Darryl & Darryl Speak! What Happened on the Last Episode of ‘Newhart?’
Ask TV fans of a certain age (or any TV critic) to name a memorable series finale, and the Newhart ender, “The Last Newhart,” which aired on CBS May, 21, 1990, is sure to make the list. Dream sequence jaw-droppers had left viewers dumfounded before — think Dallas’s “Bobby in the shower” sequence and St. Elsewhere’s head-scratcher snow globe. But leave it to Bob Newhart, TV’s beloved stammering everyman, and his crew to pull off such a comical, touching and — this part’s key — deeply satisfying conclusion.
Why was Newhart Cancelled?
Newhart wasn’t ready for the show to end after its eighth season. He was happy with the scripts and the sitcom was still pulling respectable ratings. But a regime change at CBS, coupled with the inability of the network and the show’s production company, MTM, to agree on the cost of a ninth Newhart season, led the show to stand on shaky ground.
CBS/ Courtesy: Everett Collection.
In anticipation of what was to come, Newhart’s writers began working on a humdinger of a series finale, just in case. Though the show’s writing team claimed credit, Newhart himself confirmed to ReMIND that his real-life wife, Ginny, came up with the idea.
“It’s a real tough thing to do. You think you’re prepared for it, but you really aren’t,” Newhart told the Los Angeles Times shortly after the news of the show’s cancellation broke. “It has been a sixth of my life and half of my kids’ lives, and it’s been three-quarters of [his then 12-year-old daughter] Courtney’s life.”
What happened in the Newhart series finale?
True Newhart fans will remember his first sitcom, The Bob Newhart Show, wrapping up with an homage to the Broadway musical “Oklahoma.” That episode itself was a tip of the hat to another MTM comedy, The Mary Tyler Moore Show’s musical finale.
Newhart decided to send its characters on their way, Fiddler on the Roof style. But first, a Japanese takeover. One that turns the entire teeny Vermont town into a giant golf resort — on the very same day they’d declared the flounder the official town fish.
CBS/ Courtesy: Everett Collection.
Gedde Watanabe — he of Sixteen Candles’ Long Duk Dong fame — guest starred as Japanese developer Mr. Tagadachi. Tagadachi offends the living daylights out of everyone at the town meeting with his plan … for about 10 seconds, until he offers residents a million bucks each for their house. To innkeepers Dick Loudon (Newhart) and his wife, Joanna’s (Mary Frann) chagrin, everyone gleefully accepts the offer and scuttles off to pack.
Dick and Joanna pledge to stay — so Tagadachi says he will build around them. A few days later, their neighbors show up, suitcases in hand, to say goodbye, which turns into a riff on Fiddler’s farewell tune, “Anatevka.”
At the end of the song, only Newhart’s famed, two-thirds mute brotherly trio Larry, Darryl and Darryl seem to have a plan. They’re headed to “Chicago, America” — site of The Bob Newhart Show — because “we have an uncle there.”
Cut to five years later…
CBS/Courtesy Everett Collection
The golf course is thriving. The Stratford Inn, now located on the 14th fairway, boasts a Japanese tea room and Joanna is running around in full geisha attire and hairdo. Dick is mystified and mortified by the whole shebang, particularly his ornery Japanese staff members, waitress Sedaka and handyman Sunatra (get it?). Both are only treading water at the inn until they can land cushy jobs at the promised “luxurious 5,000 room Tagadachi Hotel and Country Club.”
And speaking of that, just as Dick has had it completely with his current circumstance, the former townsfolk start filing back into the inn.
What Happened to the Newhart Characters?
Stephanie and Michael
CBS/ Courtesy: Everett Collection.
Spoiled heiress turned maid Stephanie Vanderkellen (Julia Duffy) and her alliteration-loving husband Michael Harris (Peter Scolari), who headed for Europe, show up first, with the now walking, talking Stephanie Jr. in tow. Stephanie Sr. explains that the gang decided to return to the Stratford five years to the day that they left “to see if you were still alive.”
George Utley
Everett Collection
The Loudon’s comically laconic handyman, played by beloved character actor Tom Poston, sums up his recent adventures as this: “Ate a lot. Gained 12 pounds. Did SlimFast. Lost 20 pounds. Ate again. Gained it all back. Went to Arizona. Smoked a peace pipe with some neat Navajos. After that, I didn’t worry about my weight anymore.”
Good enough.
Mayor Wanamaker (William Lanteau), his pal Jim Dixon (Thomas Hill), shoe store manager Mr. Rusnak (David Pressman) and librarian Miss Goddard (Kathy Kinney) — The townsfolk show up in a bunch to declare they’ve all been living on a houseboat in California — “just a few slips down from Robert Goulet!”
Larry (William Sanderson), Darryl (Tony Papenfuss) and their other brother Darryl (John Volstad)
CBS/Courtesy Everett Collection
Everyone’s jaws drop when the doors open next and in come the mysterious trio of woodsman, clad in suits, dress shoes and shades. From the neck up, the boys are totally the same, and they’ve got big news. Who knows if they made it to the Windy City, but they for sure made it to Atlantic City. Their winnings parade into the inn behind them: Long Island-born sisters Rhonda (Christie Mellor), Sada (Lisa Kudrow, pre-Friends) and Zora (Nada Despotovich).
Rhonda explains that the ladies were at a casino when they spotted “three dreamboats losing their shorts at the craps table.” As the sisters made their way over to introduce themselves, boom!, the brothers ran smack into them and romance bloomed. Now the ladies are Mrs. Larry, Mrs. Darryl and the other Mrs. Darryl.
And then a matrimonial miracle occurs. As the ladies loudly bicker over what they were drinking the night of that fateful meeting, the Darryls step forth and howl “Quiet!”
“Guess they’d never been this PO’d before,” Larry shrugs as the others gape at them.
After the shock wears off, the visitors announce that money has indeed bought them happiness and they could never move back. While they’re in town, they plan to stay at the luxurious 5,000 room Tagadachi Hotel and Country Club. Except there isn’t one. No worries. They’ll stay at the Stratford.
And what the heck! They may as well stay forever.
Dick protests that there is, er, not enough room at the inn, so the prodigals get to work figuring out who will bunk with whom. Done in by the racket, Dick makes a break for it, only to get bonked in the head with a golf ball.
He comes to in his bed, rolls over, clicks on the light and prepares to tell his wife about the freaky dream he just had. Except he’s no longer Dick Loudon. He’s Bob Hartley, his character from The Bob Newhart Show, which ended a dozen years earlier. In his book-filled bedroom. And under the covers next to him? None other than Suzanne Pleshette, reprising her role as Bob’s wife Emily. Those Vermont years, including their kooky ending, were all just the dream of one weary psychologist.
The studio audience lost its collective mind. And Newhart made TV history, bringing two beloved sitcoms full circle in one simple, savvy and gently funny farewell.
“The Last Newhart” was a gift to longtime fans, a love letter to Newhart’s inimitable talents on stage and before the cameras, and a master class in how to stick the landing in a manner that deeply respected both shows, their casts and crews and, best of all, the audience.
Remind 
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