Bob Newhart: The Life and Laughter of an American Treasure

Summary

Why did Chicago-born accountant George Robert Newhart go into comedy? In his own words, it was because he "wasn't a very good accountant." A wise move. In 1961, his album The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, recorded the year before at his debut stand-up gig in a small club in Houston, won two Grammy Awards, was a multimillion-copy bestseller, reached number one on the Billboard charts, saved Warner Bros. Records from extinction, and introduced America to the self-effacing, mild-mannered everyman with a deadpan stammer. His ingenious sketches of his timeless one-sided telephone conversations vaulted Bob Newhart into the big time.

Newhart sailed through the 1960s and early 1970s with a busy stand-up touring schedule, an Emmy and Peabody Award–winning NBC sketch-comedy series, appearances on The Dean Martin Show and The Tonight Show with both Jack Paar and Johnny Carson, among dozens of others, and memorable supporting roles in such movies as Hell Is for Heroes, Cold Turkey, and Catch-22. Newhart cemented his iconic status in 1972 with the long-running The Bob Newhart Show and would strike back-to-back sitcom gold with Newhart in 1982, which ran for eight seasons on CBS.

Though he spent decades in the spotlight, Bob's most satisfying success was that as a devoted family man—four kids, ten grandchildren, and a marriage to his beloved wife, Ginnie, that lasted sixty years. This first-ever full-length biography takes listeners on a journey into Bob's life and career, including his lasting friendship with Don Rickles, his introduction to a new generation of fans opposite Will Ferrell in Elf, and his Emmy-winning turn in The Big Bang Theory. For more than six decades, the laughter and the love for Bob Newhart never faded. This is his story. And what a story, what a legend.