Customer Reviews

The Bob Newhart Show Season 1

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I don't remember a television show that was as funny as The Bob Newhart Show. The staid, professional Dr. Hartley and his wife are surrounded by a parade of the wackiest neighbors, colleagues and friends that one could imagine. Even Dr. Hartley's "group" is an hysterical array of people who somehow make even those in for psychological help seem funny without making fun of their individual problems. This show is classic Newhart. It is not slapstick or in-your-face humor nor is it anything like the comedy seen on television today. Bob Newhart is subtle and timed with absolute precision. Bob's facial expression (or should I say lack of one) tells us that something funny is about to happen. You won't go wrong getting The Bob Newhart Show if you love wonderful, colorful characters, first-rate writing and everyday situations which are full of humor and wit.

At last Bob Newart is on DVD.

This first release of The Bob Newhart show on DVD contains all of the episodes of its first season. All 24 episodes are contained on 3 disks. It is full frame and list at 657 minutes.

1) Fly the Unfriendly Skies - Bob invites Emily to join his fear of flying group on a outing to New York.

2) Tracy Grammar School - Bob feels left out when he is not invited to one if of Emily's classes.

3) Tennis, Emily? - Emily's tennis instructor comes to see Bob about his inability to turn down the women who are attracted to him.

4) Mom, I Love You - Bob can't tell his mother that he loves her.

5) Goodnight Nancy - Bob's old girlfriend comes to town.

6) Come Live With Me - Carol wants move in with her boyfriend.

7) Father Knows Worst - Howard believes that his son does not like him.

8) Don't Go To Bed Mad - Bob and Emily have a disagreement about Monday Night football.

9) P-I-L-O-T - Since Bob and Emily can't have a child, they think about adopting.

10) Anything Happen While I Was Gone - Jerry announces his engagement.

11) I Want To Be Alone - Bob needs some quite time, moves into a hotel and Howard thinks that Bob and Emily are breaking up.

12) Bob and Emily and Howard and Carol and Jerry - Howard has a tooth pulled.

13) I Owe it all to you... But not that Much - Jerry becomes one of Bob patients when he can't get serious with any of his dates.

14) His Busiest Season - When Bob's group can't find any Christmas spirit, he invites them over for Christmas Eve.

15) Let's Get Away from it Almost - Bob and Emily spend time at a ski lodge and find themselves with an annoying couple.

16) The Crash of 29 Years Old - Carol has her 29th birthday.

17) The Man with the Golden Wrist - Emily gives Bob a gold watch for his 40th birthday.

18) The Two Loves of Dr. Hartley - One of Bob's patients falls in love with him.

19) Not With My Sister You Don't - Howard's 22 year old sister comes to visit and Emily set her up with Jerry.

20) A Home is not Necessarily a House - Bob and Emily considering buying home.

21) Emily, I'm Home... Emily - When Emily get a fulltime job, Bob gets upset.

22) You Can Will `Em All - A star baseball pitcher credits Bob with saving his career.

23) Bum Voyage - Emily wants Bob to take a 2 month vacation but he is afraid his patients won't be able to take his absent that long.

24) Who's Been Sleeping on My Couch? - After another failed romance, Jerry spends a few days at Bob's apartment.

Long before today's stand-up comics started to get their own series, Bob Newhart made the move from being a stand-up comic to the main character of his own situation comedy. His success as a stand-up comedian had led to his hosting a variety show in 1961, but hosting a show is not the same as acting and this show from the 1970s led the way to so many comedians making the move. As with all his series, the success of "The Bob Newhart Show" comes from the ensemble and the writing.

The first season (1972-1973) is a bit uneven at the start, but the creators and writers tweaked it a bit to get the right feel and by the end of the first season the show had really hit its stride. The difference between the pilot episode and shows like "The Man with the Golden Wrist", "Not with my Sister you don't", and "Bum Voyage" is tremendous. So if you think the show isn't as good as you remembered it when you are watching the shows from the first third of the season, don't worry too much, because it keeps getting better, and the last third of the season is very funny.

