WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.680 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Before we really 00:00:02.680 --> 00:00:04.419 get into it today, I want you to actually close 00:00:04.419 --> 00:00:06.339 your eyes for just a second. Okay, setting the 00:00:06.339 --> 00:00:08.259 mood right off the bat. Yeah, just bear with 00:00:08.259 --> 00:00:12.220 me. Imagine you are walking down this set of 00:00:12.220 --> 00:00:15.500 concrete steps in Boston. You reach out, you 00:00:15.500 --> 00:00:18.440 push open this heavy wooden door, and you're 00:00:18.440 --> 00:00:20.620 immediately hit with the smell of stale beer. 00:00:20.989 --> 00:00:22.809 Maybe a little sawdust on the floor. Exactly. 00:00:22.809 --> 00:00:25.570 Some sawdust. And you hear the sound of a studio 00:00:25.570 --> 00:00:28.250 audience or, you know, maybe just a group of 00:00:28.250 --> 00:00:30.949 really close friends shouting a single name in 00:00:30.949 --> 00:00:34.689 unison. It is. It's arguably the most famous 00:00:34.689 --> 00:00:37.350 basement in television history. We are, of course, 00:00:37.369 --> 00:00:39.829 talking about Cheers, but I want to be clear 00:00:39.829 --> 00:00:42.070 right up front. If you think this is just going 00:00:42.070 --> 00:00:45.289 to be some light nostalgia trip where we hum 00:00:45.289 --> 00:00:47.130 the theme song and talk about how funny the jokes 00:00:47.130 --> 00:00:49.369 were, well, we need to set the stage properly. 00:00:49.570 --> 00:00:52.090 Right, because we have a massive stack of documents 00:00:52.090 --> 00:00:53.869 here. I mean, we're looking at extensive character 00:00:53.869 --> 00:00:56.909 biographies, deep production notes, casting histories, 00:00:57.070 --> 00:00:59.390 even psychological profiles of the characters 00:00:59.390 --> 00:01:01.030 that the writers put together. It is a heavy 00:01:01.030 --> 00:01:04.409 stack of paper. It's heavy. And frankly, it kind 00:01:04.409 --> 00:01:07.420 of needs to be. Because when you dive into these 00:01:07.420 --> 00:01:10.239 sources, you realize Cheers wasn't just a sitcom. 00:01:10.519 --> 00:01:12.719 If you really look at the anatomy of the show, 00:01:12.840 --> 00:01:15.519 it was this rare lightning in a bottle moment. 00:01:15.700 --> 00:01:18.239 The writing, the acting, the cultural timing, 00:01:18.280 --> 00:01:20.879 it all just aligned perfectly. So our mission 00:01:20.879 --> 00:01:23.739 today for this deep dive is to dissect that exact 00:01:23.739 --> 00:01:27.680 anatomy. We really want to figure out how a washed 00:01:27.680 --> 00:01:31.180 up pitcher. A pretentious academic, a pretty 00:01:31.180 --> 00:01:33.599 cynical waitress and a couple of neurotic bar 00:01:33.599 --> 00:01:36.859 flies managed to create this this surrogate family 00:01:36.859 --> 00:01:39.420 that basically had America completely obsessed 00:01:39.420 --> 00:01:41.980 for 11 years. 11 seasons. It's a massive run. 00:01:42.079 --> 00:01:43.879 And we're going to look at the what ifs, too, 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:47.200 because the source material reveals these. crazy 00:01:47.200 --> 00:01:49.640 casting choices that almost happened. Oh, the 00:01:49.640 --> 00:01:52.180 alternate universe cheers is wild. It really 00:01:52.180 --> 00:01:54.359 is. It would have resulted in a completely fundamentally 00:01:54.359 --> 00:01:56.439 different show. Right. It makes for a really 00:01:56.439 --> 00:01:58.519 fascinating case study because you look at these 00:01:58.519 --> 00:02:01.060 production notes and you realize that purely 00:02:01.060 --> 00:02:03.439 on paper, this show probably shouldn't have worked. 00:02:03.540 --> 00:02:06.299 Not at all. It's a show about a group of distinct, 00:02:06.540 --> 00:02:10.379 often deeply flawed individuals, people who in 00:02:10.379 --> 00:02:12.699 literally any other setting in the world probably 00:02:12.699 --> 00:02:14.759 wouldn't even speak to each other. But down in 00:02:14.759 --> 00:02:17.400 the bar, they are family. So I think we have 00:02:17.400 --> 00:02:19.000 to start at the center of the universe, right? 00:02:19.099 --> 00:02:22.680 The gravitational pull of the entire show. The 00:02:22.680 --> 00:02:26.219 man behind the bar. Sam Malone. Sam Mayday Malone. 00:02:26.560 --> 00:02:28.719 the anchor of the whole thing. Now, everybody 00:02:28.719 --> 00:02:31.780 knows Sam Malone as the cool bartender, the ladies 00:02:31.780 --> 00:02:34.500 man. But when I started reading through his official 00:02:34.500 --> 00:02:37.520 character biography in these notes, I was genuinely 00:02:37.520 --> 00:02:40.520 surprised by how much sheer tragedy is baked 00:02:40.520 --> 00:02:42.780 into his backstory. Yeah, there is a lot being 00:02:42.780 --> 00:02:44.659 there. He isn't just a former player. It's a 00:02:44.659 --> 00:02:47.460 really dark history. That is a crucial observation 00:02:47.460 --> 00:02:50.400 to make early on because it's so easy to just 00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:53.780 view Sam through the lens of his charm. But according 00:02:53.780 --> 00:02:55.580 to the writer's notes, the character is defined 00:02:55.580 --> 00:02:58.819 almost entirely by lost potential. He isn't just 00:02:58.819 --> 00:03:00.960 a guy who used to play sports. He's a former 00:03:00.960 --> 00:03:03.120 relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. Wearing 00:03:03.120 --> 00:03:06.719 jersey number 16. Right, number 16. And the sources 00:03:06.719 --> 00:03:08.879 give us a very specific timeline that really 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:12.680 matters for his psychology. He pitched in 1973. 00:03:13.610 --> 00:03:16.650 He was a member of the 1975 AL champion team. 00:03:16.810 --> 00:03:19.689 So he reached the absolute peak. He was right 00:03:19.689 --> 00:03:22.030 there. But here is the key question the notes 00:03:22.030 --> 00:03:25.409 pose. Why did he stop? It wasn't a blown out 00:03:25.409 --> 00:03:27.810 shoulder. Yeah. It wasn't old age catching up 00:03:27.810 --> 00:03:31.590 with him. It was the bottle. Alcoholism. Yes. 00:03:31.889 --> 00:03:35.370 And that is an incredibly heavy backstory for 00:03:35.370 --> 00:03:38.689 a network sitcom lead. in the early 1980s. It 00:03:38.689 --> 00:03:40.830 really is. And there's this detail in the production 00:03:40.830 --> 00:03:43.310 notes that just absolutely stuck out to me. It 00:03:43.310 --> 00:03:46.830 mentions that he bought the bar in 1977. But 00:03:46.830 --> 00:03:49.810 the kicker is he bought the bar while he was 00:03:49.810 --> 00:03:51.689 still actively drinking. During his drinking 00:03:51.689 --> 00:03:53.830 days, yes. Wait, let's just pause on that. He 00:03:53.830 --> 00:03:55.909 bought a bar while he was an active alcoholic. 00:03:56.229 --> 00:03:58.669 Exactly. Just think about the psychology of a 00:03:58.669 --> 00:04:01.150 decision like that. The notes suggest he didn't 00:04:01.150 --> 00:04:03.169 buy it as some savvy real estate investment. 00:04:03.610 --> 00:04:06.169 He bought it because that is where he lived his 00:04:06.169 --> 00:04:08.439 life. So by the time we actually meet him in 00:04:08.439 --> 00:04:11.360 the pilot episode, yes, he is the owner, but 00:04:11.360 --> 00:04:14.360 he is also a recovering alcoholic whose daily 00:04:14.360 --> 00:04:17.060 job is working in a bar. Surrounded by the temptation. 00:04:17.439 --> 00:04:20.430 Every single day. He is literally surrounding 00:04:20.430 --> 00:04:23.269 himself with the exact substance that destroyed 00:04:23.269 --> 00:04:25.769 his major league career. That is just so intense 00:04:25.769 --> 00:04:29.069 to think about. It adds this entire layer of 00:04:29.069 --> 00:04:32.230 daily willpower to the character that I completely 00:04:32.230 --> 00:04:34.689 missed when I used to just watch the show casually. 00:04:34.910 --> 00:04:37.470 It almost feels like a form of penance. It really 00:04:37.470 --> 00:04:39.870 is penance. Yeah. And it completely sets up his 00:04:39.870 --> 00:04:42.589 specific personality type. He's not an intellectual 00:04:42.589 --> 00:04:45.089 guy. The show makes a very big deal about the 00:04:45.089 --> 00:04:46.850 fact that he barely scraped through high school. 00:04:47.100 --> 00:04:49.180 Although the notes do say he eventually got his 00:04:49.180 --> 00:04:51.899 diploma in season three. He did, yes. Yeah. But 00:04:51.899 --> 00:04:54.459 he was always a jock first. He openly admits 00:04:54.459 --> 00:04:56.560 to being unintelligent in the academic sense. 00:04:56.720 --> 00:04:59.180 Yeah. But what he possesses, and I love the phrase 00:04:59.180 --> 00:05:01.319 the creators used in the outline for this. Oh, 00:05:01.360 --> 00:05:03.319 relief pitcher arrogance. I saw that phrase in 00:05:03.319 --> 00:05:04.899 the notes and I highlighted it. What exactly 00:05:04.899 --> 00:05:07.379 does that mean in this specific context? Well, 00:05:07.399 --> 00:05:09.240 think about what a real world relief pitcher 00:05:09.240 --> 00:05:21.060 actually does. They don't start the game. The 00:05:21.060 --> 00:05:26.689 game is totally on the line. To succeed in that 00:05:26.689 --> 00:05:29.889 role, they have to have this icy, almost irrational 00:05:29.889 --> 00:05:33.089 confidence to just step on the mound, save the 00:05:33.089 --> 00:05:36.050 day, and then walk off. Just unshakable swagger. 