Welcome back to The Deep Dive. Today, I want
you to just sort of picture the television landscape
of 1990. Oh, wow. Yeah, that's a whole different
world. It really is. There's no streaming, no
internet spoilers, no DVRs. You literally had
to be there sitting on your couch at 9 p .m.
on a Thursday night. Right. Appointment viewing.
Exactly. And if you missed it, you were just
completely out of the conversation at work the
next day. And in that very specific window of
time, there was one show that was absolutely
dominating the cultural conversation. Dominating
is almost an understatement for what it was doing.
Yeah, I mean, we are talking about Cheers, but
we are talking about those early days, you know,
the Sam and Diane romance that I think everyone
instantly remembers. We are fast -forwarding
all the way to season nine. Which, if you know
anything about television history, that's a really
fascinating place to land. It is. Because usually
when we talk about a sitcom in its ninth season,
we are talking about a show that's basically
on life support. Oh, totally. The Jumping the
Shark era. Yeah. We're talking about writers
completely running out of ideas, actors kind
of just phoning it in, or, you know, the network
introducing some cute little kid to try and spike
the ratings. Like Cousin Oliver syndrome. Exactly.
It's almost always the beginning of the end.
Right. That is the standard trajectory. You have
the peak, the plateau, and then the inevitable
decline. But here is the hook for today's deep
dive. Cheers. Season nine basically broke the
laws of television physics. It really did. According
to the Nielsen Media Research Ratings for that
specific time frame, the 1990 -1991 season, this
show, which was nearly a decade old and had key
cast members who had left years prior, was the
number one top -rated network television show
in the United States. It's just a staggering
statistic. I mean, it wasn't just doing okay
for an older show. It was beating 60 Minutes.
Which is wild. And it was beating Roseanne, which
at that time was an absolute juggernaut of working
class comedy. It even beat The Cosby Show. Cheers.
Season nine is arguably the most successful late
stage season of any sitcom in history. So our
mission today for this deep dive is to figure
out how. Yeah, how did they pull it off? Exactly.
How does a show set in a single location? A basement
bar in Boston, which had already played out its
primary love story, managed to just keep its
momentum and reinvent itself to become more popular
than ever. A great question. And to answer it,
we've got a fantastic stack of source material
today. We're pulling from the comprehensive Wikipedia
entry for Cheers Season 9, which includes, you
know, detailed episode summaries, cast lists,
the Nielsen ratings charts, and their accolade
records. And we are going to unpack all of the
writing strategies. the character evolutions,
and the specific ensemble magic that made this
season an actual masterpiece. But I think we
have to start by talking about the huge risk
they took right out of the gate, because season
nine starts by completely dismantling the one
thing fans thought they wanted. Oh, you're talking
about the Sam and Rebecca dynamic. I am. Let's
jump right into section one of our deep dive,
the central tension. All right, so context is
really key here. For three seasons, ever since
Shelley Long left and Kirstie Alley joined the
cast as Rebecca Howe, the show had been building
up this intense will -they -won't -they tension
between Sam Malone and Rebecca. It was the new
engine of the show. Exactly. The classic television
trope. Sam is the playboy ex -athlete. Rebecca
is this neurotic corporate climber. They're completely
oil and water, so naturally, TV logic. dictates
they have to fall in love. Right. And season
eight ended with this massive cliffhanger involving
Rebecca's extremely rich boyfriend, Robin Colcord.
So season nine opens with episode one, which
has a great title. Love is a really, really perfectly
OK thing. Such a good title. And Robin Colcord
returns from hiding to find Sam and Rebecca together
in the office. Now, if this were Friends or The
Office or frankly, almost any other sitcom, this
is the exact moment where the leads confess their
undying love. Right. The music swells. Kiss,
the live studio audience loses their mind. That's
the safe play. You give the audience the payoff.
But the Cheers writers did something incredibly
brave here. They zagged. Instead of falling into
each other's arms, they have Sam and Rebecca
frantically convince Robin that nothing happened,
that they didn't sleep together. Which is hilarious.
