Newhart
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Newhart is the name of a television sitcom that aired on the CBS Network from 1982 to 1990.
The show starred comedian Bob Newhart as Dick Loudon, an author who moved from New York City to the fictional town of Stratford, Vermont, to run an inn, and also along the way becomes a local television talk show host, hosting a largely-unwatched show on books and authors.
Loudon is a sane, mild-mannered everyman surrounded by a community of oddballs. It's an illogical world that moves just a bit too fast for him. The show's premise has sometimes been compared to that of the 1965-71 sitcom Green Acres, though Green Acres had broader humor and used physical comedy more prominently.
Mary Frann portrayed Loudon's wife, Joanna, who also ran the inn, which was named The Stratford Inn. The show also featured Tom Poston as somewhat dim handyman George Utley, Peter Scolari as Loudon's hyperactive and manipulative television producer Michael Harris, and Julia Duffy as hotel maid Stephanie Vanderkellen, who is a spoiled rich girl cut off by her parents and who grudgingly, and often incompetently, works as a maid. She is also Harris' girlfriend, later wife, the attraction mainly being that they're both exceptionally shallow and superficial.
Jennifer Holmes starred in the first season as the Loudon's hotel maid, prior to Stephanie being hired. Also fabulously rich, a world-class skier, and with a foundation that underwrites Jacques-Yves Cousteau, she's Stephanie's more cheerful, nicer cousin and said she took the job to find out what it's like to be normal. "It's fun," Loudon responded unconvincingly.
During the entire run of the show, actors William Sanderson, Tony Papenfuss, and John Voldstad were cast members who became three of the most popular (and surreal) characters on the show, Larry, Darryl and Darryl. The two Darryls never spoke (until the show's final episode), and in a monotone Larry would introduce them every time they entered a room with "Hi, I'm Larry, this is my brother Darryl, and this is my other brother Darryl".
The three, who apparently had no last name, were dirty backwoodsmen who lived in a shack, but from the things they said often appeared to be from another planet, though some of the most far-out things often turned out to be true. For a time Larry had a crush on Stephanie, which initially frightened her, until she eventually realized the three were basically decent, though strange, very strange.
(The characters of Larry, Darryl, and Darryl also appear in various episodes of the television series Coach, which was created by the creator of Newhart, Barry Kemp.)
The show was produced by David Mirkin, (who also wrote nine episodes, and directed four), Bob Bendetson, Sheldon Bull, Barton Dean, Mark Egan, Stephen C. Grossman, Barry Kemp, Michael Loman, Richard Rosenstock, Mark Solomon, Roy Teicher, Dan Wilcox, Douglas Wyman, and Shelley Zellman.
Other recurring characters include chronic liar Kirk Devane (Steven Kampmann), who owned the Minuteman Café across from the Stratford Inn (later acquired by Larry and the Darryls), the over-the-top macho police chief Officer Shifflett (Todd Susman), the prim but hot-to-trot librarian Prudence Goddard (Kathy Kinney), the fussbudget, small-minded mayor Chester Wanamaker (William Lanteau) and his wild-eyed friend Jim Dixon (Thomas Hill).
Jokes could be quite sly on the show. In one episode, members of the Beaver Lodge are watching Gilligan's Island on the TV. Loudon throws them out with one member protesting that he wanted to see how it ended, though the joke was that they always end the same way with the castaways not getting off the island. The sly joke was that protester was Russell Johnson, who appeared on Gilligan's Island as the Professor.
The series had one of the most memorable final episodes in television history. At the end of the final show, Dick is hit in the head with a golf ball; he falls to the floor and the picture goes black. A light is turned on and the viewer sees Bob Newhart waking up in bed, not as Dick Loudon in Vermont but as Chicago psychologist Bob Hartley, Newhart's character on the 1970s series The Bob Newhart Show. Hartley reaches over to wake up his sleeping wife, and she turns out to be Emily Hartley (portrayed by Suzanne Pleshette). Bob then begins to tell Emily about the strange dream that he just had about being a Vermont innkeeper. She becomes irritated at how ridiculous it all sounds.
Trivia
- The Dry erase board in Michael's apartment listing his goals always mentions "Take Over CBS" in addition to his changing daily tasks, somewhat of a jab at the network the series aired on.