Newhart: In the Beginning

Newhart: In the Beginning
CBS
October 25, 1982
Sitcom
DVD
C-

So, here's the thing.  I always preferred The Bob Newhart Show to Newhart, but, well, in the beginning, I liked the '80s sitcom and I remember preferring the first season, with Kirk and Leslie, to later seasons.  But watching this now, it felt alternately listless and overdone.  That is, the direction, by respected veteran John Rich (everything from The Dick Van Dyke Show and All in the Family to That Girl and The Brady Bunch), is surprisingly lacking in energy, not helped by badly aging videotape.  The characters don't have much spark and scenes seem to go on forever.  And yet, the last scene, where Bob, uh, I mean Dick has to tell the elderly ladies that the inn used to be a "cathouse," feels over the top and not grounded in reality.  Things aren't as surreal as they'd get in the Larry, Darryl, & Darryl days, but we're nowhere near the believability of BNS.  That said, there are occasionally sort of funny jokes, like Bob asking his first guests to put their "John Hancock" in the register after John Hancock.  So, yeah, C-.