And Robin, who has these ongoing legal issues,
just surrenders to the police. We'll definitely
get to his legal troubles a bit later. But then
once the dust settles, Sam and Rebecca have this
private moment. The honesty bomb. Yes. I was
rereading the summaries and watching some clips,
and the acting in this scene is so beautifully
subtle. Sam looks at her, and instead of giving
this grand romantic speech, he just says, it
wasn't as great as I expected. It is brutal.
I mean, he basically gives their night of incredible
passion a Yelp review of two stars. He tells
her, I thought I'd be seeing fireworks, but eh.
It's so funny, but why do you think the writers
did that? I mean, on the surface, it seems like
they are deliberately alienating the entire segment
of the audience that was rooting for them to
get together. They were acting. avoiding the
moonlighting curse. There was a huge fear in
the television industry at that time that once
you finally put your two leads together, all
the sexual tension evaporates and the show just
dies. By having Sam essentially say, it was just
okay, they completely reset the board. They took
away the magic. Exactly. They moved the relationship
from potential soulmates to buddies who accidentally
slept together once and it was just kind of weird.
That is such a crucial distinction for the show.
It turns them into friends. Dysfunctional friends,
sure, but friends. And adversaries. Yeah. Really.
Because Rebecca is curious, obviously. Her ego
is completely shattered. She storms out. She
actually quits, which, let's be honest, is her
go -to move. But she eventually comes back to
apologize. And from that point on in season nine,
the romantic tension is largely just gone. It's
replaced by this sibling -like bickering that
is actually much funnier and way more sustainable
for a show entering its ninth year. It also frees
Rebecca up to continue her absolute unhinged
obsession with Robin Colcord. Yes, which really
becomes the driving force of her character this
year. Because we have to remember, Rebecca Howe
is defined by her ambition. She desperately wants
to be a winner. And Robin Colcord. The suave
British multimillionaire is her golden ticket
to the high life, even if he is currently a fugitive
or, well, an inmate. Which brings us to episode
four, where Nobody Knows Your Name. That title
itself is a brilliant play on the show's theme
song. And this episode is just painful for Rebecca.
It really is a masterclass in cringe comedy,
way before cringe comedy was a mainstream genre.
So Robin is in prison. And he's giving these
interviews to the press, very nobly protecting
the identity of his quote -unquote true love.
And Rebecca naturally assumes it's her. Oh, she
is preening. She is ready for the paparazzi.
She wants to be the glamorous mistress behind
this huge corporate scandal. But then the news
breaks. The press describes the person Robin
is protecting as merely some Boston bar manager.
They don't even use her name. Meanwhile, a woman
from the French consulate who Robin was apparently
also seeing claims to be the true love. And she
gets all the fame, the TV interviews, the magazine
covers. It strips Rebecca of the one thing she
wants more than anything, which is Scotus. Being
the secret lover of a billionaire is romantic.
Being some bar manager is just humiliating for
her. And it really highlights her delusion. She
is in love with the lifestyle Robin provides,
not necessarily the man himself. She wants to
be the main character in a romance novel, but
the universe just keeps casting her as the comic
relief. She tries so hard to keep that fantasy
alive, though. In episode seven, Breaking In
is Hard to Do, she actually visits him in prison.
And tries to seduce him. In the visitation room.
Yes. With the glass partition right there. It
is physical comedy gold for Kirstie Alley. She's
trying to be incredibly sexy in this drab, depressing
prison environment. But Robin rejects her. And
this is key, right? He doesn't reject her because
he has newfound morals. Not at all. He rejects
her because getting caught messing around in
the visitation room would extend his prison sentence.
He is being purely pragmatic. He is always looking
out for number one, which perfectly sets up the
massive three -part arc in the middle of the
season. The Wedding. Oh, this is the absolute
centerpiece of Season 9, Episodes 15, 16, and
17. The days of wine and neuroses, wedding bell
blues, and I'm getting my act together and sticking
it in your face. Those are fantastic titles,
by the way. They really are. So Robin gets released
from prison. He proposes to Rebecca. And this
is it. She has won. She has a giant ring. She
has the billionaire. But in Part 1, she starts
drinking. Is it just cold feet? It's worse than
that. It's a subconscious realization. She gets
drunk because deep down she knows this entire
thing is a sham. And in part two, on the actual
wedding day, she finally admits it to herself.
