For the love of Bob

Something odd is bobbing up on the waves of American life. Bill Murray stars in box office sensation What About Bob? And Killer Bob returns to Twin Peaks on June 10. Such sightings tend to confirm what writers David Rensin and Bill Zehme predict in The Bob Book: A Celebration of the Ultimate Okay Guy — the ’90s will be totally Bob. The authors see their paperback as a handbook for a new and simpler life. ”Bobs represent back-to-basics,” Zehme says. Below, a selection.

TV Bobs

Bob Cummings
Bob Denver
Bob Keeshan (Captain Kangaroo)
Buffalo Bob
Bob Newhart

TV Show Host Bobs

Bob Saget
Bob Costas
Bob Hope
Bob Barker
Bob Eubanks

Bad Bobs

Bob the outlaw from Judge Roy Bean
H.R. ”Bob” Haldeman
Twin Peaks‘ Bob

Closet Bob

Ron Howard
Joe Garagiola
Pat Sajak
Jimmy Stewart
Jane Pauley
Barney Rubble

Definetely Not Bobs

Baba Ram Dass
Robert De Niro
Bobcat Goldthwait
J. Robert Oppenheimer