The Only Major Actors Still Alive From The Bob Newhart Show
CBS sitcom "The Bob Newhart Show" was a staple for American TV audiences of the '70s, thanks in large part to clever writing and Newhart's much-loved performance as psychologist and comedic straight man Bob Hartley. The show ran for six seasons from 1972 to 1978, but it had a surprisingly long pop cultural afterlife. Characters from "The Bob Newhart Show" have popped up in everything from "Murphy Brown" to "St. Elsewhere" to "ALF," though their most famous reappearance came in the jokey "Newhart" finale in 1990. In it, Newhart wakes up in bed next to his wife from the previous series and discovers that this entire sitcom was all an elaborate dream. "The Bob Newhart Show," it turned out, was his real world.
When it wasn't being resurrected for increasingly meta crossovers, "The Bob Newhart Show" was a pretty straightforward sitcom about the life of a mental health clinician and the assortment of kooky people who surrounded him. His wife, Emily, was played by "The Birds" actress Suzanne Pleshette, while "I Dream of Jeannie" star Bill Daily played their neighbor. "The Many Lives of Dobie Gillis" alum Florida Friebus, "12 Angry Men" actor John Fiedler, and "Rugrats" voice actor Jack Riley all appeared as Dr. Hartley's patients, while future "Full House" actress Marcia Wallace was his receptionist. Of the main cast, only Newhart and Peter Bonerz, who played the orthodontist who worked next door to Bob, are still with us today.
Bob Newhart (Dr. Bob Hartley)
As popular as "The Bob Newhart Show" was, it turned out to be just one major stepping stone in the storied career of the comedian after which it was named. After this series wrapped, Newhart went on to headline three more shows. "Newhart," the eight-season series that ultimately circled back to "The Bob Newhart Show" in its finale, was the most popular, while "Bob" cast Newhart as a comic book artist turned greeting card writer. (The show completely changed its storylines for its second season, but didn't survive past that.) "George and Leo," a show about odd-couple in-laws co-starring Judd Hirsch, also bowed out after one season in the late '90s.
Newhart may have stopped headlining TV shows around the turn of the millennium, but he still appeared often in them as a beloved guest star or recurring actor. He played a children's television scientist called Professor Proton on "The Big Bang Theory," a depressed patient in an equally depressing arc on "ER," and popped up in "Desperate Housewives," "NCIS," and "Hot in Cleveland," among other shows. His film work, meanwhile, includes key roles in comedies "Elf," "Horrible Bosses," and "Legally Blonde 2," plus voice acting for "The Rescuers" film series.
Originally a stand-up comic, Newhart had largely switched to television by the '70s, but he did release a Nick at Nite special titled "Button-Down Concert" in 1997. Newhart has received three Grammys, an Emmy, and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor for his work, and in 2021 he told Forbes he had no plans to stop working. "I fell in love with the sound of laughter 61 years ago," he explained. "It's a sound I wanted to keep hearing. It's one of the great sounds in the world, I'm serious." Newhart most recently appeared in "Young Sheldon," reprising his role as Professor Proton.
Peter Bonerz (Dr. Jerry Robinson)
After playing orthodontist Dr. Jerry Robinson on "The Bob Newhart Show," Peter Bonerz began working primarily as a director. The performer had already gotten behind the camera by 1978, including for 29 episodes of the Newhart-led sitcom, but after the series ended, he began working in feature films as well. Bonerz helmed the 1981 movie "Nobody's Perfekt," the sixth "Police Academy" film, and a TV movie about polyamory titled "Sharing Richard." His most prolific work has been in television, where he directed dozens of episodes of "Murphy Brown" as well as plenty of "Friends," "Home Improvement," "Wings," "ALF," and more.
Bonerz won a Directors' Guild of America award for the taboo-busting, controversial episode of "Murphy Brown" that sees the titular character have an abortion, and was nominated for an Emmy for directing a later episode that, in a meta turn of events, mirrored reality when the fictional Brown (Candice Bergen) was attacked by Vice President Dan Quayle.
The actor has also appeared on screen since "The Bob Newhart Show," most notably in the cute Jenny Slate-led film "Marcel the Shell With Shoes On" and the Andy Kaufman biopic "Man on the Moon," which is famous for Jim Carrey's intensive Method acting. Bonerz also played a supporting role in the early aughts NBC sitcom "Three Sisters" and appeared in shows like "Park and Recreation," "Kim Possible," "Aaahh!!! Real Monsters," and the never-aired series finale of "Bob."