WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.819 Welcome back to the deep dive. I have I really 00:00:02.819 --> 00:00:04.519 been looking forward to this one because we are 00:00:04.519 --> 00:00:06.059 doing something a little different today. Yeah, 00:00:06.179 --> 00:00:08.400 we definitely are. Usually we take a really broad 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:11.500 topic, you know, a concept or a movement and 00:00:11.500 --> 00:00:13.960 tear it apart. But today we are opening a very 00:00:13.960 --> 00:00:16.640 specific time capsule. Right. And it's a time 00:00:16.640 --> 00:00:19.339 capsule that I think a lot of people think they 00:00:19.339 --> 00:00:21.379 know. But once you actually dust it off and look 00:00:21.379 --> 00:00:24.140 inside, it's infinitely more complicated than 00:00:24.140 --> 00:00:27.660 the memory suggests. Totally. So we are looking 00:00:27.660 --> 00:00:31.339 at. A stack of production logs, ratings data, 00:00:31.559 --> 00:00:34.700 critical reviews from the mid -80s, and some 00:00:34.700 --> 00:00:36.759 really fascinating retrospective interviews. 00:00:37.259 --> 00:00:41.520 We are zeroing in on Cheers, but not just the 00:00:41.520 --> 00:00:43.479 show in general. We're looking specifically at 00:00:43.479 --> 00:00:46.380 season three. Which is the run from 1984 to 1985. 00:00:46.880 --> 00:00:49.140 Exactly. And looking at this material you've 00:00:49.140 --> 00:00:51.899 pulled, I mean, this feels like the season where 00:00:51.899 --> 00:00:53.700 the show is walking a tightrope without a net. 00:00:53.960 --> 00:00:56.140 That is the perfect way to describe it. If you 00:00:56.140 --> 00:00:58.219 ask a casual fan about Cheers, they just remember 00:00:58.219 --> 00:01:01.640 the cozy bar, right? People yelling Norm. The 00:01:01.640 --> 00:01:04.420 jokes. The basic comfort TV stuff. Right. But 00:01:04.420 --> 00:01:07.040 season three, season three is where the show 00:01:07.040 --> 00:01:10.459 almost broke. Wow. It's the defining moment where 00:01:10.459 --> 00:01:13.099 the show's long -term DNA was actually written, 00:01:13.200 --> 00:01:15.280 but it was written in the middle of an absolute 00:01:15.280 --> 00:01:19.640 hurricane. It's wild because on paper, a sitcom 00:01:19.640 --> 00:01:22.060 season is just, you know, 20 -something episodes 00:01:22.060 --> 00:01:25.319 of jokes. Right. But the stakes here were massive. 00:01:25.859 --> 00:01:27.939 You've got the arrival of a character who's never 00:01:27.939 --> 00:01:30.280 supposed to be there, Dr. Frasier Crane. Yes. 00:01:30.599 --> 00:01:33.439 And you have the departure of a character who 00:01:33.439 --> 00:01:36.439 was arguably the soul of the show, Nicholas Colosanto's 00:01:36.439 --> 00:01:39.120 coach. It's the highest of highs and the lowest 00:01:39.120 --> 00:01:41.980 of lows happening simultaneously. You have the 00:01:41.980 --> 00:01:44.620 birth of a franchise -defining character and 00:01:44.620 --> 00:01:47.579 the tragic death of a beloved actor. Right. And 00:01:47.579 --> 00:01:49.599 somehow in the middle of all that, they had to 00:01:49.599 --> 00:01:53.129 be funny every Thursday night. And we aren't 00:01:53.129 --> 00:01:54.870 just talking about emotional stakes either. We're 00:01:54.870 --> 00:01:56.769 talking logistical nightmares. I was reading 00:01:56.769 --> 00:01:58.510 through the notes on the production schedule 00:01:58.510 --> 00:02:00.730 and dual pregnancies. Dual pregnancies among 00:02:00.730 --> 00:02:03.689 the female leads. Yes, it was a production manager's 00:02:03.689 --> 00:02:05.810 worst nightmare. So the mission for this deep 00:02:05.810 --> 00:02:08.370 dive is pretty clear. We want to figure out how 00:02:08.370 --> 00:02:11.750 a sitcom survives that kind of chaos. Exactly. 00:02:11.810 --> 00:02:14.909 How do you balance onscreen comedy with offscreen 00:02:14.909 --> 00:02:19.139 tragedy? And how did this specific season solidify 00:02:19.139 --> 00:02:22.219 Cheers as part of the best night of television 00:02:22.219 --> 00:02:24.639 on television? And to understand that, we can't 00:02:24.639 --> 00:02:26.520 just look at the jokes. We have to look at the 00:02:26.520 --> 00:02:28.939 pain underneath them. Okay, let's unpack this. 00:02:29.099 --> 00:02:31.180 But before we get into the heavy stuff, we need 00:02:31.180 --> 00:02:33.159 to set the scene. Let's do it. It's September 00:02:33.159 --> 00:02:36.759 1984. Shoulder pads are huge. Synthesizers are 00:02:36.759 --> 00:02:39.919 everywhere. What is the TV landscape actually 00:02:39.919 --> 00:02:42.719 looking like for NBC? Well, context is everything 00:02:42.719 --> 00:02:46.310 here. Today, we think of NBC in the 80s as this 00:02:46.310 --> 00:02:49.569 unstoppable juggernaut. Sure. But in early 1984, 00:02:49.990 --> 00:02:52.210 they were struggling. Honestly, they were desperate. 00:02:52.310 --> 00:02:54.189 For the preceding two years, they had been trying 00:02:54.189 --> 00:02:56.370 to build a Thursday night lineup that didn't 00:02:56.370 --> 00:02:58.650 just instantly collapse. I remember seeing old 00:02:58.650 --> 00:03:01.009 promos for NBC where they were practically begging 00:03:01.009 --> 00:03:03.550 people to tune in. They were. They had this branding, 00:03:03.729 --> 00:03:06.009 the best night of television on television. Right. 00:03:06.150 --> 00:03:08.669 Which, let's be honest, is a very defensive slogan. 00:03:08.770 --> 00:03:10.090 It sounds like something you say when you're 00:03:10.090 --> 00:03:11.909 trying to convince yourself. Like, no, really, 00:03:12.030 --> 00:03:15.150 it's good. Trust us. Exactly. And initially, 00:03:15.349 --> 00:03:19.150 the lineup was a mess of critical darlings that 00:03:19.150 --> 00:03:22.889 nobody watched. You had Cheers and Hill Street 00:03:22.889 --> 00:03:25.150 Blues, which the critics absolutely adjured, 00:03:25.250 --> 00:03:28.270 but the ratings were soft. Cheers had actually 00:03:28.270 --> 00:03:30.889 survived cancellation by the skin of its teeth 00:03:30.889 --> 00:03:32.889 in season one. Wow, I didn't realize it was that 00:03:32.889 --> 00:03:35.250 close. Oh, yeah. Season two is better. They got 00:03:35.250 --> 00:03:37.650 some Emmys, but they weren't a dynasty yet. They 00:03:37.650 --> 00:03:40.050 were still extremely vulnerable. So entering 00:03:40.050 --> 00:03:42.439 season three, they... aren't the kings of comedy 00:03:42.439 --> 00:03:45.199 yet. Not even close. They were the scrappy underdogs. 