This is a crossover so slight and odd I almost hesitate to include it. This from someone who counts a passing mention of B. J. Hunnicut as being a friend of one of the doctors on St. Elsewhere as being acceptable as a crossover. And this one is actually a full throttle, fully approved by the show creators crossover. Only its so odd and trifling. Also of interest... this crossover happened over 20 years after both shows were cancelled.

    Around 1996, Bob Newhart staged a reunion show for The Bob Newhart Show. Instead of waiting for a normal 25th anniversary episode, he jumped the gun for a 24th anniversary show. Also, instead of doing a retrospective show where all the old cast sits around discussing the show out of character while clips are shown, Newhart staged it as another episode of the series with the old cast talking IN character about the old days while clips were shown. Still it was nice to actually see them as those characters again.

    The last time The Bob Newhart Show's Doctor Bob Hartley had been seen was actually on the last episode of Bob Newhart's second sitcom Newhart. In that episode it had been revealed that the entire run of Newhart had been nothing but Bob Hartley's bad dream. This special picked up the next day with Bob very concerned about what this dream of his meant. Why would he dream he was an innkeeper in a small Vermont town? Which leads us to the matter at hand...

    Into Bob's office comes Bob's neighbor and airline pilot Howard Borden. Howard commiserate with Bob's dream situation admitting that he once dreamed he was an astronaut for 5 seasons! They then cut to several I Dream Of Jeannie clips. The actor playing Howard, Bill Daily, had previously played Astronaut Roger Healey on that show.

    Now again, its as close to official as they come. They showed clips from Jeannie for crying out loud! But the fact that he said seasons and all makes it this sort of breaking the reality of the show joke. I really did want someone to call him on it. I wanted one of the characters to point out how weird it sounded. That is not the kind of odd comment you would expect to go uncommented on in this particular show. It sort of violated its feeling of reality. It was a funny joke but somehow oddly uncomfortable. Oh well. So its up to you. I Dream Of Jeannie may in fact have been nothing more than Howard Borden's dream.

Other Bob Newhart Show Crossover Links
The Bob Newhart Show and Bob
The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart
The Bob Newhart Show and Murphy Brown
The Bob Newhart Show and St. Elsewhere

Click here to return to main Crossover List

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