Small House of Everything

Small House of Everything

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

OVERLOOKED TELEVISION: NEWHART

Dick and Joanna Loudon buy a quaint Vermont inn.  That's how one of the best television comedies began.  This vehicle for Bob Newhart followed his highly successful The Bob Newhart Show and ran from October 25, 1982 through May 21, 1990 on CBS.  The final show in the series is still referenced as one of the greatest series.

Newhart, of course, plays Dick, a deadpan writer of how-to books.  The lovely Mary Frann plays Joanna. Tom Poston is the somewhat slow handyman, George.  The regular cast in the first season included Jennifer Holmes as Leslie Vanderkellen, an uber-rich girl who works as a maid to find out what it's like to be average, and Stephen Kampmann as Kurt Devane, a chronic liar who owns the local cafe (and who is infatuated with Leslie).

Later seasons would add Julia Duffy as Stephanie Vanderkellen, Leslie's shallow cousin, Peter Scolari as the equally shallow Michael Harris, the producer of Dick's local television talk show (which was introduced in season 2), and William Sanderson, Tony Papenfuss, and John Voldstadt as Larry, his brother Darryl, and his other brother Darryl -- one of the greatest trios in television comedy.

The premiere episode, "In the Beginning," sets the stage for the doings at the 200-year-old Stratford Inn and Dick's encounters with the quirky Vermont townspeople

Watch, and enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OyNfyso7zI

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