Nobody has ever been in the dynamic story of the show business like Bob Newhart, and it was in Chicago that he made an impact. For more than half a decade he remained a critical, admired and impossible-to-imitate appearance in casinos, on tracks, in movie and, most deeply, on TV.
Newhart passed away on Thursday at his Los Angeles home after a lifetime of entertaining individuals. He was 94.
He almost perished before he could pass away, making his contribution to” Bob and Don: A Love Story,” a video starring Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio about his long-term connection with the late graphic Don Rickles, last year. He was guided by the phrase” I ca n’t imagine ever not doing it” as it was once said to the Hollywood Reporter. It has become a way of living for me. With the flights, the canceled airlines, and the resort apartments, it’s a pain to get there, but once you leave, you can see a tremendous audience and have a great time. Why would anyone state,’ You know, I’m truly tired of making people giggle?'”
Monuments have started pouring in from those who knew him personally and who had admired and admired him through his writing.
It started around, when he was born George Robert Newhart in Oak Park on Sept. 5, 1929, and grew up in Chicago in the vicinity of Austin and Washington walkways. He was the only child of Julia Pauline, the only other child of George David Newhart, and the sole proprietor of a piping and heating-supply company. Virginia, Mary Joan, and Pauline, who all attended Oak Park’s St. Catherine of Siena School, were all his daughters.
Afterward, Newhart transferred to St. Ignatius College Prep and received a 1952 bachelor’s degree in business administration. He was drafted into the U.S. Army and served as a personnel director until his discharge in 1954. Before working as an advisor for United States Gypsum, he briefly attended Loyola University’s rules school. Afterward, he later claimed that he did not do well at that position and frequently adjusted petty cash balances with his own funds.
He gave himself three times to pursue a career in humor.
In 1958, he became an marketing copywriter for Fred A. Niles, a film and television producer. He and a colleague kept the conversation going through lengthy phone calls about immoral situations to pass the time. They wrote a television program, which they eventually edited and broadcast as audition tapes. They later sold it to 13 Western stores. When his co-worker ended his membership, Newhart continued only.
Dan Sorkin, a disc jockey at a local radio station and Newhart’s companion, introduced him to the mind of expertise at Warner Bros. Records. The brand signed him in 1959, just a year after it was formed, based only on those audio. His debut record was” The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart”.
” I always thought much had come of these history tracks, to be honest”, Newhart told the Los Angeles Times. ” I thought even 25, 000 duplicates might offer. Next it went crazy”.
Well it did, becoming the goods of celebrity story. The funny song” Button-Down Mind” became the first funny song to ever reach No. 1 and earned two Grammy Awards for sales of 1.5 million files. 1. It changed the face of contemporary comic and saved Warner Bros. Records, which was struggling.
The song” Abe Lincoln Vs. Madison Ave,” which had become his most well-known track, was included on the recording. ” The best piece of writing I always did”, Newhart may say about his playing an marketing and promotion executive, what would be called a “branding expert” now, who tries to keep Lincoln on information at Gettysburg. Another little found Newhart addressing seamen on the underwater USS Codfish after a record-setting, ongoing two-year tour.
Prior to the release of the album, Newhart had not performed in people, but in fast order he had begun putting his documented material into a stand-up routine and had started playing at Mister Kelly’s Rush Street club, which was then among the most well-known in the country.
Of one of his first appearances, Tribune critique May Leonard wrote,” His design is flawless, his timing gorgeous, and his delivery razor sharp”.
His work, his funny, was in marked contrast to that of his rougher, questionable colleagues such as Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl. They all came to prominence as the last of the old-school cartoons was vanishing, the by-the-jokebook giggle and one-liner materials delivered by such players as Milton Berle, Joey Bishop, Henny Youngman. But he had a bit, or as the Saturday Evening Post again put it,” He pricks humorous balloons, disembowels stuffed tops. He performs the operation but deftly the arrogant are aware they’re being eviscerated”.
Conan O’Brien, one of his biggest fans, said that Bob Newhart is “kind of the memorable image of the artist whose scheduling and his substance is so excellent he’s not begging for it, you know.” You have to go to him”.
Obviously, Newhart’s achievements and his packed bar indicates attracted broadcast and he became a regular and well-liked host due to the success of his albums — six more would be released in the 1960s. He hosted his own variety show in 1961 for one season and over his career appeared often on shows hosted by Dean Martin ( 24 times ), Ed Sullivan ( eight times ), guest hosted the” Tonight Show” (87 times ) and” Saturday Night Live” twice, in 1980 and 1995.
In 1972, he was lured into a line by manufacturer Grant Tinker and artist Mary Tyler Moore, the husband-and-wife group who founded MTM Enterprises. He portrayed counselor Bob Hartley in” The Bob Newhart Show,” playing his wife Emily as his family, Emily, and friend and neighbor Howard Borden as his friend and neighbor Bill Daily.
You may recall the opening series of the show, in which Newhart’s figure leaves his workplaces at 430 N. Michigan Ave. and travels a strangely unfamiliar route home. He acknowledged this, saying,” If you’re a native Chicagoan, you know how dumb he ( Dr. Hartley ) is. He gets on the Ravenswood ‘ L,’ he goes past his prevent on Sheridan Road, he gets off in Evanston, where the’ L’ is on the floor, and finally he walks up 55 blocks to his apartment. Now, would you want to have that man as a psychologist? A man who “misses his stop every day”?
