Trivia / Newhart

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• Hostility on the Set: Mary Frann didn't have the best time working on the show, with the media constantly comparing her to her predecessor as Bob Newhart's TV wife, Suzanne Pleshette. The cast and crew of Newhart, including Bob himself, didn't seem terribly sympathetic, inviting Pleshette to make a backstage appearance during the filming of the show's first season, which Frann (though brushing it off when the media asked about it) did not appreciate. A surviving blooper showing Bob flubbing a take by referring to Frann's character Joanna as "Emily" got a great reaction from Frann (and the studio audience) but the dramatics of her sauntering off stage and taking her bows do suggest some irritation at even her co-star and onscreen husband failing to recognize her as her own woman. The show's infamous ending, relegating her entire character to having been a dream of Bob Hartley's, with Emily herself showing up in bed next to him, was the icing on the cake. Pleshette, many years later (and after Frann's too-early death in 1998), acknowledged in a candid interview for the Archive of American Television that she felt bad for Frann having to live and work in her shadow, and claimed to have snuck out of the series finale after-party as it "wasn't [her] house". (Although she apparently hung around for long enough that Lisa Kudrow — who played one of Larry, Darryl, and Darryl's wives — was able to meet her.)
• One-Take Wonder: The legendary reveal scene at the end of the Grand Finale was shot in the first and only take — and without rehearsal — because the live Studio Audience's initial reaction would not have been replicated on subsequent takes.
• The Pete Best: Jennifer Holmes (Leslie) and Steven Kampmann (Kirk).
• Uncredited Role: Suzanne Pleshette is uncredited for her legendary surprise appearance in "The Last Newhart".
• What Could Have Been: An alternative "decoy" ending was scripted with Dick dying and going to Heaven after getting hit by the golf ball and meeting God. The implication was that George Burns would reprise his role as God from the Oh, God! films (though allegedly some of the crew thought that it might be George C. Scott in the role). This ending was only included in case the finale script was leaked to the press (which it was) and was never intended to be filmed.
• You Look Familiar:
  • Dr. Hartley apparently never noticed that his best friend from college, "The Peeper", was the handyman in his dream. (Tom Poston played both roles).
  • Bill Daily, who played Howard Borden on The Bob Newhart Show, guest stars in the episode "Good Neighbor Sam".
  • Jack Riley, Mr. Carlin on The Bob Newhart Show, appears in the episode "I Married Dick" as a guy Dick meets in a therapist's waiting room.

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