
Not to be confused with Newhart's eponymous 1961 variety show, "The Bob Newhart Show" finds the comic playing Bob Hartley, a Chicago psychologist living with wife Emily in a highrise. Bob is forced to deal with crazy patients, his wife and their friends.

Cliff Murdock (Tom Poston), Bob's old laugh-a-minute college buddy, affectionately known as "The Peeper," pays a return visit. An uncharacteristically somber Cliff announces that his wife has left him.

Bob receives a telegram saying that his old college chum, "The Peeper", is coming to Chicago and bringing a surprise. The surprise turns out to be a brand-new bride.

The Hartleys miss a Fourth of July Bicentennial party when they are trapped in a storage locker.

Bob's therapy group gets a surprise when a patient (Howard Hesseman) announces that he is gay.