FRIDAY HALL OF FAMERS - HOWARD BORDEN

From Variety:
Bill Daily, the affable TV actor who starred as Major Roger Healey in “I Dream of Jeannie” as well as on “The Bob Newhart Show,” died Sept. 4 in Santa Fe, N.M., his son J. Patrick Daily confirmed. He was 91.

“He loved every sunset, he loved every meal — he just decided to be happy about everything,” said his son.

The longtime New Mexico resident was a staple on series of the 1960s through 1980s, notably as Bob Newhart’s daffy neighbor, airline pilot Howard Borden, on CBS’ “The Bob Newhart Show” sitcom from 1972 to 1978.

Last week we celebrated the late Bill Daily’s television career by inducting Major Roger Healey into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.  This week it’s Howard Borden’s turn.

HOWARD BORDEN
In 1972, two years after Jeannie was canceled, Daily was back on television in another aviator's uniform, as Howard Borden in ‘The Bob Newhart Show’. Borden, a commercial airline navigator who later became a co-pilot, lived across the hall from Bob Newhart's Bob Hartley character, and would frequently pop into the Hartleys' apartment to borrow things, mooch a meal, or have the Hartleys take care of his son when he had custody of him.

In 1990, he reunited with Bob Newhart as a new, overbearing neighbor in the ‘Newhart’ episode "Good Neighbor Sam". Also in 1991, he reprised the role of Howard Borden in “The Bob Newhart Show: The 19th Anniversary Special”, which aired in November of that year.

On that Bob Newhart show reunion he told of his dream of being Dick Loudon, Vermont Innkeeper. Then neighbor Howard Borden (Bill Daily) told about dreaming of being astronaut Roger Healy and the Jeannie in the bottle.[From various sources]

So those are the three qualifications for Howard Borden’s entry into the Hall. 

‘The Bob Newhart Show’ – 140 episodes

O'Bservations - I would not be surprised if there's somebody out there who writes fanfic about 'The Bob Newhart Show'.  (The best I ever came up with is the theory that Dr. Hartley is the reincarnation of Emperor Claudius Nero.)

But Howard would provide plenty of fodder for such stories.  That's because his personal life was more developed than most of the other regular characters (excluding Carol Kester).  He has a brother (Game Warden Gordon Borden), a son (Howie Borden, who would be 54 today), and Howard hopefully ended up marrying Bob Hartley's sister Ellen.

‘Newhart’ – “Good Neighbor Sam”

O'Bservation - 'Newhart' was a series long dream of Dr. Hartley's, caused by eating Japanese food just before going to bed.  Many of the characters in that dream were based on people from Bob's waking life.  However, some of the major people in his life - like Howard Borden - only play small parts in that dream.  His college roommate, Cliff "The Peeper" Murdoch, does play a major role in the dream however as George Utley.

By the way, the structure of the dream is apparently influenced by the "true life" story of a New York lawyer named Oliver Wendell Douglas, who gave up his career to run a farm.  In the case of "Dick", however, he gave up his career to run an inn.  But he was surrounded by eccentric townsfolk like Douglas had in Hooterville. 

“The Bob Newhart Show: The 19th Anniversary Special”

O'Bservation - To this we can add a theory of relateeveety.  Howard mentions that he had a dream in which he was Roger Healey and he knew about Jeannie. 

‘I Dream Of Jeannie’ does have a version seen in Toobworld; some episodes mentioned the same episodes which we’ve been able to see in the Trueniverse.  But there are probably other references to things we never got to see.  (The TV show was created by the shadow ops group known as UNReel to provide plausible deniability should the secret of Jeannie be revealed to the general public.)

But there could be another reason why Howard dreamed about being Roger.  It could be that he had only just learned that the two of them were “identical cousins” (a term which could mean that they were half-brothers who shared half a set of genetics from a common father – either Healey Senior or Borden Senior was the cheatin’ Lothario.)  Having found that out would be enough to influence his REM sleep dreams.

Welcome to the Hall, Howard Borden!