When TV series say their final goodbyes, it’s often a sad affair for many viewers. Unless the characters are moved to another series (Lou Grant for example), the last episode is usually the last time we see the show’s characters. Fortunately, that hasn’t been the case for the characters from The Bob Newhart Show.
The Bob Newhart Show (BNS) ran for six seasons on CBS, from 1972 until 1978. The series primarily centers around psychologist Bob Hartley (Bob Newhart) and his beautiful wife Emily (Suzanne Pleshette). Their dim-witted neighbor is airline navigator Howard Borden (Bill Daily) who is like a surrogate child to the Hartleys. At the office, Bob shares the services of witty receptionist Carol Kester (Marcia Wallace) with swinging-single orthodontist Jerry Robinson (Peter Bonerz) and other medical professionals. Bob’s patients are a crazy bunch of characters that include mean-spirited Elliot Carlin (Jack Riley), milquetoast ex-Marine Emil Peterson (John Fiedler), whiny Michelle Nardo (Renee Lippin), insecure Ed Herd (Oliver Clark), and elderly supermarket checker Mrs. Bakerman (Florida Friebus).
When the show signed off on April 1, 1978, Bob has taken a job as a professor at a small college in Oregon and he and Emily move away. It seemed like we’d seen the last of the Hartleys and friends but, ever so slowly, they began to slip back to the airwaves.
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Murphy Brown,
Newhart,
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Taxi,
The Bob Newhart Show,
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