Newhart: Yes, a really funny accountant

(This updates the obit/appreciation that I posted earlier)
There’s a logical question people ask: “What’s (so-and-so) really like?”
Often, there’s no good answer, but for Bob Newhart – who died Thursday (July 19), at 94 – it’s simple: He’s exactly like … well, Bob Newhart.
Few people have had so much success wrapping a stage personality around a real one. He kept playing a quiet Midwestern accountant, surrounded by a noisier world.
What he added was a brilliant mind and a quiet performance skill. The stammer was sort of real, but he knew how to work it.
Most of all, there was his sense of humor,starting with stand-up concepts, starting with great concepts – a Madison Avenue chap trying to talk Abraham Lincoln into being hip … a game-company guy, hearing Abner Doubleday’s pitch for something called “baseball” … a pilot, talking t o passengers of a cut-rate airline:
These were beautifully crafted … and emerged when he got bored by his job.
Newhart was prepared for the office life. He got a business degree from Loyola (Chicago), was an Army clerk in Korea, briefly tried law school and worked as an accountant, before becoming an advertising copywriter.
Fortunately, he recorded his monologs and sent them to disc jockeys. Some played the bits on the air; one contacted a record producer, who wanted to record Newhart’s nightclub act.
The problem, Newhart told me, was that he didm’t have an act … or nightclub experience … or enough material for an album. He cobbled together some new bits and basically did his nightclub debut for the album. His first two albums jumped to No. 1 on the Billboard chart and won Grammys; one was named “Record of the Year.” For a brief time, comedy albums – Bill Cosby, Smothers Brothers, etc. — were up there with rock stars.
As a Chicago kid, Newhart told me, he had always watched the Rose Bowl parade, envying all those people in the sunshine. He eventually moved west; in 1991, he was the parade’s grand marshal,
In some ways, TV wasn’t sure what to do with him. He did a variety show, mixing stand-up and sketches, from 1961-63; he hosted “The Entertainers: (1964) for seven episodes, when Carol Burnett wasn’t available..
It was about that time that I saw him perform at the University off Wisconsin. He had walked the campus that day, the 5-foot-7 Newhart told the audience, but no one recognized him. “People think I’m taller than I am.” Then, after a Newhartian pause: “I’m not. I’m exactly the same height.”
He was low-key and returned quickly for an encore. If you wait too long, he said. “It can be embarrassing if you walk out here to dead silence.”
What was still needed was a way to harvest his full talent on TV. That came with the three great series that Catchy Comedy is featuring. For a full schedule and a guide to finding the channel, try www.catchycomedy.com.
Those shows, and the\ir tentative hours on Catchy, are:
— “Bob Newhart” (1972-78), starting at 11 a.m. Saturday.e
— “Newhart”(1982-90), sttarting at 9 a.m. Smday.
— “Bob” (1992-93), 1-6 a.m. Monday.
Overall, the three series add up to 16 seasons, 359 episodes and a zillion or so laughs. (My son found that a typical Newhart half-hour got more than 100 laughs from the studio audience.)
These were quietly clever shows, with few sight gags and no children.. For “Newhart” (in which he played Dick Loudin), he said, producers suggested they add a child. That was a fine idea, he told them; “I just have one question: Who are you going to get to play Dick?’”
Newhart showed a consistent passion for a quiet comedy style … and for the Chicago Cubs … and for his wife of 60 years. Ginny Newhart, who died last year, is best-known as the person who suggested the notion of givng “Newhart” an “it was all a dream” ending.
Viewers loved that moment and many recent ones, including his work as Professor Proton on “Big Bang Theory” and “Young Sheldon.”
Now they can spend relive that. Six of the “Big Bang” Proton episodes will air from 8-11 p.m. Sunday on TBS; at 8 p.m., Monday, CBS has an hourlong documentary: “Bob Newhart: A Legacy of Laughter.” It’s a legacy worth re-visting … often.