Chicago native, comedy legend Bob Newhart dies at 94

Stand-up comedian known for his phone props, starred in five network comedies

Bob Newhart left his mark on television in many ways as a stand-up comedian and later as a sitcom star. His resume included an underrated (and unappreciated) sitcom set in Chicago and another TV show where the premise of running a Vermont inn for eight years was revealed as a dream in one of the greatest series finales of all time. 

On Thursday, Newhart passed away peacefully at the age of 94 in his Los Angeles home after a series of illnesses. Born on Sept. 5, 1929 in west suburban Oak Park and grew up on the West Side’s Austin neighborhood, he was a St. Ignatius and Loyola University alum. After beginning his career as an accountant, and later a copywriter, Newhart would moonlight as a comedy performer and writer, speaking into a telephone receiver – pretending someone was on the other line in his act – one he would become known for.

Newhart would become the first comedian to top Billboard’s Album Chart with The Buttoned-Down Mind Of Bob Newhart in 1960, recorded at a Houston night club and released follow-up The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back!, with both winning Grammy Awards. That success led to NBC giving him his first television gig, The Bob Newhart Show – a comedy-variety show that ran during the 1961-62 season. Even though the show wasn’t a hit, it received two Emmy nominations and won for Outstanding Comedy Series in 1962 with Newhart winning a Golden Globe for Best TV Star the same year.

Newhart would return to television in 1972 under the same title for CBS – but under a completely different format, as it was now a traditional sitcom. Here, the show evolved around his home life (with his wife played by Suzanne Pleshette, and a wacky neighbor played by Bill Daily) and his work as a Chicago-based psychologist where he encountered quirky and weird patients. 

The Bob Newhart Show didn’t have the same Emmy success his previous NBC show did, with only two nominations. But the program – with its opening shot in Chicago (and his rather crazy commute through the city) was a solid performer for CBS’ Saturday night lineup until its end in 1978 and went into off-network syndication for a successful fifteen-year run. 

He would return to CBS four years later with Newhart, a comedy set in a Vermont inn with Mary Frann as his wife and Tom Poston as the handyman. One of the very few sitcoms shot on videotape (in season one) and filmed afterward, Newhart’s show would feature quirky and eccentric characters such as Stephanie (played by Julia Duffy) and Larry (played by William Sanderson), Daryl, and Daryl. 

The series finale of Newhart airing on May 21, 1990 was one of the most unusual – and well-received series-enders in history, when his character Dick Loudon was hit on the head with a golf ball – and woke up as Dr. Bob Hartley in bed next to his wife from his previous series – suggesting Newhart’s entire eight-year run was all a dream. The reveal had been parodied over the years from SNL (when Newhart guest-hosted in 1995) to Breaking Bad in an alternate ending.

The finale was the highest-rated show of the week drawing nearly 30 million viewers and gave CBS a rare ratings victory at a time when the network was struggling in prime-time. Newhart went into off-network syndication in 1988 but didn’t achieve the same successful results his previous show did. 

In September 1992, Newhart returned to CBS again with Bob, playing a former comic-book artist and writer who tries to get back into the game after being blacklisted in the 1950s. Despite Betty White joining the cast for a completely revamped second season, the show flopped with viewers and ended in December 1993.

Newhart would have one last run at CBS, with George and Leo opposite Judd Hirsch. Airing during the 1997-98 season, the show lasted only 22 episodes. 

During his career, Newhart made numerous guest shots on other television shows including It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, Murphy Brown, NCIS, ER, The Simpsons (in a voice cameo), and The Big Bang Theory as Professor Proton, a TV host from Sheldon Cooper’s childhood- a role that would earn Newhart an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor In A Comedy Series in 2013. 

Newhart was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 1993, received a Hollywood Walk Of Fame honor in 1999, and a life-sized statue of him as Dr. Hartley was unveiled in 2004 right outside 430 N. Michigan Avenue, in front of the building the fictional character worked at before moving to its permanent residence in the sculpture park outside of Navy Pier, where it remains today. 

Bob Newhart was certainly the quintessential Chicago original.