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Rating:  -
This review comes from a personal point of view; I've known Bob for over 10 years and have awaited this book for decades. His humor carved his place in Americana and with his Mark Twain Award, he has a statue to prove it.
In sharp detail, we see how his bits were crafted on the radio many years before fame came knocking, and how listeners were treated to something they must have known was unique. They began laughing early and the television Academy granted him his only Emmy for his most ignominious project, the original Bob Newhart Show which aired on NBC in 1961. It was cancelled by the time he got the Emmy. Talk about a story arc!
His radio routines were adapted to the stage and month by month, he made himself a success during a time when there were no Comedy Stores or Laugh Factories, and he did so without resorting to working blue. He says in the book, "Perversity is an innate trait in comedians." Maybe so, but never profane. I heard him use the f word only once, at dinner, and almost fell off my chair; it's like hearing your 1st grade teacher fart.
Bob could not have grown up in greater obscurity and found success with greater sublety, and now we have a record of how the laughs came, to him and to us.
Rating:  -
This is an interesting and well-written book by one of our great comedians. If you are a Newhart fan, there are many anecdotes about his early years in stand-up, his movies, and life. I was disappointed, however, that there was relatively little about his popular TV shows. I had looked forward to reading about the filming of his hit shows, The Bob Newhart Show, Newhart, Bob, and George and Leo, and learning a little about his friendships with his co-stars. Instead, there was very little for me to sink my teeth into! Still, an interesting book, with a few laughs.
Rating: -
According to Bob Newhart, Don Rickles once described him as "that stammering idiot from Chicago." But he meant it in the nicest possible way! This is just one of the many little tidbits of information you get from Newhart's semi-autobiography, "I Shouldn't Even be Doing This." I say "semi"-autobiography because the material in the book is mostly presented as anecdotes, many of which are actually parts of his standup routine. For example, his sketches on teaching bus drivers how to drive ("Don't pull away too fast, or the person running for the bus loses hope too quickly"), about an incompetent submarine commander ("We still hold the record for fastest submerging, and I maintain those men that got left on the deck are glad we got he record. I'm sure most of them managed to swim to shore"), etc. are written out practically verbatim from his standup routines.
This is not a criticism of the book - far from it. Even those that own all of Newhart's albums (and have seen every episode of his sitcoms) are going to find new jokes here. And what emerges is more of a self-portrait painting than a photograph. This is how Newhart chooses to present himself to the world, and it gives an insight into his personality far more significant than a dull recitation of facts could. Of course, all good autobiographies serve this purpose, but rarely is one so enjoyable to read.
Newhart's stage humour may not translate particularly well to the written page, at least not his standard kind of routine (the one-sided conversation) because it depends so much on the tone and timing of his delivery. So the best moments in the book are one-off observations about people, most especially about himself. I don't know how much of this book is actually true, but I know I enjoyed reading it. And I could hear that stammering voice of his in my head, reading the book to me.
Rating: -
I enjoyed reading this book by Bob Newhart, it had some great stories and jokes from the great one. I enjoy reading biographies and memoirs from celebrities. I often laughed out loud while reading this book. If you enjoy a good chuckle and like Bob Newhart you will love this book. The book has many of the funny monologues that he has told over the years. While reading this book I often told others some of the amusing stories and got many chuckles from others. In the book Bob Newhart wrote about filming the movie Hell is for Heroes staring Steve McQueen, Bobby Darin, Fess Parker, James Coburn and others. Its a movie that had many young stars before they were well know. Since I have never seen this movie, it really peaked my interest so, I got the movie and plan on watching it soon. I enjoy reading books that expand my horizons and make me want to learn more. For that alone and for the open laughs while reading this book, I would have to say this book was well worth reading. My only criticism is that I would of liked to have read more gossip about some of the fellow actors and comedians that Bob had worked with over the years.
Rating: -
I read this book in just a couple sittings and enjoyed it immensely. My first professional job as a clinical psychologist was as a psychology professor in Chicago and it was fitting that I used to compose lectures while watching reruns of the 1970s "Bob Newhart Show". One of my Chicago psychologist friends even attended Loyola and once dated a woman who lived in the Newhart/Hartley apartment building on the North Side. Newhart recognizes that his character was a lousy psychologist, something I noticed years before I became a psychologist myself. Nonetheless, the show probably did more good than harm to the cause of mental health and no one can forget Mr. Carlin, Mrs. Bakerman, and the rest of Bob Hartley's therapy group. The show was smart and funny and holds up better than more self-consciously relevant series like "All in the Family". Newhart is perceptive about his show's place in tv history and the completely contemporary and groundbreaking relationship his character had with Suzanne Pleshette on the show.
Newhart's early stand-up comedy paved the way for observational comics like Jerry Seinfeld and Richard Pryor. He was more understated and less "blue" or "sick" than contemporaries like Lenny Bruce or Mike Nichols & Elaine May, but he was part of the same transition from joke telling to the more topical, storytelling humor that has remained with us since the 60s. He clearly respects more overtly irreverent people like Nichols & May and recalls their hilarious "funeral director" sketch from the early 60s. Newhart also is respectful toward his comedic forebears, and he recounts what he learned from masters like Jack Benny and how Benny once critiqued Newhart's truncated telling of a classic bit at a nightclub appearance. Newhart is perceptive about his own place in the evolution of American comedy and it becomes clear that many of the things that made his "Bob Newhart Show" and "Newhart" series successful came from him, yet he does not come across as egotistical or self-aggrandizing.
The book is meandering and isn't great literature. I wish Bob had told us more about his family (esp. the son who studied Yeats--on a Biography TV documentary, the son seemed to be funny like his Dad) and was a bit more reflective of himself. Still, the book is blessedly free of the "too much information" and unproductive self-analysis common to many celebrity autobiographies. OTOH, Newhart seems to have lost his Chicago geography--the 70s Bob Newhart Show apartment building is a landmark on Sheridan Road (I just saw it a couple weeks ago) and the opening sequence seems to be on a commuter rail line, rather than the Ravenswood "L". There's also a chapter that seems to end in midsentence. Despite these shortcomings, this is a wonderful book. It's indispensable for Chicago psychologists and people who appreciate Newhart comedy, 1970s television, or "Boomer humor", in general.
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