00:05:36.329 --> 00:05:38.990 Exactly. And the writers noted that Sam treats 00:05:38.990 --> 00:05:41.449 his entire life with that exact same energy. 00:05:41.670 --> 00:05:44.550 He is not a planner. He doesn't think five steps 00:05:44.550 --> 00:05:47.509 ahead. He just reacts to whatever crisis is in 00:05:47.509 --> 00:05:49.990 front of him with this immense swagger. And he 00:05:49.990 --> 00:05:51.930 definitely brings that swagger to his dating 00:05:51.930 --> 00:05:54.110 life. I mean, we really have to unpack the womanizing 00:05:54.110 --> 00:05:56.709 here because Sam Malone is basically the gold 00:05:56.709 --> 00:05:59.029 standard archetype of the 80s ladies' man. Oh, 00:05:59.029 --> 00:06:00.970 absolutely. He drives the red Corvette. He is 00:06:00.970 --> 00:06:04.290 just constantly chasing women. He is. And when 00:06:04.290 --> 00:06:05.850 you look at it through the lens of the psychological 00:06:05.850 --> 00:06:08.569 profiles in the source material, this behavior 00:06:08.569 --> 00:06:11.890 is described as a mixture of... exhibitionist 00:06:11.890 --> 00:06:15.250 narcissism, and really deep insecurity. He desperately 00:06:15.250 --> 00:06:18.889 needs that validation. He craves it. He's often 00:06:18.889 --> 00:06:21.449 dating women who are undeniably beautiful, but 00:06:21.449 --> 00:06:23.769 perhaps a bit one -dimensional, or they're just 00:06:23.769 --> 00:06:26.649 there for a good time. He avoids depth. But there 00:06:26.649 --> 00:06:28.889 is a code, right? The character bios mention 00:06:28.889 --> 00:06:31.310 he actually has some standards. The famous Sam 00:06:31.310 --> 00:06:34.110 Malone code, yes. It's detailed in the notes 00:06:34.110 --> 00:06:36.449 for the episode, Sam Turns the Other Cheek, where 00:06:36.449 --> 00:06:38.730 he explicitly states his ethical line for dating. 00:06:39.069 --> 00:06:42.449 He actively avoids married, underage, and comatose 00:06:42.449 --> 00:06:44.810 women. I mean, the bar is incredibly low, but 00:06:44.810 --> 00:06:46.790 I suppose at least there is a bar. It is a tremendously 00:06:46.790 --> 00:06:49.110 low bar. But it's fascinating because underneath 00:06:49.110 --> 00:06:52.089 all that bravado and the red Corvette, the biography 00:06:52.089 --> 00:06:54.889 reveals exactly why he is so insecure. We have 00:06:54.889 --> 00:06:57.069 to talk about his family dynamics to really understand 00:06:57.069 --> 00:07:00.050 him, specifically his brother. Derek Malone. 00:07:00.209 --> 00:07:03.370 The unseen Derek. The sources describe Derek 00:07:03.370 --> 00:07:06.420 as being effortlessly talented. He's handsome. 00:07:06.600 --> 00:07:08.899 He's a successful international lawyer. He's 00:07:08.899 --> 00:07:11.639 a total polymath. He is basically better than 00:07:11.639 --> 00:07:14.160 Sam at absolutely everything. And how did the 00:07:14.160 --> 00:07:17.100 parents react to that? The notes are clear that 00:07:17.100 --> 00:07:19.699 they heavily, heavily favored Derek. Oh, that 00:07:19.699 --> 00:07:22.519 stings. So you have Sam, a guy who actually became 00:07:22.519 --> 00:07:25.800 a professional athlete. For most families, that's 00:07:25.800 --> 00:07:28.959 a massive, unbelievable achievement. But in the 00:07:28.959 --> 00:07:31.339 Malone family, he is still the disappointment. 00:07:31.459 --> 00:07:34.449 He's just the bartender. So every time he chases 00:07:34.449 --> 00:07:37.050 a woman or shows off his car or tells a story 00:07:37.050 --> 00:07:39.370 about the Red Sox, he is subconsciously trying 00:07:39.370 --> 00:07:42.170 to prove to the world that he has worth. Precisely. 00:07:42.170 --> 00:07:44.290 That makes him so much more sympathetic than 00:07:44.290 --> 00:07:46.050 just reading him as a guy who likes to go on 00:07:46.050 --> 00:07:48.149 dates. But here is where it gets really interesting 00:07:48.149 --> 00:07:50.170 for me. And this brings us to the casting history. 00:07:50.329 --> 00:07:52.790 Because when you say the name Sam Malone, you 00:07:52.790 --> 00:07:55.850 just immediately see Ted Danson. It is physically 00:07:55.850 --> 00:07:58.069 impossible to separate the actor from the character. 00:07:58.430 --> 00:08:00.670 But the production notes say the role wasn't 00:08:00.670 --> 00:08:03.199 written for him at all. No, not even close to 00:08:03.199 --> 00:08:06.420 it. The original concept for Sam Malone wasn't 00:08:06.420 --> 00:08:09.100 a baseball player. The creators originally wrote 00:08:09.100 --> 00:08:12.019 the character as a former football player, specifically 00:08:12.019 --> 00:08:14.779 a wide receiver for the New England Patriots. 00:08:14.839 --> 00:08:17.939 A football player. That changes his entire physical 00:08:17.939 --> 00:08:20.480 presence. It changes everything. And because 00:08:20.480 --> 00:08:23.139 of that original vision, the casting directors 00:08:23.139 --> 00:08:25.980 were looking at actual real -life football players 00:08:25.980 --> 00:08:28.860 to cast in the lead role. Like who? Who was actually 00:08:28.860 --> 00:08:31.079 on the list? Well... The notes show that Fred 00:08:31.079 --> 00:08:34.039 Dreyer was the absolute frontrunner. Fred Dreyer. 00:08:34.080 --> 00:08:35.659 Wait, is that the guy who ended up playing the 00:08:35.659 --> 00:08:37.779 sportscaster Dave Richards on the show later 00:08:37.779 --> 00:08:40.639 on? The very same guy. Before acting, he was 00:08:40.639 --> 00:08:43.139 a defensive end for the L .A. Rams. He was a 00:08:43.139 --> 00:08:45.500 legitimate, high -level professional athlete. 00:08:45.840 --> 00:08:48.240 And he was shortlisted for the role of Sam because 00:08:48.240 --> 00:08:51.399 he naturally possessed that exact physical presence 00:08:51.399 --> 00:08:53.940 and authentic locker room energy they thought 00:08:53.940 --> 00:08:56.639 they wanted. So why didn't he get it? What shifted? 00:08:56.899 --> 00:08:59.200 It all came down to chemistry. The producers 00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:01.460 were auditioning actresses for the role of Diane 00:09:01.460 --> 00:09:04.620 at the exact same time. And the notes explain 00:09:04.620 --> 00:09:07.460 that when they finally put Ted Danson in a room 00:09:07.460 --> 00:09:09.799 to read with Shelley Long, the energy in the 00:09:09.799 --> 00:09:12.580 room just fundamentally shifted. It just clicked. 00:09:12.840 --> 00:09:15.360 It did. Danson had this underlying vulnerability 00:09:15.360 --> 00:09:18.340 that the actual football players just didn't 00:09:18.340 --> 00:09:20.759 quite capture. He could play the arrogance, sure, 00:09:20.840 --> 00:09:23.320 but you could also see a genuine sadness in his 00:09:23.320 --> 00:09:25.320 eyes. Thank goodness they paid attention to that 00:09:25.320 --> 00:09:28.139 chemistry check. But speaking of Ted Danson, 00:09:28.240 --> 00:09:31.100 there is a literal secret about his physical 00:09:31.100 --> 00:09:33.460 appearance that I found deep in the production 00:09:33.460 --> 00:09:36.759 notes. I had absolutely no idea about this. Oh, 00:09:36.820 --> 00:09:38.899 are you referring to the hair situation? I am. 00:09:38.940 --> 00:09:40.740 I mean, I always thought he just had that naturally 00:09:40.740 --> 00:09:43.580 great thick head of hair. It's iconic. Well, 00:09:43.679 --> 00:09:45.799 he did have great hair, but he needed a little 00:09:45.799 --> 00:09:48.519 bit of help. It is a well -documented fact in 00:09:48.519 --> 00:09:51.019 the casting and production history that Ted Danson 00:09:51.019 --> 00:09:53.600 wore a hairpiece to cover a bald spot on the 00:09:53.600 --> 00:09:56.169 crown of his head during filming. That is just 00:09:56.169 --> 00:09:58.629 wild to me. Did they ever actually address it 00:09:58.629 --> 00:10:01.049 on the show or was it a strict backstage secret? 00:10:01.330 --> 00:10:03.549 They actually did address it on screen. Not immediately, 00:10:03.610 --> 00:10:06.429 of course, but much later in the series. There's 00:10:06.429 --> 00:10:09.370 a specific episode where Sam physically takes 00:10:09.370 --> 00:10:11.789 off the hairpiece to show his vulnerability to 00:10:11.789 --> 00:10:15.250 someone. Wow. The notes highlighted as this brilliant 00:10:15.250 --> 00:10:17.789 meta moment where the actor's actual reality 00:10:17.789 --> 00:10:19.789 bled directly into the character's narrative. 00:10:20.490 --> 00:10:22.590 It was a way of showing the audience that even 00:10:22.590 --> 00:10:25.690 Sam Malone, this supposedly perfect physical 00:10:25.690 --> 00:10:28.990 specimen, was aging and dealing with insecurity. 