Billy Crystal once made a joke about getting old, saying his daughter once asked him, “Is it true that Paul McCartney was in a group before Wings?”

I was the same way about Bob Newhart. Being born in 1971, I really didn’t start watching so-called “grown-up” television shows until the late 70s and the early 80s. By the time I saw anything with Bob Newhart in it, I was watching “Newhart.” I really didn’t know that the title character had an earlier show in the mid-70s.

That didn’t change the fact that I knew him as one of the funniest men in Hollywood. Like Bill Cosby, he had a unique style of deliver, and his comedic touch could put together multiple hilarious shows. His humor transcended age, and it allowed for some family-friendly viewing of situation comedies.

I really hadn’t seen “The Bob Newhart Show” until it hit DVD recently. Now it’s on its fourth season as a box set, and fans of the show should be excited.

Like any television show wrapped around a stand-up comedian, “The Bob Newhart Show” featured much of Newhart’s comedy. It was his style of delivery, only spread among a small ensemble cast. The characters were loveable, and they gelled like a good cast should.

The story follows Dr. Robert Hartley (Newhart), a Chicago psychologist. He deals with his sometimes aggressive yet lovable wife (Suzanne Pleshette) as well as his ornery secretary (Marcia Wallace), his socially dysfunctional neighbor (Billy Daily) and the dentist (Peter Bonerz) who shares his building.

Back in the 70s and 80s, few television shows had a week-to-week storyline. Only the prime time soap operas (like “Dallas” and “Falcon Crest”) and occasional weekly dramas (like “Hill Street Blues”) could pull this off. But aside from an occasional two-part episode, situation comedies ran pretty much on a stand-alone basis.

Consequently, each of the 24 episodes of season four of “The Bob Newhart Show” can be viewed in any order. You don’t watch these for an ongoing storyline. Rather, you watch it for classic television that could be rerun at a network’s discretion, long before the days of personal VCRs.

The joy of these shows is that it makes each show a comedy routine in itself. They can’t rely on other episodes to prop them up, so the writers and the cast had to give the audience the best they could each week.

The DVD set comes with audio commentary on selected episodes, a gag reel and a featurette called “A Second Family” which talks about how much the cast loved working together.

“The Bob Newhart Show” made the most of quirky characters, including several excellent recurring guests. Like “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Taxi,” these shows were from a different age with a fresh perspective on comedy. Plus, it also gives you a chance to watch the underrated Suzanne Pleshette, who was quite a hottie in her day and age.



Specifications: Dolby Digital 5.1 Sound. Fullscreen (1.33:1). Spanish subtitles. English language subtitles for the hearing impaired.