Baby Bob

Baby Bob is an American sitcom television series that premiered on CBS as a midseason replacement on March 18, 2002, and aired two seasons through June 20, 2003. The Baby Bob character had previously been on television since February 2000, appearing in commercials for FreeInternet.com.^[1] While actual infants played Bob, the effect to make him look like he was talking was achieved through computer editing.

Baby Bob
Series premiere print advertisement
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Michael Saltzman
Written by	Steve Baldikoski Bryan Behar Jared Bush Norm Gunzenhauser Stephen Lloyd Tom Palmer Michael Saltzman Dan Signer
Directed by	Rob Schiller John Fortenberry Robby Benson
Starring	Adam Arkin Joely Fisher Holland Taylor Elliott Gould
Voices of	Ken Hudson Campbell
Composer	Jon Ehrlich
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	14 (5 unaired)
Production
Executive producer	Michael Saltzman
Producers	Steve Baldikoski Bryan Behar Stephen C. Grossman
Cinematography	Ron Vargas
Editors	Skip Collector Tucker Wiard Michael Wilcox
Running time	30 minutes
Production companies	Scribbler's Pillory Productions Viacom Productions
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	March 18, 2002 (2002-03-18) – June 20, 2003 (2003-06-20)

Synopsis

The series centered on first-time parents Walter Spencer (Adam Arkin) and his wife Lizzy (Joely Fisher), and their six-month-old baby Bob (voiced by Ken Hudson Campbell). After discovering that their son can talk like an adult, Walter decides that they must keep it a secret. Lizzy, however, wants to show off Bob's talking skills, especially to her mother Madeline (Holland Taylor), who constantly brags about her other grandchildren. Supporting cast members included Elliott Gould as Walter's father Sam, and Marissa Tait as Bob's babysitter Teala.

Cast

• Joely Fisher as Lizzy Collins Spencer
• Adam Arkin as Walter Spencer
• Holland Taylor as Madeline Collins
• Elliott Gould as Sam Spencer
• Ken Hudson Campbell as the voice of Bob Spencer
• Marissa Tait as Teala

Episodes

Series overview

Season	Episodes		Originally released
			First released	Last released
1	6		March 18, 2002 (2002-03-18)	April 22, 2002 (2002-04-22)
2	8		June 6, 2003 (2003-06-06)	June 20, 2003 (2003-06-20)

Season 1 (2002)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by [2]	Written by	Original release date	Prod. code [2]	US viewers (millions)
1	1	"First Words"	Rob Schiller	Michael Saltzman	March 18, 2002 (2002-03-18)	001	15.62[3]
2	2	"Mommy & Me"	John Fortenberry	Norm Gunzenhauser	March 25, 2002 (2002-03-25)	002	14.18[4]
3	3	"The Tell-Tale Art"	Rob Schiller	Stephen Lloyd	April 1, 2002 (2002-04-01)	003	12.92[5]
4	4	"The Other Side"	John Fortenberry	Michael Saltzman	April 8, 2002 (2002-04-08)	004	12.90[6]
5	5	"House of the Rising Son"	Rob Schiller	Tom Palmer	April 15, 2002 (2002-04-15)	005	10.71[7]
6	6	"Talking Babies Say the Darndest Things"	John Fortenberry	Bryan Behar & Steve Baldikoski	April 22, 2002 (2002-04-22)	006	10.82[8]

Season 2 (2003)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by [2]	Written by	Original release date	Prod. code [2]	US viewers (millions)
7	1	"Rush Lim-Bob"	Rob Schiller	Dan Singer	June 6, 2003 (2003-06-06)	013	6.00[9]
8	2	"Don't Pass Me By"	John Fortenberry	Michael Saltzman	June 13, 2003 (2003-06-13)	008	5.13[10]
9	3	"Reality Bites"	Rob Schiller	Norm Gunzenhauser	June 20, 2003 (2003-06-20)	TBA	4.64[11]
10	4	"Footloose, Infancy Free"	N/A	N/A	Unaired	TBA	N/A
11	5	"Boys Will Be Girls"	N/A	N/A	Unaired	009	N/A
12	6	"You Don't Know Jack"	N/A	N/A	Unaired	011	N/A
13	7	"Vegas Baby"	N/A	N/A	Unaired	012	N/A
14	8	"Let's Go to the Videotape"	N/A	N/A	Unaired	014	N/A

Reception and cancellation

Baby Bob as Quiznos' television pitchman

The series was panned by critics but premiered to strong ratings and placed 15th in its first week.^[12] Baby Bob wrapped its first season, consisting of six episodes, in April 2002 with CBS planning a second season of thirteen episodes. However, CBS decided to shift its programming budget to its new series My Big Fat Greek Life and cut the second season order for Baby Bob to eight episodes. The second season of Baby Bob remained unaired for over a year until CBS aired the episodes in summer 2003.^[13]

After the show's run ended, the Baby Bob character returned to television in a series of commercials for Quiznos.^[14]

In 2002, TV Guide ranked Baby Bob number 14 on its '50 Worst TV Shows of All Time' list.^[15]