History Series / Newhart

* FrivolousLawsuit: How an elderly relative of Stephanie's made his money, as revealed in "It's My Party and I'll Die if I Want To", was through a series of these - up to and including threatening UsefulNotes/HerbertHoover with a lawsuit after burning the roof of his mouth on a slice of rhubab pie during a dinner at the White House. [[spoiler:After he dies and it's announced who his money is being left to, the will states that his lawyers will sue anybody who complains about this.]]

* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: The town in which the series takes place is never specified, with some media sources identifying it as Norwich, VT, across the Connecticut River from New Hampshire, with Vermonters complaining that the opening scenes are of New Hampshire instead of Vermont, and the Waybury Inn in East Middlebury, VT being used for external shots of the fictional Stratford Inn [[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083455/location according to the Internet Movie Database]]. Throughout the series, the name of the community [[CityWithNoName is never mentioned]].

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_0730.JPG]]

* SpirtualSuccessor: Widely considered to be one to Series/GreenAcres.

* OvershadowedByAwesome: Both when it was new and in syndication, ''Newhart'' remains stuck in the shadow of ''Series/TheBobNewhartShow''.

The first season aired to solid but not sensational ratings, but at first reviewers didn't think the show had much going for it outside of Newhart himself. Newhart and creator and executive producer Barry Kemp weren't completely happy either, so when the show was renewed, it was {{retool}}ed somewhat: the show switched from harsh videotape to a warmer film production; Leslie was replaced as maid with her bitchy, self-absorbed cousin Stephanie (Creator/JuliaDuffy); and, toward the end of Season 2, Dick was persuaded to host a local TV talk show, ''Vermont Today''. Dick's involvement with the show and its producer, the vapid but manic Michael Harris (Creator/PeterScolari), became a whole new source of humor, as did Michael's budding romance with Stephanie. Adding to the fun was a trio of zany backwoods brothers who purchased the Minuteman Café from Kirk: Larry (William Sanderson), his brother Darryl (Tony Papenfuss), and his [[OneSteveLimit other brother Darryl]] (John Voldstad); Larry did all of the talking, because neither of the Darryls [[TheVoiceless ever spoke]].[[note]]At least [[SuddenlySpeaking until the series finale]].[[/note]]

* OneSteveLimit:
** Averted with the two Darryls.
** Averted again with Michael and Stephanie's baby daughter in season 8, who is ''also'' named Stephanie (she's mostly referred to as "Baby Steph" or "Baby Stephanie").

* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: The town in which the series takes place is never specified, with some media sources identifying it as Norwich, VT, across the Connecticut River from New Hampshire, with Vermonters complaining that the opening scenes are of New Hampshire instead of Vermont, and filming locations taking place at the Waybury Inn in East Middlebury, VT [[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083455/location according to the Internet Movie Database]]. Throughout the series, the name of the community [[CityWithNoName is never mentioned]].

The first season aired to solid but not sensational ratings, but at first reviewers didn't think the show had much going for it outside of Newhart himself. Newhart and creator and executive producer Barry Kemp weren't completely happy either, so when the show was renewed, it was {{retool}}ed somewhat: the show switched from harsh videotape to a warmer film production; Leslie was replaced as maid with her bitchy, self-absorbed cousin Stephanie (Creator/JuliaDuffy); and, toward the end of Season 2, Dick was persuaded to host a local TV talk show, ''Vermont Today''. Dick's involvement with the show and its producer, the vapid but manic Michael Harris (Creator/PeterScolari), became a whole new source of humor, as did Michael's budding romance with Stephanie. Adding to the fun was a trio of zany backwoodsmen who purchased the Minuteman Café from Kirk: Larry (William Sanderson), his brother Darryl (Tony Papenfuss), and his [[OneSteveLimit other brother Darryl]] (John Voldstad); Larry did all of the talking, because neither of the Darryls [[TheVoiceless ever spoke]].[[note]]At least [[SuddenlySpeaking until the series finale]].[[/note]]

* AcidRefluxNightmare: How Chicago psychologist Bob Hartley wound up dreaming he was a Vermont innkeeper named Dick Loudon.

