When The Bob Newhart Show aired in 1972, would the public have been familiar with psychotherapy? Was it playing with existing tropes or creating new ones? Would it be expected that major metropolitan areas offered access to therapy for typical middle class people, and, if so was it something new?

Not sure if I can still respond to this but here goes.

I'm a current psychotherapist and there's a surprising amount of history in our training which is nice. I would say the general public would have a cursory knowledge of psychotherapy, but it was still not common for middle class people to seek it out.

The 60's and 70's were a big turning point from traditional psychoanalysis and existential therapies, to more behavioral, cognitive and family systems therapies. People like Carl Rogers, Yalom, Minuchin, Beck and Burns were starting to solidify their forms of therapy that are much more conversational, egalitarian and practical than old school psychoanalysis.

But, these forms of therapy were all kind of in their infancy. And later on would become more accessible and mainstream, with Burn's seminal work Feeling Good coming out in 1980.

So I wouldn't say your average person in 1972 would have a great understanding of modern therapy at the time, I think it would have looked similar to an older form of psychoanalysis or psychiatric care, a form of therapy that is far more clinical.