Product Description

The first book ever from an icon of American comedy -- a hilarious combination of stories from his career and observations about life

That stammer. Those basset-hound eyes. That bone-dry wit. There has never been another comedian like Bob Newhart. His comedy albums, movies, and two hit television series have made him a national treasure and placed him firmly in the pantheon of comedy legends. Who else has a drinking game named after him? And now, at last, Newhart puts his brilliant and hysterical world view on paper.

Never a punch-line comic, always more of a storyteller, he tells anecdotes from throughout his life and career, including his beginnings as an accountant and the groundbreaking success of his comedy albums and The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart, which gave him fifteen years on primetime television. And he also gives his wry, comedic twist to a multitude of topics, including golf, drinking, and family holidays.

Today, Newhart appears on Desperate Housewives, in hit movies such as Elf, and in theaters around the country. Reruns of his shows air constantly on Nick at Nite -- have recently been released with great success for the first time ever on DVD. With this book, Bob Newhart gives his millions of fans a first ever opportunity to sample his unique brand of humor -- including excerpts from some of his classic routines -- on the printed page.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1733324 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10
• Format: Large Print
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 307 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Beginning with his 1960 Grammy-winning album, The Button Down Mind of Bob Newhart, the comedian's 46-year career has included nightclub standup, TV series (The Bob Newhart Show), animation voices (The Simpsons), feature films (Catch-22, Elf)—and now his first book. At age 77, Newhart is clearly in his anecdotage, with mirthful memories of his successes and failures. Treating the reader almost as a personal friend, Newhart covers everything in this guided tour through his button-down brain, from his 43-year marriage and fear of flying to fatherhood, Vegas, sitcoms, golf and assorted antics with celebrity pals. Aware that digression is the better part of valor, he interrupts the low-key autobiographical flow with amusing asides, and this rambling look at "the absurdist side of life" is just as effective in print as on TV, adding depth and dimension to the familiar image of Newhart as a frustrated, flawed everyman. In the tradition of Max Eastman's Enjoyment of Laughter (1936) and Steve Allen's The Funny Men (1956), he analyzes and compares comedy styles. The hilarity is heightened as he reveals how he created his best satirical sketches. Influenced by H. Allen Smith, Robert Benchley, James Thurber and Max Shulman, Newhart himself has now joined that lofty pantheon. (Sept. 19)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"Bob Newhart is a great comedian and a great American." -- David Hyde Pierce

About the Author
Bob Newhart is one of America’s best-loved comedians. His career highlights include The Bob Newhart Show, Newhart, and ten major films including Catch-22, Legally Blonde 2, and Elf. He guest hosted The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson 87 times and more recently earned an Emmy nomination for a guest-starring role on ER. He has been married to Virginia Quinn since 1963; they have four children and several grandchildren. He lives in Southern California.

Customer Reviews

Bob Newhart - Comic Genius and All Around Great Guy
Bob Newhart's book, I SHOULDN'T EVEN BE DOING THIS, is what one would expect from a man of his character: well-written, insightful, humorous, and kind to others. I feel very fortunate that he has been an acquaintance of mine for the past 13 years or so. I say "acquaintance" because we aren't close friends that remember each other at Christmas and on birthdays, but we do e-mail each other from time-to-time. Actually, now that I think about it, he has remembered to snail mail me when I've had an operation or two. However, I digress.

The book is well written, it is brief as compared to most tomes these days; however, it hits on the main points of his life. I have listened to the abridged audio version (I haven't found an unabridged version), and found it to be enjoyable; however, the book has so much more of his antedotes that I would recommend it first to a Newhart fan.

The beginning wasn't always easy and the book describes in detail his evolution from accountant to comedian, sharing comicial moments along the way, and his having the top two albums on the Billboard chart for one year. As Bob describes it, the following year he received a Grammy, a Peabody, and a pink slip (when his first TV show, a variety program, was cancelled). That setback did not deter him as it allowed him to place more emphasis on his stand-up comedy routines.

