Newhart: Difference between revisions

* [[Arcadia]]

* [[As Himself]]: [[The Tonight Show|Johnny Carson]], [[The Carol Burnett Show|Tim Conway]], Edwin Newman.

* [[Big "Shut Up!"]]: The Darryls to their wives in the finale (also their only line in the entire series; see [[The Voiceless]], below).

* [[Breakout Character|Breakout Characters]]: 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]].

* [[Drop in Character]]: Larry and the Darryls.

* [[Eccentric Townsfolk]]: The show runs on this trope.

* [[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 -- handyman George Uttley, yuppies Michael and Stephanie Harris, and Larry and his brothers Darryl and Darryl -- 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 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!

** They went to great pains to make sure that the studio audience didn't see the [[Rebuilt Set|bedroom set]] until they had started filming.

* [[Hollywood New England]]

* [[I Want You to Meet An Old Friend of Mine]]

** Kind of a sadly-averted [[Crowning Music of Awesome]] because of the Mancini tie-in. The man who wrote the timeless jazz themes for ''[[The Pink Panther]]'' and ''[[Peter Gunn]]'' basically wrote pleasant-but-bland elevator music for this theme.

** It may be "Pleasant but bland", but it fit the mood of a series set in a sleepy Vermont town better then a jazz theme would (or the ''[[Remington Steele]]'' theme written the same year).

* [[Only Sane Man]]: Dick.

* [[The Pete Best]]: Leslie and to a lesser degree, Kirk.

* [[Quirky Town]]

* [[Retool]]: One of the most successful examples. During the second season, the show switched from videotape to film, added Stephanie as a regular, and opened up the show beyond the inn by giving Dick a job hosting a local TV show (which also brought Michael in as a new character). All these changes helped make the show more popular.

* [[The Smart Guy]]: Dick, somewhat.

* [[Strange Syntax Speaker]]: Michael Harris speaks in alliteration.

* [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]]: Stephanie, for Leslie.

** Or inverted, depending on how you look at it. Stephanie and Leslie were not very alike, as Leslie was too bland to even exist as a sitcom character and Stephanie was actually funny.