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.
#1 - 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.
#2 - 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.
#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.
#4 - 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.
#5 - 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.
#6 - 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.
#7 - 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.
#8 - 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.
#9 - 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.
#10 - 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.
#11 - 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.
#12 - 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.
#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.
#15 - 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.
#16 - 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.
#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.
#18 - 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.
#19 - 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.
#20 - 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.
#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.
#22 - 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.
#23 - 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.
#24 - You're Having My Hartley
Season 5 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/19/1977
Hot baby news is the order of the day when Carol, Bob's receptionist, announces that she's expecting a baby. Then, Emily drops her bombshell—and Bob nearly comes unglued at the prospect of becoming a father.
#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.