Bob Newhart, who has yet another sitcom debuting on CBS this fall, is still getting reaction to how his second sitcom ended.
If you'll recall, in the final episode of "Newhart,"Bob woke up to discover himself in bed with Suzanne Pleshette, who played his wife on the earlier "Bob Newhart Show." All eight seasons of "Newhart" turned out to be a dream.
The idea actually arose at the end of the seventh season of "Newhart," when the star was unhappy with several schedule changes made by CBS and was considering ending the show right then and there.
"And it was actually my wife's idea," Newhart said. "We were at a party around Christmas time and Suzie (Pleshette) was there and Ginny said, `You know, it'd be funny if in your last episode you did a dream sequence and you woke up and Suzie was in bed and the whole thing was a dream.'
"And I said, `Oh, that's a great idea.' "
When it came time to tape that last episode of "Newhart," even the crew wasn't told what to expect.
"We told them, `Just aim your camera here' and we pulled the curtain aside and the set got applause (from the studio audience). The bedroom set. They knew where it was and they started applauding," Newhart said.
"So that was a very exciting night."QUOTABLE: Asked about relatively low viewing levels on Friday nights (where his new sitcom has been scheduled), Newhart expressed no unhappiness with the time slot.
He said he believes people will watch good shows on any night and pointed out that ABC's "20/20" gets very good ratings on Fridays.
"And we're way funnier than `20/20,' " piped up Bill Steinkellner, executive producer of "Bob."