Bob Newhart Had the Perfect Response When a Producer Told Him Not to Stammer

Comedy is a delicate art and Bob Newhart is one of the experts. For decades, his whole persona has been to find the humor in pauses and stammers. Newhart has gotten the stammer down to an art, so you can imagine he wouldn’t take too kindly to newbies second guessing him. 

James Burrows directed Newhart on The Bob Newhart Show. In a recent interview on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast on Sept. 4, Burrows told a story about Newhart responding to executives questioning his stammer. 

Both James Burrows and Conan O’Brien know Bob Newhart stammer stories

Burrows got his start in television directing on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Her company hired Burrows for other productions including The Bob Newhart Show. Jay Sandrich directed the pilot, but by the time Burrows directed his episodes, he’d heard the stammer story. 

“One of the producers said to him, I think in the pilot, ‘Can you not stammer so much?’” Burrows said on Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend.  “He said, ‘That stammer built a house in Beverly Hills.”

O’Brien remembered another Newhart stammer story.

“On one of his early records, the audio engineer heard these long pauses and little stammers and took them out,” O’Brien said. “Bob Newhart went back and said, same idea, ‘You’re screwing with the formula here. Leave those in.”

Bob Newhart would stammer to entertain the studio audience, too 

Burrows shared more stories about his time on The Bob Newhart Show. Most sitcoms have a warmup comedian. Newhart did that himself, with his A-list material. 

“He was amazing,” Burrows said. “Also, he did warm-up. In a multicamera sitcom, there’s an audience. The audience has to be warmed up. Newhart would do that. Newhart would come out and tell the parrot joke, the same parrot joke and the audience would just go crazy. He was amazing. He’s such a sweet man.”

James Burrows was a fan since college 

Directing Bob Newhart was a major milestone for Burrows. Burrows grew up listening to classic comedy albums including Newhart and Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks.

“My dad sent me Bob’s record and he also sent me the 2000 Year Old Man when I was in college I think in 1960,” Burrows said. “I was all of a sudden the hub of the dorm because I went to college in Ohio at Oberlin. All these guys who didn’t grow up in New York City who came to Oberlin because it was very ecumenical from all around the country. They would just sit there and roar, especially at 2000 Year Old Man. So the fact that I got to work with Newhart [was special], because I was such a fan of his.”