Newhart

Four years after the end of his long-running sitcom, Bob Newhart returned to series television for another eight years on this brilliantly funny, often surreal sitcom.

In it, Newhart played Dick Loudon, a writer of how-to books who buys a Vermont inn, The Stratford Inn, with his wife Joanna. Leslie Vanderkellen was the priviliged maid working her way through college, George Utley was the somewhat dim-witted handyman, and Kirk Devane was the deceptive owner of the rundown Minuteman Cafe next door.

In 1983, Leslie was replaced by her spoiled and shallow cousin Stephanie. That same year, Kirk married Cindy, a circus clown, and they moved to Europe at the beginning of the third season in 1984.

In March of 1984, Dick became host of a low-rated local talk show entitled "Vermont Today," produced by shallow baby boomer schlockmeister Michael Harris. Michael and Stephanie later fell in love and eventually married and had a baby, also named Stephanie.

The unnamed Vermont village that provided this show's setting was populated by eccentric characters such as Chester Wanamaker, who later became mayor, Jim Dixon, his addle-pated sidekick, Bev Dutton, the no-nonsense manager of Channel 8 (from which "Vermont Today" originated), and Larry, Darryl and Darryl, three surprisingly cultured woodsmen.