Bob Newhart died the other day, and readers – at least, those of a certain era – may recall his dry, deadpan humour in his comedy routines, especially his two popular sitcoms, both named after himself: The Bob Newhart Show, (1972-78) wherein he played Chicago psychologist Robert Hartley, and the more simply named Newhart (1982-90), in which he played Vermont innkeeper Dick Loudon. Bob began his career as an accountant, and during lulls at work, he and a co-worker would make prank calls and develop comedy sketches to keep themselves amused. A disc-jockey (who eventually ended up on one of Newhart’s shows) noticed the balding number-cruncher’s potential and introduced him to the head of talent at Warner Brothers. Long story short, an album was produced in 1960, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, which sold 1.5 million copies.
His humour, delivered in a deadpan, sardonic style, struck a nerve, or a goldmine, and thus Bob’s career took off, in film, on stage and, most of all, on television. He did not keep the ‘silence of Arsenius’, but, as we mentioned in that post, that is not the vocation of most. And Mr. Newhart did keep a silence of sorts, when it was necessary and called for, which is the key to comedy (and to music). I recall his humour being mostly clean, in an era when vulgarity was becoming vogue, and would that we had more such wry, intelligent, thoughtful entertainment in today’s world. All these years, and all of his shows I watched, I did not realize that Mr. Newhart was a Catholic, and remained faithfully married to his wife, Virginia, also a Catholic, until her death. They had four children, which is about four times more than most Hollywood couples.
May he rest in peace.