I can't think of anyone else to have done the thing Newhart did in his old phone-call routines where ... it's just a solo straightman! Alone on a stage, reacting to implied dialogue. Totally agree with Nick in his thread start about how this made the sitcoms interesting: they have a straightman so good he doesn't even need comedy to react to, so they can just set up a mundane awkward conflict and it's more than funny enough to watch the guy just stand there in it. I can think of a few performers you could kind of do this with today, but I can't picture any television brave enough to actually try it.
― ን (nabisco), Thursday, 14 March 2024 21:42 (one month ago) link