After the passing of Bob Newhart yesterday, fans will get a chance to revisit his decades-spanning career with a new TV special. Newhart‘s longtime network home, CBS, will air a tribute to the comedy legend next week. The Hollywood Reporter has the news that Bob Newhart: A Legacy of Laughter will air on Monday, July 22.
The special is produced by Entertainment Tonight, whose Nischelle Turner will host it, and will feature classic behind-the-scenes Newhart material culled from their four decades of archives, including the last-ever interview Newhart gave from his LA home. The special will also feature new and archival interviews with Newhart‘s colleagues and admirers, including Jim Parsons, whose The Big Bang Theory featured Newhart in the recurring role of science-show host Professor Proton; Reese Witherspoon, who shared the screen with Newhart in Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde; Will Ferrell, who played his adoptive human son in Elf; and Jason Bateman, who played Newhart‘s son on the short-lived 1997-98 sitcom George and Leo. In addition to Newhart‘s success in the world of comedy, the special will also commemorate Newhart‘s long marriage to Ginnie Newhart, who died last year.
What Shows Did Bob Newhart Star in at CBS?
The Tiffany Network was Newhart‘s longtime broadcasting home. They aired The Bob Newhart Show, which starred Newhart as mild-mannered psychiatrist Bob Hartley, for six seasons between 1972 and 1978; although it was often overshadowed by its contemporaries, it has become acknowledged as one of the best sitcoms of the 1970s. Newhart, in which he starred as Vermont innkeeper Dick Loudon, was even more successful, lasting eight seasons from 1982 to 1990; it is remembered for its astonishing finale, in which Loudon goes to sleep and wakes up next to Bob Hartley’s wife, Emily (Suzanne Pleshette), implying that the whole series had been a dream! Following Newhart, the comedian struck out with a pair of short-lived CBS sitcoms. Bob starred Newhart as retired comic book creator Bob McKay, who was brought back into action to revive his superhero creation, Mad-Dog; after a single season, the show was retooled to move McKay to a greeting card company with Betty White as his boss, but the show was canceled after a second kick at the can. George and Leo, which starred Newhart and Taxi‘s Judd Hirsch as an unlikely pairing who suddenly find themselves in-laws, only lasted a single season on CBS. However, CBS was ultimately where Newhart won his first and only Emmy, for guesting as Professor Proton on The Big Bang Theory.
The comedy world has lost a number of its elder statesmen in recent years, as the first generation to make their mark on the novel medium of television passes. Most recently, pioneering sitcom producer Norman Lear died late last year at 101.
Bob Newhart: A Legacy of Laughter will air on July 22 on CBS; no airtime has yet been announced.
via Collider