Legal Commentary

Well, then, may Suzanne Pleshette wake up next to God.

By Ann Althouse

Arguably Ms. Pleshette?s most memorable television moment was not in ?The Bob Newhart Show? but in the final episode of ?Newhart.? On May 21, 1990, Mr. Newhart?s character, Dick Loudon, was hit in the head by a golf ball and woke up to find himself in Dr. Robert Hartley?s bed, with his beautiful, unfailingly sane wife, Emily, at his side. The whole second sitcom had been a nightmare.

The episode was considered one of the most successful series finales in television history, partly because it managed to remain a secret until it was broadcast. As time passed, some found the scene a useful metaphor for hopes that a difficult situation might turn out to be just a bad dream. In 1999, a headline in the humor publication The Onion read, ?Universe Ends as God Wakes Up Next to Suzanne Pleshette.?

The 15-billion-year-old universe came to a surprise-twist end Tuesday, when God woke up next to actress Suzanne Pleshette. "What a crazy dream I just had," God said to Pleshette at the conclusion of the popular, long-running universe. "I was the Creator of all things, I had this crazy Son who was always getting arrested and wouldn't get a haircut, and My children were always hurting and killing each other in My name." Pleshette reassured God that He had imagined the whole thing and urged the beleaguered, well-intentioned deity to go back to sleep.

Full post as published by Althouse on January 20, 2008 (boomark / email).