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No he wasn't, he was playing a character who was being discriminated against because he devoted his career to "science-lite." His rejection by the science community was for doing kiddie stuff, not anything related to his age.
I'm not sure how you can divorce age from a life long rejection by one's peers. They work together to form the character at this point in his life. Tired, ill, cynical, feelings of rejection and dissolution... outside of the age difference, Newhart's character fits in perfectly within the world of these characters. With the exception of Penney all of their lives have been involved in science, they have all experienced some degree of rejection and alienation, and with the exception of Sheldon and Bernadette suffer from some degree of low-self esteem which is from time to time relieved at the expense of one or another.
I'm not sure how you can divorce age from a life long rejection by one's peers. .
Specific to the statement which Blinx made, not only can you say it, it has the virtue of being true. Proton became the object of ridicule at an early age because of his involvement with children's programming. He attempted to get back into science while he was still relatively young, but was discriminated against on the basis of that fluffy image. There was no discrimination against based on his age, he wasn't old when he was rejected.
Bad acting is bad acting and good acting is good acting. As far as I am concerned, Newhart nailed it..
You know acting then you know that if Newhart had really nailed the part we would not be having this conversation at all, we would all be talking about how good he was, not how good he was relative to his age or relative to our expectations. It was hardly a dazzling performance and had Newhart never been involved I'm sure any number of other actors could have done as well or better. If it had been played as well as it was played by Newhart, but by an actor none of us had seen before, there would be no conversation today about how good or bad the guy was because none of us would have found it to be of any special note. All that distinguished the role last night was that it was being played by Bob Newhart....a gimmick casting.
Newhart, because he was so good for so long on his two tv series, has a tremendous reservoir of good will in his Public Image bank. We want to remember him as he was in his prime and because we have that good will for him, our standards for passable are lowered. We do not bring the same set of expectations to the Special Olympics which we do to the Olympics.
So, for some of us, you among this group, it isn't going to matter that Newhart wasn't really "present" in his scenes (another acting term you should know), his timing wasn't as precise, his face no longer capable of those bemused/bewildered/exasperated expressions which filled his deliberate pauses and were a critical part of his timing.
The standard being used in your appraisal is one which praises him for just being able to finish the race.
I, as I have previously explained, am not in that group. I prefer that they do not try rather than make the effort which leaves me uncomfortable.
Specific to the statement which Blinx made, not only can you say it, it has the virtue of being true. Proton became the object of ridicule at an early age because of his involvement with children's programming. He attempted to get back into science while he was still relatively young, but was discriminated against on the basis of that fluffy image. There was no discrimination against based on his age, he wasn't old when he was rejected.
Now here I will have to disagree with you. He couldn't find legitimate work in his field after his show was cancelled. How old was he when his show was canceled? We don't know, but we can figure out an approximate age.
Sheldon and Leonard watched the show when they were "young". Let's say 10 years old. They are now in their 30s -- let's say 33. So they could have been watching the show 23 years ago, when Arthur would have been 60. Plus/minus 5 years for guessing, he could have been anywhere from 55-65 when the show was canceled and looked for other work. NOT young.
Now here I will have to disagree with you. He couldn't find legitimate work in his field after his show was cancelled. How old was he when his show was canceled? We don't know, but we can figure out an approximate age.
Sheldon and Leonard watched the show when they were "young". Let's say 10 years old. They are now in their 30s -- let's say 33. So they could have been watching the show 23 years ago, when Arthur would have been 60. Plus/minus 5 years for guessing, he could have been anywhere from 55-65 when the show was canceled and looked for other work. NOT young.
Regardless, there was nothing stated in the show which suggested his treatment was a consequence of his age. There were direct statements explaining that he was discriminated against due to his having done the children's show.
You are hanging on to a possible implication, I am grounded in the actual evidence before us.
Also...since Sheldon entered college at age 12, do you really think he was still watching Prof Proton at age ten? Wouldn't his mastery of physics by that point have placed him far beyond kiddie experiments? Sheldon must have been past Proton's level by age four or five.
Regardless, there was nothing stated in the show which suggested his treatment was a consequence of his age. There were direct statements explaining that he was discriminated against due to his having done the children's show.
You are hanging on to a possible implication, I am grounded in the actual evidence before us.
Also...since Sheldon entered college at age 12, do you really think he was still watching Prof Proton at age ten? Wouldn't his mastery of physics by that point have placed him far beyond kiddie experiments? Sheldon must have been past Proton's level by age four or five.
While we don't really know what age Leonard entered college, it was not 12. He probably was 17 or 18. Sheldon's maturity level is still like a young child in many respects. Both he and Leonard still wanted to see those experiments. So yes, I think Sheldon was still watching at age 10, not to necessarily learn anything new, but because Dr. Proton was someone whom he greatly admired. Both Sheldon and Leonard have family issues, and Dr. Proton could also have been considered a father figure to both.
I have no issue with an 83 year old man appearing on TV. My issue was that, in my opinion, Newhart was not physically up to playing the part. To me, he seemed tired, worn out and I had trouble understanding some of his lines. I think the praise people are heaping on his performance is due to his past success.
I agree with Granstander this was a gimmick casting job. They could have found any number of octogenarian actors who could have done a better job than he did. It was like seeing Willie Mays in the 1973 World Series while remembering his catch in the 1954 Series. Or Ali-Holmes while remembering the Thriller in Manilla.
I have no problems with old people. I'm attending a 100th birthday party tomorrow for my wife's grandmother. I just don't want her appearing on TV.
The viewer's mind? Speak for yourself! My mind was on the comedy I was watching. I was too busy enjoying the fun to think anything like that. It's great to see the older people still around getting work. I saw Newhart in an interview regarding his part in the show and he said he loved every minute of it. And the other actors around him said they loved being around him.
What did you expect them to say. "Good Lord, whose stupid idea was it to hire that old coot? We're lucky he didn't keel over dead in the middle of taping".
Yes, but that was applied to your guess about Proton's age when his show was cancelled.
Your statement about when Sheldon watched the show was:
Quote:
Sheldon and Leonard watched the show when they were "young". Let's say 10 years old
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