00:10:29.350 --> 00:10:31.990 I love that they leaned into it. So we have our 00:10:31.990 --> 00:10:35.110 anchor Sam. But as we established, a relief pitcher 00:10:35.110 --> 00:10:38.190 needs a batter to throw against. You cannot have 00:10:38.190 --> 00:10:40.789 a successful television show with just a cool 00:10:40.789 --> 00:10:43.309 guy hanging out in his own bar. You desperately 00:10:43.309 --> 00:10:46.149 need conflict. And that brings us to our second 00:10:46.149 --> 00:10:49.580 section, Diane Chambers. The ultimate foil. The 00:10:49.580 --> 00:10:51.679 spark that lights the whole thing up. The pilot 00:10:51.679 --> 00:10:53.639 episode, which is called Give Me a Ring Sometime, 00:10:53.659 --> 00:10:56.940 sets this dynamic up just so perfectly. Diane 00:10:56.940 --> 00:10:59.240 isn't casually walking into a bar to get a drink 00:10:59.240 --> 00:11:00.740 with friends. She doesn't want to be in this 00:11:00.740 --> 00:11:03.600 basement at all. No, she is there with her fiancé, 00:11:03.720 --> 00:11:06.539 Professor Sunder Sloan. And the notes detail 00:11:06.539 --> 00:11:09.059 just how tragic this initial setup is. She is 00:11:09.059 --> 00:11:12.100 completely, totally out of her element. She is 00:11:12.100 --> 00:11:13.919 sitting there anticipating catching a flight 00:11:13.919 --> 00:11:16.220 to the Caribbean for a romantic wedding. And 00:11:16.220 --> 00:11:18.399 instead, Sumner just leaves her there. He completely 00:11:18.399 --> 00:11:20.200 abandons her. He goes right back to his ex -wife. 00:11:20.679 --> 00:11:23.820 So Diane is left stranded in this gritty basement 00:11:23.820 --> 00:11:27.720 bar with no job, no money, no fiance, and a highly 00:11:27.720 --> 00:11:30.740 specific skill set that is entirely academic. 00:11:31.120 --> 00:11:33.559 She has absolutely no real -world survival skills. 00:11:33.580 --> 00:11:36.080 None. So she is forced by sheer circumstance 00:11:36.080 --> 00:11:39.100 to take a job as a waitress in a place that she 00:11:39.100 --> 00:11:43.700 openly considers to be vast. And that class clash 00:11:43.700 --> 00:11:46.039 is the entire engine of the show for those first 00:11:46.039 --> 00:11:47.720 five seasons. We're talking about a woman who 00:11:47.720 --> 00:11:49.340 went to Bennington College. She went to Boston 00:11:49.340 --> 00:11:52.259 University. She constantly quotes obscure poetry. 00:11:52.740 --> 00:11:55.539 And she is taking orders from Sam, a guy who, 00:11:55.639 --> 00:11:57.940 as the writer's notes joke, probably thinks War 00:11:57.940 --> 00:11:59.639 and Peace is a heavy book simply because of its 00:11:59.639 --> 00:12:02.720 physical weight. Exactly. The producers explicitly 00:12:02.720 --> 00:12:05.259 noted that they modeled this core relationship 00:12:05.259 --> 00:12:07.980 on those classic Spencer Tracy and Katharine 00:12:07.980 --> 00:12:09.940 Hepburn movies. Films like Woman of the Year. 00:12:10.360 --> 00:12:13.779 Right. It's that precise mixture of intense romance 00:12:13.779 --> 00:12:16.519 and biting antagonism. They completely drive 00:12:16.519 --> 00:12:18.799 each other crazy. They insult each other's intelligence. 00:12:19.279 --> 00:12:23.399 But there is this undeniable magnetic pull between 00:12:23.399 --> 00:12:25.500 them that they can't ignore. It really was the 00:12:25.500 --> 00:12:28.039 original television blueprint for the will -they 00:12:28.039 --> 00:12:30.419 -won't -they dynamic. But when you actually sit 00:12:30.419 --> 00:12:32.480 down and look at the summary of their relationship 00:12:32.480 --> 00:12:35.220 timeline in the sources, it wasn't just playful 00:12:35.220 --> 00:12:37.320 flirting. It was actually kind of deeply toxic, 00:12:37.440 --> 00:12:39.429 wasn't it? Oh, it was incredibly volatile. The 00:12:39.429 --> 00:12:41.490 notes describe it as a cycle of mutual destruction. 00:12:41.789 --> 00:12:44.590 The sources outline this recurring pattern. They 00:12:44.590 --> 00:12:46.830 manage to get close. One of them gets deeply 00:12:46.830 --> 00:12:48.669 insecure about the class difference or their 00:12:48.669 --> 00:12:51.269 past. They lash out verbally, and then they have 00:12:51.269 --> 00:12:53.679 a spectacular breakup. The fallout is always 00:12:53.679 --> 00:12:55.500 huge. I mean, look at the end of season two. 00:12:55.700 --> 00:12:58.179 Their breakup is so catastrophic that it actually 00:12:58.179 --> 00:13:00.980 sends Sam into a full -blown relapse. Right, 00:13:01.039 --> 00:13:02.539 which goes back to our earlier point about his 00:13:02.539 --> 00:13:06.139 alcoholism. Yeah. It is very dark material. Yeah. 00:13:06.200 --> 00:13:09.019 And Diane's consequence is just as severe. She 00:13:09.019 --> 00:13:10.740 ends up checking into a psychiatric hospital 00:13:10.740 --> 00:13:13.620 because of the severe emotional stress of their 00:13:13.620 --> 00:13:16.320 relationship. That is a remarkably heavy plot 00:13:16.320 --> 00:13:18.960 line for a romantic comedy couple. It really 00:13:18.960 --> 00:13:21.460 pushes the boundaries of the sitcom format. And 00:13:21.460 --> 00:13:23.460 ironically, according to the character bios, 00:13:23.580 --> 00:13:26.860 that psychiatric hospital stay is exactly where 00:13:26.860 --> 00:13:29.080 she meets Frasier Crane. But we will definitely 00:13:29.080 --> 00:13:31.740 get to them a bit later. So Sam and Diane go 00:13:31.740 --> 00:13:35.759 back and forth for years. Failed proposals, bitter 00:13:35.759 --> 00:13:38.600 rejections. It really feels like they are doomed 00:13:38.600 --> 00:13:41.580 to just torture each other forever. But then 00:13:41.580 --> 00:13:44.450 season five happens. The pivotal season. The 00:13:44.450 --> 00:13:47.029 episode. They are finally standing at the altar. 00:13:47.190 --> 00:13:49.269 They are. It genuinely looks like the show is 00:13:49.269 --> 00:13:51.350 going to finally give the fans exactly what they've 00:13:51.350 --> 00:13:53.789 been begging for. And then Diane gets a once 00:13:53.789 --> 00:13:55.750 in a lifetime chance to finish her novel. Or 00:13:55.750 --> 00:13:59.070 she just leaves. She leaves him to pursue her 00:13:59.070 --> 00:14:01.070 writing career. And looking at the historical 00:14:01.070 --> 00:14:03.769 context in the production notes, this was a massive 00:14:03.769 --> 00:14:06.820 industry shaking deal at the time. Shelley Long 00:14:06.820 --> 00:14:09.519 deciding to leave the show was front page national 00:14:09.519 --> 00:14:11.620 news. People must have been terrified the show 00:14:11.620 --> 00:14:13.600 was going to tank. They genuinely thought it 00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:16.500 would die without that central dynamic, because 00:14:16.500 --> 00:14:19.259 for the general public, Sam and Diane literally 00:14:19.259 --> 00:14:21.559 were the show. But she did eventually come back 00:14:21.559 --> 00:14:24.039 for the series finale six years later. And reading 00:14:24.039 --> 00:14:26.539 through the nights on the finale, I think. The 00:14:26.539 --> 00:14:28.559 way the writers handled that reunion says so 00:14:28.559 --> 00:14:31.039 much about the show's overall philosophy. It's 00:14:31.039 --> 00:14:33.200 brilliant. Because they almost get back together. 00:14:33.340 --> 00:14:35.659 They are holding hands. They're planning to pack 00:14:35.659 --> 00:14:38.559 up and move to Los Angeles together. And then 00:14:38.559 --> 00:14:41.019 they don't do it. Why didn't they? Because in 00:14:41.019 --> 00:14:44.700 the final moments, they both realize that they 00:14:44.700 --> 00:14:47.940 are simply better off apart. It is a very mature, 00:14:48.179 --> 00:14:50.919 albeit incredibly bittersweet, conclusion to 00:14:50.919 --> 00:14:53.500 their saga. The writers clearly understood that 00:14:53.500 --> 00:14:56.379 raw passion just isn't enough to sustain a functional 00:14:56.379 --> 00:14:59.080 life together. It's a hard truth. Sam ultimately 00:14:59.080 --> 00:15:02.419 belongs to the bar, and Diane fundamentally belongs 00:15:02.419 --> 00:15:04.740 to her art, or at least her lifelong pursuit 00:15:04.740 --> 00:15:07.139 of it. If they had actually stayed together and 00:15:07.139 --> 00:15:08.700 moved to L .A., they would have just destroyed 00:15:08.700 --> 00:15:11.059 each other all over again. It is such a brave 00:15:11.059 --> 00:15:14.000 choice for a sitcom finale. Most shows would 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:16.460 just force the happy ending to appease the audience. 00:15:16.700 --> 00:15:19.179 But this was the honest ending. It respected 00:15:19.179 --> 00:15:21.279 who the characters had become. Okay, let's step 00:15:21.279 --> 00:15:23.259 away from the heavy drama of the back office 00:15:23.259 --> 00:15:25.539 and the romance for a minute, because you can't 00:15:25.539 --> 00:15:28.259 have a deep dive into Cheers without talking 00:15:28.259 --> 00:15:30.419 about the people permanently sitting on the stools. 