Good News on Newhart (1 Viewer)

[Dave Lawrence]

Thanks, Robbie!

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Finally got into Newhart a while back.

Picture quality drops horribly with season 2. Not Shout's fault, but damn. At least the episodes are complete.

Though s2e1 has an either an alternate soundtrack or a comatose studio audience. Hardly any laugh track at all, just what sounds like the crew laughing.

Also, Kirk is the worst character ever, and I can't wait for him to be gone. Leslie was inoffensive and bland, so Stephanie was an upgrade. But Kirk? Gah. Bring on Peter Scolari!

 

[bmasters9]

Also, Kirk is the worst character ever, and I can't wait for him to be gone. Leslie was inoffensive and bland, so Stephanie was an upgrade. But Kirk? Gah. Bring on Peter Scolari!

Absolutely! That Kirk character, at least IMO, had to be one of the worst characters ever on a sitcom, or any television series for that matter.

 

[WhitneyG]

In case anyone wanted a report on episode lengths in the final season DVD set, only two episodes run under 23 minutes. They are 813 Beauty and the Pest (22:33) and 820 Handymania (22:58). The final episode is 26:19 and the rest are all in the 23:04-23:47 range. I strongly suspect that these are unedited episodes (other than 813, maybe), aside from possibly music cuts as already discussed.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Seasons 7 and part of 8...

Man, I miss David Mirkin and his crew behind the scenes.

Also, the season 8 theme song remix is not to my tastes.

The syndication edits in the few episodes Shout had to use for season 7 were fairly seamless. Definitely not as noticeable as in earlier seasons with unfortunately edited transfers.

They did indeed shift to a heavier focus on Stephanie and Michael, but the continued storyline was an interesting choice.

It looks like Seasons 3-6 were the classic era of the show, though.

 

[LeoA]

Odd sometimes how different people's taste can be. I thought Kirk was great and believe that the show lost a lot when they changed course after season 2. And I especially liked season 1 thanks to Leslie.

I felt that Stephanie and Michael were annoying. The best episodes afterwards are the ones that didn't place any focus on either character.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

"I Love You, Butt"... worst episode of the entire run, perhaps of any sitcom with Bob Newhart as star.

 

[BobO'Link]

Odd sometimes how different people's taste can be. I thought Kirk was great and believe that the show lost a lot when they changed course after season 2. And I especially liked season 1 thanks to Leslie.

I felt that Stephanie and Michael were annoying. The best episodes afterwards are the ones that didn't place any focus on either character.

True. During the first run I found Kirk absolutely annoying and without any redeeming factors. Upon rewatching the series, both in syndication and now on disc, I've found he's not nearly as bad as I'd initially felt.

Stephanie and Michael always annoyed me and I never cared much for the episodes which focused on them. They always come off as one-note characters. I also never much cared for Jose Ferrer as Staphanie's father.

"I Love You, Butt"... worst episode of the entire run, perhaps of any sitcom with Bob Newhart as star.

Without pulling out that season and watching it I can't say for sure if I've ever seen "I Like You, Butt..." as I'd almost given up on the show by that last season. IIRC the focus had gone more towards Michael and Stephanie and that last season just got weird, and not good weird. I watched, but mostly as background. I absolutely know I watched the final episode as it was the last one. Your comment makes me want to pull the season and watch that one episode...

I've gotten through S3 in my rewatching so far. Because it's a favorite program I ration the seasons out. Having over 200 unwatched TV seasons makes it easier to put it on the back burner for months.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

True. During the first run I found Kirk absolutely annoying and without any redeeming factors. Upon rewatching the series, both in syndication and now on disc, I've found he's not nearly as bad as I'd initially felt.

Stephanie and Michael always annoyed me and I never cared much for the episodes which focused on them. They always come off as one-note characters. I also never much cared for Jose Ferrer as Staphanie's father.


Without pulling out that season and watching it I can't say for sure if I've ever seen "I Like You, Butt..." as I'd almost given up on the show by that last season. IIRC the focus had gone more towards Michael and Stephanie and that last season just got weird, and not good weird. I watched, but mostly as background. I absolutely know I watched the final episode as it was the last one. Your comment makes me want to pull the season and watch that one episode...

I've gotten through S3 in my rewatching so far. Because it's a favorite program I ration the seasons out. Having over 200 unwatched TV seasons makes it easier to put it on the back burner for months.

Here, I'll save you 23 minutes of your life:

"OH MY GOD, HER ASS IS HUGE!!!" repeat ad nauseum.

There. That's the episode in a nutshell.

I expect better comedy from a Newhart Show, is all. Hell, I expect better from Married With Children. Maybe I could accept this as an episode of The Secret Diaries of Desmond Pfeiffer. But my expectations of a show starring Bob Newhart are higher.

 

[bmasters9]

I expect better comedy from a Newhart Show, is all. Hell, I expect better from Married With Children. Maybe I could accept this as an episode of The Secret Diaries of Desmond Pfeiffer. But my expectations of a show starring Bob Newhart are higher.

So are mine, and this is why I have all of The Bob Newhart Show from 1972-78, and none of the 1982-90 Newhart (having given what I had of it to my nephew Eli; he likes it more than I do). The Bob Newhart Show met my expectations (which, believe it or not, dovetail with yours) of what great Newhart comedy is all about.

 

[Jack P]

I just don't like Julia Duffy period. She is just a perpetual one-note annoyance and when you get down to it all they did was transfer her Wizards And Warrior character to Newhart. On the former show she at least wasn't overwhelming the proceedings but on Newhart I just can't stand her at all.

