It showed up in his first hit TV sitcom, The Bob Newhart Show in 1972, where he played a psychologist flummoxed by a long line of eccentric patients. Arts & Life Bob Newhart, an Unbuttoned 'American Master' Bob Newhart, an Unbuttoned 'American Master' Listen Its famous final scene was suggested by Newhart's real-life wife Virginia: It featured Newhart's character waking up in his bed from The Bob Newhart Show, next to Suzanne Pleshette, who played his wife on the 1970s sitcom.