She has this huge epiphany. She says, I only
love him for his money. That is a massive moment
of growth for her character. To actually say
that out loud, it redeems her a little bit. I
mean, she's shallow, but at least she's finally
being honest about it. Right. And she is actually
ready to call the whole thing off. But the writers
have one. Final, incredibly cruel twist waiting
for her. Yes, the betrayal. Just as she is grappling
with this huge moral dilemma, Robin reveals his
true colors. He tells her he didn't come back
to the bar for love. He came back because he
hid $6 million in cash under her desk in the
bar's office. Under the desk the entire time
he was in prison. The whole time. He basically
lifts up the floorboard, grabs this giant satchel
of cash, and abandons her right at the altar.
He just flees the country with the money. So
she is left standing there with no husband, no
money, and the crushing realization that she
was just a pawn in his game. It completely destroys
her. In part three, she has a total breakdown.
She locks herself in the office. She leaves town
for a bit. It is absolute rock bottom for Rebecca
Howe. But, and I think this is why we love the
show so much, she comes back. She always comes
back to cheers. Because the bar is the only real
thing she has left in her life. The people there,
despite being absolute weirdos, actually care
about her. Unlike Robin. Now, while Rebecca is
spiraling out of control this season, Sam is
playing a very different role. He really becomes
the anchor of the show. He does. With Rebecca
acting as the agent of chaos, Sam kind of steps
into the straight man role. He's back as the
manager. He's running the bar day to day. But
we do start to see a crack in his armor by the
season finale, episode 26, Uncle Sam Wants You.
Ah, the baby fever episode. Yes. Sam starts spending
time with Frasier and Lilith's son, Frederick,
and he gets completely obsessed. He starts really
seriously thinking about fatherhood for himself.
Which is a huge shift for Sam Mayday Malone.
He was always the guy who ran away from any kind
of commitment. Now he is actively seeking a legacy.
It really signals the beginning of the end for
this series as a whole. Sam is starting to realize
that casual dating and bartending might not actually
be enough to fulfill him for the rest of his
life. It sets the stage for the much more introspective
Sam that we see in the final couple of seasons.
So we have the two leads of the cast evolving
in these major ways. The listener feedback we
got, and frankly, what all the critics were saying
at the time, points to one specific thing that
made Season 9 so special. The ensemble? Exactly.
Section 2 of our outline, the supporting cast
highlights. This is where the show really just
flexes its muscles. When you have a bench this
deep, you don't need Sam and Rebecca to carry
every single scene. You can let the supporting
players shine. So let's talk about the Cranes,
Frasier and Lilith, played by Kelsey Grammer
and Bebe North. They are comedy snipers. They
don't need a lot of setup at all. They just walk
into the bar, deliver one devastatingly dry line,
and the audience is completely in stitches. In
episode seven, we get to see their intense parenting
anxiety. They're absolutely distraught because
they find out their baby, Frederick, is only
of quote unquote average intelligence. Which
to them is a literal tragedy. Oh, yeah. They
are both renowned psychiatrists. They are both
hardcore intellectuals. The mere idea that their
combined gene pool produced a normal kid is terrifying
to them. So they try to overcompensate. Right.
They try to stimulate his brain with complex
flashcards and classical music, trying to force
him into being a genius. But then we get to the
first word incident. This is legendary television.
Frazier brings the baby into the bar. Norm walks
in. The entire bar does the classic Norm chorus.
And the baby mimics it. His very first word is
shouting, Norm! It is the perfect nurture over
nature joke. The kid is spending all his formative
time being raised in a Boston bar. Of course,
his first word is the name of the guy who is
always sitting there. But the best part is Lilith's
reaction. Bebe Newworth is just a genius in this
scene. She clearly hears him say Norm, but her
face completely lights up and she screams, Mommy!
He said Mommy. It is so delusional, but it is
deeply human. She wants that maternal validation
so badly that she just rewrites reality in real
time. I think it shows that beneath that coal,
robotic, tight bun exterior, Lilith is just as
desperate for connection as anyone else in that
room. Speaking of Frasier, though, we do have
to address a bit of a controversy. A continuity
error that still haunts internet forums to this
day. Oh boy. Yes, episode two cheers Fowles out.
Frazier makes a very specific comment about his
parents in this episode. What exactly does he
say? He explicitly states that his parents are
dead, both of them deceased. Which, if you have
ever seen the massively successful spinoff series,
Frazier, is a pretty big problem. Because his
father, Martin Crane, is literally the co -lead
of that show. It is a massive retcon. But you
have to put yourself in the mindset of the era.
There was no Wikipedia back then. There was no
streaming where fans could binge watch and fact
check every line of dialogue. Right. The writers
just needed a quick reason for Frazier to be
grumpy or sympathetic in that specific scene
in 1990, so they tossed in a line about his dead
parents. They never in a million years dreamed
that Frazier Crane would get his own spinoff
set in Seattle that would run for 11 seasons.
It just proves that for sitcom writers in the
90s, the joke always came first. canon and continuity
were secondary to getting the laugh in the room?
Always. You've serviced the senior right now.
Let's move down the bar a bit to Cliff Clavin,
the mailman, the resident know -it -all. Season
9 really feels like the writers just sat in a
room and decided, let's see exactly how weird
we can make Cliff this year. They really leaned
hard into his eccentricity. And equally importantly,
the other characters' total intolerance of it.
Take episode 12, Woody Interruptus. This episode
features the infamous frozen head prank. This
is maybe the most classic sitcom plot of the
entire season, but it works so well because it's
grounded in these specific characters. Cliff
announces to the bar that he wants to be cryogenically
frozen when he dies. Specifically, he wants his
head preserved. Because of course he does. He
probably read half a brochure about it in the
mail and considers himself an expert. Exactly.
So the bar gang decides they're going to mess
with him. They get a cardboard box. They pack
it full of dry ice so it's smoking. And they
tell Cliff they found a frozen head. And Cliff
actually believes it. Cliff will believe absolutely
anything if it somehow validates his pseudo -intellectual
worldview. But the prank doesn't stop there.
It escalates until Norm eventually pretends to
be decapitated. It sounds so gruesome when you
describe it out loud, but on screen it is just
guys being dudes. It's this weird, almost affectionate
male bonding ritual. They torment Cliff because
he is part of their tribe. That's spot on. If
they didn't actually like him, they would just
ignore him. The sheer amount of effort they put
into building this elaborate prank proves that
he is family to them. But we also see that Cliff
has these moments of really deep insecurity.
Like in episode 10, Veggie Boyd, there is a whole
subplot about trivia napkins. Oh man, the bar
gets these new cocktail napkins with trivia questions
printed on them and Cliff just spirals. He literally
feels threatened by a napkin. Well, if you think
about it from his perspective, Cliff's entire
social currency in that bar is that he knows
useless facts. If a disposable paper napkin can
provide that exact same service, what is the
point of Cliff Clavin? Right. It is a full -blown
existential crisis triggered by a bar supply.
And we get to see his home life issues too this
season. Episode 5, Ma Always Liked You Best.
This is the introduction of the great feud for
Ma Clavin's affection. Cliff refuses to let his
mother stay with him at his place. So she ends
up moving in with Woody. And of course they get
along famously. Which just drives Cliff completely
insane. It is classic petty jealousy. He pushes
her away because he wants his space, but he absolutely
cannot stand seeing her be happy with someone
else. It adds a surprisingly real layer of psychological
complexity to Cliff. He is the ultimate mama's
boy who deeply resents his mama. Speaking of
Woody. Woody Boyd, played by Woody Harrelson.
I think we forget sometimes that he was this
incredible, incredibly gifted comedic actor before
he became a serious dramatic movie star. His
physical comedy in season nine is just top tier.
In that same episode, Veggie Boyd, he actually
gets cast in a local commercial for a new health
drink called Veggie Boy. But there's a catch.
The drink is absolutely disgusting. It's vile.
But Woody is so pure -hearted and naive he literally
cannot tell a lie. He physically cannot smile
and drink the sludge on camera at the same time.
