Trivia / The Bob Newhart Show

• Actor-Shared Background: Bob Newhart, like Bob Hartley, is a Chicago native.
• The Danza: Bob Newhart as Bob Hartley.
• Directed by Cast Member:
  • Peter Bonerz eventually parlayed this into an entire career as a respected TV director.
  • Will Mackenzie (Larry Bonderant) directed one episode and then went on to direct episodes of Taxi and WKRP in Cincinnati.
• Friendship on the Set: With the exception of Bob Newhart and Suzanne Pleshette, who were already friends prior to production, the whole cast became very close friends on the set of this show and would remain so for the rest of their lives.
• Marathon Running: Two for Nick at Nite — first Better Living Through Bob, which introduced the series to the schedule with a season-a-night run of all the episodes for eight nights; and then Bob's B.o.B, Bob Newhart, Newhart Marathon, which featured selected episodes of all three series as it introduced Newhart to N@N and Bob! to sister channel TV Land.
• Out of Holiday Episode: The bicentennial episode, "Caged Fury", aired three months after Independence Day on October 2, 1976.
• Real-Life Relative:
  • Tom Poston, who appeared in five episodes as Cliff 'The Peeper' Murdock, was Suzanne Pleshette's real-life husband.
  • Bill Quinn, who guest-starred in four episodes, was Bob Newhart's real-life father-in-law.
• Technology Marches On:
  • At the start of the series Howard is a navigator for an airline, a job that's since been replaced by computers. In fairness, that job was on its way out even in the 1970s and the show eventually addresses this, as Howard gets laid off and retrains to become a pilot. (Later episodes forget this development entirely and revert Howard back to the navigator position.)
  • "A Crime Most Foul" revolves around Bob buying a tape recorder and it later going missing. The tape recorder is the size of a turntable with a long, corded microphone. The episode derives humor from Bob's patients not knowing what to do with it and Bob later trying to use it to record Emily's snoring by dangling the microphone close to her while she sleeps.
  • The last two seasons have a running gag where Howard brings his landline phone over into Bob's apartment when he visits because the airline has him on standby. Cue Howard clumsily stretching the phone's long cord down the hall and through Bob's front door.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The show is famous for its depiction of Bob and Emily Hartley as television's first DINK family (before the term was even coined) at Bob Newhart's insistence, but this might not have remained the case had Suzanne Pleshette been able to have children of her own. She had been pregnant filming the pilot (she tragically miscarried) and made clear to the producers that if she got pregnant again, she would be having the baby, as she wanted to start a family. The decision was made that they would cross that bridge when they came to it - but as it turned out, she never did get pregnant again, rendering the point moot.
  • A planned crossover with The Mary Tyler Moore Show was often discussed but never came to fruition.
• You Look Familiar:
  • The Peeper (Tom Poston) would return as Handyman George Utley in Bob's "Newhart" dream, although Bob doesn't seem to recognize him when he wakes up. (Interestingly, The Peeper once mentions he was born in Vermont, where the later series was set, and plans to return there following his divorce.)
  • William Redfield, who played the Hartleys' neighbor Arthur Hoover in the pilot, would later play the role of Howard's brother Warden Gordon Borden.
  • Comedian Archie Hahn (from the British Whose Line Is It Anyway?) made his television debut in one episode of this show, playing a hotel bellhop. He appeared again in a later episode, this time playing a cruise director.

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