The show, set in Vermont, starred comedian Bob Newhart as "Dick Loudon", an author, local television talk show host and inn keeper. Mary Frann portrayed Loudon's wife, Joanna. The show also featured Tom Poston as handyman "George Utley", Peter Scolari as Loudon's television producer "Michael Harris", and Julia Duffy as maid "Stephanie Vanderkellen".
In the later seasons, actors William Sanderson, Tony Papenfuss, and John Voldstad joined the cast and became three of the most popular characters on the show, "Larry, Darryl and Darryl". The two "Darryl"s never spoke, and "Larry" would introduce them every time they entered a room with "Hi, I'm Larry, and this is my brother Darryl, and this is my other brother Darryl".
The series had one of the most memorable final episodes in television history. At the end of the final show, "Dick Loudon" gets hit in the head with a golf ball, falls to the floor and picture goes black. Then you see a light turn on and see that it is Loudon waking up in bed. He reaches over to wake up his wife sleeping next to him and it turns out to be Suzanne Pleshette, who portrayed Newhart's wife "Emily Hartley" in the 1970s sitcom, The Bob Newhart Show. Newhart then begins to tell Pleshette about the strange dream he just had. This scene is reminiscent of the 'dream sequence' used in the TV show Dallas to explain how they could bring Bobby Ewing back after killing him off earlier in that series.
The show was produced by David Mirkin, (who also wrote nine episodes, and directed four), Bob Bendetson, Sheldon Bull, Barton Dean, Mark Egan, Stephen C. Grossman, Barry Kemp, Michael Loman, Richard Rosenstock, Mark Solomon, Roy Teicher, Dan Wilcox, Douglas Wyman, and Shelley Zellman.