Me and Bob!

Yes, I know it's been a long time since my last blog post. I just haven't had much in the way of new stuff to put up lately. However, I did have a rather exciting thing happen last Friday evening that I want to post about at this time. I finally got to meet one of my top favourite TV stars of all time: Bob Newhart! I've written of Bob several times on my blog, including this tribute.

Bob was here in Toronto last Friday appearing at Roy Thomson Hall. I only found out about his scheduled appearance last Monday, so I was fortunate to be able to get good seats on such short notice. I'd actually seen him in concert about 20 years ago, also at Roy Thomson Hall, and I'd been kicking myself ever since for not trying to meet him back then. This time I was determined to do it right. I ended up sending off a quick note to him, care of the venue, including a small image of my caricature of him. Thankfully, the folks at RTH passed it along to him and the result was my name ended up on the list of those who would be granted a backstage visit with him after the show.

It was an admittedly short meet and greet affair, where there were several small groups waiting to say "Hi Bob!", so there wasn't any time to really chat with him. But, still, it was enough for me to just finally get to meet one of my TV heroes in person and present him with a framed print of my caricature. Bob got a big kick out it and was gracious enough to pose for a photo with me and autograph an additional print for my growing collection.

The performance itself was very good, though it seemed a bit short at just over an hour of Bob himself, after a short warmup act by a songstress singing Vegas style standards (I feel bad for not catching her name!). He included one of his famous telephone routines (on a cell phone yet!), the one involving Sir Walter Raleigh reporting back to his superiors in England after being introduced to the concept of smoking cigarettes by the Native Americans. A good review of his show on Friday can be found here. He's really quite amazing and I'm just happy to see this comedy legend still touring and performing having recently hit the age of 80. Here's to you, Bob!

Suzanne Pleshette

Sadly, we lost Suzanne Pleshette yesterday, who died from complications following a battle with lung cancer. This follows the death only about a year ago of her husband, comedian Tom Poston, whom she'd married late in life, after both had been widowed by previous spouses. I ran this caricature once before in celebration of Bob Newhart's birthday, as "The Bob Newhart Show" remains one of my alltime favourite sitcoms. Now, hearing about Suzanne Pleshette's death at 70, I find it hard to believe that it's been over 30 years since that show was originally on the air.

For many of my generation, Suzanne Pleshette represented the type of woman we associate with entertainment of the 60's and 70's. She was attractive and sophisticated, and always a class act. In addition to the years she played Emily Hartley on "The Bob Newhart Show", I remember her as a familiar presence in some of the Disney films of my youth, including "Blackbeard's Ghost", "The Ugly Dachshund", and "The Shaggy D.A.", all of which teamed her up with Disney regular, Dean Jones, with whom she had a natural onscreen chemistry. She also costarred alongside one of my very favourite actors, James Garner, in "Support Your Local Gunfighter". With the advent of DVD, many of the TV shows I loved when I was young have been released in the last few years, enabling me to bask in the warm glow of nostalgia. Again, Suzanne Pleshette turns up in guest roles on some of these series. She played opposite Eddie Albert in a first season episode of "Columbo", and she was in the very first episode of "Wild Wild West", starting the trend that show would become famous for - having a different gorgeous woman in every show opposite Robert Conrad, much like the tradition of the Bond girls.

After hearing of Suzanne's passing yesterday, I watched an episode of "The Bob Newhart Show" in tribute to her. She and Bob were just so great together and I miss the classiness of that era of TV. Goodnight, sweet Suzanne...

(Please also see Jim Hill's site for another look back at Suzanne's career, with an emphasis on her films for Disney)

Happy Birthday Lesley Ann!

Lesley Ann Warren, that is. So in honour of the occasion, I'd like to pay tribute to this lovely and talented actress/singer/dancer with this caricature of her in her role as Norma Cassidy, the platinum blonde showgirl in Blake Edwards's 1982 hit, "Victor Victoria". Her sassy, sexy role in this film, however, was a far cry from the performance that first launched her screen career.

The first time viewers saw Lesley Ann onscreen was in the 1965 TV production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella", which was itself a remake, coincidentally, of the 1957 telecast that featured her co-star from "Victor Victoria", Julie Andrews. Lesley Ann was so sweet in that role and I remember, when seeing that production when it was originally broadcast, having as much of a crush on her as a 5 year old boy could muster up at that age! Not long thereafter, I enjoyed Lesley Ann again in the two musicals she made for Disney, "The Happiest Millionaire" (1967), and "The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band" (1968), in both of which she was romantically paired with John Davidson.


Here is a clip from "Cinderella" with Lesley Ann as the sweet and innocent peasant girl. How could anybody not fall in love with those big, bright, brown eyes?


In contrast, here is the clip from "Victor Victoria" that I used to draw the caricature shown above. As you can see, Lesley Ann Warren has quite the range as an actress, being capable of portraying either the sweet good girl or sexy naughty girl with equal panache! After completing her work on "Victor Victoria", apparently Lesley Ann was quite distraught when she saw her performance up on the big screen at the film's premiere. She felt that she'd played it way over the top and that the critics would dismiss it as such. Fortunately, critics, audiences, and ultimately the Motion Picture Academy didn't agree with her self-assessment, and Lesley Ann's performance was acknowledged with a Best Supporting Actress nomination that year.

It's a shame that when Lesley Ann Warren first arrived onscreen, after some success on the New York stage, movie musicals were on their way out. I believe that her onscreen roles as a singer and dancer were pretty much limited to the four productions I've discussed here, although there was also a TV adaptation of a stage musical about "Superman", where she played Lois, that was apparently broadcast only once back in 1975. That's really too bad in my opinion, as I think Lesley Ann Warren was so vivacious in her musical roles that I wish she'd had the opportunity to do many more. She's certainly gone on to do many dramatic turns in both films and TV, but it's as a singer and dancer that I will always most appreciate this wonderful talented lady. Happy birthday Lesley Ann!


Addendum: Hey, what about this for a coincidence. Apparently Lesley Ann was in a recurring role on "Desperate Housewives" with our man Bob! I'm tellin' ya', that Newhart rascal sure does have great taste in TV mates! Suzanne Pleshette, Mary Frann, Lesley Ann Warren....whew!

Nothing Rankles Like Rickles

Here's a companion piece to my post about Bob Newhart the other day. As hard as it might be to believe, the quiet spoken, mild-mannered, and low-key Newhart names as his best friend, the loud, brash, and domineering Don Rickles! Here's an excerpt from Bob Newhart's autobiography where he explains it himself:

Don Rickles and I are best friends. I know that might seem strange to those who know Don only by reputation, but somebody has to be his friend. Just to make sure I don't forget, Don gave me a doormat that sits just outside the door of my house. It reads: "The Newharts: The Rickleses' Best Friends"

Apparently, The Rickleses and Newharts have been vacationing together for decades. I recall Bob showing one of his vacation home movies on "The Tonight Show" to Johnny Carson many years ago, back in the days that people still used 8mm cameras before the advent of home video. I think poor Bob was always stuck doing the filming, while Don hammed it up with both their wives, heckling him all the time.



Don Rickles was a hugely popular entertainer back in the 70's, showing up constantly on "The Tonight Show" and pretty much as a regular fixture on "The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts" with his barrage of insult humour. In fact his nickname was "The Merchant of Venom". All the kids in high school during that era would borrow his comic insults, calling each other "Hockey Pucks" and such. I must confess, though I like Don Rickles, I find a little of him goes a long way. Just like Robin Williams today, I can only take his frenetic, ad-lib style of humour in small doses. (I'm definitely much more of a Bob Newhart fan.)

These days, not too many kids seem to know who Don Rickles is anymore. Whenever I show my portfolio of caricatures at school presentations, only a few seem to have heard of him. I always follow up, however, by pointing out that Rickles is currently heard as the voice of Mr. Potato Head in Pixar's "Toy Story", and that, with a face like his, it seems like appropriate casting. They usually get a laugh out of that info. This caricature I did a few years back, by the way, and it has been on my website since day one, but I thought that my more recent caricature of Bob Newhart should not be kept too far away from that of his best friend.

"Hi Bob!"

Though most of my DVD library consists of movies (and mostly older ones at that), I am acquiring quite a shelfload of TV shows too. I think that's been the real benefit of DVD over VHS tapes, as one can now collect entire seasons of favourite TV shows that take up only a small fraction of space that would have been taken up by great numbers of 2-hour capacity videotapes. Besides, TV shows on VHS never did catch on for that very reason plus the significant cost factor.

DVD has certainly been a major boon to fans of older TV shows, who can now revisit their fond memories of what it was like to sit down in front of the tube back in the era of their choice. For me, my favourite era was the early 70's, when I could watch classy stuff like "All in the Family", "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", "M*A*S*H" and "The Carol Burnett Show". Incidentally, all of these particular shows were on CBS, back in the days it had every right to lay claim to the nickname, "The Tiffany Network". I wouldn't bestow that honour upon any of the TV networks today, I'm afraid.

But there was another CBS sitcom back then that I'd have to rank up there at the top of my list...


"The Bob Newhart Show" was the first of several sitcoms that starred the stand-up comedian with the "button-down mind", though only this show and his second venture, "Newhart" I'd consider to be TV gold. In his first, and perhaps best, TV sitcom, Bob plays psychologist Bob Hartley, who, along with his wife Emily, lives in an upscale highrise apartment in Chicago. Their neighbour Howard is a flight navigator who's pretty clued out - just the sort of fellow you'd probably not want in that job position if you were on his flight and, as wonderfully played by Bill Daily, is responsible for most of the laughs on the homefront. At the workplace, Bob's office is adjacent to that of Jerry Robinson the dentist, who is also Bob's best friend. They also share the services of perpetually man-hunting, single gal receptionist Carol Kester.

I've always felt that the best sitcoms tend to feature an ensemble of characters where the lead is like the island of tranquility in a sea of craziness. That's certainly the case here, where the audience is seeing everything through the generally calm persona of Bob, as he reacts to the eccentricities of his friends, workmates, and patients in mostly furrowed-browed, deadpan fashion, broken only by a lot of bemused blinking and stammered verbal responses. I think this is why I really love Bob Newhart - he's one of the few entertainers that can break me up just by looking at him before he's even uttered a word. (John Cleese and Tommy Smothers also share this distinction for me.) Jack Benny was, of course, the master of the pregnant pause in his comedy stylings, and I think Bob Newhart was the guy who best carried on that comedy tradition.

I recently read Bob Newhart's autobiography entitled, "I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This!", the gag behind the title of which is best explained by reading the book yourself. The book gives some good background on how Bob came to leave the life of a public accountant behind to seek a career writing and performing comedy on stage. In addition to many wonderful anecdotes about his life and career, the book features several of his timeless "Telephone" routines. When you watch "The Bob Newhart Show", you'll see how he incorporated that idea of the one-sided telephone conversation into a great many of the scenes.

In tribute to this very funny and genuinely nice guy, here is my caricature of Bob Newhart and his TV wife, the very attractive Suzanne Pleshette.