Vents MagaZine Music and Entertainment Magazine
Related Articles
Buying an entire series on DVD when you are only vaguely familiar with it is, well, it’s archaic now, but it’s also a bold move. I did that with Newhart, though, but it was born out of running out of things to stream thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a purchase that panned out, though. Newhart is, to me, the best of the ‘80s sitcoms.
I have been watching some Newhart again in the wake of the death of its namesake, Bob Newhart. In the past, I’ve written about that show to heap praise upon Julia Duffy’s work as Stephanie or Peter Scolari’s turn as Michael. Now, though, it’s only fitting to praise Newhart, the straight man around with Newhart is built.
It took Newhart a bit of time to figure itself out. Eventually, bringing in Stephanie and Michael and giving Dick Loudon (Newhart’s character) a third job as a local TV host allowed it to take off. The premise at the outset is that Dick and his wife Joanna have left the hustle and bustle of New York City to own and run an inn in rural Vermont.
What the show became was Dick as a sane (or sane for a sitcom character, at least) man surrounded by a town of eccentrics, weirdos, and the like. Even somebody like Stephanie or Michael, while not as odd as a Larry or a Daryl or a Daryl, are taxing personalities to deal with (but a ton of fun to watch). Newhart was the sitcom world’s master of deadpan reactions. The thing is, Dick would make cutting remarks. He’s make clever asides. Sometimes people would be amused within the world of show, other times it was just for us, the audience. Dick’s role was to reflect what the audience would do in his shoes. He rolls his eyes toward us without actually doing it, and Newhart was excellent at that.
The broad characters stood out, of course. Dick Loudon stood out as well, though. Newhart made that happen. He made Duffy and Scolari and the like pop more. That was the power of his all-time skill set.
