You won't believe the dream I just had. Don't you want to hear about it?

September 14, 2023 6:54 AM

Dr. Robert Hartley is having a really bad day. His dream last night of a strange little inn in Vermont seemed to last for years, and now he can't get anyone to take seriously how disturbing it was. I never even knew this existed! From 1991, The Bob Newhart Show: The 19th Anniversary Special [47m].

Bonus, The Paley Center For Media: The Bob Newhart's Show 35th Anniversary Reunion [45m, 2007] Less funny and more interview panel.

posted by hippybear (25 comments total)

OMG the title for this got fucked in my cut and paste.

The real title should be "You won't believe the dream I just had. Don't you want to hear about it?"

Maybe we can get that fixed.
posted by hippybear at 6:55 AM on September 14, 2023 [1 favorite]

I thought this title was some reference to a current software scandal that also resonated somehow with the Bob Newhart show, but which I (despite almost 20 years in tech) was too dumb to understand!
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 6:58 AM on September 14, 2023 [1 favorite]

Mod note: Title fixed.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 7:00 AM on September 14, 2023 [2 favorites]

Now I want to know what the original broken title was…
posted by njohnson23 at 7:21 AM on September 14, 2023 [3 favorites]

Breaking Bad really really really should have ended with Bryan Cranston waking up in bed next to Jane Kaczmarek.

But I guess television just doesn't want to take any risks these days.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 7:25 AM on September 14, 2023 [39 favorites]

I can't find the link right now but that ending for Breaking Bad was filmed and it's on YouTube somewhere I'm sure.
posted by Ampersand692 at 7:45 AM on September 14, 2023 [3 favorites]

Now I want to know what the original broken title was…
Assuming it didn't truncate too much, per the address of the page it was "Lots of emphasis on them only counting installs after Jan 1, 2024"

Breaking Bad really really really should have ended with Bryan Cranston waking up in bed next to Jane Kaczmarek.
The Breaking Newhart ending, for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.
posted by miguelcervantes at 7:46 AM on September 14, 2023 [16 favorites]

We all have dreams. Mine is that Kelsey Grammar woke up next to Shelley Long after the first run of Frasier. Now the best I can hope for is Eddie—and he won't understand anything but treats.
posted by not_on_display at 8:15 AM on September 14, 2023 [2 favorites]

The gag ending for Newhart was (Bob Newhart's real-life wife) Ginnie Newhart's idea, and was inspired by the soap opera Dallas, which began their tenth season with the revelation that the whole ninth season had a been a dream that Pamela Barnes Ewing was having.
posted by orange swan at 8:24 AM on September 14, 2023 [11 favorites]

Is this how the idea for Inception got started?
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 8:44 AM on September 14, 2023 [1 favorite]

I think it would be really neat if Frasier Crane returns to Boston, but it's not his Boston. Instead of the familiar Cheers, he finds the original Bull and Finch pub, which despite being at the bottom of a recognizable set of stairs, looks nothing like the bar he used to visit. At first he thinks it's just changed hands, but then he's puzzled by the fact that no one seems to remember Sam Malone pitching for the Red Sox and there's no record of any Woody Boyd having been on the city council.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 9:10 AM on September 14, 2023 [10 favorites]

He remembers a colleague of his worked at St. Eligius Hospital. He finds the building, but to his shock it's full of apartments and no one remembers it ever housing a hospital.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 9:16 AM on September 14, 2023 [10 favorites]

In 2023, everyone is Tommy Westphall.
posted by JHarris at 9:27 AM on September 14, 2023 [7 favorites]

RonButNotStupid, I remember reading somewhere a fan theory that Malcolm in The Middle is a sequel series to Breaking Bad where Walter White is in the Witness Protection program.
posted by KingEdRa at 10:13 AM on September 14, 2023 [7 favorites]

Here's the Malcolm's Breaking Bad Dream.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJok2UfASaA
posted by wellvis at 11:04 AM on September 14, 2023

I frequently have dreams about Suszanne Pleshette. I don't mean any disrespect. She's just stuck in my head as this PERFECT WOMAN.
posted by SPrintF at 11:22 AM on September 14, 2023 [6 favorites]

I think it would be really neat if Frasier Crane returns to Boston, but it's not his Boston.

I'm completely on board for this Frasier sequel that's also seemingly secretly a Twin Peaks: The Return sequel
posted by jason_steakums at 11:25 AM on September 14, 2023 [2 favorites]

Oh, and to his momentary relief he calls and gets through to Niles, except he and Niles had an argument shortly before he left Seattle so every time he tries calling Niles answers and says some variation of "I'm still not ready to speak with you" before immediately hanging up.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 12:56 PM on September 14, 2023 [1 favorite]

"Hi Bob."
posted by doctornemo at 12:58 PM on September 14, 2023 [4 favorites]

There are three people missing from this thread so far, and their names are Larry, Darrel, and Darrel.
posted by JHarris at 1:51 PM on September 14, 2023 [5 favorites]

(Also, I'm almost in tears over how there's such a huge foop-shaped hole in this thread.)
posted by JHarris at 1:52 PM on September 14, 2023 [1 favorite]

While Larry, Darrel, and Darrel are included in the above special, I have to admit I was expecting this to be more a discussion of Bob Newhart than TV Shows Where People Woke Up From A Dream and I'm entirely here for this better topic.
posted by hippybear at 2:18 PM on September 14, 2023

I keep hoping to wake up from this current dream where Trump was president and my family is ever worse flavors of right wing nutbag.
posted by evilDoug at 3:39 PM on September 14, 2023 [7 favorites]

I worked my way through the entire run of The West Wing (which I had not seen when it originally aired due to my not having had access to a TV from 1996-2002) in 2017, and while I thought it an excellent show in its own right, a big part of my viewing pleasure came from the fact that watching it allowed me to live in alternate reality where not only TFG but also Dubya wasn't ever in the White House.
posted by orange swan at 4:20 PM on September 14, 2023 [2 favorites]

So then Sam Malone wakes up next to Rebecca Howe and says, "Gee, y'know, I just had this really weird dream, there was this woman who was actually a computer, and I built this town so I could fool some people... and each time I woke up, I was back in the same place, trying to fool these same people... it seemed to last forever!"

And then Ted Danson wakes up between Mary Steenburgen and Larry David. Larry yells at him, "You schmuck, get back to sleep."
posted by not_on_display at 5:10 PM on September 14, 2023 [7 favorites]