Newhart: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''Bob:''' Well, I was an innkeeper in this crazy little town in Vermont! [[Lampshade Hanging|Nothing made sense in this place.]] I mean, the maid was an heiress. Her husband talked in alliteration. The handyman kept missing the point of things. And then there were these three woodsmen, but only one of them talked!<br />

** This was done to parody the last episode of ''[[St. Elsewhere]]'', where the ''entire series'' is revealed to be the daydream of an autistic boy.

** Alternatively, a parody of one of the most controversial uses of the trope: ''[[Dallas]]'', in which a season was suddenly [[Retcon|retconnedretcon]]ned as being a dream of a character.

* [[Breakout Character|Breakout Characters]]s: Larry, Darryl, and Darryl, to the point where their first appearance in a given episode would provoke a near-[[Happy Days|Fonzie]]-like reaction from the [[Studio Audience]].

** Larry, Darryl and Darryl were locally ''very'' popular in real-world Vermont, culminating in the actors appearing in character for an all-lard [[Food Fight]] staged in Burlington as part of a local festival in the late 1980s. Sort of a live, in-person [[BigNon LippedSequitur Alligator MomentScene]].

* [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]: Larry Darryl and Darryl's first business - "Anything For a Buck". They'll do anything for a buck. If itsit's something cool like digging up an old <s> witch</s> woman's body from the cellar, they might even pay YOU''you'' the buck.

* [[Grand Finale]]: "The Last Newhart", one of the most memorable sitcom finales among fans and critics, where we learn that the entire scenario of a [[Only Sane Man|mild-mannered, humble and genial innkeeper and TV show host driven to the brink of a nervous breakdown]] by [[Cloudcuckoolander|crazy, loony caricatures of the town's residents]] was but a nightmare of Dr. Robert Hartley (of ''[[The Bob Newhart Show]]''). The plot of this final show magnifies what the show had been doing progressively over its eight years: A Japanese tycoon buys the (unnamed) town where the Stratford Inn (which protagonists Dick and Joanna Loudon owned) was located, and after a farewell party (with Dick pretty much saying "good- riddance"), the main characters -- handymancharacters—handyman George Uttley, yuppies Michael and Stephanie Harris, and Larry and his brothers Darryl and Darryl -- leaveDarryl—leave. In the five years that pass, Dick has now been dealing with crazier loons than what populated the inn years earlier, and his wife (as a geisha girl) has even gotten nuts; he's also unable to get over a golf course being built around the inn without his permission. Then, the old folks all come back and drive Dick to the brink of a nervous breakdown. The Darryls speak for the only time in the series' history ("QUIET!!!" to shut their annoying girlfriends up). Finally, things become chaotic as the new Japanese folks become friends with their old counterparts, and Dick can take it no longer; he says he's going to leave, and just as he walks out the door is knocked out by a wayward golf ball. The screen goes black... and when a light comes back on, the scene shifts to Dr. Hartley's bedroom from ''[[The Bob Newhart Show]]'', and his wife Emily (Suzanna Pleshette in a cameo[[Cameo]] of her famous role) scolds him for eating too much Japanese food before bed (unlike Bob on ''The Bob Newhart Show'', Dick was psychologically unable to deal with the eccentric folks in his town)! Whew!

* [[Telethon]]: In one episode, Michael convinces Dick into hosting a 72 -hour telethon for the station... even though it's a commercial station.

* [[You Look Familiar]]: Thomas Hill (Chester) and Julia Duffy (Stephanie) had played father and daughter in the short -lived 1983 CBS show ''[[Wizards and Warriors]]''.

** In the finale, Dr. Hartley fails to notice that his best friend in college is his handyman.