00:03:45.319 --> 00:03:48.659 Yeah. But then the fall of 1984 hits and the 00:03:48.659 --> 00:03:51.479 stars just align. You look at this lineup and 00:03:51.479 --> 00:03:53.719 it is staggering. Okay, lay it out for me. 8 00:03:53.719 --> 00:03:56.460 .00 p .m. is the premiere of The Cosby Show. 00:03:56.639 --> 00:03:58.759 Which became an instant monster hit. Absolute 00:03:58.759 --> 00:04:01.960 monster. Then Family Ties moves to 8 .30. Then 00:04:01.960 --> 00:04:05.259 Cheers at 9 .00. Night Court at 9 .30. And Hill 00:04:05.259 --> 00:04:08.639 Street Blues at 10 .00. That is, I mean, looking 00:04:08.639 --> 00:04:11.099 at that list, that's Murderer's Row. Every single 00:04:11.099 --> 00:04:13.550 one of those shows is a Hall of Famer. It's arguably 00:04:13.550 --> 00:04:16.389 the greatest single night of programming in broadcast 00:04:16.389 --> 00:04:19.709 history. But Cheers had a very specific job to 00:04:19.709 --> 00:04:21.649 do in that lineup. They had to hold the audience. 00:04:21.949 --> 00:04:24.310 From Quasby and Family Ties. Right, because they 00:04:24.310 --> 00:04:26.889 were up against Simon and Simon on CBS. Oh man, 00:04:27.069 --> 00:04:29.029 I totally forgot about Simon and Simon. A lot 00:04:29.029 --> 00:04:31.310 of people have, but at the time it was a ratings 00:04:31.310 --> 00:04:34.029 vacuum. It was a very popular, easy to watch 00:04:34.029 --> 00:04:37.050 detective show. Right. And ABC had shows like 00:04:37.050 --> 00:04:39.529 Glitter, which granted, nobody remembers, but 00:04:39.529 --> 00:04:42.089 the competition was real. Cheers had to prove 00:04:42.089 --> 00:04:45.100 - It wasn't just a critic's pet. It had to prove 00:04:45.100 --> 00:04:48.120 it could dominate the 9 .00 p .m. slot. So the 00:04:48.120 --> 00:04:50.019 pressure is really on. They need to lock down 00:04:50.019 --> 00:04:52.279 the audience. And naturally, the best way to 00:04:52.279 --> 00:04:54.579 do that is to introduce a character that everyone 00:04:54.579 --> 00:04:57.839 absolutely hates. Yes. Let's talk about the Fraser 00:04:57.839 --> 00:05:00.300 Crane experiment. This is my favorite part of 00:05:00.300 --> 00:05:02.920 the Cheers history because it just defies all 00:05:02.920 --> 00:05:05.240 logic. I was reading the background notes on 00:05:05.240 --> 00:05:08.120 this, and it seems like the creators, Glenn and 00:05:08.120 --> 00:05:10.970 Les Charles, Never intended for Frasier to be 00:05:10.970 --> 00:05:12.889 a permanent fixture at all. Not at all. He was 00:05:12.889 --> 00:05:14.930 just a utility player. You have to remember where 00:05:14.930 --> 00:05:17.350 we left off in season two. Sam and Diane. Right. 00:05:17.410 --> 00:05:20.410 Sam and Diane had the breakup to end all breakups. 00:05:20.430 --> 00:05:23.769 It was ugly. Diane goes off to a sanitarium or 00:05:23.769 --> 00:05:26.470 a rest home to recover. So for season three, 00:05:26.629 --> 00:05:29.149 the writers had a mechanical problem. They needed 00:05:29.149 --> 00:05:32.649 a device to keep Sam and Diane apart. The classic 00:05:32.649 --> 00:05:34.970 Ralph Bellamy role. The guy who was just there 00:05:34.970 --> 00:05:37.910 to lose the girl. Precisely. They needed an obstacle, 00:05:38.129 --> 00:05:40.250 but they didn't just need a jerk. They needed 00:05:40.250 --> 00:05:42.629 an intellectual ideal for Diane. Someone who 00:05:42.629 --> 00:05:44.889 matches her on paper. Exactly. Someone who checked 00:05:44.889 --> 00:05:47.550 all her boxes, but had absolutely zero chance 00:05:47.550 --> 00:05:49.490 of actually winning the audience over. Right. 00:05:49.550 --> 00:05:51.670 The plan was simple. He comes in, he creates 00:05:51.670 --> 00:05:54.149 friction for a few episodes. Sam gets jealous. 00:05:54.310 --> 00:05:56.769 Diane dumps him. And we go back to the status 00:05:56.769 --> 00:05:59.269 quo. So he's basically a plot device wearing 00:05:59.269 --> 00:06:01.629 a cardigan. A plot device with a Harvard degree. 00:06:01.850 --> 00:06:04.839 But here's the... What if? That always blows 00:06:04.839 --> 00:06:06.800 my mind. Do you know who they originally wanted 00:06:06.800 --> 00:06:09.060 for this role? I saw the name in the notes and 00:06:09.060 --> 00:06:11.060 I couldn't believe it. They wanted John Lithgow. 00:06:11.199 --> 00:06:13.399 They wrote the role with John Lithgow in their 00:06:13.399 --> 00:06:16.060 heads. That would have been terrifying. It would 00:06:16.060 --> 00:06:19.620 have been incredibly intense. Lithgow is brilliant, 00:06:19.720 --> 00:06:23.620 but he has this imposing, slightly manic energy. 00:06:23.779 --> 00:06:25.860 Oh, yeah. Think about him in Third Rock from 00:06:25.860 --> 00:06:29.649 the Sun or even Dexter later on. If he had been 00:06:29.649 --> 00:06:31.569 Frasier, the character might have been more of 00:06:31.569 --> 00:06:34.329 a distinct villain or just too weird to integrate 00:06:34.329 --> 00:06:36.589 into the bar. Why did he turn it down? He was 00:06:36.589 --> 00:06:40.189 a movie star. In 1984, doing TV was still seen 00:06:40.189 --> 00:06:42.730 as a huge step down for a serious film actor. 00:06:42.990 --> 00:06:45.610 He was doing Terms of Endearment, Footloose. 00:06:45.670 --> 00:06:48.050 He didn't want to be tied down to a sitcom guest 00:06:48.050 --> 00:06:50.720 arc. So they scramble. They were looking for 00:06:50.720 --> 00:06:52.980 their Frasier, and they find Kelsey Grammer. 00:06:53.060 --> 00:06:55.920 Yes. But looking at the notes here, Grammer didn't 00:06:55.920 --> 00:06:57.779 exactly walk out of the audition thinking he 00:06:57.779 --> 00:07:00.019 nailed it. No, he thought he bombed. He felt 00:07:00.019 --> 00:07:02.629 he was way too stiff. But that stiffness was 00:07:02.629 --> 00:07:04.769 exactly what the producers, particularly James 00:07:04.769 --> 00:07:06.829 Burroughs, were looking for. Really? Yeah, they 00:07:06.829 --> 00:07:09.149 saw sparks. Specifically, they saw the contrast. 00:07:09.490 --> 00:07:12.290 The contrast with Ted Danson. Right. Cheers is 00:07:12.290 --> 00:07:15.509 built entirely on class conflict. Sam Malone 00:07:15.509 --> 00:07:18.029 is the ex -athlete, recovering alcoholic, street 00:07:18.029 --> 00:07:21.269 smart, working class hero. Frasier Crane is the 00:07:21.269 --> 00:07:24.189 complete antithesis. Right, he's rich. He's upper 00:07:24.189 --> 00:07:27.509 crust. He speaks in complete flowery paragraphs. 00:07:27.910 --> 00:07:30.750 He drinks sherry. He's the guy who corrects your 00:07:30.750 --> 00:07:32.910 grammar in a bar fight. He's the guy who brings 00:07:32.910 --> 00:07:35.850 a chess set to a poker game. But the magic, and 00:07:35.850 --> 00:07:37.910 this is why Grammer got the part, was that he 00:07:37.910 --> 00:07:40.930 didn't play Frasier as a villain. He played him 00:07:40.930 --> 00:07:44.290 with this pompous fragility. This pompous fragility. 