'Bob''s Coming to DVD!

As reported on TV Shows on DVD yesterday.

Speaking as a fan of Bob Newhart, I obviously couldn’t have been more thrilled to read this. It’s actually funny because I was saying to myself just the other day that this was a pretty good show and that it’s too bad that we’ll probably never see it on DVD. Shows how much I know, right? Also, nice cover art.

This makes me wonder though. If CBS/Paramount Home Video is willing to release a short-lived show starring Bob, then what is Fox’s hold up with the final two seasons of The Bob Newhart Show and the rest of Newhart? Because I’m thinking with this release, and especially if Bob on DVD is a success in any shape or form, fans who pick this up will most likely want to see the remaining years of his other most famous and memorable characters, Dr. Robert Hartley and innkeeper Dick Loudon.

Online Pick of the Week (3/26): Bob

In 1992, two years after his hit show Newhart ended, legendary comedian Bob Newhart came back to CBS with a new series. Fans of the comedian know him best for his previous shows on the network: The Bob Newhart Show (1972-78) and Newhart (1982-90). However, unlike his previous series, Bob unfortunately was not a success and only ran for two seasons.

Here Newhart plays Bob McKay, a greeting card artist, whose 1950’s comic book, Mad Dog, was forced into oblivion when a Senate sub-committee deemed that his comic was corrupting to his young audience. However, years later, The American-Canadian Trans-Continental Communications Company, a.k.a. AmCanTranConComCo buys the rights to the series and wants a comeback. Conflicts arise however when head Howard Stone wants to retool it and make Mad Dog a vigilante. The show also starred Carlene Watkins as his wife Kaye, Cynthia Stevenson as his adult daughter Trisha, Ruth Kobart as Iris, John Cygan as Howard, and Andrew Bilgore as Albie. Further on into the series it also featured Lisa Kudrow and Tom Poston.

One of my all-time favorite things about Bob Newhart is his dead-pan delivery. He’s always done such a magnificent job as straight-man to everyone else’s antics and behaviors, and from seeing the first show, he did just as good a job here as he did on The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart. I’ve read about how things changed between the first and second seasons; a lot of retooling took place, meaning the end of Mad Dog and cast changes, which resulted in its demise. Looks like a classic instance where a show tried to fix something that wasn’t broken.

Seeing this show makes me wish I had Nick at Nite back when this show aired along with his other two sitcoms. Obviously, short-lived sitcoms like this can’t be run all the time, but it’d be nice if a cable network (attention WGN America!) could air at least some episodes during a special marathon or something.

The short-lived Bob, my online pick of the week!