George & Leo is a sitcom that ran for one season (1997–98) on CBS, starring Bob Newhart (in his second series for Paramount, after Bob) as George Stoody, an uptight bookstore owner in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, and Judd Hirsch (in his third series for Paramount, after Taxi and Dear John) as Leo Waggonman, a small-time crook and magician from Las Vegas who comes to town when their respective children, George's son Ted and Leo's daughter Casey, get married. Leo had been estranged from Casey for years but was invited to the wedding by Ted, and ends up staying, much to the annoyance of George.
The show also featured an early role for Jason Bateman as Ted.
Includes examples of:
- Accidental Pervert: In "The Bongos", George teaches a business class that his housekeeper attends. George's boss overhears a conversation between them, with George needing her to come to his house a night earlier than when she's scheduled, and they mention her wanting him to pay for a set of bongos (for her boyfriends band). The boss then talks with her about this, with the housekeeper telling her George is not paying for her bongos (she has to earn them), which the boss thinks is a term for her breasts. George gets fired over this but the whole thing gets cleared up by the end and he gets his job back./
- Brick Joke: "The Cameo Episode" begins with a pilot (Bill Daily) going into the book store looking for a book on flying a plane, which he needs to learn because he's about to fly soon. Later in the episode, after Dr. Harris' patients walk out on him, he says that his only remaining patient is a man who thinks he's a pilot.
- Disappeared Dad: Leo was this to his daughter Casey for many years before coming back into her life in time for the wedding.
- Chekhov's Gun: In "The Thanksgiving Show", George notices Leo's tie. During the episode, he asks Leo not to be involved with his recently-divorced niece, which Leo promises but doesn't keep. At the end, George informs Leo that he found his tie in the guest bedroom where she was sleeping. But subverted in that that scene ended up being a dream.
- Evil Lawyer Joke: When Leo and Ted fly a plane together in "The Bongos" and there's turbulence, Leo tells Ted that whenever he's on a plane in bad weather he looks for a passenger who's done something bad, as bad people are never reported to be in plane crashes. After the first few he asks are good people, he finds a lawyer and thinks he's found a bad person until the lawyer says he is pro bono.
- Expy: "The Cameo Show" features cameos by many of Bob Newhart and Judd Hirch's former co-stars from their previous sitcoms, many of them basically playing expies of the characters they'd played on those shows.
- Fake Video Camera View: "The Nanny" begins with this when Leo video records what's going on in the waiting room at the hospital where his grandchild is being born.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every episode title starts with "the".
- Malicious Misnaming: In "The Cameo Episode", when George goes to group therapy, Jack (the expy of Mr. Carlin from The Bob Newhart Show) calls George Stoody "Mr. Snoody". When the therapist asks how he felt about his name being made fun of, George says he was called a number of things in school, with the other patients asking about a variety of names that sound similar to Stoody.
- Odd Couple: George, the uptight bookseller, and Leo, the obnoxious ex-hoodlum.
- Oh, Crap!: George at the end of the first episode when he mentions to Leo that the bookstore used to be a home and still has a bedroom, upon realizing that Leo will want to move into that bedroom.
- Slipping a Mickey: In "The Eggnogg", George's house is part of a local tour, and, seeing that he's been a little uptight over winning a blue ribbon, Leo decides to pour some alcohol into the eggnogg, accidentally pouring the whole bottle in when he was only going to pour half a cup (though he did not know how much was half a cup). When nobody is looking, Ambrose also decides to pout alcohol in. And then George, to apologize for how uptight he's been and how hard they've been working with him, decides to pour a quarter cup of rum, with neither Leo or Ambrose admitting to what they did (although Leo does confess to George at the end, while Ambrose does not.)
- Wrong-Name Outburst: In one episode, Leo is involved with a woman who mistakenly shouts George's name during sex. And in the next episode, when they set out to get married, she mistakenly does it again during the wedding.