00:07:44.350 --> 00:07:47.389 I really like that. Watch his early scenes. He 00:07:47.389 --> 00:07:49.990 enters the bar like he owns it. But the second 00:07:49.990 --> 00:07:53.069 Sam Malone looks at him, you can see the insecurity 00:07:53.069 --> 00:07:56.170 ripple across Kelsey Grammer's face. That's such 00:07:56.170 --> 00:07:59.449 a subtle acting choice. It is. He knew that for 00:07:59.449 --> 00:08:01.990 Frasier to work, he had to be fundamentally intimidated 00:08:01.990 --> 00:08:05.730 by Sam. Fraser had been too strong, Sam would 00:08:05.730 --> 00:08:07.269 have just looked like a bully. Oh, that makes 00:08:07.269 --> 00:08:09.410 total sense. But because Grammar played him as 00:08:09.410 --> 00:08:11.769 a bit of a delicate flower, Sam's aggression 00:08:11.769 --> 00:08:14.930 just made Sam look jealous. It perfectly balanced 00:08:14.930 --> 00:08:17.970 the power dynamic. But even though the producers 00:08:17.970 --> 00:08:21.370 saw this magic, the audience hated him. I mean, 00:08:21.370 --> 00:08:23.709 really hated him. Oh, it was visceral. You have 00:08:23.709 --> 00:08:26.389 to understand the mindset of the 1984 TV viewer. 00:08:26.550 --> 00:08:29.209 They didn't have Twitter to vent, so they wrote 00:08:29.209 --> 00:08:32.649 actual letters. And the sentiment was unanimous. 00:08:33.080 --> 00:08:36.220 Get this guy away from Diane. There is a story 00:08:36.220 --> 00:08:37.740 in the source material, and I don't know if I 00:08:37.740 --> 00:08:39.559 can say this on air, but we are a deep dive, 00:08:39.679 --> 00:08:42.240 so we're going for it. A fan approached Kelsey 00:08:42.240 --> 00:08:44.259 Grammer on the street. I know exactly the one 00:08:44.259 --> 00:08:46.600 you mean. And asks him, are you that pendick 00:08:46.600 --> 00:08:49.340 that plays Frasier? It's brutal. Yeah. But it 00:08:49.340 --> 00:08:52.480 shows how effective the writing was. He was designed 00:08:52.480 --> 00:08:55.299 to be the creepy boyfriend, the interloper. Gail 00:08:55.299 --> 00:08:57.980 Shister, a very prominent critic at the time, 00:08:58.019 --> 00:09:00.700 actually used that exact phrase, creepy boyfriend. 00:09:01.159 --> 00:09:03.399 Wow. Another reviewer complained about having 00:09:03.399 --> 00:09:05.840 a shrink annoying the decent drinking folk. He 00:09:05.840 --> 00:09:08.100 was viewed as a total buzzkill. So this is the 00:09:08.100 --> 00:09:10.980 puzzle. You have an actor who is doing a great 00:09:10.980 --> 00:09:14.500 job, but the character is universally loathed 00:09:14.500 --> 00:09:17.500 by the fans. How do you pivot? How do you go 00:09:17.500 --> 00:09:20.139 from Pendick to one of those beloved characters 00:09:20.139 --> 00:09:22.490 in TV history? The writers did something very 00:09:22.490 --> 00:09:25.269 smart. They realized that as long as Frazier 00:09:25.269 --> 00:09:27.470 was just Diane's boyfriend, the audience would 00:09:27.470 --> 00:09:29.870 hate him because he's fundamentally in the way 00:09:29.870 --> 00:09:32.970 of Sam. So they had to separate him from Diane 00:09:32.970 --> 00:09:35.090 and attach him to the bar. They had to make him 00:09:35.090 --> 00:09:37.149 one of the boys. They had to haze him. Exactly. 00:09:37.649 --> 00:09:40.090 And we see that perfectly in the episode, The 00:09:40.090 --> 00:09:43.259 Heart is a Lonely Snipe Hunter. I rewatched parts 00:09:43.259 --> 00:09:45.519 of this one for the deep dive. It's actually 00:09:45.519 --> 00:09:49.519 kind of dark. It really is. The guys, Sam, Norm, 00:09:49.779 --> 00:09:52.139 Cliff, they invite Frazier on a hunting trip. 00:09:52.539 --> 00:09:54.940 Diane is thrilled because she thinks they are 00:09:54.940 --> 00:09:57.809 finally accepting him. But it's a trap. It's 00:09:57.809 --> 00:10:00.129 a complete setup. They take him out to the woods 00:10:00.129 --> 00:10:02.590 and just abandon him. They leave him there holding 00:10:02.590 --> 00:10:05.269 a sack, waiting for a snipe, which doesn't exist. 00:10:05.509 --> 00:10:08.429 Classic schoolyard bullying. It is. And in a 00:10:08.429 --> 00:10:10.710 lesser show, Frasier would have come back crying 00:10:10.710 --> 00:10:12.830 or he would have sued them or Diane would have 00:10:12.830 --> 00:10:14.649 scolded everyone and that would be the end of 00:10:14.649 --> 00:10:17.110 it. Right. A very special episode kind of ending. 00:10:17.330 --> 00:10:20.049 Exactly. But Cheers did something different. 00:10:20.590 --> 00:10:22.649 Frasier manages to get back to the bar. He's 00:10:22.649 --> 00:10:25.509 disheveled. He's furious. But instead of crying. 00:10:26.159 --> 00:10:29.340 He plots revenge. He earns their respect by being 00:10:29.340 --> 00:10:32.179 just as petty as they are. He proves he can play 00:10:32.179 --> 00:10:35.279 the game. He pranks them back. And in that moment, 00:10:35.340 --> 00:10:37.240 the audience shushed it. They realized, oh, this 00:10:37.240 --> 00:10:39.919 guy isn't just a snob. He's a petty snob. He 00:10:39.919 --> 00:10:42.440 fits in perfectly with these losers. That's brilliant. 00:10:42.559 --> 00:10:45.179 That episode completely saved the character. 00:10:45.500 --> 00:10:47.139 It's amazing to think about the sliding doors 00:10:47.139 --> 00:10:49.629 here. If John Lithgow takes the role, we probably 00:10:49.629 --> 00:10:51.889 get four episodes of a weird arc and he's gone. 00:10:51.990 --> 00:10:54.230 Right. If the writers don't pivot to include 00:10:54.230 --> 00:10:56.669 Frasier in the guys group, he's gone. And if 00:10:56.669 --> 00:10:59.210 he's gone, there is no Frasier spinoff in the 00:10:59.210 --> 00:11:02.830 90s. No Niles, no Martin. 11 years of future 00:11:02.830 --> 00:11:05.129 television history just evaporates. It really 00:11:05.129 --> 00:11:08.049 is a massive butterfly effect moment. So they 00:11:08.049 --> 00:11:11.139 are wrestling with the Frasier problem. But simultaneously, 00:11:11.360 --> 00:11:13.840 the producers get hit with a biological curveball 00:11:13.840 --> 00:11:16.080 that you just cannot write your way out of easily. 00:11:16.279 --> 00:11:18.100 The Battle of the Bulge, as the crew called it. 00:11:18.220 --> 00:11:21.299 Late August 1984. Production is just getting 00:11:21.299 --> 00:11:23.720 rolling for the season. And they get the news. 00:11:24.080 --> 00:11:27.379 Rhea Perlman, who plays Carla, is pregnant. And 00:11:27.379 --> 00:11:30.080 Shelley Long, who plays Diane, is pregnant. Both 00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:33.519 due in March 1985. It's a statistical improbability. 