All Rise...

Judge P.S. Colbert occasionally treats schizophrenics and manic depressives...to cotton candy and funnel cakes.

Editor's Note

Our reviews of The Bob Newhart Show: The Complete First Season (published May 11th, 2005), The Bob Newhart Show: The Complete Second Season (published March 15th, 2006), The Bob Newhart Show: The Complete Third Season (published May 15th, 2006), The Bob Newhart Show: The Complete Fourth Season (published October 4th, 2006), The Bob Newhart Show: The Complete Series (published May 28th, 2014), and The Bob Newhart Show: The Final Season (published March 4th, 2015) are also available.

The Charge

Emily: Oh, Bob, look, your barbells. Boy, you haven't lifted these in a long time.
Bob: Yeah, well it got to the point where it was too easy, so I quit.

The Case

Welcome to the Bob-centennial!

America's 200th birthday looms large in "Caged Heat," the second episode of The Bob Newhart Show: Season Five. While preparing for a Bicentennial party, preeminent sitcom Psychologist Dr. Robert Hartley (Newhart) and his lovely wife, Emily (Suzanne Pleshette, Fate Is The Hunter), manage to get themselves locked into the basement storage locker of their luxury apartment building. Emily assures a clearly agitated Bob that's there's nothing to worry about; after all, someone's sure to discover them when they come down to do laundry, right?

Bob: Emily, when was the last time you did your laundry on July Fourth at five o'clock?

He's got a point. Speaking of the time, I have to wonder what audiences made of this one back in the day, given that it first aired on 2 Oct 1976, nearly three full months after the once-in-a-lifetime holiday?

But, I digress. In other timely events, Season Five finds Bob being held hostage by a bank robber (Robert Pine, CHiPs); his college buddy Cliff Murdock a.k.a. the Peeper (Tom Poston, Mork And Mindy) dropping by to introduce his new bride, Corrine (Jean Palmerton, Blood Bath); his long-married parents (played by Martha Scott and Barnard Hughes) announcing their separation during the Christmas season; Jerry (Peter Bonerz—who also directs a number of these episodes) coming into a financial windfall so big that he gives up his dental practice to go into early retirement (don't worry, he gets over it.); Howard (Bill Daily, ALF) taking up the bass fiddle, and Carol (Marcia Wallace, Tru Loved) announcing that she's pregnant in the season finale.

Otherwise, it's pretty much business as usual—with the action mostly split between Bob's home and office—which is a good thing. Unique among sitcoms, The Bob Newhart Show never needed to monkey with its own formula in order to keep fresh. One unintended comedic jackpot of the show (in retrospect) comes from the wardrobe department, which continually showcased middle-of-the-road '70s chic, in terms of casual wear for its upper-middle class, cosmopolitan characters, and Season Five does not disappoint in this regard.

History buffs of the period will also no doubt revel in references to Watergate, the Harmonicats, and the naive mistreatment of Dr. Hartley's first openly homosexual patient—played by Howard Hesseman (WKRP in Cincinnati)—by the regulars in Bob's weekly group therapy session: Mrs. Bakerman (Florida Friebus), Mr. Peterson (John Fiedler), Mr. Herd (Oliver Clark), and of course, Mr. Elliot Carlin (Jack Riley). What could be better?

Well, the uneven audio and visual presentation of these 1.33:1 full-frame/Dolby 1.0 Mono transfers, which betray a complete disregard for restoration and/or clean-up. Yes, they're watchable, but should someone come along in the future with episodes that look and sound as good the material deserves, I'd pitch this no-frills set without a moment's hesitation.

And now, I'm afraid our time is up.

The Verdict

Not guilty.

Give us your feedback!

Did we give The Bob Newhart Show: The Complete Fifth Season a fair trial? yes / no

What's "fair"? Whether positive or negative, our reviews should be unbiased, informative, and critique the material on its own merits.

Share This Review

Follow DVD Verdict

Other Reviews You Might Enjoy

• Entourage: The Complete Second Season
• Webster: Season Two
• Samantha Who? The Complete Second Season
• Everybody Loves Raymond: The Complete Fifth Season