Mary Frann Was a Fan of Bob Newhart's Before She Landed 'Newhart' — Did They Get Along?

Comedian Bob Newhart and actress Mary Frann starred alongside each other in Newhart , a comedy show following an author-turned-innkeeper and his family as they lived their lives in rural Vermont.

Before Newhart aired, Bob was on The Bob Newhart Show , where Suzanne Pleshette shared the screen as his fictional wife. The two had immense on-screen chemistry, so much so that it would be talked about for years to come.

Though Mary and Bob may not have had a connection as strong as his and Suzanne's, did they get along? Here's what we know.

Mary Frann had big shoes to fill as Bob Newhart's on-screen wife. Did Bob and Mary get along?

In a 2018 interview with Fox News , Bob recounted how he warned Mary when she landed the role of Joanna Loudon, Bob's on-screen wife in Newhart , that she had some big shoes to fill.

“Suzie and I had a great relationship. Those things are hard to find," he told the outlet. "Later, when I was doing ‘Newhart,’ I told [on-screen wife] Mary Frann, ‘You have a really tough job because they’re going to think of my wife as Suzie.'"

In a 1983 interview with The Cincinnati Enquirer, Mary admitted that she was even a fan of Bob's work before auditioning for her role on Newhart .

"I always liked the old Bob Newhart Show and liked him tremendously," she told the outlet, per Catchy Comedy . "Had I realized that, gee, this is really incredible, it might have frozen me up. But I was very relaxed, and when I read for the producers and directors, I had a terrific time."

It seems that the pair had good chemistry on-screen, even if it wasn't to the degree that Bob had with Suzanne — but there was nothing to indicate that the pair didn't get along. That said, neither has publicly commented on their on-screen relationship in the years since the show concluded.

Mary passed away in September 1998, while Bob passed away in July 2024.