CBS Schedules Bob Newhart Special for July 22
Jim Parsons, Will Ferrell, Reese Witherspoon share thoughts on sitcom standout
CBS will air the special Bob Newhart: A Legacy of Laughter Monday, July 22. Newhart, who starred in the sitcoms The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart on CBS, died July 18 at age 94.
Paramount Plus will stream the 90-minute special. Nischelle Turner, co-host on Entertainment Tonight, will host.
A Legacy of Laughter looks at Newhart’s 70-year career, as he went from an accountant to a comedian to a TV star, and features his final interview, CBS said, from his home in Los Angeles. Those sharing their thoughts on Newhart include Jim Parsons, Will Ferrell, Reese Witherspoon and Jason Bateman.
Newhart played psychologist Robert Hartley on The Bob Newhart Show, which was on from 1972 to 1978. He then played innkeeper Dick Loudon on Newhart from 1982 to 1990.
He had two other sitcoms on CBS in the 1990s, Bob and George and Leo.
Newhart’s film work included Catch-22, Cold Turkey and First Family, and he played the adoptive father of Will Ferrell’s Buddy character in Elf.
He wrote the book I Shouldn’t Even Be Doing This: And Other Things That Strike Me as Funny.
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Newhart stayed busy in television in recent years. He was a guest star on ER as an architect losing his sight, and played the former host of a TV science show on The Big Bang Theory.
Michael Malone is content director at B+C and Multichannel News. He joined B+C in 2005 and has covered network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television, including writing the "Local News Close-Up" market profiles. He also hosted the podcasts "Busted Pilot" and "Series Business." His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The Boston Globe and New York magazine.