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Bob Newhart was one of the most successful and beloved comedians of his era, famed for his remarkable deadpan delivery. Newhart's track record as a comic performer was unparalleled, encompassing a string of best-selling albums as well as two of the most acclaimed and long-running sitcoms in television history. While neither as groundbreaking nor as controversial as contemporaries like Lenny Bruce or Mort Sahl, Newhart raised the standup format to new levels of mainstream popularity; easily palatable but never pandering, his routines were smart and innovative, subtly bridging the gap between the edgy, confrontational satire of the late '50s with the breezy comic narratives of the mid-'60s. Born George Robert Newhart on September 5, 1929, in Oak Park, IL, he followed a stint in the Army by finding work as a Chicago accountant and advertising copywriter while also performing infrequently in a local theatrical stock company. At the ad agency, Newhart and co-worker Ed Gallagher often while...