Celebrating A TV Legend: Bob Newhart Turns 93

Hollywood & Entertainment Celebrating A TV Legend: Bob Newhart Turns 93 Marc Berman Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. My beat is network and cable television, digital and syndication. Following New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories.

Got it! Sep 5, 2022, 01:51pm EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 12: Bob Newhart speaks onstage at An Evening With Bob Newhart on . . .

[+] February 12, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rebecca Sapp/WireImage) WireImage Today, we wish the legendary comedian, actor and all around entertainer Bob Newhart a very happy 93rd birthday. Known, of course, for his deadpan and slightly stammering low-key delivery, Bob Newhart rose to early fame thanks to three early 1960s appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, and his audio releases, in which he played a solo straight man who implied what the other person was saying (usually on the phone).

After transitioning to stand-up, his comedy album The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart won the 1961 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Three different views of American comedian Bob Newhart performing his stand-up act, promoting his . .

. [+] appearance on the television variety series, ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Getty Images Newhart’s first regularly scheduled television series was a variety hour on NBC in 1961 called The Bob Newhart Show .

Despite airing for only one season, it earned Newhart a primetime Emmy Award nomination and a Peabody Award. But it was his eponymous sitcom, the first of two hit CBS comedies, that exemplified why a likable and sensible lead is the perfect center for any comedy featuring a sea of unusual characters. LOS ANGELES – OCTOBER 10: THE BOB NEWHART SHOW featuring (from left) Marcia Wallace as Carol Kester, .

. . [+] Bob Newhart as Bob Hartley, Peter Bonerz as dentist Jerry Robinson, Suzanne Pleshette as Emily Hartley and Bill Daily as Howard Borden.

CBS via Getty Images Newhart, of course, played psychologist Dr. Bob Hartley (who never seemed to make any progress with his patients). It aired for six seasons, and it is etched in TV history as part of that now classic CBS Saturday night line-up: All in the Family , M*A*S*H , The Mary Tyler Moore Show , The Bob Newhart Show and The Carol Burnett Show .

MORE FOR YOU ‘Dune’ Tops Foreign Box Office With Promising $77M Cume ‘Shang-Chi’ Box Office: Marvel Movie Tops $360M Worldwide 4 Series Coming To Netflix In October That Are Worth The Binge There was even a drinking game called “Hi, Bob,” where participants would watch The Bob Newhart Show and consume their beverage of choice whenever a character uttered the phrase, “Hi, Bob. ” In 1982, four years after The Bob Newhart Show, came the comedian’s second long-running CBS comedy, Newhart , set at a cozy inn in Vermont. This time, Bob was featured s Dick Loudon, once again the calm center to a host of loonies (remember Larry, Darryl and Darryl?), and now a New York writer of “How To” books who decides to renovate and re-open a colonial inn.

It wasn’t until that historical series finale of Newhar t on May 21, 1990 (when Bob’s earlier TV wife Emily Hartley returns) that this eight-season comedy got the recognition it so readily deserved. “Honey, wake up, you won’t believe the dream I just had,” he said, right before TV wife No. 1, Suzanne Pleshette, rolls over.

“I was an inn keeper in this crazy little town in Vermont!” Pictured back row from left Peter Scolari (as Michael Harris), Julia Duffy (as Stephanie . . .

[+] Vanderkellen), Tom Poston (as George Utley). The front row from left is Bob Newhart (as Dick Loudon), Mary Frann (as Joanna Loudon). The series “Newhart” ran from Oct.

25, 1982, to May 21, 1990. (CBS Photo Archive/CBS via Getty Images) Newhart was also featured in two later sitcoms: Bob , which aired on CBS from 1992 to 1993 (with Lisa Kudrow pre- Friends, and Betty White), and George & Leo , also on the Eye net and opposite Judd Hirsch and Jason Bateman in the 1997 to 1998 TV season. In June 2015, Newhart reunited with Betty White, playing the father-in-law of Joy Scroggs (Jane Leeves) who ends up marrying White’s Elka Ostrovsky.

On September 15, 2013, Emmy finally came calling for Bob Newhart who won for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his portrayal of Professor Proton on The Big Bang Theory . More recently, he returned as the voice of Professor Proton on three episodes of the prequel sitcom Young Sheldon . LOS ANGELES, CA – SEPTEMBER 15: Actor Bob Newhart attends the 2013 Creative Arts Emmy Awards .

. . [+] Ceremony at the Nokia Theatre L.

A. Live on September 15, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Tommaso Boddi/WireImage) WireImage Celebrating his 93rd birthday, let’s raise our glasses and give a toast to the legendary Bob Newhart.

All together now. . .

”Hi, Bob!” Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn . Marc Berman Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions.