The Bob Newhart Show: Season 5
Season 5 Lore Primer
Key plot threads, lore context, and character stakes you need to remember before diving into this season.
- Directly follows the overarching narrative developments of The Bob Newhart Show Season 4.
- Faction dynamics and core character alliances shift under escalating external stakes.
- Crucial mysteries introduced previously reach key turning points and narrative reckonings.
- Sets up serialized story arcs that build directly toward the climactic season finale.
Episode Guide
Season 5 Progress Shield
Enter Mrs. Peeper
Sep 25, 1976
Bob receives a telegram saying that his old college chum, The Peeper, is coming to Chicago and bringing a surprise. The surprise turns out to be a brand-new bride.
Caged Fury
Oct 2, 1976
The Hartleys miss their friend's gala Fourth of July Bicentennial party celebration when they become trapped in a storage locker.
Some of My Best Friends Are...
Oct 9, 1976
Bob's therapy group has an unexpected visitor when a friendly homosexual joins in the sessions.
Still Crazy After All These Years
Oct 16, 1976
The Hartleys take a vacation. In their absence, Howard undergoes a crash psychological program that changes his entire personality.
The Great Rent Strike
Oct 23, 1976
The Hartley apartment becomes a hot and cold battleground when the good doctor declares psychological warfare on his landlord.
Et, Tu, Carol?
Oct 30, 1976
Both Bob's receptionist and a Buddha figure with a clock in its navel give the psychologist a hard time.
Send This Boy to Camp
Nov 6, 1976
Bob and his friends host an orphan contingent for a wildly improbable camping-out experience.
A Crime Most Foul
Nov 13, 1976
Bob turns amateur detective when he believes that his expensive tape recorder has been stolen.
The Slammer
Nov 20, 1976
Bob and his friend The Peeper take a trip down Memory Lane and wind up in the slammer.
Jerry's Retirement
Nov 27, 1976
Bob defends the work ethic when Jerry comes into a pile of money and promptly retires from the dental profession.
Here's to You, Mrs. Robinson
Dec 4, 1976
Jerry, retired orthodontist and orphan, takes off on a world tour to search for his long-lost parents.
Breaking Up is Hard to Do
Dec 11, 1976
Bob undergoes a shock when his mother announces that she has separated from his father after 47 years of marriage.
Making Up is the Thing to Do
Dec 25, 1976
Bob takes on the role of Christmas peacemaker when he attempts to reconcile his parents.
Love is the Blindest
Jan 8, 1977
Bob watches in amazement as one of his patients supports a blossoming romance with a tissue of lies.
The Ironwood Experience
Jan 15, 1977
Bob's invitation to lecture at a prestigious sex seminar results in distress when the audience shows up nude.
Of Mice and Men
Jan 22, 1977
Bob runs into marital problems when he brings his therapy group home for a wild role-playing encounter.
Halls of Hartley
Jan 29, 1977
Bob succumbs to the pressures of living in a big city and desperately seeks employment of a small rural college.
The Heartbreak Kidd
Feb 5, 1977
Bob thinks that Veronica Kidd, a student trainee, has fallen in love with him.
Death Be My Destiny
Feb 12, 1977
Bob strikes out against a friend's fear of falling, but succumbs to the same phobia himself when he is subjected to a harrowing elevator experience.
Taxation Without Celebration
Feb 19, 1977
Bob's memory is taxed to the limit when he forgets that April 15 is the Federal income tax deadline—and also the date of the Hartleys' seventh wedding anniversary.
Desperate Sessions
Feb 26, 1977
Bob is held hostage in his office by a friendly bank robber.
The Mentor
Mar 5, 1977
A despondent friend accepts Bob's suggestion and turns the psychologist's reception area into a mini-Polynesian village.
Shrinking Violence
Mar 12, 1977
Bob offers sound psychological advice to his wife and his therapy group on how to handle anger. Then he proceeds to blow up himself.
You're Having My Hartley
Mar 19, 1977
Hot baby news is the order of the day when Carol, Bob's receptionist, announces that she's expecting a baby. Then, Emily drops her bombshell—and Bob nearly comes unglued at the pro