If you are younger than 45, you probably aren't familiar with his comedy routines, and his book will introduce you to several, notably "The USS Codfish," "Sir. Walter Raleigh," and his "Abe Lincoln PR" routines. If you are familiar with them, he gives you insight into their development. The routines are as fresh today as they were then. The routines are available on CD, and one might be tempted to buy just THE BOB NEWHART ANTHOLOGY, but let me warn you, not all of his routines are on that one, so peruse BEHIND THE BUTTON DOWN MIND, and the other CD's, too.

While Bob touches on "comedy," he tells you that this book is not an esoteric dissertation on what is comedy and how you write it; however, he offered enough insights to make the reader realize that successful comedy is a serious business.

Several highlights for me in his book were:

1. Him talking about his romance with his wife Virginia, Ginny. It gives the reader a true insight into as aspect of him that most don't know about.
2. How the closing scene of "Newhart" came about. I remember it being described by TV Guide's editors as the most famous TV finale, and critics and viewers consistently rank it alike as one of the Top 5 scenes from any TV show.
3. Bob's description of his lack of ability as a handyman around the house. I can also confirm that he is probably not a computer genius just from the manner in which we both evolved from the Prodigy computer network, and its relative friendly way of handling e-mail, to other Internet Service Providers (ISP). I remember it was a long six-weeks (or was it six-months?) before Bob made the transition from replying to my e-mails by just hitting reply to where he had to type-in my new ISP's address. An equally trepidatious moment for me was when Bob changed to a different ISP.
4. His friendship with Don Rickles, which to some may seem unusual, but it gave me new insight to that time he wrote, "sorry to be so long in replying. We went to China with the Rickles and I caught the flu." Now, I can picture Bob, with camcorder, on the Great Wall, head uncovered, taking the shots of everyone else.

I would recommend this book to any and everyone who has enjoyed Bob Newhart over the years. It is not a "tell-all" book, that is not the nature of this very nice man, who over the years has been so kind as to provide so many autographed pictures of himself to all of my relatives that many outsiders to our family think we are related to him. If only we were so lucky.

BTW, for accuracy, since I am a little ADHD, I asked Bob to glance over this review. His comment was..."Thanks for the review. As Fox would say, I found it "fair and balanced" especially the part of about being friends." I guess we're not just acquaintances.

I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This
Being a long-time Bob Newhart fan I could hardly wait to buy this book. As would be expected, Bob tosses out his genteel type of humor in his telling. It's hard to put down.

smart and funny, like the man himself
If you've ever seen Bob Newhart as a guest on a talk show, you know what a bright and thoughtful guy he is. Unlike many celebrities who go on The Tonight Show to talk about everyday things such as what it's like to be a new parent, their dogs, or how difficult it is to recover from an addiction to diet pills, Newhart realizes that what people want to hear is about all the famous people he's met and his huge fund of hilarious stories. He tells many of those stories here, but he barely mentions his dogs at all.

The book focuses on the interesting people he's met in show business, and includes stories about Dean Martin, Johnny Carson, Don Rickles, George C. Scott, Steve McQueen man, and a host of others. He writes extensively about his early years struggling in Chicago and what he learned from comics like Jack Benny about the use of silence in comedy. I was very interested to read that he sees his comedy as subversive. Unlike more outrageous comedians like Lenny Bruce who presented himself as an outsider looking in to batter down society's ills, Newhart looks and acts just like the rest of us, except he's a lot funnier, and when he pokes fun, it's more effective because he's doing it from the inside. Also, Bob Newhart never became addicted to heroin. Newhart's quietly skewed view of life is what makes him a timeless comedian.

While he presents many of his classic monologues verbatim in the book, it might be worthwhile to also purchase his "Something Like This" CD, because much of the humor is in the delivery. I laughed out loud several times while reading this. For the record, I thought the funniest story in the book involved comedian Dick Martin. (See p. 82)

In the 1960's Frank Sinatra used to say that he wished someone would learn to sing as he did so that he could retire; the same holds true for Bob Newhart, one of the great comedians who also seems like a really nice guy.