On this day in 1990, Bob Newhart ended his second hit series, Newhart (1982-1990), in a creative and memorable way that called back to his earlier series, The Bob Newhart Show (1972-78).

In the final episode of Newhart, the entire town has been bought by a Japanese tycoon and turned into a golf course. After getting hit on the head with a golf ball, Newhart’s character Dick Loudon passes out and awakens as his Bob Newhart Show character, Bob Hartley, in bed next to Suzanne Pleshette, who had played his wife Emily in that series. Their bedroom set is familiar to viewers of The Bob Newhart Show. Bob proceeds to tell Emily about the strange dream he had, describing the entire premise of the Newhart series—how he was an innkeeper in Vermont, married to a blonde woman, surrounded by eccentric characters. Emily says, “That settles it. No more Japanese food before you go to bed.”

“The Last Newhart,” Newhart (May 21, 1990)

Related articles

• This was Television on May 21 (thiswastv.com)
• The Last Newhart (wikipedia.com)