Hi, Bob!

The nostalgia kings at TV Land have sponsored a new life-size bronze sculpture of Bob Newhart as Robert Hartley, that lovable, well-meaning psychologist, currently on display on that avenue of avenues, Michigan Avenue in Chicago. The work features a quizzical Hartley - eyebrows arched, pencil poised - hunched in an office chair next to an empty couch. The sculpture is in front of 430 N. Michigan Ave., where Hartley's office was supposed to have been. In November, it will settle permanently near Navy Pier.

Newhart-as-Hartley is TV Land's fourth bronze of a television character in as many years, following Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden at a New York bus station, Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Richards at a Minneapolis mall and Andy Griffith and Ron Howard as Andy and Opie Taylor in Raleigh, N.C.

The Chicago Tribune posted a story on "A Day in the Life of Bob Newhart," featuring pictures of tourists, office workers and school kids sitting down with the statue to wait for a bus, drinking their coffee or discussing their problems.