IN: Newhart was born on September 5, 1929 at West Suburban Hospital in Oak Park, Illinois. His parents were George David Newhart (1899-1986), a part-owner of a plumbing and heating-supply business, and Julia Pauline (nee Burns; 1901-1991), a housewife. His mother was of Irish descent and his father was of English, Irish, and German ancestry. One of his grandmothers was from St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.

Newhart is known for his deadpan delivery and a slight stammer which he incorporated early on into the persona around which he built a successful career. On his TV shows, although he got his share of funny lines, he worked often in the Jack Benny tradition of being the "straight man" while the sometimes rather bizarre cast members surrounding him got the laughs. Newhart, however, has stated that "I was not influenced by Jack Benny" in terms of his style or persona, and cites George Gobel and the comedy team of Bob and Ray as his initial writing and performance inspirations.  Several of his routines involve hearing one-half of a conversation as he speaks to someone over the phone. In a bit called "King Kong", a rookie security guard at the Empire State Building seeks guidance as to how to deal with an ape that is "between 18 and 19 stories high, depending on whether there's a 13th floor or not." He assures his boss he has looked in the guards' manual "under 'ape' and 'ape's toes'." Other famous routines include "The Driving Instructor", "The Mrs. Grace L. Ferguson Airline (and Storm Door Company)", "Introducing Tobacco to Civilization", "Abe Lincoln vs. Madison Avenue", "Defusing a Bomb" (in which an uneasy police chief tries to walk a new and nervous patrolman through defusing a live shell discovered on a beach), "The Retirement Party", "Ledge Psychology", "The Krushchev Landing Rehearsal", and "A Friend With a Dog."  In a 2012 podcast interview with Marc Maron, comedian Shelley Berman accused Newhart of plagiarizing his improvisational telephone routine style.  However, in interviews both years before and after Berman's comments, Newhart has never taken credit for originating the telephone concept, which he has noted was done earlier by Berman and -- predating Berman -- Nichols and May, George Jessel (in his well-known sketch "Hello Mama"), and in the 1913 recording "Cohen on the Telephone". The technique would later also be used by Lily Tomlin, Ellen DeGeneres, and many others.

What was his style focused on?

OUT: he worked often in the Jack Benny tradition of being the "straight man"


IN: Styx  is an American rock band from Chicago that formed in 1972 and became famous for its albums released in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They are best known for melding hard rock guitar balanced with acoustic guitar, synthesizers mixed with acoustic piano, upbeat tracks with power ballads, and incorporating elements of international musical theatre. The band established itself with a progressive rock sound in the 1970s, and began to incorporate pop rock and soft rock elements in the 1980s. Styx is best known for the hit songs "Lady",

The band followed DeYoung's lead with their next project, Kilroy Was Here (1983), another more fully realized concept album, embracing the rock opera form. It is set in a future where performing and playing rock music has been outlawed due to the efforts of a charismatic evangelist, Dr. Everett Righteous played by James Young. Kilroy Was Here featured Dennis DeYoung in the part of Kilroy, an unjustly imprisoned rock star. Tommy Shaw played the part of Jonathan Chance, a younger rocker who fights for Kilroy's freedom and the lifting of the ban on rock music. This future society is served by robots. Called Robotos, these automatons perform many jobs, and several serve as Kilroy's prison guards.  Part of the impetus for the Kilroy story was the band's reaction to the backward masking accusation. The album included James Young's song "Heavy Metal Poisoning", which includes lyrics sarcastically mocking the allegations against the group. Its introduction intentionally included a backward message, the Latin phrases, "annuit coeptis" and "novus ordo seclorum", from the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States. Referring to the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776, these are translated, "Annuit coeptis - He (God) favors our undertakings, and Novus ordo seclorum - A new order of the ages." Both choices also served the Kilroy story, because the villain is an evangelist that seeks to expand his Vision of Morality movement via mass demonstrations.  The album Kilroy Was Here went Platinum in 1983, boasting two Top Ten hits, the synthesizer-based "Mr. Roboto" (#3 US) and power ballad "Don't Let It End" (#6 US). The album earned a nomination as Best Engineered Recording for engineer and long-time friend Gary Loizzo and fellow engineers on the album Will Rascati and Rob Kingsland, for the 26th Grammy Awards (1983).  In 1983, the band mounted an ambitious stage show in support of Kilroy Was Here featuring theatrical presentations of three songs utilizing instrumental backing tracks, including "Mr. Roboto", which featured DeYoung singing live while disguised as a Roboto, "Heavy Metal Poisoning" with James Young as the evangelist Dr. Righteous singing while the Panozzo brothers acted as his henchmen on stage, and "Haven't We Been Here Before" with Tommy Shaw as Jonathan Chance and DeYoung (as Kilroy in Roboto costume) duetting. The elaborate show was expensive to produce and was not as profitable as previous tours.  Kilroy Was Here brought the creative and competitive tensions within the band beyond the breaking point. Guitarist Tommy Shaw departed the band for a solo career at the conclusion of the tour. In 1984, the band released its first live album, Caught in the Act. The project featured one studio track, "Music Time", which became a Top 40 hit. The concert was also filmed and released on VHS under the same title (and on DVD in 2007). By the time of the album's release, the band had already parted ways.

Were there any special singles released from that album?

OUT:
two Top Ten hits, the synthesizer-based "Mr. Roboto" (#3 US) and power ballad "Don't Let It End" (#6 US).