Bob Newhart was still living with his parents when he was 30. He was a balding, slouch-eyed former accountant who talked in a calculated, halting stammer. He was no one’s idea of a superstar. Yet, ...

Stand-up comedy existed before Bob Newhart came to Houston in February 1960. But Newhart’s stop at the Tidelands club on South Main became the comet that killed the comedy dinosaurs whose work was a ...