Bob’s Back : Cast From Newhart’s First Show Reunites and Takes Up Where Dream Left Off

Everything old is gold for CBS. In February, the network presented the “CBS Classic Weekend,” which paid tribute to three of its biggest successes from seasons past--”All in the Family,” “The Ed Sullivan Show” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”

The retrospectives were such a hit with viewers, a sequel, quite naturally, was in order. “CBS Classic Weekend II” kicks off Saturday with “The Bob Newhart Anniversary Special.” (The weekend continues on Nov. 24 with “The Very Best of Ed Sullivan II” and on Nov. 25 with “Memories of MASH.”)

“The Bob Newhart Anniversary Special” features clips from “The Bob Newhart Show,” which aired on CBS 1972-78, focusing on button-down psychologist Bob Hartley (Newhart); his schoolteacher wife Emily (Suzanne Pleshette); their wacky neighbor, airplane pilot Howard (Bill Daily); Bob’s good friend, the womanizing dentist Jerry (Peter Bonerz); their receptionist Carol (Marcia Wallace), and Bob’s cynical patient Mr. Carlin (Jack Riley).

The cast members reunited Oct. 30, 13 years after they were last together, to reprise their roles for the special, which opens with a clip from the final episode of CBS’ 1982-90 “Newhart” series. In that finale, Bob Hartley awakens from a “horrible dream” in which he was an innkeeper in Vermont. Bob is so troubled by the dream that the next day he turns to his wife and friends for comfort.

Marcia Wallace, who played Carol, flew in from Columbia, Mo., where she was rehearsing the play “Steel Magnolias” at Stephens College to do the special. “We were part of the culture of the ‘70s,” recalled Wallace, who also is the voice of Bart’s teacher on “The Simpsons.” “I thought we had something really magical.”

Wallace was 29 when the series started. “I have, needless to say, generations of people saying, ‘I watched you when I was a little kid.’ You can’t hardly get upset because it was nearly 20 years ago and we have never been off the air since.”

“I don’t think I can be Jerry, said Peter Bonerz, who is now a successful TV director, directing nine episodes of CBS’ “Murphy Brown” this season. “Jerry was me 20 years ago. There are very few parts of me that are like Jerry any more. I don’t think many dentists even wear that smock any more.”

Bill Daily was excited about doing the reunion special but was less than thrilled about playing Howard again. “It has taken me 12 years to get out of that Howard character,” he said nervously. “When I left ‘I Dream of Jeannie,’ Major Healey was just a guy, but that Howard character is so strong they would say, ‘That guy is flaky.’ It was tough on me. It was beyond typecasting and now they want me to do it again.”

But Daily wasn’t complaining. “It is wonderful to be known and respected for that show,” he said. “It had brilliant writing. I am beyond grateful. Bob is the nicest of superstars. He is the best. He is the only comedian I know who is a good listener. He listens and laughs. He is like the guy next door.”

“He is a wonderful actor,” Wallace said, who agreed that being on a hit series is a double-edged sword. To this day she loses jobs because of her identification with Carol.

But, she said, “I had the good sense to enjoy it at the time. I knew I had a swell job and I loved every minute of it. I will never understand why people leave a hit show. It will be off soon enough, why not take that visibility and money because it will give you so much freedom later on?”

Bonerz has discovered the “Murphy Brown” set has a lot in common with the “Bob Newhart Show” set. “It is rare in production of TV shows for the mood on the set to be as gleeful as it was on ‘Newhart’ and is on ‘Murphy Brown,’ ” he said. “The cast has a close-knit family feeling to it. It has been my experience, and I have done an awful lot of TV shows since the Newhart show, mostly behind the camera, that the good times we had on the Newhart show are rare. Little did I know, little did any of us know, that wasn’t the normal way of life.”

For about five years after the series left the airwaves, Bonerz said, the “Newhart” cast met for a semi-annual reunion lunch. “Then we got busy,” he said. “I seem to keep in touch with Bob. I write him every once in a while and tell him how much I adored working with him and how fondly I remembered those years. And he will write back a thank you.”

“The Bob Newhart 19th Anniversary Special” airs Saturday at 8 p.m. on CBS.