00:15:30.580 --> 00:15:32.899 The lifeblood of the bar. We have to talk about 00:15:32.899 --> 00:15:35.820 the barflies. And we absolutely have to start 00:15:35.820 --> 00:15:38.440 with the man whose very name is literally the 00:15:38.440 --> 00:15:42.350 main sound effect of the entire show. Norm. Norm 00:15:42.350 --> 00:15:44.909 Peterson, or as I actually learned for the first 00:15:44.909 --> 00:15:47.029 time from reading his character bio, Hillary 00:15:47.029 --> 00:15:50.529 Norman Peterson. Yes, Hillary, the sad sack accountant 00:15:50.529 --> 00:15:53.370 who is essentially a structural fixture of the 00:15:53.370 --> 00:15:56.289 bar itself. Now, I just always assumed Norm was 00:15:56.289 --> 00:15:58.389 part of the original master plan from day one. 00:15:58.450 --> 00:16:01.049 He's just too iconic not to be. But the casting 00:16:01.049 --> 00:16:03.909 notes say otherwise. This is genuinely one of 00:16:03.909 --> 00:16:06.970 my favorite what ifs in the entire stack of documents. 00:16:07.309 --> 00:16:10.389 Norm was not in the original script. Not his 00:16:10.389 --> 00:16:13.059 regular character anyway. George Wendt came in 00:16:13.059 --> 00:16:15.600 and auditioned for a minor throwaway role named 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:18.500 George. Okay. And how big was the role? He had 00:16:18.500 --> 00:16:20.700 exactly one line in the pilot script. One line? 00:16:20.820 --> 00:16:22.960 What was it? He was supposed to be Diane's very 00:16:22.960 --> 00:16:25.940 first customer. She walks over, asks him what 00:16:25.940 --> 00:16:28.799 he wants to drink, and his only line was just 00:16:28.799 --> 00:16:31.980 the word beer. That's it. Just the word beer. 00:16:32.100 --> 00:16:34.759 Just beer. But the casting notes say he delivered 00:16:34.759 --> 00:16:38.120 that single word with such a specific... desperate 00:16:38.120 --> 00:16:41.500 yet strangely joyful energy that the producers 00:16:41.500 --> 00:16:43.620 just burst out laughing in the room. They saw 00:16:43.620 --> 00:16:45.759 the magic immediately. They realized right then 00:16:45.759 --> 00:16:48.360 and there, we need to see this guy sitting at 00:16:48.360 --> 00:16:50.580 this bar every single day. Yeah. So they took 00:16:50.580 --> 00:16:53.740 that energy and expanded the one line role into 00:16:53.740 --> 00:16:56.500 the character of Norm Peterson. That is the ultimate 00:16:56.500 --> 00:16:58.679 testament to the power of an actor's delivery. 00:16:58.899 --> 00:17:01.240 And of course, you really can't talk about Norm 00:17:01.240 --> 00:17:02.980 without talking about the other most important 00:17:02.980 --> 00:17:04.940 woman in his life, the one we never actually 00:17:04.940 --> 00:17:08.190 get to see. The Unseen Wife. It became one of 00:17:08.190 --> 00:17:11.150 the show's absolute longest -running dags. Norm 00:17:11.150 --> 00:17:13.390 constantly complains about her. He makes these 00:17:13.390 --> 00:17:15.690 really harsh jokes about her weight and her family. 00:17:15.970 --> 00:17:18.450 She is very often the punchline of his entrance 00:17:18.450 --> 00:17:21.529 into the bar. She is. But the interesting psychological 00:17:21.529 --> 00:17:24.529 question the writers posed is, is he actually 00:17:24.529 --> 00:17:27.869 a bad husband? Or is that just typical bar talk? 00:17:28.170 --> 00:17:30.269 Right, the bravado of the basement. What do the 00:17:30.269 --> 00:17:32.069 character notes say? That's where the nuance 00:17:32.069 --> 00:17:34.430 comes in. The sources point out that despite 00:17:34.430 --> 00:17:37.230 all the constant jokes and despite having several 00:17:37.230 --> 00:17:39.690 very real opportunities to cheat on her over 00:17:39.690 --> 00:17:43.829 11 years, Norm never actually does. He is oddly 00:17:43.829 --> 00:17:46.950 fiercely loyal to Vera. He just complains to 00:17:46.950 --> 00:17:49.390 Cope. He loves her. In his own highly specific 00:17:49.390 --> 00:17:52.630 way. He really prefers to be sitting at the bar 00:17:52.630 --> 00:17:55.029 rather than being at home. Now, there is a production 00:17:55.029 --> 00:17:57.329 note here about Vera actually appearing on screen 00:17:57.329 --> 00:18:00.289 exactly once. Did I miss an episode? You might 00:18:00.289 --> 00:18:02.289 have watched it and still missed it because you 00:18:02.289 --> 00:18:04.410 didn't actually get to see her face. It happens 00:18:04.410 --> 00:18:07.329 in the famous episode Thanksgiving Orphans. There 00:18:07.329 --> 00:18:10.910 is this massive chaotic food fight involving 00:18:10.910 --> 00:18:13.289 the whole cast. Oh, I remember the food fight. 00:18:13.470 --> 00:18:16.140 Right. Well, right in the middle of it. Vera 00:18:16.140 --> 00:18:18.599 finally comes to the front door and smack, she 00:18:18.599 --> 00:18:20.660 gets it squarely in the face with a pumpkin pie 00:18:20.660 --> 00:18:23.559 the literal second the door opens. Okay, we literally 00:18:23.559 --> 00:18:26.500 only see a pie -covered face. Exactly. Over the 00:18:26.500 --> 00:18:28.400 years, we see her legs occasionally, we hear 00:18:28.400 --> 00:18:31.420 her voice muffled off -screen, but the face always 00:18:31.420 --> 00:18:34.069 remains a total mystery. It's just a brilliant 00:18:34.069 --> 00:18:36.230 production trick to keep the joke alive for a 00:18:36.230 --> 00:18:38.309 decade. And we should briefly mention his career 00:18:38.309 --> 00:18:40.730 trajectory, too, because for a guy whose entire 00:18:40.730 --> 00:18:43.690 brand is sitting motionless on a stool, he actually 00:18:43.690 --> 00:18:45.970 moved around professionally quite a bit. He did 00:18:45.970 --> 00:18:49.029 have an arc. He started the series as an accountant, 00:18:49.150 --> 00:18:52.690 very corporate, wearing a suit, incredibly miserable. 00:18:53.170 --> 00:18:55.809 But the show carefully tracks his gradual drift. 00:18:56.009 --> 00:18:58.390 He loses the accounting job, becomes a house 00:18:58.390 --> 00:19:01.039 painter. and eventually pivots into being an 00:19:01.039 --> 00:19:03.319 interior decorator. Which is such a funny shift. 00:19:03.619 --> 00:19:06.900 It's a slow, deliberate slide into less corporate, 00:19:07.119 --> 00:19:10.339 less demanding work. And the psychological notes 00:19:10.339 --> 00:19:12.519 point out that this perfectly fits his ultimate 00:19:12.519 --> 00:19:15.019 desire to have complete control over his own 00:19:15.019 --> 00:19:17.519 schedule, mainly so he can guarantee he has more 00:19:17.519 --> 00:19:20.839 time to spend at Shears. Priorities. And sitting 00:19:20.839 --> 00:19:23.420 right next to him... Usually aggravating him 00:19:23.420 --> 00:19:26.920 to no end is the man who knows a little bit about 00:19:26.920 --> 00:19:28.960 everything and absolutely a lot about nothing 00:19:28.960 --> 00:19:32.940 at all, Cliff Clavin. The mail carrier. The ultimate 00:19:32.940 --> 00:19:35.539 knowledge dispenser. Now, John Ratzenberger, 00:19:35.680 --> 00:19:38.400 the actor who played Cliff this, is yet another 00:19:38.400 --> 00:19:41.339 case of an actor just creating a legendary role, 00:19:41.559 --> 00:19:43.779 essentially out of thin air, right? Absolutely. 00:19:44.299 --> 00:19:46.779 The casting history notes detail this amazing 00:19:46.779 --> 00:19:50.430 story. Ratzenberger originally came in and auditioned 00:19:50.430 --> 00:19:53.089 for a completely different part. Some sources 00:19:53.089 --> 00:19:55.089 think it might have even been for the Norm role. 00:19:55.589 --> 00:19:58.150 But he read for it. And as he was walking out 00:19:58.150 --> 00:20:00.890 of the audition room, he sensed he wasn't going 00:20:00.890 --> 00:20:03.710 to get the job. So what did he do? So, with his 00:20:03.710 --> 00:20:06.349 hand literally on the doorknob, he turned back 00:20:06.349 --> 00:20:08.210 to the producers and asked them a question. What 00:20:08.210 --> 00:20:10.130 did he ask? He asked if they had written a bar 00:20:10.130 --> 00:20:11.930 know -it -all. He just pitched the character 00:20:11.930 --> 00:20:14.390 right there on the spot? He did. He told them, 00:20:14.410 --> 00:20:17.049 look. Every single bar in New England has that 00:20:17.049 --> 00:20:19.890 one guy who sits in the corner and pretends to 00:20:19.890 --> 00:20:22.130 be an absolute expert on everything in the world, 00:20:22.190 --> 00:20:24.190 even though he clearly has no idea what he's 00:20:24.190 --> 00:20:26.210 talking about. And the producers bought it. The 00:20:26.210 --> 00:20:27.849 producers looked at each other and realized they 00:20:27.849 --> 00:20:30.029 actually didn't have that specific archetype 00:20:30.029 --> 00:20:32.509 in the script. They needed him. That is just 00:20:32.509 --> 00:20:35.650 genius self -advocacy. And originally, the notes 00:20:35.650 --> 00:20:37.130 say they were going to make this character a 00:20:37.130 --> 00:20:39.650 security guard, right? Yes, that was the first 00:20:39.650 --> 00:20:43.289 draft of Cliff. But they quickly changed his 00:20:43.289 --> 00:20:46.450 profession to a postman. And the writer's reasoning 00:20:46.450 --> 00:20:49.109 for this is just hilarious. They thought that 00:20:49.109 --> 00:20:51.490 postmen were generally perceived by the public 00:20:51.490 --> 00:20:55.109 as more knowledgeable simply because they are 00:20:55.109 --> 00:20:56.849 out walking the neighborhood every day. They 00:20:56.849 --> 00:20:58.869 see the whole town. Right. They see things. They 00:20:58.869 --> 00:21:01.809 meet people. It gave Cliff this thin, plausible 00:21:01.809 --> 00:21:05.009 reason to constantly believe he knew everything 00:21:05.009 --> 00:21:07.789 about the community and the world at large. And 00:21:07.789 --> 00:21:10.630 Cliff certainly thinks he is worldly. But underneath 00:21:10.630 --> 00:21:14.089 all that trivia and the uniform, the bios highlight 00:21:14.089 --> 00:21:17.210 that he is deeply, deeply insecure. Oh, incredibly 00:21:17.210 --> 00:21:20.130 insecure. The notes mention he constantly wishes 00:21:20.130 --> 00:21:22.490 he was a tough Marine, but he couldn't get in 00:21:22.490 --> 00:21:24.809 because he has flat feet. He still is at home 00:21:24.809 --> 00:21:27.150 with his mother, Esther Clavin. Oh, Esther. The 00:21:27.150 --> 00:21:29.210 mother -son dynamic is huge for understanding 00:21:29.210 --> 00:21:32.700 Cliff. It explains his extreme awkwardness around 00:21:32.700 --> 00:21:35.859 women, his general arrested development. He is 00:21:35.859 --> 00:21:38.339 basically a guy desperately trying to project 00:21:38.339 --> 00:21:41.920 this worldly bravado just to mask the fact that 00:21:41.920 --> 00:21:43.700 he's still essentially a frightened little boy 00:21:43.700 --> 00:21:46.039 living in his childhood bedroom. But he did have 00:21:46.039 --> 00:21:50.039 his one shining moment of ultimate glory. We 00:21:50.039 --> 00:21:52.339 have to talk about the Jeopardy episode. I feel 00:21:52.339 --> 00:21:54.500 like this specific half hour is just permanently 00:21:54.500 --> 00:21:57.079 etched in the television history. The episode 00:21:57.079 --> 00:22:00.970 title is What Is. Cliff Cliven. And yes, it is 00:22:00.970 --> 00:22:03.200 absolutely legendary. So he actually manages 00:22:03.200 --> 00:22:06.279 to get cast on the real show, Jeopardy, within 00:22:06.279 --> 00:22:09.039 the fictional universe of Cheers. He does. Alex 00:22:09.039 --> 00:22:11.099 Trebek is there and everything. And the incredibly 00:22:11.099 --> 00:22:13.140 funny thing is he's actually doing incredibly 00:22:13.140 --> 00:22:16.240 well. The episode notes say he racks up $22 ,000 00:22:16.240 --> 00:22:18.440 by the end of the first two rounds. He is just 00:22:18.440 --> 00:22:20.859 destroying the competition. Because the categories 00:22:20.859 --> 00:22:22.759 on the board just happen to align perfectly with 00:22:22.759 --> 00:22:25.960 his bizarre, specific, trivial knowledge. He 00:22:25.960 --> 00:22:27.880 has an absolute mathematical lock on the game. 00:22:27.960 --> 00:22:30.460 No one can catch him. And then comes Final Jeopardy. 00:22:30.809 --> 00:22:33.869 And he bets it all. He absolutely does not need 00:22:33.869 --> 00:22:36.150 to do this. He just needs to bet a single dollar 00:22:36.150 --> 00:22:40.049 to secure the win. But his ego takes over and 00:22:40.049 --> 00:22:42.390 he bets every single penny. And what was the 00:22:42.390 --> 00:22:45.630 clue? Let's get it exact. The clue was Archibald 00:22:45.630 --> 00:22:48.690 Leach, Bernard Schwartz, and Lucille LeSour. 00:22:49.329 --> 00:22:51.430 And the correct answer? The correct response 00:22:51.430 --> 00:22:54.690 is who are Cary Grant, Tony Curtis, and Joan 00:22:54.690 --> 00:22:57.819 Crawford? Those are their real birth names. And 00:22:57.819 --> 00:22:59.960 Cliff, in all his wisdom, answers. Who are three 00:22:59.960 --> 00:23:01.880 people who have never been in my kitchen. Which, 00:23:01.920 --> 00:23:03.799 I mean, you have to admit, is technically true. 00:23:04.039 --> 00:23:06.660 It is entirely technically true, but shockingly, 00:23:06.720 --> 00:23:09.640 Alex Trebek... did not accept it as a valid response. 00:23:09.980 --> 00:23:12.940 So Cliff loses everything. And the cultural impact 00:23:12.940 --> 00:23:15.420 of this was so huge that it actually inspired 00:23:15.420 --> 00:23:18.440 a term in the real world among hardcore Jeopardy 00:23:18.440 --> 00:23:20.579 fans. Wait, really? What's the term? It's called 00:23:20.579 --> 00:23:23.460 Clavin's Rule, which basically means if you have 00:23:23.460 --> 00:23:25.920 an insurmountable lead going into Final Jeopardy, 00:23:25.980 --> 00:23:28.380 don't be an idiot and bet everything. Just bet 00:23:28.380 --> 00:23:30.880 enough to win. That is painful, but so fitting. 00:23:31.940 --> 00:23:34.400 Now, speaking of strange rules and legalities. 00:23:35.210 --> 00:23:38.650 There is a very weird real life legal battle 00:23:38.650 --> 00:23:41.150 involving Cliff and Norm that I saw mentioned 00:23:41.150 --> 00:23:43.990 in the production history. It's referred to as 00:23:43.990 --> 00:23:46.750 the robot lawsuit. And honestly, this sounds 00:23:46.750 --> 00:23:49.230 like something I am completely making up. Oh, 00:23:49.269 --> 00:23:51.970 I assure you, this is a very real, very fascinating 00:23:51.970 --> 00:23:55.109 piece of intellectual property history. In 1993, 00:23:55.490 --> 00:23:58.660 actors George Wendt and John Ratzenberger. actually 00:23:58.660 --> 00:24:01.119 filed a lawsuit against a massive corporation 00:24:01.119 --> 00:24:03.660 called Host International. Host International. 00:24:03.660 --> 00:24:05.759 They run a lot of those airport bars and restaurants, 00:24:05.940 --> 00:24:08.339 right? Exactly. They had secured the rights to 00:24:08.339 --> 00:24:10.640 set up airport bars that were themed after Cheers. 00:24:11.160 --> 00:24:13.900 And as part of the decor, they installed two 00:24:13.900 --> 00:24:16.420 life -size animatronic robots in these bars. 00:24:16.660 --> 00:24:19.359 Oh, no. One was a heavyset guy who sat at the 00:24:19.359 --> 00:24:21.019 end of the bar, and the other was a guy wearing 00:24:21.019 --> 00:24:24.019 a blue postal uniform. Very subtle. Extremely 00:24:24.019 --> 00:24:25.960 subtle. Now, legally... They didn't name these 00:24:25.960 --> 00:24:28.079 robots Norm and Cliff. They gave them generic 00:24:28.079 --> 00:24:31.119 names like Hank and Bob. But they look remarkably 00:24:31.119 --> 00:24:33.420 like the actors and they were programmed to chatter 00:24:33.420 --> 00:24:35.740 back and forth just like them. So the actual 00:24:35.740 --> 00:24:39.079 actors sued the company. They did. Yeah. And 00:24:39.079 --> 00:24:41.980 their legal argument was that this violated their 00:24:41.980 --> 00:24:45.589 personality rights. Now, this is a very distinct 00:24:45.589 --> 00:24:48.549 legal concept. It wasn't a standard copyright 00:24:48.549 --> 00:24:52.549 claim because the television studio legally owned 00:24:52.549 --> 00:24:54.910 the fictional characters of Norm Peterson and 00:24:54.910 --> 00:24:56.809 Cliff Clavin. Right. The studio owns the intellectual 00:24:56.809 --> 00:24:59.329 property. But Wendt and Ratzenberger were arguing, 00:24:59.369 --> 00:25:02.069 you aren't just using the script. You are using 00:25:02.069 --> 00:25:05.509 our literal physical likenesses as real human 00:25:05.509 --> 00:25:08.400 beings to sell beer in an airport. That is a 00:25:08.400 --> 00:25:10.559 brilliant argument. Did they end up winning the 00:25:10.559 --> 00:25:13.460 case? Well, the legal battle dragged on for years. 00:25:13.980 --> 00:25:15.960 Eventually, they ended up settling out of court 00:25:15.960 --> 00:25:18.660 for an undisclosed amount. But it remains a landmark 00:25:18.660 --> 00:25:21.480 case in entertainment law because it helped establish 00:25:21.480 --> 00:25:24.099 the precedent that an actor's specific physical 00:25:24.099 --> 00:25:26.980 portrayal and identity is somewhat separate from 00:25:26.980 --> 00:25:29.180 the written character on the page. Robots in 00:25:29.180 --> 00:25:32.039 an airport bar causing landmark legal precedent. 00:25:32.589 --> 00:25:34.410 That truly feels like something Cliff would have 00:25:34.410 --> 00:25:36.710 a little known fact about. Oh, he would definitely 00:25:36.710 --> 00:25:39.230 bore the entire bar with a 20 minute speech about 00:25:39.230 --> 00:25:42.589 personality rights. Absolutely. OK, so we've 00:25:42.589 --> 00:25:44.710 covered the front of the house, the romance and 00:25:44.710 --> 00:25:47.210 the bar flies. Now we really need to talk about 00:25:47.210 --> 00:25:51.009 the spark plug of the show, the absolute firebrand. 00:25:51.710 --> 00:25:54.170 Carla Tortelli. Played brilliantly by Rhea Pearlman. 00:25:54.269 --> 00:25:56.430 The casting notes say she was actually the very 00:25:56.430 --> 00:25:58.769 first actor officially hired for the ensemble. 00:25:59.049 --> 00:26:01.670 She was cast before Ted Danson, before Shelley 00:26:01.670 --> 00:26:04.490 Long. That's right. The creators knew they absolutely 00:26:04.490 --> 00:26:07.210 needed her specific energy immediately to ground 00:26:07.210 --> 00:26:10.470 the show. Because Carla is the complete antithesis 00:26:10.470 --> 00:26:13.569 of the typical television waitress archetype. 