Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

We will not go back.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread and Late Night Programming Note: Bob Newhart

Open Thread and Late Night Programming Note: Bob Newhart

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Programming note:  Medium Cool will be all Bob Newhart tomorrow evening.  (7 pm blog time)

JWR sent me a note to say that all this weekend, the “Catchy” network is all Newhart shows, all the Newhart time.

I don’t know what the Catchy Network is, but I wanted to share the info.

Maybe you night owls can find some great clips to share tomorrow.

Fun open thread?

Reader Interactions

112Comments

  1. 1.

    PaulWartenberg

    The third sitcom “Bob” had an intriguing premise with Newhart as a comic book artist hired back to draw a popular 50s-era superhero, and doing it during the Dark Age deconstrustionist 1990s, and with a ton of real-world references to the comics industry (complete with cameos like Jack Kirby). My parents – huge Newhart fans – loved the show even though they never got into comic books (I did, so I was helpful with the trivia). But CBS hated the premise, feared people wouldn’t get it, and forced the show to retool the second season to having Newhart working as a greeting cards designer. My parents HATED the retool, along with everyone else because the show tanked and got canceled. /rage

  2. 2.

    Doug R

    Bob Newhart ‘s secretary in the psychiatrist show was the late Marcia Wallace who went on to play Bart Simpson’s teacher Mrs Crupapple(sp).
    You may also recognize some of Bob’s patients.

  5. 5.

    Trivia Man

    .He went from The Bob Newhart Show to Newhart, then Bob. I guess his next effort would be B?

  7. 7.

    opiejeanne

    @Trivia Man: I don’t remember the comic book artist version, but I think there was a short-lived series where he owned a bookstore.

    Aha! It was called George and Leo. No Bob in the title.

  10. 10.

    thruppence

    Wonder if Bob Newhart ever got to work with Tim Conway. Both underplaying deadpan comedy, I bet it would have been great.

  11. 11.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @PaulWartenberg: I missed that. I think I would have felt the same way.

    My favorite was always Newhart. They always reran it with Facts of Life on weekends before those went on Nick at Nite. My little gay self was in love with Julia Duffy.

  12. 12.

    karen marie

    “Fun”?  What the fuck is that?

    It’s a murder trial.  I’m so sick of stupid civil depositions I could murder someone myself.  I’m beyond delighted to have a nice juicy murder to transcribe.

    I’m doing it a bit backwards – tomorrow I start the volume where the murder is actually described in detail but yesterday I transcribed the testimony of the nice young guy who, after he had spent the night flirting with the nice young woman, had texted her “I don’t want to deal with your drama” (because he thought she’d lied about being single, because her ex-boyfriend had showed up at the bar, made a scene, and she left with the ex) and then found out that while he was sending that text she was being beaten and stabbed 28 times.

    Really sad.

    Her family continues posting to her FB page because the nice young woman left behind a five-month-old daughter.  I got to see photos of the little girl growing up from age five months to five years old.  The nice young woman was murdered in 2019, and the trial was just this past March.  The law moves very slowly.

    But the shitty little asshole has been held without bail throughout the pendency of the case, and he will spend the rest of his life in prison.  So there is that.

  13. 13.

    eversor

    I called the cops on homeless people and I feel like shit for doing it.

    So there’s a 7/11 right by where I live in Arlington and it is THE homeless hangout.  Most of them are fucking great people and we have a BGR7 right next to 7/11 (I know doxing myself) and our side of the road homeless people don’t get run off… cross the road into liberal professional home owner land and the homeless are NOT tolerated they will get thrown in jail.

    The “good” ones, and I feel horrible saying it that way are just great and friendly.  I’ll buy an extra burger and eat with them outside.  They are widely known and range from liked to tolerated.  They’ve never caused and issue and we all know where the tent camp is.

    Then there are “the issues” who are flat out fucking violent and aggressive.  They will sexually assault women, they will sleep in the local places, and they will pull blades if you do not pay them.  It’s a growing problem.  Yes, most are black, and most of the sexual assaults here are black on Asian so I can’t blame the SO for wanting out of here and being freaked out.

    There is also “the one”.  White dude mid 50s or early 60s and he is fucking violent as all get out.  I’m a hard target so I don’t care.  Fuck it dude take a shot at me I’ll put you in the ground.  I’m not going to tolerate knife waving or assaults.  FAFO mother fucker.

