The Bob Newhart Show: P-I-L-O-T

The Bob Newhart Show: P-I-L-O-T
CBS
November 18, 1972
Sitcom
DVD
B-

I decided not to do a separate entry for the original pilot, which was shot in Sept. of  '71, but instead talk about it here.  The show had potential but test audiences did not like the idea of Jerry being a psychologist, too, any more than they liked Donald Blue Sky as both Ann's boyfriend and manager.  So the scenes at "the office" were reshot, adding in Marcia Wallace's character of Carol and Jack Riley's of Mr. Carlin as well.  Still, the changes here are less dramatic than with That Girl, or particularly Gilligan's Island.

It's interesting that CBS decided to show the revised pilot a couple months into the first season, when the home audience had gotten used to Emily's hair, the apartment, and some other aspects being a certain way.  Bob's character is different in that he's both more amorous and more interested in having a baby than he is for the most part in the series.  As I recall, Bob Newhart didn't want the Hartleys to be parents, and it wouldn't come up very often again.  As far the amorousness, he's much more demonstrative (including in bed) than we usually see him.  Another notable difference is that Howard is absent, and instead we get a whole bunch of boring neighbors, besides Margaret I mean.  Oh, and we find out that Jerry was adopted when he was three weeks old, which will later be contradicted.

Louise Lasser plays the lady from the adoption agency, a few years before Mary Hartman.  Helen Page Camp, who plays Myrna Hoover, would later be Mrs. Prince.  William Redfield, who plays Margaret's husband Arthur, would have a more prominent role, as Gordon Borden.