There are no extras in this DVD set. There are 24 episodes on 3 DVDs each of which has 4 episodes per side. There are no actor profiles, features, interviews, or anything like that. The sound is mono, and they probably could have done a better job of cleaning up the video. However, despite these issues this is definitely a funny show and for those who like comedy with more thought and less slapstick, this is for you. I can only give this DVD set 3 stars because of the issues I mentioned with the DVD set, and because the show itself gets better in subsequent seasons.

The Bob Newhart show is a classic comedy, backed by an excellent supporting cast and wonderful writing. This show is as clever as any top notch comedy today. After looking at a list of all the episodes in season one, many of them are some of the funniest i remember during the entire run of the show. I'm so glad this show is finally being released. Other great news to share. Mary Tyler Moore Season Two will FINALLY be released this summer! Hallelujah!!

Fox continues to disrespect great shows such as "The Bob Newhart Show". They will treat "King of the Hill" or "The Simpsons" akin to "Gone with the Wind"...but a real quality show such as this is given shabby treatment.

The packaging is poor (two slimline cases, with double sided DVD's????), the extras are non-existent (none, nada, nyet!), and the transfers are equal to VHS quality, full of grain and poor focus.

But, of course, this show will probably only see one release, so those who appreciate quality entertainment are stuck with what they give us.

I can only hope future releases of this show (and MTM) will be treated with greater respect....but I'm not holding my breath.

I've always liked the Bob Newhart Show, and thought it was a shame that it's been hard to catch in reruns for the past 20 years or so. TV Land seemed to be playing Musical Bobs by repeatedly putting it on the schedule for a few weeks -- always in the early morning hours -- only to quickly yank it off the air again. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Still, I was surprised to find how many times I laughed out loud while watching the episodes in this first season. And this wasn't even Bob's best season! The show was still finding its footing at this point, but it's still hilarious.

The show itself is definitely worthy of five stars, but since there doesn't seem to have been any restoration work done (the video and audio quality is mediocre at best), the rating is brought down to four stars (I would make it 4 1/2 if that were an option). However, the fact that very little money was spent putting these episodes on DVD is what enables us to buy the entire first season for such a terrific price. Compare the price of this set to the first season set of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. That one came out a few years ago, beautifully restored and chockful of extras, but with an MSRP of fifty bucks! No wonder they didn't sell all that many (though I was one of the few who happily purchased the set, being a longtime devotee of the show). Additional seasons were promised, but guess what? So few sets were sold that they cancelled any further releases of MTM. If keeping the Bob Newhart Show down to the bare bones enables them to release all of the seasons at a terrific price, it's okay with me.

The Bottom Line: An hilarious show, uncut for the first time since it went into syndicated reruns, for a fantastic price. Highly recommended.

The CBS lineup of the mid 1970's was a true juggernaut with "All in the Family", "Mary Tyler Moore Show", "The Carol Burnett Show" and the most underrated and probably least appreciated, "The Bob Newhart Show". Now I was still a bit young at the time but through seeing repeats for years I've gained a great appreciation for this show. So cleverly written, so undeniably witty that it took, I think, a bit more maturity on my part to fully "get it". You start with a great cast. Toss out Newhart who was always great, and move to the co-stars. Suzanne Pleshette as bob's wife Emily, a school teacher, Bill Daily as Next door neighbor and Airlines Pilot, Howard, Peter Bonerz as Dr. Jerry Robinson who shared receptionist Carol played by Marcia Wallace. And then there was Bob's various patients, most notably John Fielder as "Mr. Peterson" and Jack Riley as "Mr. Carlin".

Bob's casual nature in dealing with his nutty patients week after week has always been the highlight for me. I've always loved shows where you kind of have one normal character surrounded by a cast of looneys and no show ever did it better than this one. Surprisingly, this show was NEVER a top 10 show. Incredible really considering it's strong lead-ins with MTM and "All in the Family".

