THE LIBRARIAN:

Bob Newhart plays against type
By Rick Bird
[Cincinnati] Post staff reporter

Imagine a befuddled, hesitant Bob Newhart-type character guarding humanities' great secrets and artifacts like the Dead Sea Scrolls, Noah's Ark, Poseidon's Trident, King Arthur's Excalibur.

"I would be terrified at the thought of that," Newhart says with a laugh.

The legendary comedian/actor reprises his role as Judson, head of a mysterious monolithic library in "The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines" (8 p.m. Sunday, TNT) in the sequel to the Indiana Jones spoof TV movie that first aired two years ago. Noah Wyle ("ER") produced the movies, also starring as a nerdy and reluctant action-adventure hero with 22 academic degrees.

Actually Newhart's librarian is a different character than he usually plays, a sort of smug all-knowing taskmaster who sends Wyle's hero on missions to prevent the bad guys from acquiring legendary artifacts that will give them more evil powers.

[...]

I've not heard of this series before, but it sounds funny, and Bob Newhart is always good. I hope it makes it across the pond. There's another review of the show here.

UPDATE: This review is considerably less positive. And the New York Times grudgingly acknowledges that the first movie was "inexplicably successful."