This show was cute, funny, clever and original for about the first half of the first season. Then the characters personalities emerged and solidified, and not many of them were very likable. Especially Bob Newhart's character. What a lousy husband he played. Selfish, more interested in football than anything. He does and says the nastiest most insensitive things continually and then wonders why Emily is mad? He's downright mean and condescending at times. Wow....what a psychologist! Suzanne Plechette is adorable consistently, even though her roles and situations got dumber and less believable as the seasons dragged on and on. I'm not sure why she allowed it to happen to her character. She must have known this dumbing down would not sit well with the audience. Howard: Insecure, nosy, dumber than a wood plank and as annoying a neighbor ever to appear on sitcom television. He must have had some sort of intellectual disability. There's nothing worse than a clown who is not funny, and that's what you got with Howard constantly. Jerry was not much better. A shallow character who reeks of insincerity. Bob's patients are the saving grace of the show, and one gets to see many actors before they hit it really big. Howard Hesseman and Terri Garr to name a few. Carol: I dunno....an all right character I suppose but she never really was my cup of tea. A bit selfish and over the top portrayal. No believability to her character. The addition of Bob'ss sister to the cast as Howard's love interest didn't work period. Anyone that would saddle herself with such a weasel cannot garner much sympathy. Not that she's not a good actress. In fact she surpasses most of the cast in this regard, but for me the whole scenario fell flat on it's face like the majority of them. The shows themes and execution eventually settled into silly eye rolling nonsense and midway through season 3 I had to tap out as I can only be bombarded with mundane drivel for so long. I don't think i can recall a show starting out with such promise and nosediving so rapidly. It's really not worth spit. For every 3 or 4 episodes you might get rewarded with a joke worth a halfhearted chuckle. An extremely poorly constructed show. It's a bit staggering to me how the show remained successful. People were content getting served up plate after plate of substandard fare I suppose. There were shows that had believable characters and plausable plots back in that era. Seek those out instead. Then again you may enjoy this trite romp of sadly executed 'comedy'.
Review of The Bob Newhart Show
