The Bob Newhart Show: Warden Gordon Borden

William Redfield on "Maude."

The Bob Newhart Show: Warden Gordon Borden
CBS
January 17, 1976
Sitcom
DVD
B

William Redfield, who'd played a neighbor on the Pilot, here is very well cast as the title character, looking, thinking, and ironing like his younger (by two years) brother Howard.  Like Howard, Gordon falls for Ellen instantly, but it's not mutual this time.  It turns out that she's moving to Cleveland, and this is in fact the last appearance of her character.  The script by the Farrs is sharper than any lately, including Emily's joke at the end that took her four hours to come up with.

The Bob Newhart Show: The Article

20 years earlier

The Bob Newhart Show: The Article
CBS
December 6, 1975
Sitcom
DVD
C+

Erik Tarloff's second of two BNS scripts is less intelligent than usual for the show.  Ellen does a libelous article about the doctors in Bob's building, after they act like a bunch of idiots.  What I like here: the bit of Western parody, Emily's beaming smile when she enters Jerry's crowded office, and Bob's remark to Howard that it isn't necessarily the shins that are the first to go.

Bobby Ramsen returns, this time as Morty the Photographer.  Kristina Holland, the voice of Alice Boyle on Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, appears as Carol's substitute Gail Bronson, a role she'd soon reprise.

The Bob Newhart Show: Here's Looking at You, Kid

I couldn't get a photo from this episode, but here's
one from the scene with everyone at Carol's apartment

The Bob Newhart Show: Here's Looking at You, Kid
CBS
September 20, 1975
Sitcom
DVD
B+

Gordon and Lynne Farr wrote this funny and believable episode about Howard proposing to Ellen and then them both having doubts.  As Ellen notes towards the end, Howard is ironing and listening to their song "As Time Goes By," as he was when she came over to tell him she'd ended her engagement to John Tobin.  Ellen is 34 at this point, which Emily jokes is much older than herself.  Oh, and Bob and Emily seem to be celebrating their anniversary (the sixth, iron) at a different time of year than usual.

Trumpet Player Verne Rowe previously was Bob's patient Moose Washburn, while Don Nagel was also the waiter on the last episode of the previous season.  Bonerz directed.  And this is the 400th program I've reviewed for the '70s and we're barely halfway through chronologically.

The Bob Newhart Show: The Ceiling Hits Bob

The Bob Newhart Show: The Ceiling Hits Bob
CBS
March 8, 1975
Sitcom
DVD
B

The ceiling of Bob's offfice doesn't literally hit Bob in this Patchett & Tarses story, but after it caves in during his absence, a series of events causes him to feel overwhelmed.  One thing I like about this season-closer is that we get a scene with Emily, Carol, and Ellen, while Bob is in the apartment playing Monopoly with Mr. Carlin and another patient.

Don Nagel plays a Waiter for the first of two times on the show.  Bill Quinn returns as Eddie the Mailman, as does Lucian Scott as Mr. Vickers.  Jess Nadelman, who's Bud Brey, would be on both Welcome Back, Kotter and Three's Company in the next couple years.

Season Three feels a shade weaker than Season Two, with its best episodes-- "Big Brother Is Watching" (A-) and "Sorry, Wrong Mother" (B+)-- early on.  Still, it averages to a B overall and this remains a good, solid show that knows how to play to its strengths.  The inclusion of Ellen I think is more of a bonus for Emily's character than Howard's, since Howard in love is possessive yet critical, while it's nice to see Emily have another female close friend than Carol, getting to play big sibling in a different way than Bob does.

The Bob Newhart Show: The New Look

The Bob Newhart Show: The New Look
CBS
February 8, 1975
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This first of thirteen BNS episodes written by Gordon and Lynne Farr (who wrote separate episodes of That Girl) has Bob unhappy with the redecoration of their apartment that Emily did without his input, one of those episodes where neither Bob nor Emily is completely right or wrong.  Oliver Clark returns as Mr. Herd.  Cliff Norton was on That Girl three times and is Maury here, while Marcia Lewis, who plays his wife Dorothy, would be Louise Gross.  Bonerz directed again.

