‘80s Hit Sitcom, Ranked Among ‘Greatest Series Finales of All Time,' Ended 36 Years Ago Today-With a Twist No One Saw Coming
On May 21, 1990, Newhart went out with a bang. The sitcom, the second CBS hit for star Bob Newhart, ended its eight-season run with a twist that thrilled fans.
Newhart aired for eight seasons, starting in October 1982. It starred Newhart and Mary Frann as married Vermont innkeepers Dick and Joanna Loudon. The hit comedy series came after Newhart spent six years playing Dr. Bob Hartley, a Chicago psychologist married to Emily (Suzanne Pleshette), on The Bob Newhart Show.
The actor's two worlds collided in the final Newhart episode, titled "The Last Newhart." In the final scene, it is revealed that the entire series was a dream of Dr. Bob Hartley. Newhart even wakes up in bed next to his first sitcom wife, Pleshette. Newhart's final line in the series is to Pleshette's character, Emily. "You know, you really should wear more sweaters," he says, in a nod to his Vermont wife, played by Frann.
Films Fatale ranked "The Last Newhart" one of the greatest series finales of all time, on a list that included Six Feet Under, M*A*S*H, The Sopranos, and Breaking Bad. It was one of the few sitcoms that made the list, and its inclusion was thanks to The Bob Newhart Show, which the review website claimed outshone it right up until the finale. "It's a hilarious way that a show admits that it wasn't anything noteworthy, and yet it goes out in this shocking, hilarious, self-aware way; it couldn't be more noteworthy now," the outlet noted.
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The ‘Newhart' ending came from Newhart's real-life wife
Not only did the Newhart ending feature two wives, but Newhart's real-life wife, Ginnie, was involved. According to Ultimate Classic Rock, the comedy legend's wife suggested that the final episode should take a page from the 1986 Dallas season finale in which the previously dead Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) returned to the cast under the guise that the whole season had been a dream.
Ginnie Newhart's pitch included the idea that Newhart would wake up as Bob Hartley in his old Chicago apartment. "Without missing a beat, she said, ‘You ought to end it with a dream sequence where you wake up in bed with Suzy,'" Newhart told Entertainment Weekly in 2010. "[Suzanne] loved the idea. She said, ‘I'll be there in a New York minute!'"
The surprise ending was kept top secret, and Newhart had the writers come up with a fake ending so the real finale wouldn't be leaked. "To me, it was the ultimate wink-wink, nudge-nudge kind of thing," Newhart added of the finale. "The audience was in on the joke."
In an interview with the Television Foundation Academy, Pleshette recalled that as soon as she and Newhart taped the finale scene, they instantly "knew it was a piece of television history." "He knew it, we knew it. We were nervous, but I mean we knew," she said.
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This story was originally published May 21, 2026 at 3:12 AM.