Noooooooooooo, not Professor Proton Man, Bob was so good on the Newhart show and then the one after that that slips my mind. I used to go back to the old roasts with folks like Dean Martin, Sinatra, Stewart and he held his own with every single one of them...........I love guys like R Pryor where cuss words are part of the act but Bob was a clean comedian and the use of pauses, eye movement, facial expressions were priceless, his and Tim Conway were the best at it...........................RIP Bob, you have a GREAT run.
Back in the mid 90's or so he was doing ads for advertising in the Yellow Pages or something like that...I think that's what it was, but I was in college..so around 94 or so..I've searched YouTube and i can't find it. He's calling in to get help for something from someone and the person is having a hard time responding and with his insanely great dry wit...after she goes quiet...he says..."hello....don't hurt yourself." We use the "don't hurt yourself' line all the time at my house..and I don't think either of my sons have ever seen Bob Newhart in anything. I think my wife and I had just started dating (or close thereto) when that ad was out, and now my sons use that line all the time. I know as I'm getting older some of these are gonna start hitting me real hard. This is an early one of those. Bob always seemed like an easily relatable great guy...and he made me laugh. Life was better because he was here, and I pray people say that of me one day too! Rest in Peace.
I love Bob Newhart - especially his skits where he's the only character talking to some imaginary person on the other end of the phone line and being sarcastic as hell. That's still some of the best comedy ever, imo. As a kid, there were two people who I loved listening to that could paint a scene quite like that - Newhart was the best to me at it for comedy, and the only one I thought was even better was Garrison Keillor, but he was a master storyteller and on another level. I only watched the Newhart show occasionally, but those comedy skits of his that would air now and then back when I was a kid on KTRH as well as on SiriusXM comedy channel nowadays were something I always loved of his, as it showed some real comedic genius to paint a story like that and have the crowd laughing. No cursing, no berating, just hilarity. R.I.P.
I’m not a prude but I do think too many comedians rely upon swearing for humor. Understated humor like Bob Newhart is really a lost art.
Just heard that he didn’t win an Emmy for any of the shows named after him but only for His appearances on Big Bang Theory.
