Monday, September 16, 2013

Bob Newhart got me through the 70s


And he’s just NOW getting an Emmy??


Ah, the button-down mind of Bob Newhart. Give the man a stool on an empty stage with only a phone for a prop and he’ll have you howling over the absurdities of everyday life. He was smart, low-key, and cleanly funny. Both his long-running weeklies, The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart were refreshing changes from the run-of-the-mill silliness that still plagues sit-coms today. While most plotlines revolve around misunderstandings that lead to layers of lies, Bob kept it real. He never said a lot. Just his blank-faced reactions said it all.

A pleasing departure from the norm was his dramatic role in The Librarian, which marked a turn-about for SNL comedian Jane Curtain as well. I’ve also caught him being serious in such unlikely places as NCIS and ER.

But that spot on The Big Bang Theory? Priceless. I mean, isn’t that the way we all react to the insufferable Sheldon and the sweet but science-challenged Penny?

Maybe it’s because Bob Newhart is so understated. But given his consistent popularity, ya gotta ask: What the heck took so long? He deserved that Emmy decades ago!

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