Saturday 14 February 2009

Saturday Silliness Cinema: Bob Newhart.

I know, you were probably expecting something themed with Valentine's Day, but since massacring gangsters in a Chicago garage isn't considered comedy by most I decided to just go with Don Rickles' best friend, comedy legend Bob Newhart.

Bob Newhart began his career as an accountant, and while working for a Chicago TV producer used to record mock telephone calls with a co-worker that they'd send to a local radio station. When the co-worker quit, Newhart kept on, developing his trademark one sided phone call. These were little one-person sketches where someone politely tries to navigate out of a bizarre situation, only to dig themselves in deeper, as seen in this sketch where a very special customer contacts his dry cleaner...



His first album
The Buttoned Down Mind of Bob Newhart became an overnight sensation, and Newhart soon found himself playing the top clubs around the country, and getting tapped by show-biz legend and fan Dean Martin to appear on his hit variety show.



After starring in a variety show that only lasted one season but won both the Emmy and Peabody Award, and a string of guest appearances, he landed his own sitcom
The Bob Newhart Show, where he played a mild mannered psychiatrist dealing with a crazy world that became one of the classic sitcoms of the 70s, and followed that up with Newhart, a subtly increasing surreal comedy about an author trying his hand at running a inn in a quaint, but eccentric town in Vermont.

But this isn't about sitcoms, this is about comedy. So I'll close today's show with Newhart being uncharacteristically mean, albeit in a nice way, at the roast of his best friend Don Rickles.


2 comments:

  1. Photos of statue of Genial Bob Newhart: http://themapicus.com/bob-newhart.html , He is the best !

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  2. Enjoy Bob Newhart photos here

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