YMMV / The Bob Newhart Show

• Award Snub:
  • Bob Newhart starred in two popular, long-lasting, critically acclaimed sitcoms, The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart. The ways in which the Emmys snubbed both shows, and Newhart himself, are simply staggering.
  • The Bob Newhart Show is generally regarded by critics as the better show of the two, yet it only received four nominations (and no wins) in its entire six year run. Newhart himself was never even nominated.
  • See Newhart for details on its Emmy snub.
• Fair for Its Day: The episode "Some of My Best Friends Are..." has one of Bob's therapy patients, Mr. Plager, come out as gay, and it's actually fairly progressive for a '70s sitcom: Plager is both completely non-camp and entirely comfortable with his sexuality, and Bob makes a point of dressing the rest of the group down for their homophobic attitudes toward him.
• Genius Bonus: Chicagoans have pointed out that Bob's commute from work depicted in the opening credits of the earlier seasons makes no sense, as he is going totally out of his way to go to his depicted apartment building from his depicted workplace. Newhart himself has lampshaded this, and has noted that among Chicagoans the opening titles are nicknamed, "Bob Wanders Around Aimlessly".
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In "Death Be My Destiny", after Mr. Herd faces some fears, he tells Bob to call him Mad Dog, convinces Bob to get on the elevator again by saying "do it for Mad Dog!", and afterwards Bob tells Emily to call him Mad Dog. On Bob Newhart's third sitcom, Bob, he played the creator of a comic book called Mad Dog.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • John Ritter appears as an ice cream parlor waiter in "Sorry, Wrong Mother".
  • Jerry's adoptive brother in "Oh, Brother" is played by Raúl Juliá.
• Spiritual Successor: Newhart is a combination of this and Stealth Sequel.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: On two occasions when Carol is on vacation, Bob is saddled with a much older, apparently addled secretary who makes his life difficult. In her second appearance, he had specifically requested not to get her, she became even more annoying (though always sweet) and when Bob finally called her out, she cried and revealed that she had once been a very cute young if ditzy secretary, and this got her by back in the day when certain bosses cared more about her looks. Bob is made to feel bad for critting her, but Fridge Logic kicks in: Back in the day, she had to have gotten jobs other more qualified secretaries did not because they weren't attractive by those lights. It is sad that sexism later meant she was brushed aside, but at one time, she benefited from it and apparently had no complaints. To Bob and to the viewer, she mainly seems incompetent and annoying.
• Values Dissonance: The entirety of "The Modernization of Emily", especially when everyone is shocked at the sight of her in jeans and a t-shirt with shoulder-length hair.
• Values Resonance: "No Sale" revolves around Bob getting involved in a real estate deal with Elliot Carlin to renovate and flip a dilapidated apartment building, but he has an attack of conscience when he learns the deal involves throwing a poor old man out on the street. As America's cities have become increasingly gentrified since the late 1990s and the displacement of their poorer residents has caused visible increases in homelessness in some areas, this episode resonates stronger today than it did in the mid-1970s.

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