    The issue is this is a family owned fanchise here.  They are Afghanis.  They are like two blocks away from me so I know all of them.  They are rather loved locally.  Daughter is in her late 20’s and going to community college but she pulls the night shifts on the weekends.

    So crazy ass white dude who likes to play with blades will crawl in there, threaten her, and sleep on the floor and most people lack the nuts to do shit about it.  I’ve hurled his ass out before.  I’ve seen the POC homeless pull guns in the parking lot as well.  It’s gotten real bad over the past two years and the regular homeless don’t like them.

    So long story short I saw the main asshole stalking around outside with a knife demanding money and when I got in the young one was freaked.  As her calling the cops results  in retaliation.  So I went out and called the cops in front of all of them.  Que shit show.

    I feel like shit doing it as god knows they don’t need more jail time.  But I could see the panic building in the young ladies face and I really wasn’t in the mood to fucking toss them on my own.

    Again I feel like shit but I have a kid sister and I fucking hate bullies.

    The middle/highschool girls are getting harassed now as well as the bus stop is right there as well.

    This has flown out of control as the close Safeway shut down so dumpster diving and camping out there along with “you don’t get charged for theft” resulted in a massive closure so now this is spreading.

    I like the area but we are going white (Asian really) flight the fuck out of here to dodge it as the little lady has had it and does not feel safe.

  17. 17.

    prostratedragon

    WaterGirl, I just found Catchy, or Catchycom. In Chicago its carried by a split of WCIU, which means it’s an antenna channel. But it might by a syndication. Yes, they are running them until early Monday, and every night they do two Newharts.

  18. 18.

    Mai Naem mobile

    I had no idea Bob Newhart had been an accountant before he decided to try comedy. I used to watch Newhart regularly until they started messing with the schedule. I might be wrong but I think they changed the schedule three times.

  20. 20.

    CaseyL

    The Bob Newhart routine from his standup days that never fails to make me laugh until I cry is when he’s Sir William Raleigh telephoning England from Virginia to tell them about tobacco and coffee.

  24. 24.

    Splitting Image

    @CaseyL:

    The Bob Newhart routine from his standup days that never fails to make me laugh until I cry is when he’s Sir William Raleigh telephoning England from Virginia to tell them about tobacco and coffee.

    The first two albums are all gold. The Mrs. Grace L. Ferguson Airline (and Storm Door Company), Abraham Lincoln vs Madison Avenue, the Bus Driver’s School, the Retirement Party, Ledge Psychology.

    So many goodies. He’s great in Catch-22, as well.

  27. 27.

    Yutsano

    So Prime Day got me. I got me a new laptop. I’m still in the process of getting everything imported and set up, but initial impression is damn videos are sweet on this thing for sure!

  30. 30.

    sab

    Usha Vance really needs the help of a stylist. What on earth was she thinking when she put on that hideous dress for the RNC convention. Too small, ugly color.

  31. 31.

    Jay

    Bob Newhart won his only only Emmy for his repeat role as Professor Proton, (a children’s science show host from Sheldon’s childhood), on the Big Bang Theory, in which he had to be Professor Proton, and interact with Sheldon, and after his character dies, appear in Sheldon’s dreams as a Obi Wan clone in Yoda’s swamp several times guiding Sheldon.

  32. 32.

    bjacques

    If you went to college when the Bob Newhart show was in reruns, the drinking game “Hi Bob” was a thing. Take a sip when Bob is mentioned, finish the beer if someone said “Hi Bob”.

  33. 33.

    sab

    Although I am a cis woman sometimes I hate being married to a man  because men are such idiots.

    We just comitted to spend 17,000 on a new roof. One of the minor aspects was a vent over the bathroom ceiling.

    Roofer called husband to ask where to put it. Husband didn’t know so he guessed. Never occured to him to ask me. His guess made no sense to roofer, so nothing was done. So here we are. I have control of the checkbook so I am not paying until done right or they convince me it can’t be done right. Why couldn’t they have just asked me? Men are mostly morons.

  35. 35.

    Jay

    @sab:

    Bathroom fan vent?

    I always “convinced” my customers to go with a remote fan. Deadly quiet, vent can be anywhere, inlet can be anywhere, and in the Interior, the whole run can be insulated, so when it’s -40C in winter and you turn the bathroom fan on, small shards if ice from frozen condensation don’t rain down on your head.

  36. 36.

    sab

    @sab: Actually not a bad color on her, but hideous dress. She is a very pretty woman and that dress makes her look ugly. Flat chested and lumpy.

  39. 39.

