To have one hit TV series in a career is a gift. To have two puts you in rarefied territory.
But Bob Newhart has no desire to try to recapture the success of "The Bob Newhart Show" (1972-78) or "Newhart" (1982-90). And not just because he's tried it a couple of times since his second hit went off the air.
"I don't think there's a great interest in my demographic," the 74-year-old said with a laugh. "No, I don't see myself doing another series. And I don't feel badly about that. It's somebody else's time. It's another generation's time. And they have to find their shows. And I had a great 14 years."
Not that Newhart has anything against present-day sitcoms. "I think the writing on 'Frasier' is very good, and the performances. I like 'Friends.' I like 'Everybody Loves Raymond.' I hate to list them because I know I'm going to leave some out that I watch . . . I go back to the writing because that's where it starts."
But there are some comedies that obviously irk him a bit.
"I don't watch any sitcom that has a laughtrack on it," Newhart said. "That isn't what I grew up with. That isn't the genre of 'Lucy' and 'The Honeymooners' and 'Mary Tyler Moore' and 'All In the Family.' We all did it in front of a live audience, and we lived and died depending on how that audience felt about it. The minute I suspect or hear a laugh track — and I'm pretty good at detecting them — I just switch to something else."
Newhart did take a couple of stabs at sitcoms after "Newhart," with "Bob" (1992-94) and "George & Leo" (1997-98). But a bigger TV disappointment was the original "Bob Newhart Show," the comedy/variety program that won an Emmy after it was canceled following its first season (1961-62). Not that he lets any of that bother him. "I certainly have no complaints."
He may not be interested in doing another weekly sitcom, but Newhart is certainly not interested in retiring, either:
He appeared in "Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde" earlier this year
He's co-starring "Elf," which opens in theaters today; he plays the title character's (Will Ferrell) adoptive father.
He had a featured spot in CBS's 75th-anniversary television special on Sunday.
He's in the midst of a three-episode stint on "ER," which concludes next Thursday.
These days, Newhart's co-stars turn out to be fans. Members of the "ER" cast "would ask me questions about my shows and I would ask them questions about George Clooney, and we kind of exchanged anecdotes." While working on "Elf," Newhart went to director John Favreau and said, "John, you have to wrap me pretty soon because I'm running out of anecdotes.' "
Which wasn't the first time he suggested a movie director should wrap him quickly. He made the same pitch to director Don Siegel during filming of the 1962 Steve McQueen movie "Hell Is for Heroes." "From the time I agreed to do it until the time it actually went into production, my money in nightclubs had gone up. So I kept trying to get killed in the movie. . . . I kept suggesting ways of knocking me off." But director Don Segal "said, 'No. You're in it 'til the end.'"
Four decades after winning a Grammy for his first live comedy album, "The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart," he is still doing stand-up comedy. Even while working on movies and "ER," he was flying to performance dates around the country. "I think that laughter has a lot to do with longevity. I really do," he said. "I'm still doing stand-up and I find it keeps me young. It keeps me thinking young.
"I did a show the other day and mentioned I was still in shock over the Liza Minnelli-David Gest break-up. It's kind of scary, because if it can happen to them, my (gosh), it can happen to any of us."
As for his own marriage, his wife of 39 years, Virginia, "doesn't let me get full of myself," Newhart said with a laugh, "much as I try."
At the Newhart house, you're likely to see the TV Hall of Fame inductee taking out the garbage at his wife's request. "I say to her, 'Do you think Joanne Woodward asks Paul Newman to take out the recyclables?' " Newhart said. "And her response is, 'If you were Paul Newman, I wouldn't ask you take out the recyclables.' So she's kind of kept me on the straight and narrow."
But sometimes fame can take a funny form. Like the college drinking game that grew up around "The Bob Newhart Show" — downing a shot every time one of the characters said, "Hi, Bob."
"I would hate to go down in history for that," Newhart said with a laugh. "I hope I'm remembered for something besides, 'Hi, Bob.'"
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