Character

Larry

Larry in Newhart (1982), played by William Sanderson.

Larry runs a small business in the Vermont town where Dick Loudon keeps his inn, and he never appears without his two brothers standing silently behind him. He does all the talking; they do none. Flannel-clad and utterly literal, he greets every absurd local situation with the same flat, unbothered calm.

The joke is architecture: one talkative brother, two mute ones, and William Sanderson delivering every line with such straight-faced sincerity that the running gag never wears thin. He makes deadpan feel like a personality rather than a device, and the introduction line alone became one of sitcom television's most quoted bits.

Played by

Appears in

Newhart1982