Called Small & Frye, the show featured Daily as a neurotic doctor it lasted only three months before being canceled. įor the two years that followed The Bob Newhart Show, Daily returned to stand-up, but in 1980, after years of making a living as a second banana, Daily was offered his own show. After Richard Dawson's departure, Daily was a semi-regular for the final three years of the show's CBS and syndicated run. Mid-1970s to 1990s ĭaily occasionally served as a panelist on the 1970s CBS game show Match Game. Emily ( Suzanne Pleshette) listens to Howard (Daily). He frequently pops into the Hartleys' apartment to borrow things, mooch a meal, or have the Hartleys take care of his visiting son. Borden, a commercial airline navigator who later becomes a co-pilot, lives across the hall from Bob Newhart's Bob Hartley character. In 1972, two years after I Dream of Jeannie was canceled, Daily was back on television in a non-military aviator's uniform, as Howard Borden in The Bob Newhart Show. As astronaut Tony Nelson's best friend and NASA colleague, Roger often helped to solve the absurd social, military or other existential dilemmas that Nelson's sultry-but-naive genie ( Barbara Eden) would unwittingly cause one or both of them at Cape Kennedy, during the early years of NASA's Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. Main articles: I Dream of Jeannie and The Bob Newhart Showĭaily appeared in guest spots on My Mother the Car, The Farmer's Daughter and Bewitched, before veteran sitcom writer Sidney Sheldon took notice of Daily's work and hired him for the supporting role of Army Major Roger Healey, on I Dream of Jeannie, in 1965.
In 1963, Steve Allen appeared on The Mike Douglas Show, saw Daily do a comedy bit and offered him a job in Los Angeles as an announcer, writer and performer on his syndicated show. During his days off, Daily drove to Cleveland to write, direct and perform on The Mike Douglas Show. Daily stated that preparing for a Chicago-area Emmy Award telecast, he asked a young Bob Newhart to come up with a routine about press agents that resulted in the routine "Abe Lincoln vs. After graduating from the Goodman Theatre School, Daily worked for the NBC television station WMAQ in Chicago as an announcer and floor manager. Comedy career 1950s to early 1960s įollowing his time in the Army, Daily began performing stand-up comedy and gradually began playing some of the bigger clubs in the U.S. In the early 1950s, he was drafted into the United States Army, serving in the Korean War with an artillery unit and later with an entertainment unit.
#Bill daily professional#
Following graduation from Lane Technical High School, Daily studied for a time at the Peterson Theatre School, then left home to become a professional musician, playing upright bass with jazz bands in numerous clubs across the Midwest. In 1939, Daily and his family moved from Des Moines to Chicago, Illinois, where he spent the rest of his youth. Two weeks after his son was born, Daily's father left his home to buy a loaf of bread and never returned. Willard Carroll Smith James Daily was born on August 30, 1927, in Des Moines, Iowa, the son of Fern Ellis and Raymonde Daily.