TV’s Most Modern Couple: Bob and Emily Hartley

There have been very few admirable couples on TV sitcoms. Usually shows go for a cheap laugh by setting husbands and wives at odds about everything – money, raising kids, household chores.

But the relationship between Bob and Emily Hartley on The Bob Newhart Show was truly special. They were a happily married and loving couple. They didn’t have the obligatory precocious kids. They both had successful careers.

There’s one only one thing that almost came between them. See what that is in this clip we edited from interviews that the Archive of American Television did with Bob Newhart and Suzanne Pleshette.