My spies have told me that season 1 of Newhart is going to be released in the winter of 2008. Of all the shows based around Bob Newhart (the others being The Bob Newhart Show (1961-1972), The Bob Newhart Show (1972-1978),
Bob (1992-1993) and the bizarrely-named George & Leo (1997)) Newhart (1982-1980) remains my favorite. Dick Loudon (Newhart) is a writer from New York City who buys an inn in a rural Vermont town populated by colorful locals who exist to exasperate Dick. I like Bob Newhart in all of his roles which are essentially the same- a mild-mannered, stammering straight man. A bit like Droopy Dog (minus Droopy's explosions of anger and muscle). As David Hyde Pierce observed, "The only difference between Bob Newhart on stage and Bob Newhart offstage – is that there is no stage."

Trivia- the last two times that I flew, Julia Duffy was on the plane.

The other night I went with Em and Bao (and my co-worker Hiland) to see the filming of the pilot for a Chris Elliot vehicle called "Chrissy Plain & Simple". I like the name and concept. Just pure, unadulterated Chris Elliot without any bells and whistles and jangles and bangles and be-bops and re-rops and  flee-flops... or something to that effect. If you're a fan, you know how he just stupidly starts rambling to that effect.
On the downside- it's sketch comedy with pre-filmed satirical segments that we had to watch a couple of times and force some laughter for the second time around. At one point I looked up at a monitor and the entire frame was filled with my chin and some teeth laughing at nothing but the instructions of the episode's director, Bobcat Goldthwait.
The show takes place on a stage cluttered with Chris Elliot cut-outs of Chris in different poses, always wearing socks regardless of the character being portrayed and, I have to say, his stupid expressions forced me to smile over and over before filming whilst Jimmy Kimmel cracked jokes- and talked about the fact that he, I and some other guys were all coincidentally wearing maroon shirts.
The show started with an introduction and the first skit was a parody of My Super Sweet 16 which gave Chris a chance to do his annoying, entitled brat shtick which is one of my favorites but, of the MTVs, I only have MTV trés which seems to be mostly videos and not reality programming so some of it might've gone over my head.
The second skit was a parody of Most Dangerous Catch. Do I need cable? I don't think so. This time Chris and crew fished for eels in a la s behest, to love himself resulting in him having an affair with himself and subsequently shooting himself in jealousy that I found extremely funny.
So, there's pretty much no chance that the show's getting picked up which is a shame but I really would rather see Chris in a sitcom than sketch comedy anyway and I'm glad I saw a vastly under-appreciated comedic genius perform live.
Although one of my favorite characters of his is the Canadian hitchhiker on Letterman who foretold bad things happening before passing on; I've never been able to find any of those clips so I leave you with other highlights.