I'll be picking up the new season 3 release of the Bob Newhart Show today, and am glad Fox is rolling this and subsequent seasons of the Mary Tyler Moore Show on a fairly regular basis now. The whole run should hopefully be done by the end of next year.
As to why "Newhart" isn't appearing on DVD yet, I think Fox is scared by the prospect of bad sales for Season 1, which recall is not very well liked as it was completely different from what followed. Look what happened with "Night Court" which most people didn't buy Season 1 of because Markie Post wasn't on yet!
Bob Newhart On DVD
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AndyDursin
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Re: Bob Newhart On DVD
True. I'm a HUGE Newhart fan and you're right -- though why not just do Seasons 1 and 2 together to improve the package?Eric Paddon wrote:I'll be picking up the new season 3 release of the Bob Newhart Show today, and am glad Fox is rolling this and subsequent seasons of the Mary Tyler Moore Show on a fairly regular basis now. The whole run should hopefully be done by the end of next year.
As to why "Newhart" isn't appearing on DVD yet, I think Fox is scared by the prospect of bad sales for Season 1, which recall is not very well liked as it was completely different from what followed. Look what happened with "Night Court" which most people didn't buy Season 1 of because Markie Post wasn't on yet!
I wouldn't say Season 1 was "completely different," though it did have its own feel that changed in the next couple of years. Certainly the first season was videotaped (as opposed to film) so it certainly LOOKED different, plus you had Steven Kampmann as Kirk (the diner owner) who was a little too strident at times and Jennifer Holmes as the maid, who was pleasant but not interesting enough. They did a good job adding Julia Duffy (who I read was apparently their first choice to begin wit?) and then eventually nixing the Kirk character (after the second season, I believe?) with Peter Scolari's Michael. As the supporting cast expanded the show improved -- what a great run it had as well!
I'd love to see that series on DVD, it's one of my all-time favorites.
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Eric Paddon
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It'll be a very long time before they get to the memorable last episode of "Newhart" on DVD, but when they do, I'll be interested in whether it'll be the original version or the syndicated version which does a key bit of music replacement. In the original broadcast version, when Bob turns out the light again after waking up from his dream, they fade out with a musical stinger of the old Bob Newhart Show theme music. But because Lorenzo Music, who wrote the theme wasn't given proper credit, they replaced this in the syndicated version with the regular Newhart theme.