His face just rejects it. So they have to bring
in Frasier to fix it. Frasier actually hypnotizes
Woody to believe the drink is the most delicious
thing in the world. And the physical acting here.
The face Woody makes, this manic, wide -eyed,
forced delight while clearly swallowing poison,
is easily one of the funniest visual gags of
the entire season. Woody also deals with some
surprisingly modern problems this year. In episode
11, Norman Cliff's Excellent Adventure, Woody
gets addicted to a home shopping channel. This
was a very real 90s phenomenon. People staying
up and buying cubic zirconia jewelry and terrifying
porcelain dolls at three in the morning. Woody
has zero impulse control, so it fits his character
perfectly. And we also see his ongoing romance
with Kelly Gaines. We actually meet a rival suitor
for her named Henri in episode 12. Ah, Henri
the Frenchman. He is the complete anti -Woody.
He is sophisticated, cynical, smooth, and he
clearly wants to steal Kelly away. So Woody tries
to prove his manhood by taking Kelly to a cheap
motel for a romantic rendezvous. Which, knowing
Woody and Kelly, is just such a hilariously bad
idea. It is a total disaster waiting to happen.
Right. But Carla, Carla Tortelli, of all people,
actually saves the day. She tracks them down,
bursts into the motel room and interrupts them
before anything happens. Why does she do that?
Because Carly usually loves watching people's
lives dissolve into chaos. She does, but she
has a real soft spot for Woody. She knows he
is way out of his depth and is about to make
a massive mistake that will probably cost him
his relationship with Kelly. So she willingly
plays the villain to save him from himself. It's
a very rare moment of maternal protectiveness
from Carly. Finally, for the ensemble, we have
to talk about Norm, the man holding down the
corner of the bar. Norm is essentially the Greek
chorus of cheers. He sits there, he observes
everything, he comments. But in episode six,
Grease, he actually gets active. Yes, the campaign
to save the hungry heifer. His absolute favorite
restaurant, it is a greasy spoon, basically a
total health hazard. But Norm loves it. When
he hears that it's closing down, he launches
this full scale protest campaign. He's got petitions.
He's picketing outside. The irony of the whole
situation. The twist is brilliant. The owner
of the Hungry Huffer actually wants it to close.
He desperately wants to burn the place down to
collect the insurance money and sell to developers.
So you have Norm out there passionately defending
the structural integrity of this building while
the owner is standing right behind him holding
a lit match. It is a perfect. somewhat tragic
metaphor for Norm's entire life. Yeah. He consistently
invests his energy and loyalty into things that
are fundamentally broken. And we can't ignore
the physical comedy with Norm either. Back in
episode five, the window incident. Oh, the new
entrance. Right. Rebecca decides they need a
new fancier entrance to the bar where she's testing
out a new door frame. And Norm decides to test
it out and gets completely stopped, just literally
wedged in the window frame. I mean, let's be
honest, it is a fat joke. It definitely is. But
the reason it works is because George Wendt plays
it with such incredible dignity. He doesn't panic.
He doesn't flail around. He just kind of accepts
that being stuck in a wall is his life now. He
just asks someone to hand him a beer while he
waits for the police. It emphasizes that Norm
isn't just a customer. He is a literal fixture
of the bar. He is part of the architecture. So
that really covers the people inside the ecosystem
of the bar. But season nine also actively expands
the world outside. those walls right moving on
to section three of our deep dive the environment
and specifically bar wars and real estate the
writers knew they needed some external antagonists
to unite the cast you need a villain to bring
the family together and we get the classic rivalry
with gary's oldie town tavern in episode 2 cheers
fouls out it escalates to a basketball game high
stakes basketball And Cheers decides they aren't
messing around this time. They bring in a ringer.
Actual Boston Celtics legend Kevin McHale. This
was such a huge cameo at the time. It really
grounded the show in the reality of Boston. Seeing
an actual Celtic hanging out in the bar with
Norm and Cliff made the whole world feel authentic.
