For over six decades, Bob Newhart was the most reliable comedic actor working. His deadpan, employed with unparalleled mastery on projects ranging from The Bob Newhart Show to Elf and, in recent years, The Big Bang Theory, was a guarantee: He was going to deliver a line in a way that was going to make you howl.
But for all that reliability—that guarantee—his greatest tool may actually be the element of surprise. For proof of that, look no further than what I consider one of the greatest TV comedy moments of all time: the final episode of Newhart.
Newhart died Thursday at age 94. I hate that it takes moments like this to inspire a look back at a person’s career and talent. The wonderful thing about Newhart, however, is that, because of his longevity and the sheer magnitude of his comedic gifts, we’ve never stopped celebrating him. And me personally: I’m frequently going back and revisiting this clip.
Prior to Newhart, which ran for eight seasons from 1982 to 1990, the star enjoyed a previous reign of brilliance on The Bob Newhart Show, which aired six seasons from 1972 to 1978. On The Bob Newhart Show, actress Suzanne Pleshette played Bob’s wife, the vivacious, sometimes brash and wonderfully sarcastic Emily. On Newhart, Mary Frann played his wife, Joanna, with whom his character, Dick, ran a Vermont inn populated by eccentric characters.
In the Newhart finale, a Japanese tycoon buys the entire Vermont town, with plans to turn it into a golf course and resort. Dick and Joanna refuse to sell, and, five years later, they’re still running the inn—on a patch of grass in the middle of the golf course.
To the screams of the studio audience—and viewers watching at home—the next scene shows Newhart as his character in bed. It’s revealed, however, that he’s sleeping next to Pleshette—his wife from his original sitcom. It’s Bob and Emily, not Dick and Joanna. Bob tells Emily his strange dream, in which he ran an inn in Vermont. “That settles it, Emily says. “No more Japanese food before you go to bed."
It’s iconic television. Whether or not you watched it live or discovered it years later, already aware of the reveal, it pays off. It’s not just that the surprise is so good, everything about the way it’s structured is brilliant. The writing of the dialogue between Bob and Emily it’s sharp; Newhart’s line delivery, obviously, kills.
There’s fun history to the scene. Apparently, CBS leaked a different ending to tabloids. Much of the crew was kept in the dark. In his book, I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This! And Other Things that Strike Me as Funny, Newhart said that the finale was his wife Ginnie’s idea, though writers have since said that the twist was writer Dan O'Shannon’s brainchild.
You can watch Pleshette talking about it here:
Bob Newhart is one of the true, inimitable greats. It’s a high bar, but he was never better than in that episode.