* AllJustADream: Played with; after the completely out-there finale, having that episode revealed to be a dream wasn't unexpected. Finding out ''whose'' dream was the fun part. Bob Newhart (in his memoir), Suzanne Pleshette, and episode director Dick Martin (in two separate interviews with the Archive of American Television) all credit Ginny Newhart, Bob's wife, with the idea for the "all just a dream" ending. The show's writers, presumably in fear that Ginny Newhart might try to claim some of their royalties, vociferously dispute this and credit staff writer Dan O'Shannon (later known for his less-than-stellar tenures as showrunner on ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' and ''Series/{{Frasier}}'') instead.[[note]]O'Shannon has conceded that he and Ginny Newhart might've separately come up with the idea independent of one another[[/note]]

* SeriesContinuityError: One famous running gag was that Daryl and Daryl never spoke, leading to everyone, including Dick, being shocked when they both spoke during the finale. Dick even says to Larry "your brothers can speak, how come they haven't said anything up til' now?" But in S1:E16, "Ricky Nelson, Up My Nose," Dick gets a call from Larry, only for the call to be interrupted by the Daryls, leading Dick to respond with "I'm fine" and "could you put Larry back on please?" Although the audience does not hear them, nonetheless Dick had previously heard the Daryls speak long before the finale.

%%* ConsummateLiar: Kirk.

* FrivolousLawsuit: How an elderly relative of Stephanie's made his money, as revealed in "It's My Party and I'll Die if I Want To", was through a series of these - up to and including threatening UsefulNotes/HerbertHoover with a lawsuit after burning the roof of his mouth on a slice of rhubab pie during a dinner at the White House.

* PlagarismInFiction: In "Reading, Writing, Ratings Points", when Michael is under pressure to come up with a new series for the station, he ends up stealing an idea from a student in his production class. Bev likes it and commissions the series, while Michael feels guilty about it.

%%* AwayInAManger: Used in the show's lone ChristmasEpisode, Season 1's "No Room at the Inn".

%%* CausticCritic: The critic in "Pressence of Malice".

%%* DownerEnding: "The Boy Who Cried Goat".

%%* MistakenForDying: Subversion.

%%* MrFixIt: George.

%%* PutOnABus: Leslie (after season 1), Kirk (after season 2).

%%* TimeSkip: Employed, subverted, and inverted in the final episode.

%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.

The first season aired to solid but not sensational ratings, but at first reviewers didn't think the show had much going for it outside of Newhart himself. Newhart and creator and executive producer Barry Kemp weren't completely happy either, so when the show was renewed, it was {{retool}}ed somewhat: the show switched from harsh videotape to a warmer film production; Leslie was replaced as maid with her bitchy, self-absorbed cousin Stephanie (Creator/JuliaDuffy); and, toward the end of Season 2, Dick was persuaded to host a local TV talk show, ''Vermont Today''. Dick's involvement with the show and its producer, the vapid but manic Michael Harris (Creator/PeterScolari), became a whole new source of humor, as did Michael's budding romance with Stephanie. Adding to the fun was a trio of zany backwoodsmen who purchased the Minuteman Café from Kirk: Larry (William Sanderson), his brother Darryl (Tony Papenfuss), and his [[OneSteveLimit other brother Darryl]] (John Voldstad); Larry did all of the talking, because neither of the Darryls [[TheVoiceless ever spoke]]. [[spoiler:At least [[SuddenlySpeaking until the series finale]].]]

