Bob Newhart
Actor/ Comedian
About This Interview
Bob Newhart was interviewed for two-and-a-half hours (in two sessions) in Westwood, CA (part one) and Bel Air, CA (part two). Mr. Newhart started the interview by discussing his family upbringing and early roots in comedy and he progressed from there to his early job as an accountant and the resulting boredom. From the boredom sprung his idea of ad-libbed phone call comedy bits that eventually led to the recording of his first comedy album. He discussed the album comedy bits at length and he went to tell that this album led to his first television show, the variety show The Bob Newhart Show. He then discussed the details of his first sitcom also titled The Bob Newhart Show which then progressed to a few movies. Part one concluded with a detailed discussion of his second successful series Newhart. The second part of the interview continued with his next two sitcoms Bob and George & Leo. He concluded the second part of the interview talking about various cast members of his series, his Las Vegas performances, a pilot that he thought about doing in 2001, and his friends and family. The two-part interview was conducted by Dan Pasternack on May 29 and June 15, 2001.
Related To This Video
Featured Content
Video: The Bob Newhart Show full premiere episode "Fly the Unfriendly Skies" (airdate: September 16, 1972)
Video: Embeddable clips from Bob Newhart's Archive interview:
Resources
Links:
Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Television article on Bob Newhart
Book: I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This: And Other Things That Strike Me as Funny by Bob Newhart
You need Flash player 8+ and JavaScript enabled to view this video.
Watch By Chapter
- Chapter 1
- On his early years and influences; on being an accountant before becoming a comedian; on his early comedy
- Chapter 2
- On his early comedy routines and first television appearances
- On starring in his short-lived variety series The Bob Newhart Show (1961-2); on appearing on The Entertainers
- Chapter 3
- On appearing on The Entertainers (cont.)
- On the genesis, casting and production of The Bob Newhart Show
- Chapter 4
- On specific episodes of The Bob Newhart Show; on First Family
- On the genesis and cast of Newhart
- Chapter 5
- On storylines from Newhart, including the classic last episode
- Chapter 6
- On his current projects (2001) and standup; on meeting Jack Benny
- On his proudest achievement (being inducted into the TV Academy Hall of Fame)
- On how television has changed; on the ongoing success of The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart; on his advice to aspiring performers