But of course, because it is Cheers, and because
they are playing against Gary, they absolutely
cannot win. Gary is always playing 4D chess while
the Cheers gang is playing checkers. Gary plays
so dirty. Exactly is the con this time. He fakes
a medical diagnosis. Yeah. So Gary orchestrates
this elaborate guilt trip. He tricks the Cheers
gang into believing that the game is actually
a charity event or that Gary's players have some
severe physical limitations. I think he sends
in a fake doctor to diagnose Mikhail with a stress
fracture or something. Right. He makes the Cheers
gang feel like absolute monsters for trying to
win the game. So they forfeit or they throw the
game out of this sudden moral obligation. Only
to find out seconds later that Gary was lying.
the entire time and just walked away with their
money. It is the ultimate Charlie Brown in the
football scenario. Gary always, always pulls
the football away at the last second. But while
Gary is fun, the much more significant villain
introduced this season is John Allen Hill. Played
by the wonderful Keane Curtis, he's introduced
in episode nine as the new owner of Melville's,
which is the fancy seafood restaurant located
directly upstairs from Cheers. This was a brilliant
addition to the cast. Because John Allen Hill
is not a childish prankster like Gary. He is
a legitimate snob. He actively hates the bar.
He hates the noise. He hates the smell of the
beer. And he really hates the people. And in
that episode, Bad Neighbor Sam, he drops an absolute
bombshell on them. Real estate law at its finest.
Hill reveals that through some arcane quirk in
the original deed to the building, he actually
owns the back hallway, the pool room, and the
restrooms of Cheers. That is a nightmare scenario
for a bar owner. Sam doesn't even own his own
bathrooms. It's a massive power move. Hill literally
has his workers build a solid brick wall in the
hallway to block access. He holds the bladders
of the bar patrons hostage. It forces Sam to
literally pay daily rent just to let his customers
use the toilets. It is so deeply humiliating
for him. It really changes the power dynamic
of the entire show. Sam is usually the undisputed
king of his castle. John Allen Hill makes him
feel like a helpless serf. And this storyline
doesn't just fade away. It actually resolves
in a way that permanently changes the ownership
structure of the bar, right? Yes, it does. Later
in the season, in episode 19, Crash of the Titans,
Rebecca finally steps up. She uses the money
she has, or money she managed to scrape together,
to buy back the pool room and the bathrooms directly
from Hill. So she essentially saves the bar.
She does. And in doing so, she becomes an official
partner. She isn't just an employee drawing a
salary anymore. She owns a piece of the rock.
That is a great character arc. It solidifies
her place in the ecosystem. She has literally
bought her way into the Cheers family. Okay,
let's zoom out a bit now. We have talked about
the plot mechanics, the character arcs, the jokes.
But we need to look at the historical legacy
of this season. Moving to section four, critical
reception. We mentioned the Nielsen ratings at
the very top of the deep dive, the number one
show in America. But the critics were also completely
on board, which isn't always a guarantee. Right.
Sometimes massively popular shows get absolutely
slammed by television critics. But Cheers Season
9 was a critical darling across the board. It
really swept the awards season. Let's look at
the 1991 Emmy Awards. This was basically a coronation
for the show. They won Outstanding Comedy Series.
And they were up against heavy hitters like the
Golden Girls, Murphy Brown, and Designing Women.
That was incredibly tough competition. And Kirstie
Alley won the Emmy for Lead Actress in a Comedy
Series. This was a huge milestone for her. You
have to remember, for her first few years on
the show, she was living entirely in Shelley
Long's shadow. The critics constantly compared
Rebecca to Diane. Unfavorably, usually. Right.
By season nine, she had completely won everyone
over. This Emmy win was the industry definitively
saying, you are not just a replacement anymore.
You are a massive star in your own right. And
by Meanworth, one outstanding supporting actress
for playing Lilith. Again, just proving that
playing a cold, seemingly unfeeling character
can actually make you the funniest person in
the room if the writing is sharp enough. And
we can't forget. James Burroughs won the Emmy
for directing. Yes, for Woody Interruptus. The
Frozen Head episode. I just love that it's a
highly prestigious highbrow award for an incredibly
lowbrow prank storyline. I think it just shows
that execution matters so much more than concept.