* AesopAmnesia: In "This Probably is Condemned", Kirk learns to feel good about telling the truth. He goes back to lying in the next scene.
** However, this trope is pretty much averted in "The Boy Who Cried Goat". After Kirk is unable to prove he wasn't lying about his cafe being robbed, Dick points out that the whole thing is his fault because of his habit of lying. Afterwards, Kirk pretty much stops lying, with a few minor exceptions.
* AllJustADream: Played with; after the completely out-there finale, having that episode revealed to be a dream wasn't unexpected. Finding out ''whose'' dream was the fun part.
** Bob Newhart (in his memoir), Suzanne Pleshette, and episode director Dick Martin (in two separate interviews with the Archive of American Television) all credit Ginny Newhart, Bob's wife, with the idea for the "all just a dream" ending. The show's writers, presumably in fear that Ginny Newhart might try to claim some of their royalties, vociferously dispute this and credit staff writer Dan O'Shannon (later known for his less-than-stellar tenures as showrunner on ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' and ''Series/{{Frasier}}'') instead.[[note]]O'Shannon has conceded that he and Ginny Newhart might've separately come up with the idea independent of one another[[/note]]
* {{Arcadia}}

* AwayInAManger: Used in the show's lone ChristmasEpisode, Season 1's "No Room at the Inn".

* {{Breakout Character}}s: Larry, Darryl, and Darryl, to the point where their first appearance in a given episode would provoke a near-[[Series/HappyDays Fonzie]]-like reaction from the StudioAudience. They were originally meant to be one-time gag characters but Bob Newhart noticed how positively they were received by the live audience, so he brought them back in subsequent episodes. By season three they were part of the main cast.
** Larry, Darryl and Darryl were locally ''very'' popular in real-world Vermont, culminating in the actors appearing in character for an all-lard FoodFight staged in Burlington as part of a local festival in the late 1980s. Sort of a live, in-person BigLippedAlligatorMoment.

* BusmansHoliday: "Tell a Lie, Get a Check" begins with Dick and Joanna returning from a two-week vacation where they stayed at many hotels.
-->'''Dick:''' We went to hotel after hotel, and now we're back at our own hotel.

* ButtMonkey: Dick. To a lesser extent, Larry and George.

* CannotTellAJoke: Dick, in at least one episode.

* CatchPhrase / RunningGag: "Hi, I'm Larry. This is my brother, Darryl. This is my other brother, Darryl."
* CausticCritic: The critic in "Pressence of Malice".

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: After Season 1, Leslie Vanderkellen leaves for England to continue her education at Oxford, and from Season 2 onwards, she is never mentioned again.

* CityWithNoName: It's never actually revealed what Vermont town the Stratford Inn is located in. According to Wiki/TheOtherWiki, some sources indicate it may be [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwich,_Vermont Norwich]], while the building used for establishing shots of the inn is in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waybury_Inn Middlebury.]]
** In "The Way We Thought We Were", from season 1, Dick mentions that Montpelier is "59 miles from here," placing the town farther away than Norwich (or Middlebury) is from there in real life.
* CloserToEarth

* ComedySeries

* ConsummateLiar: Kirk.

* DeadpanSnarker: Dick, frequently.

* TheDitz / DumbBlonde: Stephanie
* DownerEnding: "The Boy Who Cried Goat".

* DropInCharacter: Larry and the Darryls.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: See ReTool below.
* EccentricTownsfolk: The show runs on this trope.
* ExactWords: In "The Way We Thought We Were", Kirk talks Dick into co-sponsoring a pee-wee hockey team, telling him to imagine the shirt saying "The Minuteman Cafe" right beside "the Stratford Inn". When he shows a printed uniform, The Minute Man Cafe is written in big bold print, with "right beside the Statford Inn" in very tiny letters below it. Kirk claims it's a mistake.

* HollywoodNewEngland
* IWantYouToMeetAnOldFriendOfMine

* [[Series/TheTonightShow Johnny Carson]]: Pays Larry and the Darryls' gas bill.
-->'''Larry''': Hi, I'm Larry, this is my brother Darryl, and this is my other brother Darryl. And heeeeeeere's Johnny!

* LogoJoke: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz8ewq8mxRI "Meow."]]
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A27GG9ApBiM "QUIET!!"]]

* MistakenForDying: Subversion.
* MotorMouth: Michael.
* MrFixIt: George.

