Bob Newhart’s lasting legacy in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood

CHICAGO —  From 1972 to 1978, ‘The Bob Newhart Show,’ featuring Bob and Emily Hartley, put Chicago in the spotlight.

Featured in the open was the Edgewater-area condominium at Sheridan and Thorndale, where the couple lived.

“Every week, the opening credit sequence showed Bob walking up to this building and I think it would have to qualify as one of the most overexposed buildings in Chicago,” said John Holden, president of the Edgewater Historical Society .

Margie Fritz-Birche’s late husband, Bill, was the director of photography for the show.

“He shot all the opening sequences and every Chicago scene you see in the show, Bill shot,” she said. “We worked with a lot of celebrities, and they’re not always the nicest of people, but Bob was down to earth, really nice, very funny, and Bill said he was just a pleasure to work with.”

Newhart, a true Chicagoan, was born in 1929 in Oak Park and attended St. Ignatius College Prep and Loyola University, where a theater is named after him.

The longtime Cubs fan was an accountant turned overnight comedy sensation when, in 1960, he released a Grammy Award-winning live comedy album, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart.

Known for his deadpan humor, Newhart performed standup and also starred in two CBS sitcoms, ‘The Bob Newhart Show’ and ‘Newhart.’

“He never overplayed a scene and he could steal the scene from other very talented comedians without trying,” Holden said.

“He had that really understated intellectual comedy, which is so different than what it is today. It’s not this in-your-face comedy.”

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Newhart also guest starred on Desperate Housewives, ER, and The Big Bang Theory and famously played Papa Elf in Will Ferrell’s 2003 movie Elf.

Newhart was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 1992 and received the Mark Twain Prize for American humor.

Newhart died Thursday in Los Angeles. He was 94 years old.

The longtime entertainer would have celebrated his 95th birthday in September.

“Very sad,” Holden said. “He really was one of those old show business kind of guys and its sad every time we lose one of these legends.”

The Edgewater Historical Society is still planning a birthday celebration for Newhart. The organization says they would also like to see an honorary street sign placed near Sheridan and Thorndale.

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