The Bob Newhart Show Apartment and Office Tour [CG Tour]

today we're going to explore the office and the apartment from the bob newhart show like you've never seen them before with ceilings in all four walls so they feel like real places as we walk through them and you'll get to see views not possible on the show [Music] hi i'm marina coates welcome to behind the scenes where we get up close and personal with all your favorite tv and movie homes today we'll be exploring one of my fav just a minute hello oh hi bob you can't wait for what or for the tours well you're in luck we're about to begin i don't want to make bob wait let's get started we'll begin with bob's office we're very familiar with these views of the office but we only got to see this much of the room today we'll tour the office with all of the walls so it feels more like a real place you'll notice that this wall angles far out in fact it would practically butt up to carol's reception desk which is on the other side of that wall and of course when we're in the reception area it doesn't do that it's flat leaving space between bob's office and the desk the answer to this mystery was provided to me by one of my viewers who happened to be at a taping of the bob newhart show he said during a scene change the left wall of his office pivoted over to the right to reveal the outer office he added that the left wall of the office moved to the point that it was very close to the reception desk in the waiting room he also noted that the right wall of the office pivoted to the left becoming the left wall of the interior of their home apartment and now you know the rest of the story the set design changed a lot over the course of the series so i had to pick a season and stick with it i chose season 3 for both the office and the apartment one of my favorite features of his office are the bookshelves in the back i would love a set just like them today his office had a mostly subdued earth-toned palette but a little color was added with an orange table and desk chair there were hanging plants which i picture carol having put there some great artwork is placed around the room and of course there is a seating area for patients including a sofa chair and a stool and now what would be on the missing walls of his office i asked an expert someone with 30 years of experience as a psychiatrist he suggested a chalkboard or whiteboard where bob could explain therapeutic concepts to his patients he indicated that psychologists are known for having a lot of books so there would likely be even more bookshelves lastly suggested file cabinets where bob could store his notes on each patient he also said that most therapists covet a window in their office sunshine helps everyone's spirits and bob had some patients who needed a little brightening i chose to give bob a window here some of the very best characters on the show came from the office and naturally leaked over into his apartment and personal life as well mr carlin one of my favorites i recently watched an old interview with him he said that just prior to each performance on stage he would be petrified and it never got better the nervousness never went away you certainly couldn't tell maybe it even played well into the neurotic character he portrayed on screen either way it worked he also revealed that the reason he was always looking down was because of the bright lights in the tv studio somehow that worked too there were other memorable characters in the office as well including mrs bakerman bernie tupperman the urologist patient michelle nardo and of course carol and jerry peter also directed 29 of the episodes one of the things that made this show work was the excellence of the supporting cast you tuned in not just for bob but for the whole ensemble scenes that took place in the office bob somewhat in the role of a patient as he receives advice from mr carlin emily presenting bob with a gift that he's less than thrilled with and many interesting group therapy sessions because of the swinging office wall we will tour the reception area separately from his office since we now know that they can't really coexist [Music] do [Music] carol could do it all who wouldn't want a secretary like that and marsha wallace played carol to comedic perfection never overdone she seemed believable like we all had a friend like that in the beginning discussions of the show they actually weren't going to have a secretary for everyone i'm so glad they changed their minds here's an overhead view of the reception area to give you a feel for the layout carol's round desk was in the center bob's office was here the water cooler and coffee station were over here the elevators were behind carol's desk with two hallways leading in either direction both going to other doctor's offices we never got to see down those halls but you will today scenes that took place in the reception area an elderly receptionist takes over for carol and it doesn't go well an ill-conceived co-op of the doctors that takes a turn for the worst and bob is falsely blamed and bob hanging on for dear life in the elevator shaft and now we'll tour the reception area [Music] why does bob newhart's humor work so well whether at the office or at home his first hit album the button-down mind of bob newhart was not only his first album ever but his first time on stage and yet overnight his brand of humor immediately started flying off the shelves before that he'd worked as an accountant sharing jokes over the phone with a friend and suddenly he was the hottest comedian around his brand of humor carried over easily to a sitcom situation comedy for that's where his humor came from from situations not from one liners whether it was dressing up in his bill paying close every time he wrote out the checks or tiptoeing past company while he's in his bathrobe it all worked simple subtle yet undeniably hilarious bob and emily's apartment we'll start with an overhead view to give you an idea of the layout the entrance is here with steps leading down into the living room here in the back off to this side is the entrance into the den the kitchen is here with the dining room table here and this door leads to their bedroom and bathroom you may notice similarities between this apartment and one that i recently finished the one on the mary tyler moore show there's a good reason for that they shared a set designer louis hurst jr both apartments have this long set of steps spanning the width of the apartment with a large window by the balcony in the background the living room in particular went through a lot of design changes again i chose season three for this tour but even within season three there were multiple changes notice how the curtains and the door color change from one episode to the next and then back again in season three most likely these episodes ran out of order by season six they had moved to a new apartment altogether bob's favorite chair is tucked away back here in front of the steps the art on this wall changed a lot but was always shown in a large grouping of different sizes one of the relative constants was this piece which appears to be a bell we never saw much farther than here on this wall but we saw a sofa table behind the second sofa and a tall secretary desk type cabinet here the main sofa grouping was here with a leather cube stool on this end there was a wall unit here how cool is that and my favorite spot this little library area just before entering the den some scenes that took place in the living room a very uncomfortable thanksgiving with both sets of in-laws an inebriated bob ordering mugu guy pan and bob discovering emily's redecorating efforts hating the result and retrieving his favorite chair from howard's apartment and may i just add casting bill daley as howard was genius bill of course was previously on i dream of jeannie he said that on that show the cast rehearsed