Marcia Wallace played his secretary Carol Kester in the hit TV series, and Dr. Jerry Robinson, an orthodontist, played his office neighbor, Peter Bonerz. After six seasons and 142 episodes, Newhart decided to end its run in 1978, which was still going strong.
As Wallace said of the show’s finale,” It was much crying and sobbing. It was so sad. We really did get along. We really had great times together. As far as I’m concerned, Bob is like the Fred Astaire of comics. He just makes it look so easy, and he’s not as in-your-face as some might be. And so you kind of assume that you are unaware of how hilarious he is and how well he wears it.
In 1982, he resurrected television with the role of a Vermont innkeeper and TV talk show host in” Newhart.” Mary Frann was cast as his wife, Joanna. Julia Duffy, the late Peter Scolari, as a TV producer, and Tom Poston as the handyman were the other members of that memorable cast.
The show ended in 1990 after eight seasons and 182 episodes. The final episode featured a scene where Newhart wakes up in bed with Pleshette, who had played his wife from” The Bob Newhart Show” and Newhart. He realizes that the entire eight-year” Newhart” series had been a single nightmare of Dr. Bob Hartley’s.
I wrote that the conclusion was” an unforgettable and exciting goodbye kiss” as the Tribune’s television critic at the time. You’ll laugh in the most tender way as a result. It was later cited by TV Guide as the best television finale ever.
In 1963 he married Virginia” Ginnie” Quinn, who he had met on a blind date set up by actor-comedian Buddy Hackett. They were married for six decades — the couple lived in Beverly Hills where they had four children, Robert, Timothy, Jennifer and Courtney. She is credited with being the inspiration behind the finale in 1990.  , Ginnie Newhart died in April 2023 , at the age of 82.
Don Rickles and his wife Barbara were the Newharts ‘ closest friends. The men were both performing in Las Vegas in the 1960s when the two men first got together. Over the following decades, they spent a lot of time together, frequently taking vacations around the world.
Those of you who might think this an unlikely pair, listen to what Rickles once told Variety,” We’re apples and oranges. I’m a Jew, he’s a Catholic. He’s low-key, I’m a yeller. But we share the same values, marriage, children and grandchildren. We’ve taken trips all over the world with our wives, and in that time, we’ve never had a serious argument. So many things happen, there’s so much sadness. But we can laugh together”.
When Rickles died in 2017, Newhart said,” He made me laugh and I made him laugh. We never overexamined why the friendship worked; it just worked. He was referred to as the” Mercer of Venom,” but in reality, he was just the most generous person. Don did n’t have a mean bone in his body”.
Newhart’s later efforts at TV were forgettable duds.
There was 1992’s” Bob”, in which he played a cartoonist. It was canceled in the second season. On the” Tonight Show” following that, Newhart joked he had now done shows called” The Bob Newhart Show”,” Newhart” and” Bob” so his next show was going to be called” The”.
In 1997, Newhart he returned with” George &, Leo” on CBS with Judd Hirsch and Jason Bateman. It was canceled in its debut season.
In the 2003 Will Ferrell smash hit movie” Elf,” Newhart charmed a younger generation. Newhart guest-starred on such shows as “ER”,” Desperate Housewives” and “NCIS”.
He would reach new TV millions when he appeared in CBS ‘ top-rated sitcom,” The Big Bang Theory”. Series creator Chuck Lorre said,” One of the smartest things I said in a while was,’ How about Bob Newhart?’ And it worked. He excels in every aspect of his trade. Because of how much of his rhythms are his own and unique, you ca n’t really anticipate what he’ll do.
Astonishingly, he won his first Emmy for the role. Although he and his shows had previously received nominations, neither he nor they ever managed to win a statue, despite Poston’s impressive supporting actor Emmys.
Newhart enjoyed working on new routines even into his 80s, going on to play 20 or so stand-up shows a year. He told a reporter,” That is the enjoyment, taking a new piece of business, trying it out, expanding on it a little and making it a little longer. Before you know it, you have five or six new minutes”.
Throughout his career, his ties to Chicago remained strong. Just before his 93rd birthday he was interviewed by Parade magazine, saying,” When I first started out in stand-up, I just remember the sound of laughter. It’s one of the great sounds of the world”. He also said this:” I think that what comes through in Chicago humor is affection. Even though you’re poking fun at someone or something, there’s still an affection in it”.
He kept an eye on our battling sports teams and old Chicago friends. Newhart is regarded as the “unquestionable godfather of famous Chicago sports fans,” according to my colleague Paul Sullivan. He was n’t just a fan of Chicago in person; he was also a fan of TV.
And he continues to be a part of the neighborhood, in the form of the life-size bronze sculpture that shows him sat in a chair next to an empty sofa, which has been plunked near the east end of Navy Pier. He has been there since 2004, in winter, summer, spring and fall.
___
© 2024 Chicago Tribune
Distributed by , Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