You can do a fundamentally dumb sitcom joke,
but if you direct it with precision pacing, it
becomes art. The show also won the Golden Globe
for Best Television Series Musical or Comedy,
which it shared with Season 8. due to the eligibility
window, they were just unstoppable. And they
celebrated this success with a very special event.
The 200th episode. Episode eight of this season.
They broke the fourth wall completely for this
one. It was a special retrospective hosted by
John McLaughlin, the famous political pundit
from the McLaughlin Group. It was formatted as
a serious panel discussion about the cultural
impact of the show, with the cast appearing on
stage as themselves alongside the creators. And
the biggest moment of that special. They brought
back Shelley Long. Which was the exact moment
every single fan was waiting for. Diane Chambers
returned, well, sort of, as the actress. It was
a huge peace offering to the longtime fans. It
acknowledged the foundational history of the
show while also showing how confident the current
cast was. They clearly weren't afraid of the
ghost of Diane Chambers anymore. Exactly. They
were the number one show on TV. They had nothing
to prove. So as we start to wrap up this deep
dive into season nine, I want to circle back
to the central theme of our outline. Why did
this specific season work so incredibly well?
I think it worked because it simply wasn't afraid
to change. Most sitcoms die because they try
to freeze time. They want the characters to stay
exactly the same forever because that's what
made them famous in the first place. Cheers let
them grow. They let Sam get older and start wanting
a family. They let Rebecca get completely broken
down. They let Frasier and Lilith struggle with
the realities of raising a baby. Exactly. They
leaned heavily into the ensemble magic. They
realized that characters like Cliff and Norm
and Woody weren't just background decoration
to serve drinks to. They were the actual beating
heart of the show. And I think that shift moving
from a romance -driven narrative to a true balanced
ensemble comedy is exactly what allowed Cheers
to stay on the air and stay relevant for another
two full seasons after this. Absolutely. Season
9 was the crucial bridge. It proved to the network
and the fans that the show was bigger than any
one romantic relationship. It was a victory lap
where they were comfortable in their identity.
Before we go today, I always like to leave you,
the listener, with a final provocative thought.
Something to sort of... mull over on your own
that builds on what we've discussed today. Okay,
I think I know exactly where you're headed with
this. We spent a lot of time talking about Robin
Colcourt today, the billionaire boyfriend. Played
just brilliantly by Roger Reese. He lies. He
cheats on Rebecca. He steals six million dollars.
He leaves her standing alone at the altar. By
all conventional accounts, he is the ultimate
villain of season nine. He is a classic mustache
twirling bad guy. But hear me out on this. Is
he actually the hero of Rebecca's overall story?
Oh, that is a hot take. Go on, explain that.
Think about exactly who Rebecca Howe was before
Robin left her. She was entirely obsessed with
status. She was relentlessly climbing a corporate
ladder that didn't even really exist anymore.
She was defining her entire self -worth by the
wealth of the man she was sleeping with. She
was a shallow, highly neurotic mess. Right. So
when Robin stole that money and ran away, he
essentially... He took away the financial safety
net. He completely destroyed the fantasy. He
forced her to hit. absolute rock bottom. And
because she hit rock bottom, she had absolutely
no choice but to rebuild her life from scratch.
Exactly. Because of what he did, she had to buy
into the bar. She had to learn to actually rely
on Sam and the rest of the gang for emotional
support. She had to become a real functioning
person rather than just a corporate caricature.
So you're basically saying that Robin Colcord
was the forest fire that had to burn everything
down so that new life could finally grow. Exactly.
Without that massive betrayal, Rebecca Rebecca
Howe just remains a miserable social climbing
executive forever. With the betrayal, she becomes
a beloved friend and a legitimate small business
owner. I really like that framing. He is the
accidental savior. It certainly doesn't forgive
the theft or the emotional abuse. But narratively
speaking, abandoning her was the absolute best
thing he could have ever done for her character
development. It's definitely something to think
about the next time you are flipping channels
and catch the reruns. A massive thank you to
the brilliant cast and crew of Cheers for giving
us this incredible season of television. And
as always, a huge thank you to you for listening.
Cheers. We will catch you on the next deep dive.