Yes, it is confusing! Bob Newhart had 3 TV shows named after him. Check out his other two series, "The Bob Newhart Show (1972)" and "Newhart (1982)".

Series Description

The Bob TV show was a 30 minute comedy series on CBS about a cartoonist who was unhappily working as an illustrator of greeting cards when a publisher shows interest in producing a comic book based on a superhero character he created.

Bob Cast

Bob Newhart .... Bob McKay
Carlene Watkins .... Kaye McKay
Cynthia Stevenson .... Trisha McKay
Tom Poston .... Jerry Fleisher
John Cygan .... Harlan Stone (Season 1)
Andrew Bilgore .... Albie Lutz (Season 1)
Ruth Kobart .... Iris Frankel (Season 1)
Timothy Fall .... Chad Pfefferle (Season 1)
Jere Burns .... Pete Schmidt (Season 2)
Betty White .... Sylvia Schmidt (Season 2)
Megan Cavanagh .... Chris Szelinski (Season 2)

Bob Trivia:

Many years prior to this series going on the air, Bob Newhart appeared on "The Tonight Show" and told Johnny Carson that since his first series was called, "The Bob Newhart Show" and his second was titled, "Newhart", he only had one choice left if he ever got another series. He said he'd have to simply call it "Bob". At the time everyone assumed it was a funny joke but that's exactly what he ended out doing!

Bob Newhart was one of most often used guest hosts for when Johnny Carson took time off the Tonight Show. He guest hosted 87 times!

Despite Bob Newhart's amazing talent and a wonderful supporting cast, the Bob TV show never gained an audience of any substance. At the beginning season CBS even brought in some new Cast including megastar Betty White ("Life With Elizabeth", "Date With the Angels", "Mary Tyler Moore Show", "The Betty White Show", "Mama's Family", "The Golden Girls", "Golden Palace", "Ladie's Man", "Boston Legal") and moved the show to a better time slot, but that didn't help either. The series probably would have made it for several seasons if CBS had left the original cast and plot of the show alone and simply moved it to the better time slot. Most critics and fans felt that the show was great the way it was in the first season.

In 1993, composer Lee Holdridge secured an Emmy nomination for the Bob TV show for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Main Title Theme Music". Unfortunately, Lee got beat out by Dennis McCarthy for his theme music for the series, "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine".