User Reviews

When Dick and Joanna come to realize that a woman, hanged as a witch, is buried in the basement next to the furnace, Joanna gets creeped out and begins the process of unearthing her. She supposedly turned a young man into a badger. Anyway, there are some really funny scenes. One is with a local minister, but, best of all, the first appearance of Larry, Darryl, and Darryl, who are hired to move the body. There are some great bits also involving George Utley, who confers with Dick (Newhart) about buying and installing a new furnace. Choice stuff.

I plan on reviewing all of the episodes of the first and second seasons of Newhart plus an additional four episodes in the series that I feel are worth reviewing.

This is the second episode of the first season entitled Mrs. Newton's Body Lies A Mould'ring in the Grave.

I said in my previous review that I very much prefer The Bob Newhart Show over Newhart. The Bob Newhart Show is character driven whereas Newhart is plot driven and The Bob Newhart Show is way better written in general.

I also said in my previous review that I think that Kirk Devane is the best character in Newhart. This holds true for the complete tenure of the first two seasons before actor Steven Kampmann is unceremoniously dumped from the series, taking alny quality the series had with him with the exception of four episodes. That's right. After season 2, there are still six seasons to go but only four episodes of quality to remain, with anything even remotely interesting, funny, or thought provoking. Now that I've put a much deserved damper on the series as a whole, let's take a closer look at this series second offering.

Aside from the aforwmentioned Kirk Devane character, other positives in this episode are the performances of Bob Newhart, Tom Poston, and Guest Star Bill Quinn. Also the comedic references about turning someone into a badger are a highlight. This also marks the first appearance of Larry, Darryl, and Darryl in the series. They are always a treat in these early excursions before they were bumped up to being series' regulars at the start of season 3 where , with the exception of one episode made later in season 3, they lost nearly all of their thunder. Other positives here are the fairly decent script, a decent laugh quotient, the maintaining of the elaborate inn setting, and the implementatiion of the omnipresemt laugh track.

Just like with the pilot episode, Mary Frann does an awful job. She is basically a non entity and she also has zero comedic timing.

She is also saddled with being a clunky exposition machine here. In fact, Mary Frann only does a decent job twice in this entire series. These two instances will be covered in my reviews. Jennifer Holmes is beautiful but not given much of anything to work with. That might not have made any difference though.

Still, there's enough good stuff here to make this episode decent viwwing. Even the kid from the mortuary is entertaining enough.

Next up, I'll be reviewing the third episode of the first season called Hail to the Councilman. Stay Tuned!