Newhart Couple Reunited

• Jan 17, 2005 03:00 AM ET
• by Daniel R. Coleridge

Wouldn't all you Newhart fans just love a reunion show? Well, sorry, you ain't gettin' one. But how's this? As previously reported by TV Guide Online, Peter Scolari and Julia Duffy — who played lovebirds on Bob Newhart's 1982-90 sitcom — will guest-star on tonight's Listen Up (8:30 pm/ET on CBS). In the episode, entitled "Snub Thy Neighbor," they play Jason Alexander's snooty new next-door neighbors.

"We're very straight-laced, which is funny because that's anything but what we were on Newhart," says Duffy, who played daffy debutante Stephanie to Scolari's yuppie hubby Michael. "On Listen Up, Jason Alexander and his wife are the wacky neighbors trying to ingratiate themselves to us, and we're normal."

Here's the sitch: "Jason meets Peter while he's taking out the garbage, and then he's obsessing over whether to say hello to the new neighbors or be distant," the Designing Women alumna previews. "And then when we are the ones who are distant, Jason gets even more obsessive about it! We have a neighborhood party and invite everyone except them. When he comes over, we are very, very friendly, but we do not invite him in. So it's a mystery because we're perfectly nice but we won't go past a certain point with him. You'll have to watch to find out why."

The Newhart stars, who are slated to do at least two Listen Up episodes, were thrilled to work together again, though they've certainly kept in touch since Newhart wrapped its run 15 years ago. "I live in L.A. and Peter lives in New York," she says. "My daughter goes to NYU, and she actually baby-sits for his two little ones. In fact, while we were on the Listen Up set, his wife called him because she needed a babysitter, and he called my daughter, while I was standing there, to see if she was free! It's a small world."