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:36.340 And for a show that relies so heavily on physical 00:11:36.340 --> 00:11:39.340 comedy and romantic tension, this is a disaster. 00:11:39.559 --> 00:11:42.340 It's a logistical nightmare. Today, with CGI, 00:11:42.679 --> 00:11:44.899 maybe you could fix it. Or you just do a shorter 00:11:44.899 --> 00:11:48.740 season. But in 1984, you had to deliver 25 episodes. 00:11:48.940 --> 00:11:50.960 You couldn't just stop. And the way they handled 00:11:50.960 --> 00:11:52.980 it for the two actresses was completely different. 00:11:53.309 --> 00:11:55.269 which I think speaks volumes about the characters 00:11:55.269 --> 00:11:57.610 themselves. It really does. With Rhea Perlman, 00:11:57.769 --> 00:12:01.149 it was almost a gift from the sitcom gods. Carla 00:12:01.149 --> 00:12:03.450 Tortelli is defined by her fertility and her 00:12:03.450 --> 00:12:05.950 completely chaotic family life. Right, she already 00:12:05.950 --> 00:12:07.850 has a ton of kids. She already has four kids 00:12:07.850 --> 00:12:10.830 she can barely control. So the writers just leaned 00:12:10.830 --> 00:12:12.850 right into it. They wrote the pregnancy into 00:12:12.850 --> 00:12:15.039 the show. But they didn't take the easy route 00:12:15.039 --> 00:12:17.820 of making it her ex -husband Nick's baby. No, 00:12:17.879 --> 00:12:20.139 and that's key. If it was Nick's baby, it would 00:12:20.139 --> 00:12:22.460 have been a reunion story. Instead, they make 00:12:22.460 --> 00:12:24.679 it the child of a guy named Ludlow. Oh yeah, 00:12:24.840 --> 00:12:27.279 Ludlow. This nerdy intellectual guy she had a 00:12:27.279 --> 00:12:29.980 brief fling with. It added a whole new layer 00:12:29.980 --> 00:12:32.879 of comedy to her misery. It fit her arc perfectly. 00:12:33.259 --> 00:12:35.940 But with Diane, it's a completely different story. 00:12:36.720 --> 00:12:40.100 Diane Chambers is the romantic lead. She is the 00:12:40.100 --> 00:12:43.580 pristine intellectual goddess that Sam is pining 00:12:43.580 --> 00:12:46.059 after. And she's in a new relationship with Frasier, 00:12:46.059 --> 00:12:48.419 but the tension with Sam is the main hook of 00:12:48.419 --> 00:12:51.059 the entire series. If Diane gets pregnant, the 00:12:51.059 --> 00:12:53.120 show just stops. The audience immediately asks, 00:12:53.240 --> 00:12:56.059 whose is it? Exactly. If it's Frasier's, the 00:12:56.059 --> 00:12:59.360 Sam and Diane dream is... dead if it's sam's 00:12:59.360 --> 00:13:02.320 it becomes a soap opera about custody it completely 00:13:02.320 --> 00:13:04.879 ruins the comedy so they chose the hide strategy 00:13:04.879 --> 00:13:07.000 the hide strategy and this is where the production 00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:09.820 team really earned their paychecks if you watch 00:13:09.820 --> 00:13:12.320 season three closely especially the second half 00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:14.779 just watch where shilly long is standing she 00:13:14.779 --> 00:13:17.200 is basically a floating head for half the season 00:13:17.200 --> 00:13:20.139 she is she is always behind the bar which diane 00:13:20.139 --> 00:13:22.220 rarely did before because she was a terrible 00:13:22.220 --> 00:13:25.279 waitress she is standing behind oversized potted 00:13:25.279 --> 00:13:28.059 plants she is carrying massive stacks of towels. 00:13:28.299 --> 00:13:30.100 It's so funny when you notice it. There is one 00:13:30.100 --> 00:13:32.440 scene where she is holding a tray of drinks that 00:13:32.440 --> 00:13:34.899 is positioned suspiciously high right in front 00:13:34.899 --> 00:13:36.960 of her stomach. It becomes almost like a game 00:13:36.960 --> 00:13:39.139 of where's the baby bump. The cinematographers 00:13:39.139 --> 00:13:42.460 had to light her specifically, so shadows would 00:13:42.460 --> 00:13:45.519 fall across her midsection. It was a constant, 00:13:45.639 --> 00:13:49.080 exhausting dance. And there is one detail that 00:13:49.080 --> 00:13:51.360 shows just how much planning went into this. 00:13:51.460 --> 00:13:54.159 What's that? The season finale involves a trip 00:13:54.159 --> 00:13:57.860 to Europe. Italy. Yes. They knew by the time 00:13:57.860 --> 00:13:59.379 they needed to film the finale in the spring, 00:13:59.679 --> 00:14:02.320 Shelley Long would be ready to pop. She wouldn't 00:14:02.320 --> 00:14:04.940 be able to travel. And hiding the pregnancy would 00:14:04.940 --> 00:14:08.399 be completely impossible in location shots. Correct. 00:14:08.460 --> 00:14:10.759 So they filmed the finale scenes, the scenes 00:14:10.759 --> 00:14:13.679 of her and Frasier leaving months in advance. 00:14:13.960 --> 00:14:16.299 They shot the end of the season at the very beginning 00:14:16.299 --> 00:14:19.159 of the production block just to beat the biology. 00:14:19.279 --> 00:14:22.070 That is incredible foresight. It really shows 00:14:22.070 --> 00:14:23.789 that being a showrunner isn't just about being 00:14:23.789 --> 00:14:26.230 funny. It's about being a general. It is a military 00:14:26.230 --> 00:14:28.710 operation. But even the best generals can't plan 00:14:28.710 --> 00:14:31.090 for absolutely everything. And this brings us 00:14:31.090 --> 00:14:33.110 to the part of the deep dive that really changes 00:14:33.110 --> 00:14:36.029 the tone of the entire season. Yeah. We have 00:14:36.029 --> 00:14:38.710 to talk about Nicholas Colasanto. Coach. Coach. 00:14:39.419 --> 00:14:42.860 The absolute heart of the bar. The guy who played 00:14:42.860 --> 00:14:45.159 the dumb character but had the most emotional 00:14:45.159 --> 00:14:47.779 intelligence of anyone in the room. I think for 00:14:47.779 --> 00:14:50.519 modern audiences, if they haven't seen the early 00:14:50.519 --> 00:14:54.679 seasons, they associate the dumb bartender role 00:14:54.679 --> 00:14:57.799 purely with Woody Harrelson. Right. But Coach 00:14:57.799 --> 00:15:00.360 was the original. And he was different. He wasn't 00:15:00.360 --> 00:15:04.460 just goofy. He was sweet. in a very specific, 00:15:04.620 --> 00:15:08.000 grounded way. He was the father figure. Sam was 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:10.919 the cool older brother, but Coach was the dad. 00:15:11.240 --> 00:15:13.940 And Nicholas Colasanto, the man, was beloved 00:15:13.940 --> 00:15:16.440 by that cast. But he was very sick. He had been 00:15:16.440 --> 00:15:18.720 battling heart disease since the mid-'70s. He 00:15:18.720 --> 00:15:21.019 was a recovering alcoholic, which, frankly, adds 00:15:21.019 --> 00:15:23.419 