RIP: Bob Newhart

[thewayne]

*sigh*

A truly brilliant comedian and sitcom actor. He had two eponymous sitcoms and appeared in many others - recently and notably Big Bang Theory as Professor Neutron, he also released several comedy albums that are quite good, mostly consisting of his 'telephone' conversations.

He was 94, and will be missed. Fortunately he left a large body of work behind to be appreciated.

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/bob-newhart-dead-obituary-1081988/

Comments

[kaishin108]

That is so sad, he was great.

[disneydream06]

That was sad news to read today.
I didn't watch Newhart, but I was a big fan of The Bob Newhart Show. :)
Hugs, Jon

[thewayne]

I enjoyed both.  The new one had an interesting charm, and the final scene of the final episode had one of the most brilliant jokes in sitcom history - and it could only have been done by Bob Newhart!

[disneydream06]

I think I read about that big "twist". lol...

[murakozi]

I was going to leave a comment about that final scene, but you beat me to it. It was one of the most clever jokes ever.

[thewayne]

I wonder how long that joke was planned.

[murakozi]

Someone pointed me to a video this morning of an 'alternate ending' to Breaking Bad that was an homage to that final Newhart scene.

[thewayne]

That's interesting!

[moonhare]

I think of him as Bernard (Rescuers/Rescuers Down Under), and Leonard (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Movie) before any other works.

[bibliofile]

My parents had his albums, so I heard his comedy routines possibly before I saw his first TV show. One of the few cultural things that I appreciate getting from my dad. I laughed so hard!

[thewayne]

The albums are great!  I have, IIRC, three CDs.

[halfshellvenus]

Awwwwwwww. :( I remember him from the original Bob Newhart show. He was great with dry humor!

[thewayne]

He had an amazing flat delivery.

[madamoiselle_sambuca]

I liked the Bob Newhart show.. it was pretty funny. I didn't know that he was Neutron in TBBT...

[thewayne]

I don't remember when he started appearing in TBBT, he also appeared in Young Sheldon, but I only saw a couple of shows in that.  He was Sheldon's youthful inspiration, and when he met him as an adult, he sort of became a stalker.  It was pretty funny stuff.  Later in TBBT, Prof Neutron died, and came back in a few episodes as a Jedi-type ghost.

[madamoiselle_sambuca]

Love Sheldon. So much geeky cuteness. :D

[thewayne]

I/we enjoyed the show, but it grew tedious for me as everyone began getting girlfriends and marrying!  We pretty much stopped watching before the series ending, saw almost nothing of the final season.  But what was very cool was that my wife's boss (at the time) consulted on the very early show where they're up on the roof shooting a laser at the moon!  That's part of my wife's job at the observatory. :-)

[madamoiselle_sambuca]

That's awesome!! :D

[silveradept]

Ah, how unfortunate. Bob Newhart had deadpan delivery of the most absurd things down pat, and that was what made him very funny.

[thewayne]

Agreed.  I love flat delivery, also absurdist/surrealistic.  That's one of the things that I love about Stephen Wright, saw him live once back in the late '80s.