00:26:13.569 --> 00:26:16.269 She is definitely not service with a smile. Not 00:26:16.269 --> 00:26:18.849 at all. She is deeply cynical. She is fiercely 00:26:18.849 --> 00:26:21.130 superstitious. She is openly aggressive to the 00:26:21.130 --> 00:26:23.670 customers. And as the show makes a point of highlighting 00:26:23.670 --> 00:26:26.910 constantly, she is incredibly fertile. The fertility 00:26:26.910 --> 00:26:29.930 is a massive ongoing plot point. I mean, the 00:26:29.930 --> 00:26:31.930 bio says she starts the pilot episode with four 00:26:31.930 --> 00:26:34.049 kids. And by the series finale, she has a total 00:26:34.049 --> 00:26:36.990 of eight. It's a huge running gag. The joke is 00:26:36.990 --> 00:26:39.089 basically that if she even makes eye contact 00:26:39.089 --> 00:26:42.029 with a man, she gets pregnant. And interestingly, 00:26:42.269 --> 00:26:44.710 the production notes point out that Raya Perlman's 00:26:44.710 --> 00:26:47.809 actual real -life pregnancies were directly written 00:26:47.809 --> 00:26:49.910 into the show's storylines. That's a great way 00:26:49.910 --> 00:26:52.150 to handle it. Yeah, so whenever Carla was pregnant 00:26:52.150 --> 00:26:54.569 on screen, Rhea was usually pregnant in real 00:26:54.569 --> 00:26:57.910 life. Her home life sounds like absolute, unmitigated 00:26:57.910 --> 00:27:00.769 chaos. We have to talk about the men in her life 00:27:00.769 --> 00:27:03.670 that caused this chaos. Starting with the infamous 00:27:03.670 --> 00:27:06.769 ex -husband, Nick Tortelli. Played by Dan Hedaya. 00:27:06.869 --> 00:27:09.809 And he is the embodiment of sleaze. He wears 00:27:09.809 --> 00:27:11.750 the deeply unbuttoned shirts, the chest hair, 00:27:11.869 --> 00:27:14.839 the gold chains. He's a total con man. But despite 00:27:14.839 --> 00:27:17.180 all that, Carla is still wildly obsessed with 00:27:17.180 --> 00:27:20.359 him in this very weird, toxic way. It's described 00:27:20.359 --> 00:27:23.779 in the notes as this primal, almost animalistic 00:27:23.779 --> 00:27:26.400 attraction that she just can't shake. He eventually 00:27:26.400 --> 00:27:28.220 moves on and gets remarried to a much younger 00:27:28.220 --> 00:27:30.519 woman named Loretta. Loretta is great. She's 00:27:30.519 --> 00:27:33.900 this sweet, very naive blonde who is essentially 00:27:33.900 --> 00:27:37.339 the exact opposite of Carla's dark energy. And 00:27:37.339 --> 00:27:39.640 the network actually gave Nick and Loretta their 00:27:39.640 --> 00:27:42.359 own spinoff show called The Tortellus. I have 00:27:42.359 --> 00:27:44.240 to be honest, I completely forgot about that 00:27:44.240 --> 00:27:46.700 spinoff until I read these notes. You and Most 00:27:46.700 --> 00:27:49.220 of America. It was canceled very, very quickly. 00:27:49.299 --> 00:27:53.119 But it just shows how distinct and powerful those 00:27:53.119 --> 00:27:55.619 specific characters were that the network thought 00:27:55.619 --> 00:27:57.920 they could carry their own series. But the real 00:27:57.920 --> 00:28:00.140 tragedy for Carla, and honestly, some of the 00:28:00.140 --> 00:28:02.480 darkest comedy in the entire series, comes with 00:28:02.480 --> 00:28:05.140 her second husband, Eddie Lebec. The French -Canadian 00:28:05.140 --> 00:28:07.940 hockey goalie. This entire storyline is just 00:28:07.940 --> 00:28:10.319 wild. So he's a professional goalie for the Boston 00:28:10.319 --> 00:28:14.039 Bruins. He and Carla fall madly in love. But 00:28:14.039 --> 00:28:17.079 they share this massive flaw. They are both incredibly 00:28:17.079 --> 00:28:19.900 paralyzingly superstitious. Right. And their 00:28:19.900 --> 00:28:22.440 shared superstition is that if things are going 00:28:22.440 --> 00:28:25.180 too well in Eddie's personal life, he plays terribly 00:28:25.180 --> 00:28:28.119 on the ice. So they develop this insane dynamic 00:28:28.119 --> 00:28:30.799 where they have to actively stage breakups or 00:28:30.799 --> 00:28:33.099 get into massive screaming matches right before 00:28:33.099 --> 00:28:35.460 his games just so he can maintain his winning 00:28:35.460 --> 00:28:37.839 streak. That is exhausting. And then we have 00:28:37.839 --> 00:28:40.140 to talk about the Zamboni incident. It remains 00:28:40.140 --> 00:28:42.880 one of the most utterly bizarre character deaths 00:28:42.880 --> 00:28:46.420 in sitcom history. Eddie Lubeck is tragically 00:28:46.420 --> 00:28:50.380 killed by an ice resurfacer, a Zamboni, while 00:28:50.380 --> 00:28:52.779 heroically trying to save a teammate's life on 00:28:52.779 --> 00:28:55.619 the ice. It is incredibly tragic, but the show 00:28:55.619 --> 00:28:58.019 manages to play it with that highly specific, 00:28:58.200 --> 00:29:01.819 very dark cheers humor. But the real twist happens 00:29:01.819 --> 00:29:05.000 at the funeral. I did not see this coming at 00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:06.900 all when I was reading the episode summary. Oh, 00:29:06.980 --> 00:29:09.519 the funeral scene. This is classic, terrible 00:29:09.519 --> 00:29:12.069 Carlo look. She's standing there at the funeral, 00:29:12.230 --> 00:29:15.250 deeply mourning her beloved husband, and suddenly 00:29:15.250 --> 00:29:17.589 another grieving woman shows up. Another wife. 00:29:17.670 --> 00:29:20.309 Another wife. Her name is Gloria, and she also 00:29:20.309 --> 00:29:23.170 has twins. Wait, so Eddie was a full -blown bigamist. 00:29:23.289 --> 00:29:25.549 He was a bigamist. He had an entire secret second 00:29:25.549 --> 00:29:27.309 family living on the side the whole time. That 00:29:27.309 --> 00:29:29.849 is just devastating. Carla finally, after all 00:29:29.849 --> 00:29:31.809 these years, finds a decent guy, gets slowly 00:29:31.809 --> 00:29:33.910 run over by a Zamboni, and then it turns out 00:29:33.910 --> 00:29:37.150 his entire life was a lie. And that, psychologically 00:29:37.150 --> 00:29:40.309 speaking, is exactly why Carla is the way she 00:29:40.309 --> 00:29:43.089 is. The world just constantly keeps kicking her 00:29:43.089 --> 00:29:46.049 down, so her defense mechanism is to kick back 00:29:46.049 --> 00:29:49.730 twice as hard. That deep -seated bitterness made 00:29:49.730 --> 00:29:52.250 her such a mathematically necessary ingredient 00:29:52.250 --> 00:29:54.779 in the show's chemistry. You really need that 00:29:54.779 --> 00:29:57.680 balance. You do. You had Sam's endless charm. 00:29:57.839 --> 00:30:00.440 You had Diane's naive optimism. And then you 00:30:00.440 --> 00:30:03.660 had Carla's absolute grounding cynicism acting 00:30:03.660 --> 00:30:06.160 as an anchor to keep the show from ever getting 00:30:06.160 --> 00:30:08.740 too sweet or sentimental. It really is a perfect 00:30:08.740 --> 00:30:11.200 structural balance, but that balance inevitably 00:30:11.200 --> 00:30:15.619 had to shift. Shears ran for 11 very long seasons. 00:30:15.900 --> 00:30:19.059 Cast members left, new ones had to come in. We 00:30:19.059 --> 00:30:21.140 titled this next section The Replacements, but 00:30:21.140 --> 00:30:23.240 some of these characters became total television 00:30:23.240 --> 00:30:25.660 legends in their own right. Oh, absolutely. The 00:30:25.660 --> 00:30:27.740 evolution of the ensemble cast is really what 00:30:27.740 --> 00:30:30.559 kept the show on the air for over a decade. The 00:30:30.559 --> 00:30:32.339 notes make it clear that if the producers had 00:30:32.339 --> 00:30:34.400 just tried to replace departing actors with cheap 00:30:34.400 --> 00:30:36.519 clones of the old characters, the show would 00:30:36.519 --> 00:30:39.099 have failed instantly. Instead, they smartly 00:30:39.099 --> 00:30:41.539 pivoted. Let's start with the saddest off -screen 00:30:41.539 --> 00:30:44.140 transition, the real -life loss of coach ship. 00:30:44.339 --> 00:30:47.779 Nicholas Colasanto. He played Coach Ernie Pantuso. 