 

[Malcolm R]

I just don't like Julia Duffy period. She is just a perpetual one-note annoyance and when you get down to it all they did was transfer her Wizards And Warrior character to Newhart. On the former show she at least wasn't overwhelming the proceedings but on Newhart I just can't stand her at all.

She also ruined Designing Women when she joined that cast.

 

[Dave Lawrence]

She also ruined Designing Women when she joined that cast.

I'd say Jan Hooks, not Duffy, was the worst addition to DW. Actually I don't think either of the new characters in Season 6 were well thought out, but I felt Duffy was at least tolerable despite the increasingly hit-or-miss writing, and I started liking her character more as the season continued. Hooks' character was like nails on a chalkboard from the start and somehow managed to get even more irritating over time. Of the 2, I wish Duffy had gotten the chance to stay for another year rather than Hooks, though I wouldn't have been too disappointed if both had gotten the axe. The addition of Judith Ivy in Season 7 was a vast improvement over both of them.

On topic, I recall discussion (I think in TV Guide) while Newhart was still on that a Michael/Stephanie spin-off was under consideration. (It might have been intended for after Newhart ended its run.) So glad that didn't happen. Ultimately it couldn't have happened, considering the way the series ended, unless the spin-off was to be set within Bob Hartley's dream world. I didn't dislike Stephanie and Michael, but I felt the show focused too much time on them in the later years; although there were still enough good moments and episodes that I never stopped watching. But I can't imagine a spin-off with them being anything but awful.

Oh, and I liked Kirk and those 1st 2 seasons. Actually, despite my minor criticism about the overuse of Michael and Stephanie, I enjoyed the whole series from beginning to end. That said, Bob's 70s series was and will always be the gold standard by which his other shows, no matter how good, are compared, and so I loved that Newhart was ultimately folded into The Bob Newhart Show world.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

I'd say Jan Hooks, not Duffy, was the worst addition to DW. Actually I don't think either of the new characters in Season 6 were well thought out, but I felt Duffy was at least tolerable despite the increasingly hit-or-miss writing, and I started liking her character more as the season continued. Hooks' character was like nails on a chalkboard from the start and somehow managed to get even more irritating over time. Of the 2, I wish Duffy had gotten the chance to stay for another year rather than Hooks, though I wouldn't have been too disappointed if both had gotten the axe. The addition of Judith Ivy in Season 7 was a vast improvement over both of them.

On topic, I recall discussion (I think in TV Guide) while Newhart was still on that a Michael/Stephanie spin-off was under consideration. (It might have been intended for after Newhart ended its run.) So glad that didn't happen. Ultimately it couldn't have happened, considering the way the series ended, unless the spin-off was to be set within Bob Hartley's dream world. I didn't dislike Stephanie and Michael, but I felt the show focused too much time on them in the later years; although there were still enough good moments and episodes that I never stopped watching. But I can't imagine a spin-off with them being anything but awful.

Oh, and I liked Kirk and those 1st 2 seasons. Actually, despite my minor criticism about the overuse of Michael and Stephanie, I enjoyed the whole series from beginning to end. That said, Bob's 70s series was and will always be the gold standard by which his other shows, no matter how good, are compared, and so I loved that Newhart was ultimately folded into The Bob Newhart Show world.

With the 8th season, I have to wonder, since they knew it was ending and how it would end, is that why the show got more outlandish?

Literally everyone got hit with the idiot ball. Dick lampshades it at least once an episode. The damn baby was programming the station.

I feel a lot better thinking the writers were thinking "hey, it's all a dream, let's get silly" than just having the show get stupid.

 

[deepscan]

I have seen most of the show's entire run, both on CBS and in syndication. I like to think of it as being 3 separate series. Season 1 was done on videotape and is considered to me a short lived series (if not the best season of the whole run, save for the season finale where Bob gambles every last dollar and loses). Seasons 2-6 was done on 16mm film (hence its murky look that sadly can't be improved either on HD or blu ray) and is considered to me "Version 2.0" (the true series). Once it went to 35mm for the remaining series, the look and stories got better, the colors crisper and sharper, good enough to be remastered in HD. There was one episode in the closing seasons with a videotaped segment where Daryl #1 guest hosts the "Tonight Show" that is a hoot to watch.

 

[MatthewA]

Literally everyone got hit with the idiot ball.

If the show had ended with Dick being hit with the golf ball, that would have just been depressing. What I wonder is how far in advance they decided on the dream ending.

The thing I like least about the later seasons, though not exactly dealbreaker worthy, is how Joanna got largely pushed into the background. They even mentioned it in one of her scenes in the dining room where she just started talking to herself because everyone else was in a conversation with someone else! Even so, they were blessed with a lot of colorful recurring characters; by that time Kathy Kinney had just joined the show as Prudence Goddard, the town librarian; and I.M. Hobson (Drake the butler from the original Annie film) appeared infrequently is a French waiter who dismisses Michael's attempt at becoming a mime by declaring "You people are the reason I left France!" And, of course, Seein' Double deconstructed family sitcom clichés perfectly. Things like that made the show worth watching up to the end.

Some of the writers ended up on The Simpsons*, and we all know how that played out. Except in that case, after they got more outlandish they settled into stultifying dullness. Nothing in the later years of Newhart is anywhere near that bad.

*Who also poached the writing staffs of SNL and ALF originally.