    Jay

    @sab:

    Adam might be the only one with my current email. I used a throw away to sign up years ago. I know he has my last one, but if it doesn’t have contact, xxxxxxxxxxxxxx@gmail,com, it’s the old one. So you know the fix.

    It’s that whole double verification thing linked to cell phone numbers, change your cell phone number, forget the answers to the 20 security questions, have to create a new account PITA.

  41. 41.

    Jay

    @sab:

    It’s not just men. Try explaining to a customer that the stove fan isn’t exhausting to the outside, it’s just recirculating the air, and why venting to the outside is important, or why the ducting needs to be heavy gauge sheet metal, not a flexible plastic dryer hose.

    Or why flexible plastic dryer vent hoses or that even the expandable aluminum is not a good idea for dryers.

    Fire, fire bad,…….

    Duh,………….

  43. 43.

    Jay

    @sab:

    going with Plan B.

    I am going to let Watergirl know that you want to contact me, so I am giving her my email, she can forward that to you tomorrow, when she gets around to it.

  44. 44.

    sab

    @Jay: My favorite house ever was built in 1910 and the kitchen had an exaust fan vented directly to outside. Very obvious and very efficient.

  46. 46.

    MagdaInBlack

    @sab: Just wait til Kimberly Guilfoyle (don jrs gf) styling team get to work on Ms Vance. Blow-up doll lips and Fredericks of Hollywood wardrobe. It’ll be grand ! 🤗

  49. 49.

    sab

    @MagdaInBlack: I would feel sorry for her if she hadn’t married JD Vance.

    I would have thought Amy Chua would have taken her under her wing already. Not an admirer of Amy Chua otherwise, but she is a damned good stylist in her own right. Have no idea about her legal chops.

  50. 50.

    MagdaInBlack

    @sab: We can watch the evolution of her wardrobe thru this ordeal and see who has the influence 😉

  53. 53.

    MagdaInBlack

    Apropos of nuthin: my 17 y/o mostly Siamese 4 legged room-mate has really developed her siamese “feed me now g-d it” yowl in her old age. The neighbors must be thinking ” FEED the damn cat, ffs!”

  55. 55.

    Jay

    @sab:

    I have met homeowners of every gender and orientation, who do cook, but don’t understand ventilation or air exchange. Had one customer, ( a whole family) living in a “custom house”, that kept getting headaches and occasionally passing out.

    They had half a dozen tries to figure out what the issue was, from Dr’s to the Fire Department, to Radon gas tests.

    They finally through a friend, contacted me.

    When I walked in, my MSA 4 Gas monitor went off, CO2 alert.

    The house had been built so air tight that everytime they cooked, every time they breathed, they were gassing themselves with CO2 and CO. Short term fix, crack a window. Long term fix, a heat exchanger ventilation system in the attic, where the out going warm air heats up the cold air coming in.

    The big PITA, was first getting the unit, then installing it and the new ducting in the attic, in August, in the Interior when the day time temps were +40C.

  56. 56.

    sab

    @TBone: That gives me a project for the day. I can think of a hundred ways to use that word and I will.

    We are supposed to be moving but our car decided to have muffler problems. Scheduled for car doctor on Tuesday. Afraid to drive it much in the meantime in case problem is worse than muffler.

  59. 59.

    sab

    @MagdaInBlack: Simese cats do manage to get their points across.

    My late lamented tuxedo was part siamese. All he had from that heritage were two crossed eyes ( bright green, not blue) and the loudest cat yowl ever.

    Best cat ever. Three years gone and I miss him always

    ETA He also had siamese cat athleticism. Could jump halfway across the house. Could climb anything.

  60. 60.

    NotMax

    @sab

    Mee-ow.

    No judge of fashion here, however the “Does this make me look like Veronica Lake?” coif was a salon misdemeanor.
    MHO.

  61. 61.

    TBone

    @sab: I hope your ensemble of stuff gets its shit together in short order and that, therefore, your move is as stress free as can be as far as moving goes!

  66. 66.

    TBone

    @sab: it’s never easy to move.  I’ve done it almost too many times to count.  My wish for you is that disaster is kept to a minimum and that the entire process goes like tearing off an ear diaper bandaid: quickly!

  68. 68.

    sab

    @NotMax: Interesting word I would never have learned otherwise. I am surprised it hasn’t turned up in a Dorothy Dunnett novel. Is it capable of being an English word?

  69. 69.