This set obviously collects the entire first season, all 24 episodes and, If I may say, at one heck of a bargain compared to many other TV shows on DVD. A few of my favorite episodes from season one are:

"His Busiest Season" It's Christmas and Bob's patients are feeling even more down in the dumps than usual so Bob decides to invite them over for Christmas.

"I owe it all to you, But not that much" Jerry, whose problems with women were a recurring theme, decides to see Bob as a patient to talk about it but soon it threatens their friendship.

"Don't go to Bed Mad" Bob and Emily get into a huge argument when Bob wants to watch Monday Night Football.

This show had the kind of witty writing that you just don't see much in sitcoms these days. A true gem from the 1970's

I have been a fan of the Bob Newhart show since first I saw it on "TV Land", I know it was on in the 70's but I was kind of young, and do not remember it from its primetime run. I guess this basically means, you didn't have to be a fan of it when it was in primetime to enjoy it. I like the packaging of the DVD, its pretty simple with nice graphics. The menus are rather plain, but that just makes it easier to jump right to the shows, instead of wating for some super fancy 3d menus to load. The colors of the video are not very vibrant, but this is of course due to the direct tranfer from the original to DVD. Obviously there was no enhacements done. The sound is original too, just mono. The no-frills presentation of the DVD is just fine, because the quality of the show is awesome.

Its one of the funniest TV shows that I have ever seen. It ranks up there with the Honeymooners, Seinfeld, and the odd couple. The writing is brilliant, the acting is superb (except for a couple of guest stars). I definately reccomend this DVD set, even if you aren't into old TV.

The crown jewel of the Mary Tyler Moore productions. There was poor Bob in his super wide ties and butt enhancing double vented sport coats that no one I knew could afford when the show debuted. Yep, Bob was funny, bumbling, and quite a bit selfish, but, better than that, the show was infested with hysterical characters. And, how could Carol dress like that if she had even one mirror in her apartment? No bad words or disgusting situations that are the apparent staples of modern programming. This is a good thing. And, the double sided DVDs did not even skip once, although I would still recommend handling them as if they were rare coins. If you like these DVDs, you will also enjoy the CD "The Bob Newhart Anthology."

The Bob Newhart Show was one of the great 70s sitcom and it has finally been released on DVD. The show followed Dr. Robert Hartley, a pyschologist living in Chicago with his wife and substitute schoolteacher, Emily. We meet Bob's nosy yet lovable neighbor Howard Borden, his best friend Jerry Robinson, an orthadontist who works on the same floor, and Bob's lovesick receptionist, Carol Kester. Included with the main cast are recurring guest stars like Jack Riley as Mr. Carlin and John Fielder as Mr. Peterson, two of Bob's most hilarious patients. This ensemble cast provided plenty of hilarious moments, including the "Hi, Bob," drinking game, and it is great to see this show finally on DVD. This sitcom provided Bob Newhart the perfect opportunity for his dry, sarcastic humor. As well, almost every show from the first season features one of his famous telephone acts. For a can't miss 70s sitcom, check out the Bob Newhart show.

Bob Newhart is hilarious throughout as Dr. Robert Hartley, a pyschologist living in Chicago with his wife Emily, played by Suzanne Pleshette. Together, Newhart and Pleshette make a funny and still believable married couple. Bill Daily as neighbor Howard Borden, Peter Bonerz as orthadontist/best friend Jerry Robinson, and Marcia Wallace as receptionist Carol Kester make up the supporting cast and provide some of the show's most hilarious moments. The First Season DVD features all 24 episodes in full frame on three discs. They look cleaned up from some of the ones shown on TV. There are no extras included on the DVD, but hopefully on future releases bloopers/gag reel or interviews with the cast are included. For now, we'll just have to enjoy the classic first season of The Bob Newhart Show. Highly recommended.