Bob Newhart

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.