00:30:48.279 --> 00:30:51.220 He was arguably the emotional heart of the bar 00:30:51.220 --> 00:30:53.940 in those critical early seasons. He played the 00:30:53.940 --> 00:30:56.880 dumb guy archetype, but he possessed this profound, 00:30:57.220 --> 00:31:00.609 almost innocent wisdom. And he tragically died 00:31:00.609 --> 00:31:03.089 in real life right after season three. It was 00:31:03.089 --> 00:31:05.769 a massive, devastating blow to the cast and crew. 00:31:05.970 --> 00:31:08.430 He was a genuine father figure to everyone on 00:31:08.430 --> 00:31:10.630 set. So the producers had an impossible task. 00:31:10.789 --> 00:31:12.990 They had to fill that specific second bartender 00:31:12.990 --> 00:31:15.940 slot. And their answer was to bring in Woody 00:31:15.940 --> 00:31:19.400 Boyd. Enter Woody Harrelson. Now, the easy, lazy 00:31:19.400 --> 00:31:21.559 thing to do would have been to just cast another 00:31:21.559 --> 00:31:24.259 older, slightly senile former baseball player 00:31:24.259 --> 00:31:26.839 to replicate Coach's dynamic with Sam. But they 00:31:26.839 --> 00:31:28.319 went in the complete opposite direction. They 00:31:28.319 --> 00:31:31.099 brought in a 20 -something kid, a wildly naive 00:31:31.099 --> 00:31:34.089 farm boy from Hanover, Indiana. It was such a 00:31:34.089 --> 00:31:36.829 brilliant pivot because Woody wasn't dumb in 00:31:36.829 --> 00:31:38.829 the exact same way Coach was confused by age. 00:31:39.049 --> 00:31:41.490 Woody was just completely, utterly innocent to 00:31:41.490 --> 00:31:42.970 the ways of the world. He simply didn't understand 00:31:42.970 --> 00:31:46.029 sarcasm or city life. Right. And to emotionally 00:31:46.029 --> 00:31:48.130 bridge the gap for the audience, the writers 00:31:48.130 --> 00:31:50.069 established that Woody was actually pen pals 00:31:50.069 --> 00:31:52.589 with Coach. That was his organic connection to 00:31:52.589 --> 00:31:55.369 the bar. He took a bus to Boston to finally meet 00:31:55.369 --> 00:31:57.750 his pen pal, found out the heartbreaking news 00:31:57.750 --> 00:32:00.710 that he had died, and Sam, out of loyalty to 00:32:00.710 --> 00:32:03.680 Coach, gave Woody a job. Woody's character arc 00:32:03.680 --> 00:32:05.720 over the series is pretty wild. He goes from 00:32:05.720 --> 00:32:08.799 this wide -eyed farm boy to eventually marrying 00:32:08.799 --> 00:32:13.180 Kelly Gaines, who is basically sheltered, incredibly 00:32:13.180 --> 00:32:15.920 wealthy heiress. The comedic contrast between 00:32:15.920 --> 00:32:19.140 Woody and Kelly is absolute gold. Kelly is extremely 00:32:19.140 --> 00:32:21.420 sheltered by her wealth, while Woody is just 00:32:21.420 --> 00:32:24.099 a simple farm boy. But at their core, they're 00:32:24.099 --> 00:32:26.740 both very simple, very sweet people. And eventually 00:32:26.740 --> 00:32:28.799 the arc concludes with Woody actually getting 00:32:28.799 --> 00:32:31.299 elected to the Boston City Council. It's this 00:32:31.299 --> 00:32:34.140 classic, absurd American success story that happens 00:32:34.140 --> 00:32:35.920 completely by accident. Then we have Frasier 00:32:35.920 --> 00:32:37.900 Crane. Now, looking at the casting notes, Frasier 00:32:37.900 --> 00:32:40.480 was never supposed to stick around, was he? No, 00:32:40.519 --> 00:32:43.099 not at all. Kelsey Grammer was originally brought 00:32:43.099 --> 00:32:45.619 in essentially as a temporary plot device. He 00:32:45.619 --> 00:32:47.400 was just supposed to be a rebound romance for 00:32:47.400 --> 00:32:50.480 Diane, designed purely to make Sam jealous for 00:32:50.480 --> 00:32:53.279 a few episodes. He was the... pretentious psychiatrist. 00:32:54.059 --> 00:32:56.440 The writers fully intended for him to get dumped 00:32:56.440 --> 00:32:59.359 and disappear. So why did he end up staying for 00:32:59.359 --> 00:33:02.079 decades? Because Kelsey Grammer was just too 00:33:02.079 --> 00:33:05.079 incredibly good in the role. The notes say he 00:33:05.079 --> 00:33:07.400 could deliver these incredibly long, complex, 00:33:07.559 --> 00:33:10.400 eloquent, pompous speeches, but somehow make 00:33:10.400 --> 00:33:13.420 them hilarious rather than annoying. And the 00:33:13.420 --> 00:33:15.559 writers quickly realized that he fit perfectly 00:33:15.559 --> 00:33:17.420 into the ecosystem as a completely different 00:33:17.420 --> 00:33:20.400 kind of barfly. He contrasted with Norm and Cliff. 00:33:20.640 --> 00:33:23.039 Exactly. He wasn't a working class guy. He added 00:33:23.039 --> 00:33:25.640 this entirely new upper crust flavor to the basement. 00:33:26.039 --> 00:33:28.000 And then, to make him even better, they brought 00:33:28.000 --> 00:33:31.220 in Lilith. Lilith Sternen, played by Baby Neuwirth, 00:33:31.319 --> 00:33:34.259 the notoriously stern psychiatrist. Their dynamic 00:33:34.259 --> 00:33:36.839 together is just iconic. It is so incredibly 00:33:36.839 --> 00:33:40.119 cold. It is freezing cold, highly analytical, 00:33:40.400 --> 00:33:43.400 but somehow underneath it all, deeply passionate. 00:33:43.759 --> 00:33:46.440 They're the ultimate intellectual power couple 00:33:46.440 --> 00:33:49.509 from hell. They speak to each other in full paragraphs. 00:33:49.890 --> 00:33:52.329 They clinically analyze their own physical attraction 00:33:52.329 --> 00:33:55.170 in real time while it's actively happening. And 00:33:55.170 --> 00:33:57.470 they eventually get married and have a son, Frederick. 00:33:57.710 --> 00:33:59.549 Right. And even though they eventually divorce, 00:33:59.750 --> 00:34:01.750 which discourse perfectly sets up the premise 00:34:01.750 --> 00:34:04.690 for the Frasier spinoff, their joint presence 00:34:04.690 --> 00:34:08.329 on Cheers significantly elevated the overall 00:34:08.329 --> 00:34:10.929 vocabulary and the comedic tone of the show. 00:34:11.090 --> 00:34:12.949 And finally, we have to talk about the biggest 00:34:12.949 --> 00:34:15.809 replacement of all. Shelley Long decides to leave. 00:34:16.320 --> 00:34:19.860 The show loses its primary female lead. Who steps 00:34:19.860 --> 00:34:23.400 in to fill that massive void? Rebecca Howe, played 00:34:23.400 --> 00:34:25.679 by Kirstie Alley. The writers dubbed her the 00:34:25.679 --> 00:34:28.900 anti -Diane. Exactly. The notes state clearly 00:34:28.900 --> 00:34:31.480 they did not want to cast another academic. They 00:34:31.480 --> 00:34:32.920 definitely didn't want another overqualified 00:34:32.920 --> 00:34:35.780 waitress. So they brought in an ambitious businesswoman. 00:34:35.880 --> 00:34:38.159 She works for this massive conglomerate called 00:34:38.159 --> 00:34:40.440 the Lillian Corporation. And she actually takes 00:34:40.440 --> 00:34:43.059 over ownership of the bar. So she becomes Sam's 00:34:43.059 --> 00:34:46.480 boss. That is the crucial power shift. Suddenly, 00:34:46.599 --> 00:34:49.119 Sam is no longer the undisputed king of his own 00:34:49.119 --> 00:34:52.860 castle. He is just an employee. And Rebecca is 00:34:52.860 --> 00:34:55.239 tough. She's corporate. She wears the aggressive 00:34:55.239 --> 00:34:57.260 shoulder pads at first. At first is definitely 00:34:57.260 --> 00:34:59.500 the key phrase there, because her character changes 00:34:59.500 --> 00:35:01.820 so drastically. Her character devolution is one 00:35:01.820 --> 00:35:04.059 of the most fascinating arcs in the notes. She 00:35:04.059 --> 00:35:07.400 starts season six as this icy, untouchable corporate 00:35:07.400 --> 00:35:10.690 climber. But as the seasons progress... Though 00:35:10.690 --> 00:35:12.869 writers realize that Kirstie Alley is incredibly 00:35:12.869 --> 00:35:15.570 gifted at physical comedy and playing panic. 00:35:15.769 --> 00:35:18.539 She is so funny when she's stressed. Right. So 00:35:18.539 --> 00:35:21.539 Rebecca slowly morphs into this deeply neurotic, 00:35:21.579 --> 00:35:24.239 highly insecure disaster of a human being who 00:35:24.239 --> 00:35:26.440 becomes entirely obsessed with marrying rich 00:35:26.440 --> 00:35:29.159 men. The notorious gold digger phase. Yes. She 00:35:29.159 --> 00:35:31.599 is just constantly chasing high society status. 00:35:31.840 --> 00:35:34.219 Her painful obsession with her corporate boss, 00:35:34.360 --> 00:35:36.880 Evan Drake, is agonizing to watch. And then, 00:35:36.900 --> 00:35:39.679 of course, the whole saga of Robin Colcord. Robin 00:35:39.679 --> 00:35:42.820 Colcord, the billionaire. Played by Roger Reese. 00:35:43.039 --> 00:35:46.019 He is this dashing, incredibly mysterious, jet 00:35:46.019 --> 00:35:49.099 -setting billionaire. Rebecca truly thinks she 00:35:49.099 --> 00:35:51.440 has finally made it to the top. But then the 00:35:51.440 --> 00:35:54.079 rug is pulled out and it turns out he's a massive 00:35:54.079 --> 00:35:56.539 white collar criminal. He actually goes to federal 00:35:56.539 --> 00:35:58.800 prison, right? He goes to jail, loses every dime 00:35:58.800 --> 00:36:00.760 of his money and is reduced to being a total 00:36:00.760 --> 00:36:04.659 pauper. But Rebecca wastes so much time and dignity 00:36:04.659 --> 00:36:07.659 chasing that specific illusion of wealth. And 00:36:07.659 --> 00:36:10.139 the really interesting dynamic shift with Sam 00:36:10.139 --> 00:36:14.219 is that unlike Diane. Rebecca constantly rejects 00:36:14.219 --> 00:36:17.199 him. Exactly. With Diane, Sam was always chasing 00:36:17.199 --> 00:36:19.099 her intellect and trying to drag her down to 00:36:19.099 --> 00:36:22.360 his level. With Rebecca, Sam is mostly just chasing 00:36:22.360 --> 00:36:24.659 her physically, but she rejects him flat out 00:36:24.659 --> 00:36:26.840 because he is the help. He's just a bartender. 00:36:26.920 --> 00:36:29.139 He is financially beneath her corporate aspirations. 00:36:29.500 --> 00:36:31.599 It totally flipped the traditional television 00:36:31.599 --> 00:36:34.519 power dynamic. It finally allowed Sam to be the 00:36:34.519 --> 00:36:36.719 one who wasn't in total control of the romantic 00:36:36.719 --> 00:36:40.190 situation. It did. And more importantly, The 00:36:40.190 --> 00:36:42.550 notes suggest it allowed Sam to naturally age. 00:36:42.849 --> 00:36:45.670 He wasn't just the effortlessly cool guy anymore. 