a deep layer of poignancy to him playing a bartender 00:15:23.419 --> 00:15:25.580 for his final years. And looking at the timeline 00:15:25.580 --> 00:15:28.250 of season three... His health wasn't just a background 00:15:28.250 --> 00:15:31.389 issue anymore. It was deteriorating rapidly on 00:15:31.389 --> 00:15:33.549 set. It was highly visible. If you look at the 00:15:33.549 --> 00:15:36.250 episodes from late 1984, he has lost a significant 00:15:36.250 --> 00:15:38.750 amount of weight. Ted Danson later mentioned 00:15:38.750 --> 00:15:40.789 in interviews that Colasanto was having a lot 00:15:40.789 --> 00:15:43.210 of trouble remembering his lines. He would write 00:15:43.210 --> 00:15:45.230 them on the scenery, on the bar slats, anywhere 00:15:45.230 --> 00:15:47.750 he could. That's heartbreaking. He was just trying 00:15:47.750 --> 00:15:50.470 to hold on. He wanted to work. Being there with 00:15:50.470 --> 00:15:53.379 that family kept him going. But shortly after 00:15:53.379 --> 00:15:56.340 Christmas 1984, he was hospitalized with water 00:15:56.340 --> 00:15:59.080 in his lungs. His doctor basically said, you 00:15:59.080 --> 00:16:01.899 cannot go back to work. So his last full episode 00:16:01.899 --> 00:16:05.059 was actually filmed in November 1984. Cheerio, 00:16:05.120 --> 00:16:07.279 cheers. That's the last time he walked onto that 00:16:07.279 --> 00:16:10.740 set. He died on February 12th, 1985. Now here 00:16:10.740 --> 00:16:13.919 is the ethical and creative dilemma for the creators. 00:16:15.070 --> 00:16:17.590 The show is still in production. You have episodes 00:16:17.590 --> 00:16:20.289 to write, film and air. You have a character 00:16:20.289 --> 00:16:22.110 who is gone, but you haven't written him out 00:16:22.110 --> 00:16:24.330 yet because you were hoping he'd come back. How 00:16:24.330 --> 00:16:26.909 did they handle the coach sized hole in the show? 00:16:27.070 --> 00:16:30.139 Honestly, awkwardly. And I don't blame them at 00:16:30.139 --> 00:16:32.100 all, but it's really rough to watch in retrospect. 00:16:32.340 --> 00:16:34.879 The writers had to invent excuses for why Coach 00:16:34.879 --> 00:16:37.059 wasn't there. The visiting the sister excuse. 00:16:37.299 --> 00:16:39.320 Right. Coach is in Duluth visiting his sister. 00:16:39.480 --> 00:16:41.379 Coach is in Vermont getting his driver's license. 00:16:41.779 --> 00:16:44.259 Coach is at a family reunion. There is one joke 00:16:44.259 --> 00:16:45.840 where they say he's at a family reunion, but 00:16:45.840 --> 00:16:47.940 for the wrong family. Which is a classic Coach 00:16:47.940 --> 00:16:50.950 joke. It's very funny in isolation. But knowing 00:16:50.950 --> 00:16:53.889 that the actor was literally dying or already 00:16:53.889 --> 00:16:56.769 dead when that line aired, it feels very different 00:16:56.769 --> 00:16:58.769 now. Yeah, it changes the whole context. And 00:16:58.769 --> 00:17:01.289 critics at the time, and especially retrospective 00:17:01.289 --> 00:17:03.649 reviewers from places like DVD Verdict, have 00:17:03.649 --> 00:17:06.390 pointed this out. They felt these explanations 00:17:06.390 --> 00:17:09.890 were really forced. They felt unnatural to the 00:17:09.890 --> 00:17:11.970 viewer. It robbed the audience of the chance 00:17:11.970 --> 00:17:14.730 to mourn, didn't it? It did. Because the character 00:17:14.730 --> 00:17:16.950 was just away, the other characters couldn't 00:17:16.950 --> 00:17:19.190 be sad. They had to be annoyed or completely 00:17:19.190 --> 00:17:21.400 indifferent. to his absence so you have this 00:17:21.400 --> 00:17:23.980 ghostly disconnect where the audience knows something 00:17:23.980 --> 00:17:26.700 is terribly wrong but the show is pretending 00:17:26.700 --> 00:17:29.039 everything is totally fine. But they made a very 00:17:29.039 --> 00:17:31.059 specific decision regarding the future of the 00:17:31.059 --> 00:17:33.859 role. They decided not to recast him. And that 00:17:33.859 --> 00:17:35.519 I think is the most important decision in the 00:17:35.519 --> 00:17:38.420 history of the show. In the 60s on a show like 00:17:38.420 --> 00:17:41.299 Bewitched or My Three Sons if an actor got sick 00:17:41.299 --> 00:17:44.720 or left they'd just swap in a new guy Meet the 00:17:44.720 --> 00:17:47.180 new coach, same as the old coach. Put a Red Sox 00:17:47.180 --> 00:17:48.940 cap on a different old guy and just hope nobody 00:17:48.940 --> 00:17:53.640 notices. Exactly. But the Cheers team knew that 00:17:53.640 --> 00:17:56.819 coach was Nicholas Colosanto. You couldn't replicate 00:17:56.819 --> 00:17:59.480 that warmth. They realized they had to retire 00:17:59.480 --> 00:18:02.200 the character entirely. They didn't do it formally 00:18:02.200 --> 00:18:04.440 until the season four premiere, which addresses 00:18:04.440 --> 00:18:06.640 the death directly, but the decision was made 00:18:06.640 --> 00:18:09.359 in season three. Yeah. We are not replacing Nick. 00:18:09.759 --> 00:18:12.079 There is one detail about the season three finale, 00:18:12.319 --> 00:18:15.259 Rescue Me, that gives me absolute chills every 00:18:15.259 --> 00:18:19.859 time I read about it. Coach appears in the cold 00:18:19.859 --> 00:18:21.950 open. It is one of the most haunting moments 00:18:21.950 --> 00:18:24.549 in sitcom history. Nicholas Colasanto had already 00:18:24.549 --> 00:18:26.470 passed away when that finale aired. Yeah. The 00:18:26.470 --> 00:18:28.829 producers were editing the episode and they found 00:18:28.829 --> 00:18:31.390 a piece of discarded footage, an outtake essentially 00:18:31.390 --> 00:18:34.029 from an earlier episode where Coach is just polishing 00:18:34.029 --> 00:18:36.230 a glass or saying a very quick line. And they 00:18:36.230 --> 00:18:38.490 put it in. They inserted it as the very first 00:18:38.490 --> 00:18:40.529 thing you see. It has absolutely nothing to do 00:18:40.529 --> 00:18:43.269 with the plot of the finale. It's just, Coach, 00:18:43.490 --> 00:18:47.109 one last time. It was a silent tribute. A way 00:18:47.109 --> 00:18:49.089 for the creators to say goodbye and to let Coach 00:18:49.089 --> 00:18:51.259 say goodbye. even if the character didn't know 00:18:51.259 --> 00:18:54.279 it was the end. That is incredibly heavy. But 00:18:54.279 --> 00:18:56.319 it also speaks to the profound love they had 00:18:56.319 --> 00:18:58.759 for him. It wasn't just a business to them. No, 00:18:58.859 --> 00:19:01.220 and I think that grief, that backstage reality, 00:19:01.519 --> 00:19:04.019 seeped into the tone of the show. Season 3 is 00:19:04.019 --> 00:19:07.220 funny, yes, but it is also