Editing Bob Newhart (section)

=== 1958–1971: Comedy albums and stardom ===
[[File:Carol Burnett Bob Newhart Caterina Valente Entertainers 1964.JPG|thumb|right|Newhart, [[Caterina Valente]], and [[Carol Burnett]] in 1964]]
After the war, Newhart worked for [[United States Gypsum]] as an accountant. He later said that his motto, "That's close enough," and his habit of adjusting [[petty cash]] imbalances with his own money showed that he lacked the temperament of an accountant.<ref name=autobio /> In 1958, Newhart became an advertising [[copywriter]] for Fred A. Niles, a major independent film and television producer in Chicago.<ref name="MargaretMick2011">{{cite book | author1=Margaret Hicks | author2=Mick Napier | title=Chicago Comedy: A Fairly Serious History | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8GB83XHjwh0C&pg=PA66 | access-date=November 24, 2012 | date=May 2, 2011 | publisher=The History Press | isbn=978-1-60949-211-3 | page=66}}</ref> There, he and a co-worker entertained each other with long telephone calls about absurd scenarios, which they later recorded and sent to radio stations as audition tapes. When the co-worker ended his participation by taking a job in New York, Newhart continued the recordings alone, developing routines.<ref name=Thorn />

Dan Sorkin, a radio station disc jockey, who later became the announcer-sidekick on Newhart's NBC series, introduced Newhart to the head of talent at [[Warner Bros. Records]]. Based solely on those recordings, the label signed him in 1959, only a year after it had come into existence. Newhart expanded his material into a stand-up routine that he began to perform at nightclubs.<ref name=autobio /> He became famous mostly on the strength of his audio releases, in which he played a solo "[[straight man]]". Newhart's routine was to portray one end of a conversation (usually a phone call), playing the comedic straight man while implying what the other person was saying. Newhart's 1960 comedy album ''[[The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart]]'' was the first comedy album to make number one on the ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' charts and peaked at number two in the [[UK Albums Chart]].<ref name="British Hit Singles & Albums">{{cite book
| first = David
| last = Roberts
| year = 2006
| title = British Hit Singles & Albums
| edition = 19th
| publisher = Guinness World Records Limited
| location = London
| isbn = 1-904994-10-5
| page = 393}}</ref><ref name=parade>{{cite news | title = In Step With: Bob Newhart | work = Parade Magazine | date = July 17, 2005 | url = http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2005/edition_07-17-2005/in_step_with_0 | url-status=dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070315020844/http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2005/edition_07-17-2005/in_step_with_0 | archive-date = March 15, 2007 }}</ref> It won two [[Grammy Awards of 1961|Grammy Awards]], [[Grammy Award for Album of the Year|Album of the Year]], and [[Best New Artist]].<ref name="WaPo" />

Newhart told a 2005 interviewer for [[PBS]]'s ''[[American Masters]]'' that his favorite stand-up routine was "[[Abe Lincoln]] vs. [[Madison Avenue]]", which appears on this album. In the routine, a slick promoter has to deal with Lincoln's reluctance to agree to efforts to boost his image. Chicago TV director and future comedian [[Bill Daily]], who was Newhart's castmate on ''The Bob Newhart Show'', suggested the routine to him.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/archive/interview/bob-newhart-interview-1/|title= Bob Newhart Interview|publisher= PBS|accessdate= July 28, 2024}}</ref> A follow-up album, ''[[The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back!]]'', was released six months later and won [[Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album|Best Comedy Performance – Spoken Word]] that year. His subsequent comedy albums include ''Behind the Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart'' (1961), ''The Button-Down Mind on TV'' (1962), ''Bob Newhart Faces Bob Newhart'' (1964), ''The Windmills Are Weakening'' (1965), ''This Is It'' (1967), ''Best of Bob Newhart'' (1971), and ''Very Funny Bob Newhart'' (1973). Years later, he released ''Bob Newhart Off the Record'' (1992), ''The Button-Down Concert'' (1997), and ''Something Like This'' (2001), an anthology of his 1960s Warner Bros. albums. On December 10, 2015, publicist and comedy album collector [[Jeff Abraham]] revealed that a "lost" Newhart track from 1965 about [[Paul Revere]] existed on a one-of-a-kind acetate, which he owns. The track made its world premiere on episode 163 of the ''Comedy on Vinyl'' podcast.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://theinterrobang.com/199318-2/ |title=Lost Bob Newhart Routine Airs Publicly for the First Time |date=December 10, 2015 |website=The Interrobang |access-date=December 10, 2015}}</ref>

Newhart's success in stand-up led to his own short-lived [[NBC]] variety show in 1961, ''[[The Bob Newhart Show (1961 TV series)|The Bob Newhart Show]]''. The show lasted only a single season, but it earned Newhart a [[Primetime Emmy Award]] nomination and a [[Peabody Award]]. The Peabody Board cited him as "a person whose gentle satire and wry and irreverent wit waft a breath of fresh and bracing air through the stale and stuffy electronic corridors. A merry marauder, who looks less like [[St. George]] than a choirboy, Newhart has wounded, if not slain, many of the dragons that stalk our society. In a troubled and apprehensive world, Newhart has proved once again that laughter is the best medicine." In the mid-1960s, Newhart was one of the initial three co-hosts of the variety show ''[[The Entertainers]]'' (1964), with [[Carol Burnett]] and [[Caterina Valente]],<ref>Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle (1988). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows 1946 – Present. Ballantine Books. p. 238. ISBN 0-345-35610-1</ref> appeared on ''[[The Dean Martin Show]]'' 24 times and on ''[[The Ed Sullivan Show]]'' eight times.<ref name=autobio /> He appeared in a 1963 episode of ''[[List of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour episodes|The Alfred Hitchcock Hour]]'', "How to Get Rid of Your Wife"; and on ''[[The Judy Garland Show]]''. He also appeared on series such as ''[[Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre]]'', ''[[Captain Nice]]'', and ''[[Insight (American TV series)|Insight]]''. Newhart guest-hosted ''[[The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson]]'' 87 times, and hosted ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' twice, in 1980 and 1995. In 1964, he appeared at the [[Royal Variety Performance]] in London, before [[Queen Elizabeth II]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Charity |first1=Royal Variety |title=Performances :: 1964, London Palladium {{!}} Royal Variety Charity |url=https://www.royalvarietycharity.org/royal-variety-performance/archive/detail/1964-london-palladium |website=royalvarietycharity.org |access-date=July 18, 2024}}</ref>

In 1962, Newhart filmed ''An Evening with Bob Newhart'', thought to be the first [[pay-per-view]] television special, for Canadian-based [[Telemeter (pay television)|Telemeter]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Zinoman |first1=Jason |title=Bob Newhart Holds Up. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/18/arts/television/bob-newhart-standup-comedy.html |access-date=July 19, 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=July 18, 2024}}</ref>