As with many 1970s ensemble sitcoms, such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show focused on career-oriented adults, mostly single, related by circumstance rather than blood. Newhart played Dr. Bob Hartley, a psychologist practicing in Chicago. He treated a variety of patients whose problems, no matter how eccentric, were played for laughs; the star among them was the misanthropic Elliott Carlin (Jack Riley). Bob’s office mate was Dr. Jerry Robinson (Peter Bonerz), an orthodontist and typical 1970s “swinging single”; they shared the services of a quick-witted secretary-receptionist, Carol Kester (Marcia Wallace). Bob’s wife, Emily—smart, funny, and sexy—was played by Suzanne Pleshette. The couple’s neighbor and closest friend in their high-rise apartment building was Howard Borden (Bill Daily), a childlike airline navigator who ate most of his meals with the Hartleys and had them water his plants even when he was home; he was, in effect, the offspring they did not have. “That guy could lose an argument with a fern,” was the caustic Carlin’s comment on Howard.

A few lines and situations illustrate the show’s deft and daft humor: Bob and Emily have a bicentennial party in 1976 and invite Carlin because, according to Bob, “He says he gets lonely every bicentennial”; Howard explains how spilling salt could be fatal—after Bob nearly falls down an elevator shaft and becomes obsessed with death; the Hartleys send Howard to a psychologist so he can become independent and responsible—but then want the old Howard back; Jerry comes into money, gives up his practice, and turns into “the village coot,” who wants to do nothing but whittle and watch the sunrise.

These characters, even if defined by their specific quirks, developed and grew throughout the show’s long run. Emily began as a substitute teacher, became a full-time teacher, and moved up to vice principal; Carol married a travel agent and also tried out some other careers, but always came back to Bob and Jerry; Howard was engaged for a time to Bob’s sister Ellen, a newspaper reporter, but she went out of his life and off the show when she moved to Cleveland, Ohio, for a better job (and after she had a flirtation with Howard’s visiting brother, game warden Gordon Borden). The show made creative use of running gags such as Bob’s one-sided telephone conversations, which had been a popular part of Newhart’s standup act; his habit of trying to explain situations by using analogies no one understood; and his bedtime conversations with Emily, when each would turn back on the light and make one more comment.

When Newhart retired the show, by choice, he expressed misgivings about the direction of situation comedy as the 1970s gave way to the 1980s. Broad physical comedy and obvious jokes seemed to be pushing out wit and sophistication. The subsequent success of Newhart, however, showed there was still a place for intelligent, eccentric comedy. In this series Newhart played Dick Loudon, a writer of how-to books who moved from New York to Vermont to realize his dream of running a country inn. His wife, again smart, funny, and sexy, was named Joanna and was played by Mary Frann. Again there were numerous quirky supporting characters. Tom Poston, who had frequently guest starred on the earlier show, portrayed the inn’s unhandy handyman, George Utley. Julia Duffy played the hilariously vain and spoiled Stephanie Vanderkellen, an heiress working as a maid at the inn (Stephanie replaced her less interesting cousin, Leslie, after the first season). Stephanie’s boyfriend, Michael Harris (Peter Scolari), was an insufferable yuppie and producer of a local TV show, Vermont Today, which Dick began hosting a few years into Newhart’s run. Perhaps the most memorable, and certainly the most unusual, characters were three bizarre back-woodsmen, of whom only one ever spoke (until the final episode). “I’m Larry, this is my brother Darryl, and this is my other brother Darryl,” was their stock introduction. They could always be counted upon to enjoy any activity that would disgust most people. The show, like Newhart’s earlier sitcom, weeded out weak characters and developed the strong ones as it went along.

Newhart closed its successful eight-year run with one of the best final episodes of any series. It involved everyone in town, except the Loudons, selling their property to a Japanese corporation, included a parody of Fiddler on the Roof, and ended with Newhart waking up in bed with Suzanne Pleshette, the woman who portrayed his wife on his previous show, and explaining that he had had a very strange dream (a parodic reference to the famous 1986–87 season of Dallas).

As this ending indicates, The Bob Newhart Show of the 1970s is especially fondly remembered, and there have been several other tributes to its enduring popularity. Marcia Wallace made a guest appearance on Taxi as the dream date of cabby Jim Ignatowski, who had nearly memorized every episode of The Bob Newhart Show. (Many members of the creative staff of Taxi had begun their careers at MTM Entertainment, the company that produced The Bob Newhart Show.) Newhart reprised Dr. Bob Hartley on a Saturday Night Live segment in the 1990s, with Hartley being the only voice of reason on a talk show panel. And when TV character Murphy Brown (as part of a continuing joke on the show of the same name) was finally assigned a competent secretary, it was again Marcia Wallace, playing Carol. At the end of the episode, however, Newhart showed up as Bob Hartley and, after reducing himself to begging, won Carol back from Murphy.