Callaroga Shark media man Bob Newhart has passed away. I was just sitting out
on the deck seriously putting together Friday Show. I had just published an episode
of Ballot Our political podcast, and texted Mark Francis, my business partner,
to tell him I really enjoyed the episode, and he wrote back, I
thought you'd be working on Bob Newhart and I was like, oh new and
jumped on the internet and I see the news here. Bob has passed away
at age ninety four. His death announced by his longtime publicist Jerry Digney.
Jerry Didnight's cide a cause of death. Bob's wife, Virginia, passed away
in twenty twenty three after sixty years of marriage. They had four children.
The Washington Post wrote, Bob Newhart was still living with his parents when he
was thirty. He was a balding, sylshied former accountant who talked in a
calculated, halting stammer. He was no one's idea of a superstar, Yet
within a year, his understated comedy routines had made him a national sensation.
Yeah do you know about the Newhart's first album got him a Grammy. He
became the first comedian with a number one record and the star of two long
running sitcoms, The Bob Newhart Show and New Heart. There was a third
one. It didn't last long, and that one was titled Bob. I
appreciated the joke and calling it Bob. His debut album, The Buttoned Down
Mine of Bob Newhart, sword past the recordings of Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley
to reach number one on the Billboard Charts for fourteen weeks in nineteen sixty.
It was also the first comedy album to sell more than one million copies.
Bob Newhart remains the only comedian and win Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and
Album of the Year. It'd be hard to imagine that happening ever again in
modern times. Newhart best known for doing basically a straight man, often in
the form of a phone call. In one of the phone calls, he
imagined a press agent telling President Abraham Lincoln, listen, a what's the problem
you're thinking of shaving it off? Hey, don't you see that's part of
the image. The Bob Newhart Show ran on CBS from nineteen seventy two to
nineteen seventy eight. Part of a lineup that included listen to this power house
lineup, the Bob Newhart Show, the Mary Tyler Moore Show, All in
the Family, and the Carol Burnett Show, which is the quote unquote worst
of that lineup. I don't even know how to rank those. Wow.
On that show, Bob Newhart played a Chicago's psychologist coping with his patients and
all their quirks. Suzanne Pluschette played his wife. On that show, Bob
insisted the couple be childless, saying I didn't want to do a certain kind
of show, which was the dumb father who keeps getting in these pickles and
these precocius children and the mother get it out of him. That was one
of the few conditions that I insisted on, and I think it was one
of the factors that made the show work. The other show, New Heart,
ran from nineteen eighty two to nineteen ninety. That finale famous because Bob
is knocked unconscious by an errand golf ball and he awakes aside Pluchette and the
bed of their Chicago bedroom. From the other show, Bob Newhart and character
says, Honey, wake up, you won't believe the dream I just had
Suzanne Pluschett is in the bed and goes all right, Bob, what is
it? Newhart says, I was an innkeeper in a crazy little town in
Vermont. Bob Newhart was proud to receive the Mark Twain Price for Humor because
the first person win the award was Richard Pryor. Richard Pryor had told Bob
a story in which Pryor had stolen a copy of The Button Down Mind of
Bob Newhart. Newhart thought Prior meant he had stolen part of routine. Pryor
said, no, I stole your record from a record store in Peoria,
Illinois. Newhart said, Richard, I used to get a quarter an album
in royalties. Prior turned and said, somebody give you a quarter. Prior
handed Newhart the quarter as if repaying a debt. Bob Newhart all time great
age in ninety four. I'm bummed about this. I'm sure you are too.
All right in the morning the normal episode, and I'll probably wind up
doing a bonus episode in the late morning as the reactions come in and more
is said about Bob. Right now, I just did a quick search on
Twitter at his four p fifty two PM Eastern on Thursday afternoon, and the
only thing I'm really seeing is from Al Franken here, who wrote Bob Newhart
was a giant to genius and a great guy. I'll always remember when he
hosted SNL and did a stellar show. He was, as you might expect,
a joy to work with. May his memory be a blessing. See
you in the morning.