The BEST episodes of The Bob Newhart Show

Every episode of The Bob Newhart Show ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Bob Newhart Show!

Bob Newhart is Dr. Robert Hartley, a Chicago psychologist living with his schoolteacher wife Emily. Complicating life for the serene, stammering doc was his neighbor, Howard, a flighty navigator; and Bob's coworkers, dentist Jerry and flippant receptionist Carol. The humor was gentle, sophisticated and, at times, wonderfully surreal.

Last Updated: 2/8/2024Network: CBSStatus: Ended
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Shrinks Across the Sea
star
8.08
13 votes

#1 - Shrinks Across the Sea

Season 4 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/25/1975

Bob and Emily suffer international complications when they host a French psychologist in their home as part of a medical exchange program.

Directors: Bob Claver
Watch Now:Amazon
Emily, I'm Home... Emily?
star
8.00
75 votes

#2 - Emily, I'm Home... Emily?

Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/17/1973

Bob is upset when Emily takes a full-time job with the Board of Education. Emily explains that working full-time makes her feel wonderful, while quitting would make her miserable. Bob decides to leave well enough alone.

Directors: Rick Edelstein
Writer: Martin Cohan
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Caged Fury
star
8.00
14 votes

#3 - Caged Fury

Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/2/1976

The Hartleys miss their friend's gala Fourth of July Bicentennial party celebration when they become trapped in a storage locker.

Watch Now:Amazon
Who is Mr. X?
star
8.00
15 votes

#4 - Who is Mr. X?

Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/8/1975

Bob accepts a seemingly innocent invitation to appear as the guest on a TV discussion program. He winds up in the jaws of a dilemma when the show host turns out to have the disposition of a shark.

Directors: Peter Bonerz
Writer: Bruce Kane
Watch Now:Amazon
A Home is Not Necessarily a House
star
7.95
76 votes

#5 - A Home is Not Necessarily a House

Season 1 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/10/1973

Bob and Emily try to decide if they should give up their apartment and buy a house.

Directors: Peter Baldwin
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Man with the Golden Wrist
star
7.91
81 votes

#6 - The Man with the Golden Wrist

Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/20/1973

Bob refuses to wear the beautiful gold watch Emily gave him for his 40th birthday after he learns just how expensive it was.

Directors: Alan Rafkin
Writer: Bill Idelson
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Have You Met Miss Dietz?
star
7.89
19 votes

#7 - Have You Met Miss Dietz?

Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/20/1973

Marilyn Dietz, a very attractive divorcee, creates a feud between Jerry and Howard when she starts dating both of them.

Directors: George Tyne
Writer: Bill Idelson
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Over the River and Through the Woods
star
7.88
25 votes

#8 - Over the River and Through the Woods

Season 4 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/22/1975

It's a stag Thanksgiving for Bob when Emily flies off to join a family reunion, leaving Bob to share the holiday with his male buddies.

Directors: James Burrows
Writer: Bruce Kane
Watch Now:Amazon
I Want to Be Alone
star
7.87
79 votes

#9 - I Want to Be Alone

Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/2/1972

Bob decides that for his own mental well-being, he needs some peace and quiet. He moves into a hotel room by himself, leaving a confused Howard Borden thinking that Bob and Emily have split up.

Directors: Alan Rafkin
Writer: Jerry Mayer
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Birth of a Salesman
star
7.85
13 votes

#10 - Birth of a Salesman

Season 4 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/14/1976

The Hartleys are bombarded with legal hassles when Bob is sued by a shy patient and Emily decides to fight a parking ticket.

Writer: Sy Rosen
Watch Now:Amazon
Don't Go to Bed Mad
star
7.84
87 votes

#11 - Don't Go to Bed Mad

Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/11/1972

Bob wants to watch football every Monday night. Emily feels this is unfair: their other activities allow the couple only two nights each week to be together, and she thinks they should do something that they both enjoy. This leads to an unresolved, all-night argument that ends only when the two participants become exhausted.

Directors: Alan Rafkin
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Freudian Ship
star
7.81
36 votes

#12 - Freudian Ship

Season 6 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/7/1978

The Hartleys embark on a seagoing vacation to put work behind them. But Bob can't resist playing psychologist when he undertakes to counsel a married couple.

