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Comic Bob Newhart has died at the age of 94. He was best known for an everyman persona that powered two classic TV sitcoms. NPR TV critic Eric Deggans says Newhart was the funniest guy in the room while playing unassuming characters who, in others' hands, would have been setting up somebody else's jokes. Here's his tribute.
ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE: Bob Newhart built a legendary career around it - the stammer. It showed up in his first hit TV sitcom, "The Bob Newhart Show," when he played a psychologist trying to help a ventriloquist who came into his office for help.
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BOB NEWHART: (As Bob Hartley) The dummy - the dummy wants to go out on his own?
(LAUGHTER)
SAM KWASMAN: (As Danny James) He says I'm holding him back.
(LAUGHTER)
DEGGANS: And you even heard it during his guest appearances on "The Big Bang Theory," where he played a former science TV show host put off by Sheldon Cooper's attachment to him.
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NEWHART: (As Arthur Jefferies) Is he dangerous?
(LAUGHTER)
JOHNNY GALECKI: (As Leonard Hofstadter) Actually, he's a genius.
NEWHART: (As Arthur Jefferies) That - that doesn't answer my question.
DEGGANS: The stammer made Bob Newhart sound like an everyman, even as he was slyly proving he was the smartest person on stage. In a 2014 PBS documentary, Newhart recalled a TV producer asking him to speak faster once during a scene. Newhart told him...
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NEWHART: This stammer has gotten me a home in Beverly Hills, and I'm not about to change it.
DEGGANS: The comic told NPR in 2005 that the stammer served his style of comedy, which some have described as minimalist.
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NEWHART: I like to get laughter out of the least. And I think one way you do it is by giving the audience some credit for some intelligence.
DEGGANS: George Robert Newhart was born in September 1929 in Oak Park, Ill. Raised in the Chicago area, he got a degree in business management and served in the Army during the Korean War before landing a job as an accountant. Bored with accounting, Newhart began making up comedy routines over the phone with a coworker. Eventually, he quit accounting and got a DJ pal to help him get a record deal with Warner Brothers. But as he told NPR's Talk Of The Nation in 2006, there was a problem. Warner Brothers told him...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
NEWHART: We'll record it at your next nightclub. And I said, well, see, that's going to be a problem because I've never played a nightclub.
DEGGANS: Newhart had two weeks to develop material for his first record, "The Button-Down Mind Of Bob Newhart," released in 1960. It became the first comedy album to hit No. 1 on Billboard's album sales chart, launching his career on the strength of routines like this one, with Newhart playing a press agent talking by phone to his client, Abraham Lincoln.
(SOUNDBITE OF COMEDY ALBUM, "THE BUTTON-DOWN MIND OF BOB NEWHART")
NEWHART: (As character) Listen, Abe, I've got to know. What's the problem? You're thinking of shaving it off?
(LAUGHTER)
NEWHART: (As character) Abe, don't you see that's part of the image? Right, with the shawl and the stovepipe hat, the string tie.
(LAUGHTER)
DEGGANS: Another comedy album followed along with appearances on TV shows and movies. But it wasn't until 1972 that he landed the first of his two classic TV sitcoms, "The Bob Newhart Show." He played Bob Hartley, a psychologist surrounded by strange patients. As Newhart told WHYY's Fresh Air in 1998, picking his character's occupation was key.
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NEWHART: He said, well, you know, Bob is a - he's a listener. He's like a reactor. He reacts to people. What occupation would lend itself to somebody who listens? And they said, well, how about a psychiatrist? I said, well, let's make him a psychologist because I think a psychologist tends to deal with less severely disturbed people.
DEGGANS: Dr. Hartley's patients were more like eccentric oddballs, as in this scene, featuring an overly polite family arriving for a therapy session.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE BOB NEWHART SHOW")
BUD KENNEALLY, JOAN KENNEALLY, ROBERT KENNEALLY AND PAM KENNEALLY: (As characters) Good morning, Dr. Hartley.
(LAUGHTER)
NEWHART: (As Bob Hartley) And it seems to be working.
BUD KENNEALLY: (As Mr. Swerdlow) After you, honey.
JOAN KENNEALLY: (As Mrs. Swerdlow) No, no. The children must go first.
ROBERT KENNEALLY: (As Tom Swerdlow) No, Mother. After you.
PAM KENNEALLY: (As Becky Swerdlow) Oh, yes, we insist on our beloved parents.
JACK RILEY: (As Elliot Carlin) It's a good thing they weren't on the Titanic.
(LAUGHTER)
DEGGANS: "The Bob Newhart Show" ended in 1978 after six seasons by Newhart's choice. Four years later, he was in another sitcom, just called "Newhart." This time, he was playing Vermont innkeeper and TV talk show host Dick Loudon. That show ran eight seasons. Its famous final scene was suggested by Newhart's real-life wife, Virginia. It featured Newhart's character waking up in his bed from "The Bob Newhart Show," lying next to Suzanne Pleshette, who played his wife on the 1970s sitcom.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "NEWHART")
NEWHART: (As Dick Loudon) I was an innkeeper in this crazy little town in Vermont.
(LAUGHTER)
NEWHART: (As Dick Loudon) The maid was an heiress. Her husband talked in alliteration. The handyman kept missing the point of things.
SUZANNE PLESHETTE: (As Emily Hartley) That settles it. No more Japanese food before you go to bed.
(LAUGHTER)
DEGGANS: Newhart had other TV series, but they didn't last long. Still, he worked steadily as a stand-up comic and character actor, appearing on shows like "ER" and "Desperate Housewives." In 2006, he released a memoir called "I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This." And that same year, he appeared on the Emmy Awards in an inspired bit with Conan O'Brien.
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CONAN OBRIEN: Tonight, I have placed beloved TV icon Bob Newhart...
(LAUGHTER)
OBRIEN: ...In an airtight container. If the Emmys run one second over, Bob Newhart dies.
DEGGANS: It would be another seven years before Newhart won his first Emmy Award in 2013 for his guest appearance on "The Big Bang Theory." The next year, NPR host David Greene asked Newhart if there were any failures in his life or career that troubled him.
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NEWHART: No. I've lived in an incredible time. I lived in the days of Johnny Carson, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin - incredibly rewarding times. Oh, my God, I could never look upon my life as a failure. It's far beyond anything I ever thought I would attain.
DEGGANS: Such humility was a fitting attitude for a performer who became a comedy legend by acting like the buttoned-down guy next door.
I'm Eric Deggans. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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