The Bob Newhart Show: The Way We Weren't

The Bob Newhart Show: The Way We Weren't
CBS
January 18, 1975
Sitcom
DVD
B

I like how this episode is about jealousy in a different way than the John Tobin one.  Ellen never meets Howard's ex-girlfriend Jennifer, and the audience and Emily never see Bob's ex Gloria Webster, but the men's pasts, and how much the women know about them, ricochet off each other throughout the story.  We also find out that, back in Seattle, Emily simultaneously dated two men who were tuna fishermen together.  This is the first of eleven BNS episodes 34-year-old James Burrows directed.

The Bob Newhart Show: Tobin's Back in Town

The Bob Newhart Show: Tobin's Back in Town
CBS
January 4, 1975
Sitcom
DVD
B

Michael Zinberg's first of four BNS stories has Ellen's ex, John Emil Tobin (35-year-old Fred Willard), trying to win her back, which makes Howard jealous.  There's some funny stuff here, including the leather outfits, but I'm starting to see why Howard and Ellen never actually got married.  He's just not mature enough for a serious relationship.

Russ Grieve previously was Spike Coolidge and this time is Leo the Private Detective.  Bonerz directed yet again.

The Bob Newhart Show: An American Family

The Bob Newhart Show: An American Family
CBS
November 23, 1974
Sitcom
DVD
B

This Charlotte Brown story is somewhat similar to the That Girl episode where Donald and Ann celebrate Thanksgiving with both sets of parents, although with obvious differences, since Bob and Emily are married and have invited over their single friends as well.  As on TG, the main conflict is between the leading man's fussy mother and the leading lady's overbearing father, with the other parents more easy-going.  John Randolph and Ann Rutherford return as the Harrisons, while Martha Scott's Martha Hartley is joined by Barnard Hughes as Herb.  Note that the senior Hartleys have been married for 45 years, and Aggie Harrison is 56.  Bonerz directs again.  The episode's title is taken from the '73 documentary about the far more dysfunctional Loud family.

The Bob Newhart Show: Life Is a Hamburger

The Bob Newhart Show: Life Is a Hamburger
CBS
November 16, 1974
Sitcom
DVD
B

In this Jerry Mayer story, Carol gets engaged to her boyfriend Don Fezler (formerly Don Livingston, still played by Richard Schaal).  No one thinks Don is right for Carol, but Jerry nonetheless throws them an engagement party.  Carol lingers afterwards and they at the least kiss passionately.  I'd give this episode a B+ if we actually saw their conversation the next day, or hers with Don afterwards, but considering Jerry is almost in tears and Don is never seen again, I suppose neither talk goes well.

Bobby Eilbacher, who played a nameless kid in the After School Special "The Eighteen Emergency," here is Ricky Rasmussen and would later be David.

The Bob Newhart Show: Ship of Shrinks

The Bob Newhart Show: Ship of Shrinks
CBS
November 9, 1974
Sitcom
DVD
B

Mitchell and Neigher's second BNS story has Bob going to a convention in Hawaii after being published in a psychology anthology.  However, only two pages of twenty in his article made the final cut, so he doesn't particularly want to go.  And Emily becomes a lot more hesitant about flying when Howard sounds like he's going to spend more time doting on Ellen than navigating the plane.  And Ellen and Howard have a fight, so she doesn't go.  It's of course up to Bob to resolve everything.

Bobby Ramsen makes his first of six BNS appearances, as Dr. Rimmer.  And a pre-Laverne & Shirley David L. Lander shows up as Milt the Delivery Boy.

The Bob Newhart Show: Sorry, Wrong Mother

The Bob Newhart Show: Sorry, Wrong Mother
CBS
October 12, 1974
Sitcom
DVD
B+

Charlotte Brown wrote this story about Howie (Moosie Drier) and Ellen meeting and not hitting it off.  While the many-sided argument at the end feels a bit contrived, there are some moments of realism throughout.  And there are also moments of absurdity, whether it's Bob use of a puppet in therapy, Jerry's purchase of an abstract clock, or the whole ice cream parlor scene with John Ritter as Dave.  More so than on his M*A*S*H appearance the previous season, Ritter is beginning to show star quality.  (He by then had a recurring role on The Waltons, as a reverend, but lead roles were still awhile off.)