* NewhartPhonecall: A common gag on the show, given Newhart used it in his stand-up.
** Interestingly in one episode Dick has a phone conversation with one of the Darryls before it was established that they never spoke, even off screen.

* NoodleIncident: In one episode, the reason why one (or both) of the Darryl's don't talk is that one (or both) of them sat on a porcupine and haven't talked since.

* OnlySaneMan: Dick. Joanna could arguably qualify, too, but she has a fair amount of moments of crazy.

-->'''Dick''': Stephanie, what are you doing here?!
-->'''Stephanie''': How did you know it was me?
-->'''Dick''': It's because I'm not a moron!

* PutOnABus: Leslie (after season 1), Kirk (after season 2).
* QuirkyTown

* ReunionShow: Subversion.
* RichBitch: Stephanie.
* SanitySlippage: It could be argued the whole ''world'' suffers this as the series progresses. As already noted, of course, there's a [[AllJustADream reason for this.]]
** More specifically, Dick in the telethon episode described below, thanks to sleep deprivation.

%% * TheSmartGuy: Dick, somewhat.

** See Shaggy Dog Story for the episode "Still the Beavers".

* TimeSkip / WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue / DistantFinale: Employed, subverted, and inverted in the final episode.

* DreamWithinADream: Thanks to the ending of the series, "A Midseason Night's Dream" is full of these.

* ExactWords: In one episode, Kirk talks Dick into co-sponsoring a pee-wee hockey team, telling him to imagine the shirt saying "The Minuteman Cafe" right beside "the Stratford Inn". When he shows a printed uniform, The Minute Man Cafe is written in big bold print, with "right beside the Statford Inn" in very tiny letters below it. Kirk claims it's a mistake.
** In "My Three Dads", George is upset when he sees promos for the late night news that use "teasers" to get people to watch, which Michael says he came up with. One such promo announced "President dead! Details at eleven!", which turned out to be about Calvin Coolidge as opposed to the current president, and another promo says "Soda contaiminated!", when it's really just a bug being found in a soda can that was left out overnight.

** The plot of this final show magnifies what the show had been doing progressively over its eight years: A Japanese tycoon buys the (unnamed) town where the Stratford Inn (which protagonists Dick and Joanna Loudon owned) was located, and after a farewell party (with Dick pretty much saying good-riddance), the main characters -- handyman George Uttley, yuppies Michael and Stephanie Harris, and Larry and his brothers Darryl and Darryl -- leave. In the five years that pass, Dick has now been dealing with crazier loons than what populated the inn years earlier, and his wife (as a geisha girl) has even gotten nuts; he's also unable to get over a golf course being built around the inn without his permission. Then, the old folks all come back and drive Dick to the brink of a nervous breakdown. The Darryls speak for the only time in the series' history ("QUIET!!!" to shut their annoying girlfriends up). Finally, things become chaotic as the new Japanese folks become friends with their old counterparts, and Dick can take it no longer; he says he's going to leave, and just as he walks out the door is knocked out by a wayward golf ball. The screen goes black ... and when a light comes back on, the scene shifts to Dr. Hartley's bedroom from ''Series/TheBobNewhartShow'', and his wife Emily (Suzanne Pleshette in a cameo of her famous role) scolds him for eating too much Japanese food before bed! (Unlike Bob on ''The Bob Newhart Show'', Dick was psychologically unable to deal with the eccentric folks in his town.) Whew!

** The actual ending was not in the script. A fake ending was included in case the script were to get leaked to the tabloids, which as it turned out was exactly what happened. In the fake ending, the golf ball that hits Dick apparently kills him, and he goes up to heaven to have a conversation with God. The actor playing God was not revealed in the "script", so the tabloids speculated that it might be [[Creator/GeorgeBurns George Burns]] (who had played God in the ''Film/OhGod'' movies), [[Creator/GeorgeCScott George C. Scott]], or maybe even Newhart's RealLife best friend [[Creator/DonRickles Don Rickles]]. Contrary to some reports, the fake ending was never filmed.

* OneSteveLimit: Averted with the two Darryls.
* OnlySaneMan: Dick.

