'The Bob Newhart Show's' Original Concept & Why No Kids On The Show....

[Brian Damage]

Bob Newhart admits he didn't know how "The Bob Newhart Show" ultimately would look, since he recalls of the original concept, "Not an awful lot of it survived. Originally, Bob and Emily had moved into a co-op building, and they were attending those meetings. And Marcia wasn't in the pilot, and neither was Bill Daily. And Peter Bonerz played another psychologist, but one who was into whatever the latest fad was.

"We reshot the pilot, and we decided that Bob and Emily had an apartment, but that we'd focus on the office. We brought Bill Daily in, and Marcia had been on a 'Merv Griffin Show' that either Bill Paley (the legendary longtime chairman of CBS) or his wife saw and said, 'She'd be good in that new Newhart pilot.' And of course, whatever Bill Paley wanted, Bill Paley got."

So did Newhart, to a great degree. Though he wanted to end "The Bob Newhart Show" after five seasons, he was under contract for one more. The writers wanted to center the final year around Emily being pregnant ... and after Newhart read the initial script, he calmly asked, "Who are you going to get to play Bob?"

"I didn't want to have kids" on the show, Newhart explains. "I hoped that would set the show apart from the normal thing of 'Daddy's not very bright, and look at the pickle he's gotten himself into, but we love him,' then in the final scene, they're smiling and patting him on the head.

"People ask how much power I had over the show," adds Newhart, a winner of three Grammy Awards, a Peabody and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. "And I say, 'Power is a funny thing. It really only exists when it's exercised sparingly.' It's not so much if you always rant and rave and go into your dressing room and say, 'I'm not coming out until they fix that thing' -- but if you exercise it once every four or five years, it kind of scares the hell out of people."

http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethe...says-star.html

[TVFactFan]

Bob had the "DINK" lifestyle which is something I wouldn't mind one day


"Double Income No Kids"

LOL

[Lisa_Eva]

I totally wouldn't mind Bob and Emily having kids on one level. They'd make awesome parents. At the same time, it would've only been fun to see if it were A. an alternate universe, or B. the last episode or two not the entire last season. For example, if season five's You're Having My Hartley had been the last episode and not a dream, it could've worked and certainly would've brought better closure to the show than moving to Oregon (near Warden Gorden Borden..something no one ever mentioned). I would also argue that it didn't necessarily have to fall into the daddy's dumb vein, but if it didn't it would've probably fallen into the whole Richie Petrie, where is that kid vein....anyway....

In reality, you have to appreciate that their lack of children is groundbreaking in its self and they should totally be proud of that! It's like at the end of That Girl, when Ann Marie didn't marry Donald (which I think is awesome honestly). Another point, do you recall the early episodes when Bob and Emily talked about/were trying to having a baby? Specifically, P-I-L-O-T (Season 1) and Backlash (Season 2)...both those episodes made me wonder if they could have children at all, and if that was the intended suggestion, that they couldn't have a baby (ex: temperature charting in Backlash) then that's groundbreaking too. Anybody ever thought about that?

[Yong Fang]

I don't think that they were parenting material, frankly.

Bob and Emily were over 35, never had children, had dual careers and they made enough money to do what they wanted to do as upper middle class people. They had adult friends and adult relationships. Not every marriage produces children.

Now, I personally think that if Emily was pregnant the final season, that would have been interesting. Bob Newhart could have went for that, saying that he did not want to be a sitcom father of kids. The show would end with Emily having a son and calling him "Bob". The season itself could have been mostly humorous conflict between them about surrendering their childless marriage.

[Miss Lisa]

I don't think that they would have made bad parents, but I do agree with Bob Newhart's statement. He didn't want the show to fall into the typical patterns that every other show fell into, he wanted the show to be different.

A couple of the suggestions that were already made here were pretty good though. The AU situation or just having Emily have the baby in the last episode. Now, they might have done this, Idk since I haven't seen every episode yet, but they could have done what they did on Green Acres, have them babysit a couple kids here and there. Or maybe have one stay with them for a couple of episodes.