Directors: Peter Bonerz
Watch Now:Amazon
Bob's Change of Life
star
7.80
10 votes

#13 - Bob's Change of Life

Season 6 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/24/1977

Bob's well-ordered life turns topsy-turvy when he and Emily move to a new Chicago residence.

Directors: Peter Bonerz
Watch Now:Amazon
You Can Win 'Em All
star
7.79
73 votes

#14 - You Can Win 'Em All

Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/24/1973

When a star pitcher for the Chicago Cubs credits Bob with saving his career, the endorsement brings Bob a new patient, Moose Washburn, a second-string player whose career is beyond a mere psychologist's help.

Directors: Jerry London
Writer: Bill Idelson
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
A Day in the Life
star
7.79
38 votes

#15 - A Day in the Life

Season 6 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/29/1977

Bob's impulsive decision to leave town for a week is received with disastrous emotions by his patients, who seemingly can't make it without him.

Directors: Dick Martin
Watch Now:Amazon
Bob Hits the Ceiling
star
7.75
12 votes

#16 - Bob Hits the Ceiling

Season 3 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/15/1975

Bob breaks a long-standing rule against treating friends when he agrees to counsel Emily's chum, whose marriage to a muscular gym teacher seems to be breaking up.

Directors: Jay Sandrich
Writer: Phil Davis
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Breaking Up is Hard to Do
star
7.75
12 votes

#17 - Breaking Up is Hard to Do

Season 5 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/11/1976

Bob undergoes a shock when his mother announces that she has separated from his father after 47 years of marriage.

Directors: Peter Bonerz
Writer: Sy Rosen
Watch Now:Amazon
Halls of Hartley
star
7.74
39 votes

#18 - Halls of Hartley

Season 5 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/29/1977

Bob succumbs to the pressures of living in a big city and desperately seeks employment of a small rural college.

Directors: James Burrows
Watch Now:Amazon
Fly the Unfriendly Skies
star
7.70
189 votes

#19 - Fly the Unfriendly Skies

Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/16/1972

Bob invites Emily to join his fear of flying group on a trip to New York City. Much to Bob's surprise he finds that Emily also has a fear of flying and refuses to go. After a conversation with Howard she decides to go only to back out after boarding the plane.

Directors: Jay Sandrich
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Bob and Emily and Howard and Carol and Jerry
star
7.62
85 votes

#20 - Bob and Emily and Howard and Carol and Jerry

Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/9/1972

Howard "floats" into Bob's office on Cloud Nine after having a tooth pulled. He is so poetic that Carol tells Emily, "I want him." Emily agrees to help Carol get him, and the two have an up-and-down romance.

Directors: Peter Baldwin
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Tennis, Emily?
star
7.61
127 votes

#21 - Tennis, Emily?

Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/30/1972

Bob experiences pangs of jealousy when Emily's handsome new tennis instructor comes to see him with an emotional problem, namely, his inability to turn down the women who are all uncontrollably attracted to him.

Directors: Alan Rafkin
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
No Sale
star
7.60
10 votes

#22 - No Sale

Season 4 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/3/1976

Bob becomes his patient's partner in a get-rich-quick real-estate venture.

Directors: Eddie Ryder
Watch Now:Amazon
The Gray Flannel Shrink
star
7.58
24 votes

#23 - The Gray Flannel Shrink

Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/19/1974

Bob gives up most of his private practice to become the staff psychologist with a major insurance company. He soon learns that it's possible for a man in the corporate world to do his job too well.

Directors: Peter Bonerz
Writer: Jerry Mayer
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
I Owe It All to You... But Not That Much
star
7.58
81 votes

#24 - I Owe It All to You... But Not That Much

Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/16/1972

Jerry decides there is something wrong with him because he never becomes serious about any of the girls he dates. He asks Bob if he can become one of his patients. Bob agrees, but they have to abandon the plan when it begins to interfere with their friendship.

Directors: Alan Rafkin
Writer: Martin Cohan
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Bum Voyage
star
7.56
77 votes

#25 - Bum Voyage

Season 1 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/3/1973

Afraid that his practice, as well as his patients, will fall apart if he leaves, Bob keeps resisting Emily's plans for a two-month European cruise.

Directors: Martin Cohan
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV