‘The Bob Newhart Show’ provided a showcase for supporting players

Stars, it is said, sell tickets and TV shows. Supporting players, however, keep audiences coming back.

Perhaps no series demonstrated this better than “The Bob Newhart Show.” The CBS sitcom, which ran from 1972 to ’78, was an important part of a family of MTM comedies from the ’70s that included “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Rhoda” and “WKRP in Cincinnati.” It is being celebrated this month with the release of Shout! Factory’s “The Bob Newhart Show: The Complete Series.”

The 19-disc set contains all 142 episodes, including the original, unaired pilot. It comes complete with extras such as commentary from Newhart and others as well as recent interviews with surviving cast members.

Newhart at 84 is still doing stand-up as well as guesting occasionally on “The Big Bang Theory,” for which he won a long-overdue first Emmy Award last year.

When “Mary Tyler Moore” writers David Davis and Lorenzo Music built a show around him for the 1972-73 season, the low-key comedian with the impeccable timing was already well established as a comedy headliner. He was cast as psychologist Bob Hartley, the calm shrink at the centre surrounded by a cast of crazies. They included some very funny group therapy patients: Jack Riley as terminally disgruntled Mr. Carlin, Florida Friebus as dotty Mrs. Bakerman and John Fielder as high-pitched Mr. Peterson.

Peter Bonerz, who played dentist Jerry Robinson, had been a Newhart fan for years. The future director grew up in Milwaukee and one of his first jobs was working at a record store, where boxes of Newhart’s comedy albums would “sell out in a day.”

Newhart was part of a wave of “thinking man’s comedians” sweeping record stores in the early ’60s, people like Mort Sahl, Lenny Bruce, Bill Cosby, Shelley Berman and Nichols and May. Like millions of others, young Bonerz would watch them all on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” They helped inspire him to launch his own comedy career as part of the San Francisco-based troupe “The Committee.”

Bonerz first met Newhart when both men were part of the cast of the 1970 feature, “Catch-22.” “I threw myself at his feet of course,” says Bonerz, “and because we were fellow Midwesterners and Jesuit trained guys, we sort of ate together.”

Did Newhart have a direct hand in casting Bonerz?

“You never know,” says Bonerz. “He was a quiet fellow — and he moves heavy equipment with one phone call.”

Bill Daily also had a prior connection to Newhart before he was cast as his apartment-crashing neighbour, airline co-pilot Howard Borden. Daily, of course, already was an established TV presence through his five seasons on “I Dream of Jeannie.” He had known Newhart a decade earlier when both were working in television in Chicago.

“Nicest guy ever,” says Daily, echoing seemingly everyone’s assessment of Newhart.

The cast, he says, remained tight throughout the run of the series, dining each week after tapings at a long-gone Sherman Oaks, Calif., eatery.

Daily, ever engaging at 86, says he still makes personal appearances with his former “Jeannie” co-star Barbara Eden. While fans still flock to get Eden’s autograph, he says, DVDs of that ’60s sitcom did not sell. The reverse seems true of “The Bob Newhart Show,” where fans, according to Daily, would rather own a piece of the series than an autograph.

Both he and Bonerz are quick to credit the writers for making this series something viewers would want to own 40 years later. Besides creators Music — who also wrote the theme song — and Davis, episodes were penned by a Who’s Who of TV comedy, including several who went on to create shows of their own such as Glen and Les Charles (“Taxi,” “Cheers”), Hugh Wilson (“WKRP”) and Gary David Goldberg (“Family Ties”).

Just as vital to the success of the series, say both Daily and Bonerz, were the two female leads. As Emily Hartley, Suzanne Pleshette — who died at 70 in 2008 —made bland Bob seem sexier. The actress enjoyed roles on features such as Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” but was looking to start a family and stay closer to her Los Angeles home when the TV opportunity was presented.

“Brilliant, funny, sharp, great,” says Daily, who adds Pleshette had a salty tongue and was always cracking up the crew.

Some of Bonerz’ best scenes were opposite Marcia Wallace, who died last year at age 70. She was hard to miss as tall, orange-haired receptionist Carol Kester.

“She was a phenomenal presence,” says Bonerz, “because, she was a strong woman who was also silly.”

Wallace went on to enjoy a long voice-over career as Bart’s long-suffering teacher Edna Krabappel on “The Simpsons — a character who was retired on that show after the actress died.

Bonerz, 75, has enjoyed a long post-“Newhart” career as a director. Itching for more involvement, especially during weeks when he was only in one or two scenes, Bonerz approached the star early on about getting a chance to direct. He pointed him toward MTM president Grant Tinker. “Grant gave me a shot and the rest, as they say, is history.” Bonerz went on to direct hundreds of TV episodes on shows such as “Murphy Brown,” “Home Improvement” and “Friends.”

About the only person who didn’t get a boost from the series was Newhart’s close friend, Don Rickles. Rickles used to warm up the studio audience, but the abrasive night club comedian’s act was deemed “too hot” for the show. “He is one of the funniest guys in the world, but he could sometimes over warm up the audience,” recalls Bonerz.

Daily has a similar memory. “He’d do the warm up and people would be screaming and yelling. We’d come on all quiet and it would die out there. Bob finally had to say to his best friend, ‘I’m sorry, but you can’t do it anymore.'”

Daily says he got preferential treatment on airlines for years after playing Newhart’s pilot pal. He also, however, got a lesson on the difference between star and supporting player.

He was getting on a flight to New York to guest on “The Tonight Show.” No one was on the plane “except these five beautiful stewardesses. They were just falling all over me.”

And then James Garner came on. The “Maverick” and later “Rockford Files” star was also booked as a late night guest.

“That was it,” says Daily of the flight attendants. “I didn’t see them again for six hours.”

“It put me in my place right away because that’s what it’s all about,” says Daily. “There’s always somebody who is a bigger star than you.”

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Bill Brioux is a freelance TV columnist based in Brampton, Ont.