    MagdaInBlack

    @sab: You might have seen the word “viand” which, google tells me, can refer to an item of food. Also, I’m told, a restaurant on the upper west side.

    https://theviand.com/

    ooh and could end up as “vendor.”

    (eta: aren’t words fun?)

  70. 70.

    NotMax

    @sab

    Once moved from a third (top) floor apartment in a non-elevator building into a basement apartment (basement but twice the size; also quieter and with its own outside entrance).

    “We don’t need no stinkin’ boxes” is not a meritorious mantra.
    :)

  71. 71.

    TBone

    The morning sky is now the same twilight color of the lavender-blue cornflowers lining our fields and country roads.

  72. 72.

    sab

    @Jay: My husband sings that song every time I mention StarScream (our late lamented cat.) I had never seen the movie since my mother banned Disney cartoons. My older sister was traumatized by Bambi

    That movie really captures the essence of siamese cats.

  73. 73.

    WereBear

    Does the rest of the nation know they will be forcibly converted to the Southern Baptist religion under Project 2025?

    They don’t come out and say so… but it’s clear. And it should bring back those Catholic/Protestant holy wars that the Founders wanted off the table.

    Oh, you thought that was an era ago? Think again. We are dealing with medieval minds. They hate modernity. I say, if we didn’t like it, we wouldn’t have gone for it.

  77. 77.

    sab

    @WereBear: Yikes. That is the one thing that I do not miss about Florida. Been gone  sixty years and I still miss the sky at sunrise and sunset, and at night. And the birds. But not the religious nutcases. I still go to church, but not theirs.

  78. 78.

    WereBear

    @sab: I was in junior high when I found out why they were the Southern Baptists, changing their theology to focus on slavery approval.

    They tried to make me a Southern Belle, too. It starts with learning how to act stupid enough for the men to date you.

    Fortunately, I did not find that appealing, moved to date elsewhere.

  80. 80.

    MagdaInBlack

    @WereBear: One of my best friends grew up in an SB evangelical family. Her father was a state trooper and elder in the church. They moved to Florida ( from Illinois ) when we were sophomores. She cut and ran, joined the air-force right out of hs, married a man from Lowell, MA, and never went back. She has nothing good to say about the experience of either the church or Florida

    Eta: they moved because….he was having an affair, got caught, wife said we move or we’re done. So ya…elder in the church…

  82. 82.

    NotMax

    @WereBear

    Flashing on Maynard G. Krebs excitedly describing the double feature at the Bijou.

    “The Monster That Devoured Cleveland and Son of the Monster That Devoured Cleveland.”
    :)

  85. 85.

    eversor

    @eclare:

    BGR7 is sort of like a Five Guys or Shake Shack but local to the DC area.  It’s widely loved as they serve actual meats and make all the stuff you want fresh to order.  So while cheap and fast enough to qualify as “fast food” the quality is firmly in the sit down and order restaurant range.

    It’s open very late so it attracts the drunk and stoned crew late at night and they make a killing.  Also hugely popular with the police and military.

    It’s not the place to pick a fight out of as if you go asking for trouble there you’re going get to get the shit whipped out of you quick.

    Ours is next to the 7/11 where the homeless hang out at and some of them are really aggressive.  If you’re a woman, well they want some ass.  If you’re a dude they want some cash.  But again, they are doing it in full view of the place where the uniformed police are eating at.

    It’s a stupid place to act an ass at as even if someone is not uniform odds are they are ex military, federal, or LEO so if you start shit you’re gonna get shit fast.

  88. 88.

    WereBear

    @MagdaInBlack: They all claim the same goal now, but once it gets down to the Trinity splitting, it turns into war

    But the goal is Christian Nationalism. For everyone they don’t deport, jail, or kill.

  89. 89.

    WereBear

    They are proud of our work and want to show us.

    But it was also released so we could be afraid. Let’s get that stage over and done with.

    Yes, it worked. But they let it out way too soon, in their usual I’m the boss of you! kind of way.

    I want them to eat a triple decker sandwich of hubris. The kind of cultural rebuke that sends them scurrying back into their holes and rapidly erasing their percentage of the Internet.

    Lest we remember this day.

  91. 91.

    TBone

    Can’t decide whether to make blueberry peach buckle, or peach upside down cake today.  If I make the peach cake, I’ll freeze the blueberries for later use.

    Bambi is in my yard with Mama, eating hydrangea.  Lil spotted cutie pie 🦌

  94. 94.

    TBone

    @MagdaInBlack: you got it my dear!  Blueberries freeze well without having to do much (anything) to them.