much darker. It deals 00:19:07.220 --> 00:19:09.440 with loss and addiction in a way that feels very 00:19:09.440 --> 00:19:12.420 mature. Well, let's transition to that narrative 00:19:12.420 --> 00:19:14.819 arc. We've talked about the behind -the -scenes 00:19:14.819 --> 00:19:17.500 tragedy, but on screen, the story of Sam and 00:19:17.500 --> 00:19:20.420 Diane was taking a pretty dark turn, too. Season 00:19:20.420 --> 00:19:22.819 three doesn't start with a joke. It starts with 00:19:22.819 --> 00:19:25.539 a relapse. The premiere is titled Rebound, and 00:19:25.539 --> 00:19:29.200 it is genuinely startling. We find out that after 00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:32.359 the breakup with Diane, Sam fell completely off 00:19:32.359 --> 00:19:34.400 the wagon. He's drinking again. He's drinking, 00:19:34.420 --> 00:19:37.359 and he's engaging in this frantic, self -destructive 00:19:37.359 --> 00:19:39.960 womanizing. The bar has gone through a carousel 00:19:39.960 --> 00:19:42.619 of waitresses. It's absolute chaos. Why did the 00:19:42.619 --> 00:19:44.940 writers choose to go there? Usually sitcoms just 00:19:44.940 --> 00:19:47.420 hit the reset button. Sam is the cool bartender. 00:19:47.440 --> 00:19:49.640 You don't want him to be a sloppy drunk. Because 00:19:49.640 --> 00:19:52.259 Cheers actually respected its character's flaws. 00:19:52.880 --> 00:19:55.859 Sam's alcoholism wasn't just a backstory gimmick. 00:19:55.880 --> 00:19:59.369 It was his central ongoing struggle. By showing 00:19:59.369 --> 00:20:02.269 him relapse, they raised the stakes. It proved 00:20:02.269 --> 00:20:04.769 that without Diane, or at least without the stability 00:20:04.769 --> 00:20:07.650 she represented, he spirals. And Diane isn't 00:20:07.650 --> 00:20:09.529 doing much better. I mean, she's in a sanitarium. 00:20:09.609 --> 00:20:12.490 Exactly. She's institutionalized herself because 00:20:12.490 --> 00:20:14.630 she's so intensely neurotic about the breakup. 00:20:14.769 --> 00:20:17.529 So you have these two fundamentally broken people. 00:20:18.150 --> 00:20:20.750 And this is where Coach, again, the heart of 00:20:20.750 --> 00:20:22.630 the show, plays such a pivotal role in the premiere. 00:20:22.829 --> 00:20:25.190 Right. He goes to Diane and tells her, you have 00:20:25.190 --> 00:20:27.670 to come back. Sam is drinking. But didn't he? 00:20:27.720 --> 00:20:29.859 tells Sam something completely different. He 00:20:29.859 --> 00:20:32.240 tells Sam you have to hire her back. She's losing 00:20:32.240 --> 00:20:35.279 her mind. He lies to both of them. It's the wisdom 00:20:35.279 --> 00:20:37.420 of the fool. He manipulates them into saving 00:20:37.420 --> 00:20:40.059 each other. It establishes the theme of the entire 00:20:40.059 --> 00:20:43.019 season, which is codependency. They drive each 00:20:43.019 --> 00:20:45.779 other crazy, but they keep each other sane. So 00:20:45.779 --> 00:20:48.880 Diane returns to the bar, but now we have the 00:20:48.880 --> 00:20:51.339 triangle. She's with Frazier. And the season 00:20:51.339 --> 00:20:53.819 becomes this torture chamber of near misses. 00:20:54.380 --> 00:20:57.339 It's agonizingly good TV. The episode I call 00:20:57.339 --> 00:20:59.599 Your Name is the absolute peak of this. Oh man, 00:20:59.660 --> 00:21:02.380 this one is painful. Frazier comes to Sam, his 00:21:02.380 --> 00:21:05.440 bartender, his ostensible friend, for professional 00:21:05.440 --> 00:21:08.819 slash personal advice. He says, I have this patient. 00:21:09.369 --> 00:21:11.809 She's troubled. She keeps calling out an ex -lover's 00:21:11.809 --> 00:21:14.450 name in bed. And Sam being the total narcissist 00:21:14.450 --> 00:21:16.670 that he is. He cracks the code instantly. He 00:21:16.670 --> 00:21:19.089 realizes the patient is Diane and the name she's 00:21:19.089 --> 00:21:21.869 screaming is Sam. The look on Ted Danson's face 00:21:21.869 --> 00:21:25.150 when he realizes that. It's pure, unadulterated 00:21:25.150 --> 00:21:28.369 victory. It is. It feeds his massive ego. But 00:21:28.369 --> 00:21:31.250 it also confirms to the audience that the flame 00:21:31.250 --> 00:21:34.490 isn't out. Diane is physically with Frazier, 00:21:34.529 --> 00:21:36.710 but subconsciously she's still fully with Sam. 00:21:36.849 --> 00:21:39.069 Yeah. But when Sam confronts her about it, does 00:21:39.069 --> 00:21:42.009 she admit it? No, she doubles down. She clings 00:21:42.009 --> 00:21:44.269 to Frasier even harder because Frasier represents 00:21:44.269 --> 00:21:47.049 health and Sam represents sickness. Which leads 00:21:47.049 --> 00:21:49.690 us directly to the grand finale, the European 00:21:49.690 --> 00:21:51.910 cliffhanger. The stakes get raised immensely. 00:21:52.109 --> 00:21:54.009 Frasier gets an offer to go to the University 00:21:54.009 --> 00:21:57.150 of Bologna in Italy. He asks Diane to marry him 00:21:57.150 --> 00:22:00.410 and come along. And she says yes. She says yes. 00:22:00.569 --> 00:22:03.630 And this sets up the massive climax in Rescue 00:22:03.630 --> 00:22:08.059 Me. Sam hears the news. And we get this incredible 00:22:08.059 --> 00:22:10.579 sequence where Sam daydreams. It's the classic 00:22:10.579 --> 00:22:12.700 Hollywood ending, right? Basically the graduate. 00:22:13.019 --> 00:22:15.440 Sam runs to the church, bursts through the doors, 00:22:15.500 --> 00:22:17.640 yells, stop the wedding. He sweeps her off her 00:22:17.640 --> 00:22:20.039 feet. It's exactly what the audience wants to 00:22:20.039 --> 00:22:22.519 happen. But then, snap, we're right back in the 00:22:22.519 --> 00:22:25.279 bar. Reality crashes in. He hasn't moved an inch. 00:22:25.480 --> 00:22:27.740 But he realizes, oh my God, I actually want to 00:22:27.740 --> 00:22:30.279 do that. So he rushes to the airport. He buys 00:22:30.279 --> 00:22:32.619 a ticket to Italy. He is going to stop her. And 00:22:32.619 --> 00:22:35.140 here's the twist. The gift of the Magi twist 00:22:35.140 --> 00:22:38.319 that just hurts so good. Diane calls the bar. 00:22:38.559 --> 00:22:41.279 She is in Italy with Frasier, but she is having 00:22:41.279 --> 00:22:44.500 massive second thoughts. She calls Sam. She wants 00:22:44.500 --> 00:22:46.420 him to tell her to come home. She wants him to 00:22:46.420 --> 00:22:48.579 stop her. But Sam isn't there. He's on a plane 00:22:48.579 --> 00:22:50.460 to find her. So she gets the answering machine. 00:22:50.539 --> 00:22:52.400 She hears his voice saying, I'm not here right 00:22:52.400 --> 00:22:55.750 now, and she hangs up. And she stays with Frasier. 