The 25 best episodes of 'Newhart'

When the late Peter Scolari joined Newhart as a regular, it took the show to a whole new level. He’s vapid and superficial but a hilarious delight. In “Newsstruck,” he gets put in charge of the news at WPIV, and something crazy happens: He starts to care about it! He becomes cultured! It couldn’t last, but it was fun for one episode.

The Vanderkellens seem to be among the richest families in the United States. That means any trip to see Stephanie’s parents leads to a lot of jokes about being obscenely wealthy. This time around, Stephanie and Michael visit the Vanderkellens, but Stephanie quickly regresses into the spoiled child she was once.

Another Michael episode! Hey, he’s the best character. This time, Michael is desperate to try and impress his mother, a distant woman who never gives him any praise. As such, Michael tries his hand at painting. And writing a novel. And anything he thinks his mom will appreciate. Of course, he’s not good at any of it.

OK, we promise we will eventually get to episodes where the primary story revolves around Bob Newhart’s character. This one is also Michael-focused, though. Stephanie goes away for the weekend, and Michael doesn’t know what to do. Desperate to find any connection, he tags along with blue-collar George to go to the Beaver Lodge. He eats spaghetti, makes a huge mess, and then watches Gilligan’s Island with a bunch of guys he would never hang out with, including one played by the Professor himself, Russell Johnson.

During the first season of the show, there is no Stephanie and Michael in the main cast. This is the first time we ever meet Stephanie. She visits as the cousin of Leslie, the maid at the Stratford. Stephanie and Kirk, the compulsive liar who runs the diner next door to the inn, hook up. It’s a lot of fun.

The gang’s all here! The Loudons and the Stratford crew head to the Vanderkellen mansion for Thanksgiving. Then, Stephanie makes them all leave in a huff. Somehow, everybody ends up at the Minuteman Café, at this point run by Larry, his brother Darryl, and his other brother Darryl. Oh man, we made it this far without mentioning Larry and the Darryls? They also rule.

Sure, this is one of those sitcom episodes where everybody has a bunch of dreams, so they can do whatever weird stuff they want. That’s fine. This version of that is really fun. We particularly like Larry’s dream where he hosts The Tonight Show.

It’s another Thanksgiving episode. Everything goes wrong. Dıck volunteers to host 100 people at the Stratford, leading Joanna to make turkey for 100 people. Then, the parade gets rained out. Everything goes wrong, but funnily. It’s a particularly good episode of Joanna.

Larry decides to run for mayor, though he’s a bit of an outsider candidate. If you know the show at all, you know why. There’s also a fun secondary story where Michael takes care of a friend’s dog, which Stephanie sees as a challenge for Michael’s attention. Then, she comes to like the dog. It’s genuinely sweet.

As Newhart went on, it became more and more about Dıck being surrounded by weirdos and nutballs. Even Joanna started to get more out there. It was in service of Newhart’s strength as a straight man. "Take Me to Your Loudon" is a great example of that. The town becomes convinced aliens have landed in town. Then, they come to believe Dıck himself is that alien.

This is a totally out-there episode of Newhart, but it’s also brilliant. Michael has taken control of WPIV and decided to create his own sitcom. Seein’ Double is the name of that sitcom, and most of this episode is an episode of Seein’ Double. It stars Stephanie as identical twins. The sitcom is a mess, but this is super funny if you are a sitcom fan. It would be higher on the list if it wasn’t such a throwaway.

This is only the second episode of Newhart, but it showed how good the show could be. Dıck and Joanna find out there’s a body buried in their basement. They want to move it to the churchyard. In the process, they hire a company called “Anything for a Dollar.” That business is run by Larry, Darryl, and Darryl. They were supposed to be one-time characters but proved too funny to only use once.

Michael and Stephanie have broken up, but they are putting on a brave face. They even try to help each other find new lovers. When Michael finds someone, Stephanie gets jealous and sabotages it. They realize they love each other and end the episode, and the seventh season, getting married. It’s somehow sweet, even though Michael and Stephanie should be so unlikeable.

Dıck and Michael are not the hunting sort, but they decide to go hunting with the guys anyway. The whole thing turns into a life-threatening venture. The kind where the guys take turns doing songs from The Music Man, naturally. That’s the essence of the genius of Newhart.

Kirk spent most of his time on the show — he was a key character in the first two seasons, then disappeared forever — trying to be a womanizer. Then, he meets Cindy and finds love. This is a nice take on a wedding episode. It gets farcical, and Kirk keeps fainting when he tries to go through the actual wedding ceremony.

Weirdly, this is the first big showcase episode for Newhart on this list. What a showcase, though. Dıck is cajoled into hosting a 48-hour telethon for WPIV. He gets loopy and weird. Newhart was known for his button-down persona, but he could be broad when he wanted to.

This is a firing-on-all-cylinders farce. Dıck has published a murder mystery novel, clearly loosely based on his own life. However, everybody seems to think it is way more based on reality than Dıck intended. This causes a problem when nobody knows where Joanna is because in the novel an innkeeper murders his wife.

We just realized this title is a parody of Cinderella. Stephanie wants to compete in a beauty pageant but has to stay behind to watch the inn. Nobody is as selfish as Stephanie, so she dresses up in disguise and heads to the beauty contest anyway. Julia Duffy was nominated for Emmys many times over while on Newhart. This episode shows why.

Larry has a near-death experience, but Dıck saves his life. Thus, Larry believes he was saved for a special purpose, something related to Dıck. Larry won’t leave Dıck alone, and Dıck gets increasingly frustrated. We just laugh more and more.

Eileen Brennan shows up in a guest spot as an illustrator for Dıck’s latest book, and she crushes it. She and Dıck hate working together, but they are doing great work. They try to be nice to each other, so they don’t go insane, but the work suffers. What matters more: their work or their sanity? That’s the crux of this episode.

The series finale of Newhart is weird but fairly funny for most of its run. Then, the iconic final moments happen. Dare we spoil it? Basically, Bob Newhart wakes up in a bed. He’s on the set of The Bob Newhart Show. Next to him is Suzanne Pleshette, who played his wife on that show. The entirety of Newhart proved to be a dream being had by Bob Hartley. That should feel like undercutting eight seasons of television, and yet it’s so fun. We can’t resist.

Dıck’s town needs snow for their Snow Carnival. Desperate, they turn to Larry, Darryl, and Darryl because they say they can make it snow. First, it doesn’t snow, then it does. Did Larry and the Darryls make it happen? With this show, you never know. All we know is that it’s hilarious.

This was still early in the days of Larry, Darryl, and Darryl as regular characters — same with Stephanie. It’s early in the second season. Here, the quartet comes together wonderfully. Stephanie gets lost in the woods and is saved by Larry and his brothers. However, is staying with the backwoods trio, nice as they are, worse than being lost in the woods during a snowstorm?

Everybody at the Stratford is sick, save for George and Stephanie. That leaves the two to take care of everybody. Well, it leaves George to do it because Stephanie would say, “ew” to the whole idea. Stephanie plans to sneak out of town until George gets really sick. At that point, Stephanie’s heart kicks in, and she stays behind to ensure George makes it through the night in one piece. The show mined so many laughs out of Stephanie’s shallowness, but it never rang false when she would have a redeeming moment.

This episode is perfectly paced and plotted. It’s so funny and sharp. Everybody is giving excellent performances. Weird things are happening at the Stratford, leaving some to believe the place is haunted. Ah, but is there more going on than what meets the eye? We won’t spoil anything. Why would we spoil the best episode of Newhart?