Bob Newhart Season 2 - October 4 (1 Viewer)

[GlennH]

Here's an article about Bob being the feature of an "American Masters" show on PBS (airs tonight, Wed, 7/20).

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/0....ap/index.html

 

[george kaplan]

I don't think anyone has mentioned it, but there's a PBS American Masters tribute to Bob Newhart on tv tonight.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I read about that in Sunday's Parade, but I already forgot about it. Thanks for the reminder.

 

[DanMel]

Anyone know anything about the 2 year long Bob show that on in the early 90's. I was overseas in the military at the time of it's run and during the last 3 or 4 seasons of Newhart. I never even knew this show existed until I read that cnn article. Was it any good? It would be nice to see all of Bob's shows get released eventually. I might be one of the few that has never seen the last episodes of Newhart because of my military duties:frowning:

 

[Marty M]

Sometime before the US Bicentennial the Bob Newhart Show had a very funny Fourth of July episode where Bpb and Emily are locked in a storage closet in the basement for almost the enire episode.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Terrible, from what I saw. It was one of the modern, lacking in realism or logic, sitcoms. For example, there was an episode where Lisa Kudrow played a friend of Bob's daughter, and she and her parents were coming over for dinner. They knock and she says, "Wait, wait! This is how we do it. DOOT DOOT DOOT DOOOO! Introducing my parents, so-and-so!" Every time someone came in, she pseudo-trumpeted them in. Then, there was some idiocy about liking to eat lightbulbs ever since a lightbulb accidentally broke into their food. The whole show was like that. I don't know when sitcoms changed, but modern shows seem more like this than, say, All in the Family, which played basically as a drama with a lot of comedic elements.

I'd like to see Bob's original show from the '60s. It was good enough to win Bob some awards.

 

[Jaime_Weinman]

Actually, Newhart's third series, "Bob," was pretty good when it started. The premise was that he was the creator of a popular comic book superhero, "Mad Dog," who comes out of retirement to work on a revived version of the comic -- except that the company is doing a revisionist, ultraviolent version of the character. (Bob: "Who's Mad Dog ripping apart with his... his bare hands?" Editor: "His sidekick Buddy.") That was an interesting premise that made for some funny episodes. Then the network completely retooled the show, changed the setting, changed many of the characters, and it died a painful death.

 

[Rob P S]

I hated Bob - the humor was very weird and subversive and the original supporting cast was totally unmemorable. Even when they added Betty White to the cast it still wasn't funny. I liked George & Leo with Judd Hirsch and Jason Bateman, but it had a lousy lead-in (Cybill) and only lasted a year. If they had only waited another year then Everybody Loves Raymond would have been the lead-in and it would have succeeded. Instead we got six years of Becker.

 

[Randy*S]

Newhart was ok but I don't like quirky characters.
TBNHS is my alltime favorite! I'll take Emily over Joanna and Mr. Carlin over George any day.

I missed both of Bob's shows in the 90's too.




Ugh, don't even get me started on "Modern Sitcoms".
Everybody does not love Raymond.

The main characters always whine now (thanks to seinfeld) and it's all sex jokes too.

The last sitcom I actually semi-watched was "Perfect Strangers",
at least you could watch it with your family.

 

[Malcolm R]

I bought S1 blind and have been rather bored with it so far. I was going to Ebay my set. Now I'm torn whether or not to keep on with S2 since many say the show gets better in later years.

I wish they'd cut down the laugh track (or the audience reactions). These are incredibly loud and shrill on my system (and seem like over-the-top overreactions considering I'm seldom laughing along with them).

What to do, what to do.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I love Perfect Strangers and wish it would come to DVD! It's getting off-topic, but I, too, hate modern sitcoms. I watched an episode of Newsradio and couldn't believe how stupid it was. Just a quick example: "Where's our waiter?" Waiter comes up from under the balls in a ball pool. "I was on break!" Gah.

 

[Steve...O]

The American Masters on Bob was very well done. For people like me who remember David Steinberg, Dick Martin, et al it was nice seeing them again although it was a bit sad seeing Bill Daily, Peter Bonerz, etc. and realizing that they're senior citizens. Reruns have a way of keeping people eternally young.

One exception: Is it just me or does Julia Duffy look the same now as she did 20+ years ago? Aging has been quite kind to her.

As for his various shows, both the Vermont show and the Hartley show were extremely funny and I prefer the latter. I tried to watch the 90s shows a time or two and neither worked for me.

 

[Randy*S]

If you don't like it save your money.

It never gets too hyperactive like shows today,
that's why I love it, it's a true adult show.

I never read reviews or listen to word of mouth,
I just stick to what I know and like. I can't afford anything else.

I wish Perfect Strangers would come out too.
It seemed to be based on the old abbott and costello, three stooges type of shows.
And I really need those type of old fashion shows these days. You know...

 

[Jonathan_Clarke]

I preferred Bob to George and Leo. It rang truer to the comic industry than imagined. Good supporting cast too but they basically made a new show in the second season.

I was really disappointed by George and Leo. Here were two stars of the greatest sitcoms of the 70's and nothing was happening. At least Jason Bateman got Arrested Development after this one.

 

[Matt_Troop]

I really like Newhart and that's why i bougth this and it's really funny. Newhart is owned by fox too and someone told me they are gonna put Newhart out right after TBNS is done as long as it sells well, i can't wait...

 

[Eric_Bee]

A very positive review of the upcoming Season 2 DVD is now at http://www.sitcomsonline.com/thebobn...dvdreview.html

 

[CraigF]

Since it's so rare for me to watch a set before it's really old news, thought I'd add a few comments.

First the good news: The set is 3 discs in 2 slim cases, and is quite cheap (~$20). I haven't seen this show since its first run around 30 years ago. BN was always a big family favorite long before he ever had TV shows, so his shows went over very well in our household. I had completely forgotten just how strong this show was, at least at this stage, very good.

Now the bad news: The discs are flippers. That is kind of a sign of really skimping on production $$, but you really have to guess at the PQ and SQ: I would have to say that essentially no restoration was done. I watched BN interspersed with the Hogan's Heroes S2, and they are at opposite ends of the quality spectrum. While HH looks even better than most films from that era do, BN looks (and sounds for much of it) just awful. Not even close to the league of MTM S2 even. I suspect that BN was one of the earlier shows "archived" on VHS (or at least video tape), because that's what its PQ is, and not good VHS at that. Or else these discs were sourced from an earlier VHS transfer. I don't know, but I'm sure somebody here does. I didn't notice any disturbing transfer digital artifacts or anything, it's just that the source looks bad and there are lots of instances where frames were missing (little jumps, many of them). Sometimes the pic looks very good, and then 10 seconds later it's pretty bad. The sound is often very hissy, very loud, and sometimes less hissy, and sometimes very clean. One episode had all of this, the best PQ and the worst PQ, awful hiss and perfectly quiet...very jarring seeing/hearing the transitions, must have come from multiple sources.

So, I'd say this is worth getting (if you don't have the tapes) because of its cheap price, convenient format, and very strong content.