He was a funny kind of guy

There are a lot of songs that were once quite popular but as time goes on the lyrics get lost on younger generations. In the song ‘Return to sender’ made popular by Elvis in the 50s there is a line that says, ‘no such number, no such zone.’ A zone was utilized in big cities which basically located the nearest postal facility. That was replaced by the Zip Code. Imagine the song rewritten: No such number, no such zip code.

Harry Chapin had a hit song Taxi in 1972 that has a line in it where a former girlfriend is his fare and at the end of the ride the song goes, ‘Then she handed me $20 for a $2.50 fare and said Harry keep the change!” This song is over four minutes long and I can’t imagine what the price of the fare would be today even if it was Uber or Lyft. I’m not sure how long the ride lasted. It’s laughable today since the song’s story was from San Francisco.

There are a lot of songs from years ago that included phone calls. Jim Croce had one called Operator. He is using a payphone as well which adds to the dialogue but will confuse youth today. In Croce’s song he is trying to reach a lost love that left with his best friend. At the end of the song Croce tells the operator that, she has been more than kind and that she can keep the dime. I’m sure the operator was impressed.

Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show also had a song titled ‘Sylvia’s Mother’ where a payphone was also used. The singer of the song never did get to talk with Sylvia, but he did hear from the operator who said, “Forty cents more for the next 3 minutes.” Those were the days.

Songs like that would need to include something about cell phones today and maybe a thing or two about recorded messages. Why would I ramble about old songs and telephones? It’s just a reminder that Bob Newhart passed away nearly two weeks ago and my first memory of him was when he was on a variety show like Ed Sullivan’s and his routine included a phone. A land line phone and he would carry on a conversation with an imaginary person. Now Bob was always the sane person and would let the audience know what was being told to him. And he was really good at it and funny.

He had two hit shows. In the 1970s The Bob Newhart Show was hilarious. Newhart was a Chicago psychologist. He dealt with a cast of folks that had issues he was trying to help them out with. They were interesting alone but when they did group therapy he often times had to be the referee to break up much of the bantering. He would often go back to his comedy routine and have a phone conversation with someone. The cast of characters were really funny and they played off each other really well.

One of the funniest and most memorable shows was a Thanksgiving show where Bob’s wife Emily was out of town and his friend Dr. Jerry and neighbor Howard Borden and one of his clients Elliot Carlin came over to Bob’s place to watch a football game. Dr. Jerry the dentist brought a jug of spirits of some kind and it was decided that each of them would take a swig of the jug after each score by either team. Since it was a high scoring game they proceeded to get inebriated and by halftime they were getting hungry and wanted to order some food. Well Bob knew of a great Chinese restaurant that delivered and they ordered Moo Goo Gai Pan. And as each one ordered Moo Goo since it was easy to remember. So Bob is on the phone ordering more Goo. And his phone call was hilarious.

In the 1980s he had another hit series simply called Newhart. In this series it almost looked like Bob and his wife were the only sane members of the cast. This show was memorable mostly for three oddball brothers where only one of them spoke. You may remember when the brother with a speaking part would always do an introduction, “Hi, mine name’s Larry and this is my brother Darryl and my other brother Darryl.” This show was also a hit because of Bob’s wit and deadpan behavior to the goings on at the little Inn in Vermont.

I know that Newhart was in some other productions but these two programs were fun to watch and I’m not sure that some of the topics would be accepted today. My wife and I were lucky enough to see Newhart live at Northern Quest Casino a fair amount of years ago and he didn’t disappoint. He was a very funny guy.

— Dale Anderson is a sports columnist from Ritzville. To contact him, email [email protected].