00:22:55.809 --> 00:22:58.569 They cross in the night. It is a brutal, brilliant 00:22:58.569 --> 00:23:01.150 piece of writing. If they had connected, if Sam 00:23:01.150 --> 00:23:03.089 had actually picked up the phone, the show might 00:23:03.089 --> 00:23:04.710 have ended right there. Or they would have been 00:23:04.710 --> 00:23:07.150 a stable couple in season four. Right. But that 00:23:07.150 --> 00:23:09.509 missed connection kept the engine running. It 00:23:09.509 --> 00:23:12.690 preserved the romantic tension for another entire 00:23:12.690 --> 00:23:15.430 year. It's masterclass writing. But, you know, 00:23:15.450 --> 00:23:18.210 we've focused so much on the big three, Sam, 00:23:18.410 --> 00:23:22.180 Diane, Frasier. and Coach. But season three is 00:23:22.180 --> 00:23:25.140 also where the supporting cast really stopped 00:23:25.140 --> 00:23:27.299 being background decoration and started becoming 00:23:27.299 --> 00:23:29.759 main characters in their own right. Absolutely. 00:23:30.059 --> 00:23:32.480 The B plots in season three are essential because 00:23:32.480 --> 00:23:35.740 with Coach dying and the main trio locked in 00:23:35.740 --> 00:23:38.680 this intense drama, the show needed other outlets 00:23:38.680 --> 00:23:41.359 for comedy and humanity. Let's talk about Cliff 00:23:41.359 --> 00:23:43.819 Clavin. Up until this season, Cliff is mostly 00:23:43.819 --> 00:23:45.339 just the annoying guy at the end of the bar. 00:23:45.440 --> 00:23:47.940 He's a trivia machine. But in Fairy Tales Can 00:23:47.940 --> 00:23:49.660 Come True, we see something totally different. 00:23:49.900 --> 00:23:52.500 This is the costume party episode. Cliff dresses 00:23:52.500 --> 00:23:54.900 up as Ponce de Leon. Which is such a perfectly 00:23:54.900 --> 00:23:57.799 Cliff choice. It's obscure, it's historical, 00:23:57.880 --> 00:24:01.000 and absolutely nobody gets it. But he meets a 00:24:01.000 --> 00:24:04.240 woman at the party dressed as Tinkerbell. And 00:24:04.240 --> 00:24:05.900 because he's wearing a mask, and because she 00:24:05.900 --> 00:24:09.269 is. He drops the whole Cliff Clavin act. He stops 00:24:09.269 --> 00:24:12.349 spouting facts. He becomes charming. He's vulnerable. 00:24:12.690 --> 00:24:15.269 He's terrified that once the mask comes off, 00:24:15.349 --> 00:24:18.549 she won't like the real him. It's a classic Cyrano 00:24:18.549 --> 00:24:22.009 story. But it humanized Cliff. It showed that 00:24:22.009 --> 00:24:24.769 his bluster, his annoying know -it -all attitude, 00:24:25.009 --> 00:24:27.900 is just a shield. Yeah. He's a deeply lonely 00:24:27.900 --> 00:24:30.859 guy who uses trivia facts to keep people at a 00:24:30.859 --> 00:24:33.319 safe distance. When he finally reveals himself 00:24:33.319 --> 00:24:36.200 and she likes him anyway, it's a huge win for 00:24:36.200 --> 00:24:38.000 the character. It made the audience actually 00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:40.119 root for him, not just laugh at him. And then 00:24:40.119 --> 00:24:42.440 there is Norm. We usually think of Norm as the 00:24:42.440 --> 00:24:44.599 happiest guy in the bar. He has his beer. He 00:24:44.599 --> 00:24:47.319 has his spot. But season three digs into his 00:24:47.319 --> 00:24:49.779 darker side, too. The executive's executioner 00:24:49.779 --> 00:24:52.200 is a great episode for this. Norm gets a promotion 00:24:52.200 --> 00:24:55.130 at his accounting firm. But the promotion is 00:24:55.130 --> 00:24:57.309 to be the corporate hatchet man. He has to fire 00:24:57.309 --> 00:25:00.549 people. Right. And the joke is that he's so genuinely 00:25:00.549 --> 00:25:03.150 nice, people end up thanking him for firing them. 00:25:03.230 --> 00:25:05.529 He kills them with kindness. But the guilt eats 00:25:05.529 --> 00:25:08.210 him alive. It explores the soul crushing nature 00:25:08.210 --> 00:25:10.690 of corporate life. Cheers was always very good 00:25:10.690 --> 00:25:13.269 at satirizing the white collar world that Norm 00:25:13.269 --> 00:25:15.150 and Cliff were desperately trying to survive 00:25:15.150 --> 00:25:17.630 in. And that connects to the episode Peterson 00:25:17.630 --> 00:25:20.980 Crusoe. Yes. This one feels almost prophetic 00:25:20.980 --> 00:25:24.279 given the atmosphere on set. Norm gets a chest 00:25:24.279 --> 00:25:27.240 x -ray and they find a spot. He thinks he's dying. 00:25:27.420 --> 00:25:29.920 The mortality theme again? Exactly. The fear 00:25:29.920 --> 00:25:32.240 of death makes him decide to ditch his entire 00:25:32.240 --> 00:25:34.740 life and go to Bora Bora. He's going to live 00:25:34.740 --> 00:25:36.859 like an islander. Screw the accounting firm. 00:25:36.940 --> 00:25:39.240 Screw the beer. I'm going to actually live. But 00:25:39.240 --> 00:25:41.400 he doesn't make it to the airport. He makes it 00:25:41.400 --> 00:25:43.599 to the bar's back office. He hides there with 00:25:43.599 --> 00:25:46.200 his suitcase. That is such a profound summary 00:25:46.200 --> 00:25:49.680 of the show. He wants to escape, but the bar 00:25:49.680 --> 00:25:52.920 is the absolute only place he feels safe. It 00:25:52.920 --> 00:25:56.420 reinforces the central thesis of cheers. It's 00:25:56.420 --> 00:25:58.559 a sanctuary for people who can't handle the outside 00:25:58.559 --> 00:26:00.740 world. Whether you are a pompous psychiatrist, 00:26:01.200 --> 00:26:03.519 a neurotic waitress, or a scared accountant, 00:26:03.859 --> 00:26:05.579 you go to the place where everybody knows your 00:26:05.579 --> 00:26:07.480 name because the real world is just too scary. 00:26:07.720 --> 00:26:10.019 We also get a very significant introduction in 00:26:10.019 --> 00:26:14.119 the episode, Diane Meets Mom. Ah, yes. The mother 00:26:14.119 --> 00:26:17.130 -in -law from hell, Hester Crane. played by Nancy 00:26:17.130 --> 00:26:19.890 Marchand, who most people probably know as Livia 00:26:19.890 --> 00:26:22.029 Soprano from The Sopranos. And if you watch this 00:26:22.029 --> 00:26:24.650 episode, you see the direct seeds of Livia Soprano. 00:26:24.910 --> 00:26:28.450 She is absolutely terrifying. She comes to town, 00:26:28.529 --> 00:26:31.970 meets Diane, and instantly decides she is not 00:26:31.970 --> 00:26:34.029 good enough for Frasier. She threatens to kill 00:26:34.029 --> 00:26:37.390 Diane. She literally pulls a gun. It's startlingly 00:26:37.390 --> 00:26:40.029 aggressive for a sitcom, but it explains so much 00:26:40.029 --> 00:26:42.130 about Frasier's psyche. Why is he so anxious? 00:26:42.269 --> 00:26:44.569 Why is he so desperate for approval? Because 00:26:44.569 --> 00:26:46.519 he was raised by that woman. It's interesting. 