    Peach upside down cake in a cast iron frying pan for ease of making caramel peaches on the top.

    I kinda decimated my ice cream supply yesterday, good thing there’s more where that came from!

  97. 97.

    prostratedragon

    @MagdaInBlack:  Huh, there’s also a Viand Cafe on the UWS, but Broadway. I’ve eaten there. Wonder if they’re jointly owned or something.

  98. 98.

    Abnormal Hiker

    @NotMax: My favourite real-life double feature was Valley of the Dolls and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.  Thank you Roger Ebert.

  99. 99.

    eversor

    @MagdaInBlack:

    I don’t find Kim Gargoyle remotely attractive.  To get on my man stand she’d be a solid seven based on looks.  That’s well below “would I hit that” unless I was really drunk.  She also dresses, moves, and acts, like a prostitute.  Nothing against the ladies of the night but it’s not my thing.

    My woman is in her 50s a grip older than meand so I’ve had to watch the mad struggle against age.  I hate it.  Like you look better with no make up, I like your silver hair, and really a lot of what you do looks fucking stupid.

    I know better than to say it to her face.  But you’ve got six pack abs, are shredded, the tight perky could bounce a quarter off it ass, you do triathalons.  Despite clearing 50  you don’t have a wrinkle on your face.

    It’s odd a man because you don’t want to say, and you should not say, this iditioc hair dyeing routine, fuck me pumps, and the odd lip injections frankly “you look fucking stupid now honey, and I don’t want to fuck a barbie doll”.

    But the best moments when she makes me drool over here are on the weekends when she’s just wandering around in cotton panties, tank top (no bra!), and we are just playing with the cat and having fun.  That is the woman I wanted to marry.  Not corporate party barbie.

    But again, I’m smart enough not to say it then.

  102. 102.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @Jay: we have those – the switches are timer.  Moron male construction workers put the fans in backwards, rather than changing the fans to face the correct direction, they had the vent pipes form a “U.”  Caught them at it, they went for the you don’t know shit missy explanation, they agreed to do it properly while I  was calling the site boss to threaten to withhold payment until done properly.

  103. 103.

    Ken

    @Doug R: You may also recognize some of Bob’s patients.

    I wonder if that might have been like Angela Lansbury and “Murder She Wrote”, where she always had room for a cameo by someone who needed to keep their SAG insurance.

  104. 104.

    Ken

    @WereBear: And it should bring back those Catholic/Protestant holy wars that the Founders wanted off the table.

    Wouldn’t it be terrible, or at least terribly ironic, if Justices Alito et al were some of the first to be burned at the stake for heresy?

  106. 106.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @WereBear: Does the rest of the nation know they will be forcibly converted to the Southern Baptist religion under Project 2025?

    That’s even more insane than it sounds at first.

    One of the tenants of Baptist is Our Loving Savior Jesus has called The Baptist to him, ’cause Jesus wants to lie betwixt the Baptist’s breasts in a totally NOT gay way,  and as for the rest of us, Our Loving Savior will wipe a tear from His eye, then toss us into hell like a teenager a sock after “M”ing to copy of penthouse, and there in Hell, Satan and his demons will take turns boothering us with their barbed tallywackers while we burn in a lake of fire.

    Not that I expect the average Baptist to understand the tenates of their own faith, but many of them will object to having the riffraff like us in Jesus’ Own Country Club.

  107. 107.

    Soprano2

    @sab: My husband insisted the range hood be vented to the outside. He was the cook in the family until he got sick.

  108. 108.

    WereBear

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: It’s a step.

    Weeding out the first wave of apostates. There’s a loyalty oath in there, and it is to everything.

    REALLY Anti-Christ stuff, all that’s missing is the bar code. That might work in the Bible Belt.

    But they will say his slurred speech means speaking in tongues.

  109. 109.

    prostratedragon

    @MagdaInBlack:  Sounds like the place. It was convenient to the hotel I stayed at, for breakfasts and arrival night dinner. Nice neighborhood kind of place.

  110. 110.

    opiejeanne

    @sab: The blue dress? I think she needed some anti-cling spray but I thought the color was nice on her.

  111. 111.

    Anyway

    @sab:

    I would have thought Amy Chua would have taken her under her wing already

    Amy Chua and her husband are awful people. On the record at Yale. Documented that she cultivated ambitious students who sucked up to her as she was known to have a pipeline to Kavanagh and other right wing judges for clerkships and other positions.

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