* PaperThinDisguise: Averted in "Send Her, Ella", after Stephanie gets stuck watching the Inn while the rest of the staff participates in Maple Syrup Day, wanting to participate in the beauty pageant, Stephanie goes anyway, dressed in a brunette wig and disguising her voice so she won't be recognized, but Dick instantly figures out that it's her.

* PoorCommunicationKills: In "You're Nobody 'Till Somebody Hires You", one of the biggest difficulties Dick faces with taking over as producer of Vermont Today is all the paperwork he has to sign. [[spoiler: After Dick sacrifices some of his salary for Michael to get hired back with more pay, Dick says it's worth it to no longer deal with all the paperwork... Only to then learn that the employee who kept handing paperwork to Dick is the one who's supposed to fill the paperwork, having never mentioned it to Dick.]] Could be more a case of YouNeverAsked though no such conversation is shown.

* TheCameo: Suzanne Pleshette reprises her role of Emily Hartley in the finale's famous {{Reveal}}.

* IronicEcho: In "Reading, Writing, and Rating Points", when Michael's production class confronts him about stealing a show idea from a student, he sheepishly acknowledges that they talked about the idea in class but "when a group of people are brainstorming ideas, who remembers who came up with it?", to which the whole class quickly replies "It was Neil!" But when Michael confesses to his boss, right before the first show ends, the station gets calls from viewers who hated the show, to which Michael quickly [[ScapegoatCreator reminds everyone who the real creator is]], Neil repeats Michael's earlier line, and Michael just as quickly points out "It was Neil!"

In addition to being a consistently solid ratings performer (spending its first six seasons in the Nielsen Top 30, four of those in the Top 20), ''Newhart'' earned plenty of critical acclaim and a number of UsefulNotes/EmmyAward nominations. And the show will be forever remembered for the ending of its final episode, which revealed its entire eight-year run to have been an extended nightmare dreamt by Dr. Bob Hartley of ''Series/TheBobNewhartShow'' (to which this series might therefore be retroactively viewed as a kind of StealthSequel). Some have also seen ''Newhart'', with its premise of a straitlaced urban protagonist finding himself a FishOutOfWater in an often-absurdist version of rural America, as an '80s answer to ''Series/GreenAcres''.

* MissingTheGoodStuff

** Bob Newhart (in his memoir), Suzanne Pleshette, and episode director Dick Martin (in two separate interviews with the Archive of American Television) all credit Ginnie Newhart, Bob's wife, with the idea for the "all just a dream" ending. The show's writers, presumably in fear that Ginnie Newhart might try to claim some of their royalties, vociferously dispute this and credit staff writer Dan O'Shannon (later known for his less-than-stellar tenures as showrunner on ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' and ''Series/{{Frasier}}'') instead.[[note]]O'Shannon has conceded that he and Ginnie Newhart might've separately come up with the idea independent of one another[[/note]]

* HalloweenEpisode: "Take Me to Your Loudon", in which a costume party at the Stratford is interrupted by the townspeople getting sent into a panic after Michael airs ''Film/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' on TV.

* HalloweenEpisode: "Take Me to Your Loudon"

* CouldHaveAVoidedThisPlot: In "Support Your Local Shifflet", the city council is unable to afford Officer Shifflet's request for a raise after approving of a traffic light Dick requested, leading Shifflet to go on strike. Eventually, they decide to give Shifflet his raise in exchange for putting in a much-cheaper stop sign instead of a traffic light. Dick says that he doesn't mind, and Jim lampshades this trope.

* DisproportionateRetribution: In one episode, after Dick deals with a critic who's constantly been writing harsh reviews of Vermont Today, once the critic starts insulting Chester, Jim, and the townspeople of Vermont in general, Jim remembers that Chester is the mayor and can do something about it, so they decide to make it so that wherever the critic parks his car is an automatic towing zone and legal for people to come into his house to use his phone. But they find Dick's suggestion that they make it against the law to write bad reviews unrealistic.

* TheDitz / DumbBlonde: Stephanie