the kids from the series proposal.