In Bob Newhart’s second hit sitcom, Newhart, he played a Vermont innkeeper with one simple goal: to read his newspaper without interruption.

It never happened.

One of the people who interrupted him the most was spoiled heiress-turned-incompetent maid Stephanie Vanderkellen. Played by Julia Duffy, this character was young, energetic, blonde and entitled. Newhart played… Newhart.

From Monday morning’s table read to Friday night’s taping, Newhart and Duffy danced comedically with each other. As a writer on the final season of Newhart, I observed their chemistry firsthand. The two could pull laughs from the smallest gesture: a slow blink or a raised eyebrow.

For their work on the show, Duffy earned seven Emmy nominations and Newhart earned three. (Unbelievably, Newhart’s sole Emmy win was as a guest actor on The Big Bang Theory.)

On July 18, when word broke that Newhart had died at the age of 94, Duffy posted a sad tribute.

A few days later, I reached out to her to offer her my condolences.

“I was thinking about it so much this week,” Duffy said on the phone. “And I thought, ‘Has there ever been anyone who was so self-effacing on the surface, who’s made such a huge impact?’”

She continued, “Of course, if I said that to Bob, he’d say, ‘Well, there was Jesus.’ That would probably be his response. ‘And then there’s me.’”

Read that exchange out loud and you’ll hear how perfectly Duffy understood Newhart’s unique comedic voice. Here’s the rest of our conversation, condensed and slightly edited.

As one of the stars of Newhart, your name is forever attached to his, which must be nice.

It is very nice. And it attaches me to so much, going back in the history of comedy and all the people who he worked with. And even Jack Benny, who was a very big influence on him.

It seems to me that Bob was........

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