The Bob Newhart Show: The Separation Story

The Bob Newhart Show: The Separation Story
CBS
October 5, 1974
Sitcom
DVD
B

This Patchett & Tarses script, directed by Bonerz, is based on a story by Robert Garland, who wrote one That Girl episode.  Emily is trying to get her Master's and Bob is extra busy at work, so they decide to live separately for a couple weeks.  Everyone assumes that their marriage is breaking up.  Another example of how this show provides realism in a sitcom format. And note the Mick Jagger reference.

Bryan O'Byrne, who plays Mr. Doheny, would be a Desk Sergeant on Welcome Back, Kotter.  Carl Gottlieb, who'd written the "Tracy Grammar School, I'll Lick You Yet" episode, here appears as Kuberski and would later be on Mork & Mindy.  This time Richard Stahl plays the Bellboy.

The Bob Newhart Show: The Battle of the Groups

The Bob Newhart Show: The Battle of the Groups
CBS
September 21, 1974
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This Patchett & Tarses story has its moments (yes, some of them include Jack Riley streaking), but it doesn't work as well as it could.  On the one hand, the idea of Bob's two therapy groups going on a marathon weekend in the woods, with Emily tagging along, has potential, but unfortunately there are two many performers, and some of them are either not fleshed out or they're clearly substitutes for other characters or performers.  Meanwhile, Ellen apartment-sits for Bob and Emily, and Bob is clearly worried that Howard will spend the weekend there, too.  (He does, but only because Ellen gets the flu.)

Group #1 is comprised of Mr. Carlin, Mr. Gianelli (played by Daniel J. Travanti this once), Mrs. Havlicek (Lenore Woodward, doing her best Florida Friebus impression, knitting and all), Michelle, and Mr. Peterson, while Group #2 is Carlin again, Mr. Herd (Oliver Clark), Craig Plager (Hesseman), Shirley Ullman (Millie Slavin), and Mr. Vickers (Lucian Scott).

The Bob Newhart Show: Big Brother Is Watching

The Bob Newhart Show: Big Brother Is Watching
CBS
September 14, 1974
Sitcom
DVD
A-

When I saw Charlotte Brown's name in the credits, I knew this would be very good, but it's in fact the most fantastic program I've watched in a long while.  That may sound over the top for what is just the basic five characters, plus Ellen, playing off each other, but there are some wonderfully funny and believably human moments.  (Bob's "Do you have all his albums?" had me on the floor!)  And a couple other characters have established enough personalities that we can imagine Bob's mother's end of the conversation, or Mr. Carlin's with Carol.  Also, there's some fun coming out of two new sets: the Hartleys' den and Carol's funky apartment, with chairs made out of hippos and swings.  (That Bob has to retreat to the beanbag chair says a lot about the '70s.)

The subject of living together had come up for Carol in the first season, but it was one of her short-term boyfriends.  With its being Howard, a character we've grown fond of for two years, and Bob's sister, the stakes are much higher.  (And, yes, we are two and a half years away from the platonic trio of Three's Company.)  I am definitely looking forward to the rest of the season.

The Bob Newhart Show: A Love Story

The Bob Newhart Show: A Love Story
CBS
February 9, 1974
Sitcom
DVD
B+

Martin Cohan wrote and Peter Bonerz directed this episode that introduces Bob's 32-year-old sister Ellen (33-year-old Pat Finley).  Howard falls in love with her at first sight, and she gradually starts to return his feelings.  Unfortunately, she's getting married in a few days.  The timeline doesn't quite work, but that's all right.  It's still a wonderful episode, with how all the characters, including Bob's mother (Martha Scott, with her character now sharing the same first name), play off each other.  I of course especially loved Bob telling Emily she's sunk to a new low, trying to matchmake an engaged person.  I almost went with an A-, but I do have a few qualms about how quickly Howard and Ellen get involved, especially under the circumstances.

This is the 200th CBS programmed I've reviewed.  I don't think they'll ever catch up to ABC, but with this show and M*A*S*H hanging on for a few more years, the Eye Network will come close.