Dislike the last two seasons

The show right after this one, 'Bob,' had a major revamp after the first season-- but something was off in both seasons, and they tried to rely on a lot of the old formula that had made him a hit in the past-- like having Jere Burns essentially do the Howard Borden/Kirk Devane/Michael Harris foil. I think he returned to the airwaves too soon and didn't have it all figured out before they aired, which led to changes and an early cancellation.

Now, the next series, which came around 1997, with Judd Hirsch entitled 'George & Leo' was very good. It had more of a long story arc, where these guys were sort of rivals and their children fell in love-- the son was played by Jason Bateman. CBS axed it after one year, probably because it was appealing to an older audience, but it could easily have lasted and would have been a substantial hit.

It's a shame Duffy and Scolari did not get to spin their well-honed characters off on to their own show, but in a way, all the stories in the last two seasons of 'Newhart' had rendered the characters useless in a continuing format. It was just too surreal and not at all anything you could build on anymore.

Exactly. The earlier seasons had a much more timeless quality to them, especially seasons 3-6 where Miriam Trogdon was in charge of the writing. The last season was trying too hard to be hip and topical.

And I think Joanna changes personality and George changes personality, because of lazy writing. It's easy to write a zinger where someone can get a laugh out of meanness, but it ruins this kind of show and takes the softer more charming touches away that were deeply established in the characters and their Rockwell-type surroundings.

A lot of bad story choices at the end, and poor characterization that resulted in a loss of focus for a once-great series.

I liked both couples. I think Kirk and Cindy should have continued as recurring characters. Michael & Stephanie (later with the baby) were much more developed because they were featured longer and the writers took them in more directions.

A perfect example of the over-the-top preposterousness was the one at the beginning of season 8 where Dick carelessly tosses a cigar in a trash can at a fancy restaurant and the place burns down. Out of guilt, Dick & Joanna allow the owner to stay on at the Stratford, where he essentially takes over the cooking duties. The actor was brilliant and the episode was quite funny, but wondering if he would enact revenge on the Loudons was stretched out, and personally I don't think Dick was the kind of person to be so careless as to cause a fire. Plus, he would not have kept such information from the authorities. So the integrity of the main characters is being sacrificed in order to do what is a broad sketch involving the chef-owner and the Loudons.

I do like the Seein' Double episode, because I think it ranks up there with the best of the WPIV episodes that poke fun at network television industry practices. But even it is a broad sketch, and it probably goes on too long in spots.

Michael and Stephanie's move into the carriage house with the baby was a natural progression for them (nothing outlandish or insane about that). It would have seemed weirder if they stayed on at the inn, and if Stephanie had kept working forever at the Stratford under Dick & Joanna.

The middle four years featured the townsfolk fairly often, so this is not a new thing at the end of the series. It is just that one or two new recurring characters have been added, like Miss Goddard. But all the others-- Officer Shiflett, Jim & Chester, and Larry & the Darryls-- were present in the earlier stories. However, Harley has been killed off by the new writers and some of the WPIV staff changes, and all the Beaver Lodge stuff (with those wacky characters) is dropped.