00:26:46.619 --> 00:26:48.940 The notes mention that Hester Crane appears in 00:26:48.940 --> 00:26:51.400 the spinoff Rager, but she's played by Rita Wilson 00:26:51.400 --> 00:26:54.599 in flashbacks and is much softer. Frasier the 00:26:54.599 --> 00:26:56.940 show retconned her a bit to make her more sympathetic, 00:26:57.279 --> 00:27:00.160 treating her as a scientist, a visionary. But 00:27:00.160 --> 00:27:03.279 in Shears season three, she is a straight up 00:27:03.279 --> 00:27:05.759 monster. It's a great example of how characters 00:27:05.759 --> 00:27:08.759 organically evolve over decades. So we've looked 00:27:08.759 --> 00:27:10.799 at the creative struggles, the casting pivots, 00:27:10.799 --> 00:27:13.640 the tragedies and the character arcs. But ultimately. 00:27:14.269 --> 00:27:16.890 Television is a business. Did all of this work? 00:27:17.069 --> 00:27:19.329 Did the best night of television actually deliver 00:27:19.329 --> 00:27:21.369 the numbers? It delivered in a way that changed 00:27:21.369 --> 00:27:24.029 the entire industry. Cheers finished the season 00:27:24.029 --> 00:27:26.230 tied for number 12 in the Nielsen ratings. They 00:27:26.230 --> 00:27:28.950 had an average rating of about 19 .7. For you 00:27:28.950 --> 00:27:31.930 listening at home, a 19 .7 rating is astronomical. 00:27:32.589 --> 00:27:35.829 Today, a massive hit show gets a 2 .0 or a 3 00:27:35.829 --> 00:27:39.549 .0. A 19 .7 means almost 20 % of all television 00:27:39.549 --> 00:27:41.809 households in the country were tuned in. It's 00:27:41.809 --> 00:27:44.210 basically Super Bowl numbers by modern standards. 00:27:44.390 --> 00:27:46.890 And it completely anchored NBC. It destroyed 00:27:46.890 --> 00:27:49.730 the competition. Cosby, Family Ties, Cheers, 00:27:50.029 --> 00:27:53.109 Night Court. NBC essentially owned Thursday nights 00:27:53.109 --> 00:27:55.170 for the next two decades directly because of 00:27:55.170 --> 00:27:57.430 the foundation built in this specific season. 00:27:57.609 --> 00:27:59.730 And the industry rewarded them. The awards started 00:27:59.730 --> 00:28:02.240 piling up. Shelley Long won the Golden Globe 00:28:02.240 --> 00:28:05.180 for Best Actress. Rhea Perlman won the Emmy for 00:28:05.180 --> 00:28:08.059 Supporting Actress. The Sound Crew won an Emmy 00:28:08.059 --> 00:28:10.779 for the Executive's Executioner. The writing 00:28:10.779 --> 00:28:13.519 was heavily recognized. But there is one award 00:28:13.519 --> 00:28:15.740 that I think matters the most. The award for 00:28:15.740 --> 00:28:18.839 Coach. Yes. An organization called Viewers for 00:28:18.839 --> 00:28:20.960 Quality Television, which was a very influential 00:28:20.960 --> 00:28:23.859 fan group at the time, gave a posthumous Best 00:28:23.859 --> 00:28:26.259 Supporting Actor award to Nicholas Colasanto. 00:28:26.500 --> 00:28:28.400 That gets me. It was a beautiful recognition 00:28:28.400 --> 00:28:30.299 that even though he didn't finish the season, 00:28:30.500 --> 00:28:33.599 his spirit defined it. He was the MVP. So let's 00:28:33.599 --> 00:28:36.240 zoom out. We've spent this time dissecting this 00:28:36.240 --> 00:28:39.339 incredible year. What is the big takeaway? Why 00:28:39.339 --> 00:28:41.380 does season three of Cheers actually matter? 00:28:41.720 --> 00:28:43.980 I think season three proves that a sitcom can 00:28:43.980 --> 00:28:46.680 be more than just a joke delivery system. This 00:28:46.680 --> 00:28:48.900 season proved that Cheers was incredibly resilient. 00:28:49.380 --> 00:28:51.960 Losing a core cast member like Coach could have 00:28:51.960 --> 00:28:54.359 killed a lesser show. Introducing a universally 00:28:54.359 --> 00:28:56.420 hated character like Frasier could have killed 00:28:56.420 --> 00:28:58.759 a lesser show. But instead of folding, they leaned 00:28:58.759 --> 00:29:01.470 into it. They pivoted, they evolved, they allowed 00:29:01.470 --> 00:29:03.710 the show to grow up. It became a show about a 00:29:03.710 --> 00:29:05.630 dysfunctional family dealing with real things. 00:29:06.150 --> 00:29:10.849 Addiction, death, class, rejection. but finding 00:29:10.849 --> 00:29:13.150 a way to laugh about it. It's the season where 00:29:13.150 --> 00:29:16.369 cheers truly became cheers. Exactly. And just 00:29:16.369 --> 00:29:19.009 think about the what -ifs. If John Lithgow had 00:29:19.009 --> 00:29:21.230 said, yes, we don't get the Frasier we know, 00:29:21.369 --> 00:29:23.829 if the producers had decided to recast Coach 00:29:23.829 --> 00:29:26.670 the Lookalike, we never get Woody Boyd in season 00:29:26.670 --> 00:29:29.569 four, the naive farm boy who brings a totally 00:29:29.569 --> 00:29:31.750 new energy to the bar. It's a season of sliding 00:29:31.750 --> 00:29:34.869 doors. Every disaster turned into an opportunity. 00:29:35.170 --> 00:29:37.089 And that is the true definition of creativity. 00:29:37.450 --> 00:29:39.670 It's not about having a perfect plan. It's about 00:29:39.670 --> 00:29:41.670 what you do when the plan blows up in your face, 00:29:41.750 --> 00:29:43.849 when your actress gets pregnant, when your actor 00:29:43.849 --> 00:29:45.730 gets sick, when your audience hates your new 00:29:45.730 --> 00:29:48.609 character. Cheers took all those blows and turned 00:29:48.609 --> 00:29:50.990 them into gold. So here's a provocative thought 00:29:50.990 --> 00:29:53.490 to leave you with. We live in the era of the 00:29:53.490 --> 00:29:56.529 sadcom, shows like The Bear or Succession or 00:29:56.529 --> 00:30:00.250 Fleabag that mix intense drama with comedy. We 00:30:00.250 --> 00:30:02.690 think we invented that tone. We definitely think 00:30:02.690 --> 00:30:04.630 we're the first generation to be sophisticated 00:30:04.630 --> 00:30:08.269 about genre blending. But look at Cheers, season 00:30:08.269 --> 00:30:11.730 three in 1985. You have a main character relapsing 00:30:11.730 --> 00:30:14.900 into serious alcoholism. You have a beloved father 00:30:14.900 --> 00:30:17.339 figure dying. You have intense psychological 00:30:17.339 --> 00:30:21.039 games, class warfare, and heartbreak. And it 00:30:21.039 --> 00:30:23.059 was all done with a laugh track on a soundstage 00:30:23.059 --> 00:30:25.480 in front of a live audience. It makes you wonder, 00:30:25.559 --> 00:30:27.759 maybe we haven't evolved past the multi -camera 00:30:27.759 --> 00:30:30.180 sitcom at all. Maybe we just forgot how good 00:30:30.180 --> 00:30:31.960 it can be when it's brave enough to break your 00:30:31.960 --> 00:30:34.319 heart. That is a great place to leave it. Thank 00:30:34.319 --> 00:30:35.819 you for taking this deep dive with us.