repeatedly before filming but that bob newhart didn't really like to rehearse before the show he liked the spontaneity bill daley said that part of the nervousness of his character howard was actually him being genuinely worried about remembering his lines now we'll tour just the living room before we do the full tour of the whole apartment i won't be showing the fourth walls of the individual rooms yet as we tour them the fourth wall refers to the wall not seen by the audience where the cameras were placed but when we take the full tour of the apartment you will get to see all of the walls both those shown to us on tv and those that were never revealed so [Music] the hartley's kitchen wasn't very spacious i believe this was done on purpose set designers used design to help tell the story of the people that live there for them the design is all about the story they were one of the first couples on tv where both had careers neither emily or bob spent a great deal of time in the kitchen it wasn't about that kind of family life they also had no children another rare situation for a show at that time so even though the apartment was a very deluxe chicago high-rise apartment with plenty of room for a much larger kitchen it was kept to a minimum probably one of the most intriguing areas of the hartley home is the den partly because we rarely got to see it we mostly saw the characters standing in the library area just outside and when we do get a peek back there it's obscured by this wooden louvered panel we're seeing the den through that leaving a little mystery is a common trait in set design we're often viewing something that's partially obscured so that it peaks our curiosity we want to know what's back there it draws us in in this case it also keeps them from having to always have that room set up for a scene in season three we get a great look at the entire room except for that pesky fourth wall of course we see the wooden louvered panel here at the back which helps place how this room is situated in comparison to the library we see them enter from this side so we know that the pathway there is something like this once inside we see a large leather back chair here a couple large matching bookcases here with a secretary desk in between on this wall is the pull out sofa bed with a humorously thin mattress which makes for a grumpy night for bob between this cabinet and the sofa bed is a door we can assume it's a bathroom so that when guests are over they don't need to go through their bedroom to get to one when i begin creating this tour the area i most wanted to explore was the den i couldn't wait to see what it looked like to walk back there through the library area it always felt a little mysterious to me you'll get to come in that way in the full tour coming up i couldn't do it now because i don't want to let you see the fourth wall yet you'll see all of the missing walls when we do the full tour [Music] such an easily recognizable bedroom bob and emily were one of the first tv couples to share a bed many scenes took place here often with bob and or emily switching on and off the light as they delivered their lines it helped play into the comedic timing suzanne plichette who played emily was chosen for the role after producers saw her on a talk show one night and realized she was the epitome of the type of woman they were looking for she hadn't really played comedic roles before she was an accomplished movie actress you may remember her from alfred hitchcock's the birds and they weren't confident that she would take a role in a television series but luckily for them she was more than ready to settle down and travel less and be able to stay in one place she accepted the role and i'm so glad she did in one episode the brown louvered shutters above their bed are open allowing us to see the chicago skyline outside coming up when we take the tour of just this room i'll leave them open so you can see outside but in the full tour i'll have them the way we remember them best on this side of the room there was a bathroom and next to that a large closet there were family pictures on either side of the bed behind the lamps interestingly this particular bedroom also played an important role in a later bob newhart show called simply new heart in that series as you'll remember bob played a writer dick louden who along with his wife joanna owned an inn in vermont at the end of that series in the very last episode after a six-year run bob wakes up to tell his wife about a dream he just had that seemed so real when his wife turned on the light the audience went wild i remember that night rather than seeing his wife joanna in the bedroom from the inn instead it was the bedroom from the bob newhart show and it was emily he was waking up to to tell the story of a dream he had about owning an inn in vermont and all the crazy things that took place there baba said that the audience immediately recognized the room from just the bed spread now that's an iconic bedroom the episode ends with him telling emily that she should wear more sweaters something his second tv wife joanna had a propensity for now we'll tour the bedroom and then we'll get a full tour of the apartment with all four walls [Music] why do these tv homes feel almost like they were part of our lives they're embedded in our memories their experiences were also our experiences their homes felt a little bit like our homes we watched their lives and we felt their stories because they spoke of human experience we laughed with them grieved with them and empathized with them they seemed real and in a peculiar way they were because the feelings and experiences were real many of my viewers tell me that they often longed for the same homes the same kind of families and the sense of belonging and safety they created in short they gave people comfort and they gave them hope fiction or not they created memories some just as impactful as those from real life and it doesn't really matter where memories come from does it rather it's the feeling they create in us bob and emily hartley became part of american culture but this show wasn't just an american phenomenon it's touched people all over the world bob newhart is one of those people that if he is in a show i'll watch it he's so likable and his humor is so subtle yet so clever and no one no one can do a phone call like bob the jokes weren't zippy one-liners the humor grew out of the characters in the situations they were placed in but more than that more than the humor or bob or any of the other characters we watched these shows when perhaps our lives at least felt a little simpler and more peaceful when they felt safe and we tie those nostalgic feelings in with these shows these characters in these homes [Music] do [Music] stepping into these homes again can be medicinal a bit of a tonic for the daily stresses of life they can wipe the slate clean of the worries of the day when they walk in the door and say hi bob we also for a brief moment slip back into a familiar place in a familiar time with familiar people sometimes it's just what we need sometimes it's all we need some of you may have a hard day or even a hard week it could be comforting to picture that it was just all a dream at least that works on television where magic can save the day see what i mean [Music] do do [Music] for those of you who would like to see the full tour with a less magical fourth wall and some views you haven't yet seen that tour will be available at the very end of this episode coming up you'll get to tour the full apartment with a more normal fourth wall but as for today that's a wrap see you next time on behind the scenes [Music] do [Music] do [Music] so do [Music] do [Music] you

Channel: Marina Coates - Mockingbird Lane

Views: 38,096

Keywords: bob newheart

Id: W-8PJ-S3w2M

Length: 27min 14sec (1634 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 18 2022