00:36:45.909 --> 00:36:49.829 He was an aging former athlete trying to figure 00:36:49.829 --> 00:36:52.449 out his diminishing place in a rapidly changing 00:36:52.449 --> 00:36:55.570 corporate world. Now, a truly great bar isn't 00:36:55.570 --> 00:36:57.829 just made up of the staff and the daily regulars. 00:36:57.869 --> 00:37:01.429 It's the entire neighborhood, the extended universe 00:37:01.429 --> 00:37:04.929 of cheers. There are some incredible recurring 00:37:04.929 --> 00:37:07.250 characters in these notes that just add so much 00:37:07.250 --> 00:37:10.050 specific flavor to the show. We absolutely have 00:37:10.050 --> 00:37:12.800 to give a shout out to Harry the Hat. Harry Anderson. 00:37:13.000 --> 00:37:15.420 Yeah. The resident magician and local con artist. 00:37:15.659 --> 00:37:18.659 He was such a highly specific, weird character. 00:37:18.780 --> 00:37:20.880 He would just waltz in and trick the regular 00:37:20.880 --> 00:37:22.900 patrons out of their money with these incredibly 00:37:22.900 --> 00:37:25.619 elaborate bar bets. Oh, like the classic, I bet 00:37:25.619 --> 00:37:27.280 you 20 bucks I can drink that shot of whiskey 00:37:27.280 --> 00:37:29.059 without physically touching the hat covering 00:37:29.059 --> 00:37:30.960 it. That kind of classic grift. But the funny 00:37:30.960 --> 00:37:32.719 thing is, the bar regulars loved him anyway. 00:37:33.019 --> 00:37:35.179 Because he was their con artist. It's a tribal 00:37:35.179 --> 00:37:37.619 thing. He was almost framed as a chaotic good 00:37:37.619 --> 00:37:40.489 character. Whenever Cheers had a problem, he 00:37:40.489 --> 00:37:43.469 would often use his deceptive powers to help 00:37:43.469 --> 00:37:45.849 the gang defend themselves against their local 00:37:45.849 --> 00:37:48.469 rivals. And speaking of local rivals, we definitely 00:37:48.469 --> 00:37:51.150 have to talk about Gary's Old Town Tavern. The 00:37:51.150 --> 00:37:53.989 ultimate nemesis. Gary's was basically everything. 00:37:54.690 --> 00:37:58.469 Cheers wasn't. It was wildly successful, supposedly 00:37:58.469 --> 00:38:01.070 had great food, and it was a very modern sports 00:38:01.070 --> 00:38:04.699 bar. The Bar Wars episodes are absolute television 00:38:04.699 --> 00:38:06.619 classics. They're the best. It was an annual 00:38:06.619 --> 00:38:09.019 tradition, Cheers versus Gary's. They competed 00:38:09.019 --> 00:38:11.780 in bowling tournaments, basketball games, even 00:38:11.780 --> 00:38:14.500 Bloody Mary mixing contests. And the running 00:38:14.500 --> 00:38:17.179 joke was that Cheers almost always lost. They 00:38:17.179 --> 00:38:19.159 were the lovable losers. Gary was just always 00:38:19.159 --> 00:38:21.599 one step ahead and outsmarted them. Well, except 00:38:21.599 --> 00:38:23.820 for when they deployed Harry the Hat. Exactly. 00:38:24.460 --> 00:38:26.760 There's that legendary storyline where Harry 00:38:26.760 --> 00:38:29.599 helps the Cheers gang execute a massive con that 00:38:29.599 --> 00:38:32.480 basically destroys Gary's entire bar. It was 00:38:32.480 --> 00:38:34.760 a completely vicious business rivalry, but the 00:38:34.760 --> 00:38:37.079 writers used it perfectly to bond the dysfunctional 00:38:37.079 --> 00:38:38.780 Cheers gang together against a common enemy. 00:38:39.099 --> 00:38:41.159 And then right upstairs from the basement, you 00:38:41.159 --> 00:38:44.099 had Melville's. The incredibly snooty fine dining 00:38:44.099 --> 00:38:46.780 restaurant owned by the insufferable John Allen 00:38:46.780 --> 00:38:49.199 Hill. He was a much later addition to the cast, 00:38:49.420 --> 00:38:51.500 right? Yes, towards the later seasons. He was 00:38:51.500 --> 00:38:53.840 the building's landlord. And he had this endlessly 00:38:53.840 --> 00:38:56.820 combative relationship with Sam, arguing mostly 00:38:56.820 --> 00:39:00.159 over petty things like rent increases, customer 00:39:00.159 --> 00:39:03.219 bathroom access, and parking spots. But he also 00:39:03.219 --> 00:39:05.900 developed a very strange, highly aggressive sexual 00:39:05.900 --> 00:39:09.090 relationship with Carla. Thoroughly disgusted 00:39:09.090 --> 00:39:11.309 everyone else in the bar. Visibly nauseated them. 00:39:11.409 --> 00:39:14.090 It was just another bizarre layer of that enemy 00:39:14.090 --> 00:39:16.590 with benefits dynamic to show love to play with. 00:39:16.730 --> 00:39:18.969 And we absolutely cannot wrap up the cast list 00:39:18.969 --> 00:39:20.829 without mentioning the ultimate background guys, 00:39:21.170 --> 00:39:23.650 Al and Phil. The literal furniture of the bar. 00:39:23.929 --> 00:39:26.809 Al had that incredibly distinct gravelly voice. 00:39:27.030 --> 00:39:29.489 They rarely had their own huge storylines, but 00:39:29.489 --> 00:39:31.210 they were just always physically there in the 00:39:31.210 --> 00:39:34.769 frame. The notes emphasize how crucial they were 00:39:34.769 --> 00:39:38.159 for world building. It reinforced the idea that 00:39:38.159 --> 00:39:40.900 this is a real operating business. If you walked 00:39:40.900 --> 00:39:43.420 into Cheers on a random Tuesday afternoon, Al 00:39:43.420 --> 00:39:45.199 would be there. If you walked in on a Friday 00:39:45.199 --> 00:39:47.659 night, Al would be there. So we've unpacked the 00:39:47.659 --> 00:39:50.159 entire roster. We've looked at the fallen pitcher, 00:39:50.380 --> 00:39:52.420 the academic princess, the sad sack bar flies 00:39:52.420 --> 00:39:55.059 and all the replacements. When you step back 00:39:55.059 --> 00:39:57.820 from this massive stack of source material and 00:39:57.820 --> 00:40:01.110 look at the 11 year picture. What is the core 00:40:01.110 --> 00:40:04.150 takeaway? Why did this highly specific mix of 00:40:04.150 --> 00:40:06.690 damaged people resonate so hard with the American 00:40:06.690 --> 00:40:08.570 public? I really think it just comes right back 00:40:08.570 --> 00:40:10.789 down to the core promise of the theme song. You 00:40:10.789 --> 00:40:12.510 want to go where everybody knows your name. The 00:40:12.510 --> 00:40:14.969 writers fundamentally designed the bar to be 00:40:14.969 --> 00:40:17.809 a sanctuary. A sanctuary for losers. In a very 00:40:17.809 --> 00:40:20.800 real way, yes. Just look at the objective facts 00:40:20.800 --> 00:40:23.239 of their lives. Sam is a recovering alcoholic 00:40:23.239 --> 00:40:26.079 dealing with a failed baseball career. Diane 00:40:26.079 --> 00:40:28.420 is a deeply insecure failed writer who couldn't 00:40:28.420 --> 00:40:31.199 cut it in the academic world. Norm is a completely 00:40:31.199 --> 00:40:34.059 failed accountant who actively hides from his 00:40:34.059 --> 00:40:37.619 own wife. Cliff is socially incompetent and lives 00:40:37.619 --> 00:40:40.079 with his mother. Their marriages constantly fail. 00:40:40.159 --> 00:40:42.900 Their chosen careers completely stall out. But 00:40:42.900 --> 00:40:45.599 the physical bar itself is the one constant in 00:40:45.599 --> 00:40:48.500 their lives. It's the one place on Earth where 00:40:48.500 --> 00:40:51.500 all of that external failure simply doesn't matter. 00:40:51.619 --> 00:40:53.880 You walk down those concrete stairs and you are 00:40:53.880 --> 00:40:56.079 immediately accepted unconditionally. You become 00:40:56.079 --> 00:40:58.179 part of the tribe. That is actually a really 00:40:58.179 --> 00:41:00.519 beautiful way to look at it. It is a profoundly 00:41:00.519 --> 00:41:02.639 dysfunctional family, but at the end of the day, 00:41:02.820 --> 00:41:05.659 it is a family. Precisely. The core theme of 00:41:05.659 --> 00:41:08.579 the show is about the deep human comfort of belonging, 00:41:08.840 --> 00:41:10.679 even if you feel like you don't fit in anywhere 00:41:10.679 --> 00:41:13.289 else in society. Before we completely wrap up 00:41:13.289 --> 00:41:15.230 today, though, I do want to leave you with a 00:41:15.230 --> 00:41:17.949 thought and honestly, a pretty provocative question 00:41:17.949 --> 00:41:21.070 that really struck me while I was reading through 00:41:21.070 --> 00:41:23.010 the psychological profile of Sam Malone and just 00:41:23.010 --> 00:41:26.429 thinking about the modern world. We spent a lot 00:41:26.429 --> 00:41:29.889 of time talking about his womanizing, his so 00:41:29.889 --> 00:41:33.389 -called code, his relief pitcher arrogance. Right. 00:41:33.429 --> 00:41:35.800 The core of his character. If Cheers were somehow 00:41:35.800 --> 00:41:38.440 made today in exactly the same way it was written 00:41:38.440 --> 00:41:40.860 back then, how do you think we would actually 00:41:40.860 --> 00:41:43.719 view Sam Malone? Oh, that is the million dollar 00:41:43.719 --> 00:41:45.739 provocative question. I mean, let's just look 00:41:45.739 --> 00:41:47.900 at the raw facts. He was the boss of the business 00:41:47.900 --> 00:41:50.360 and he was constantly relentlessly hitting on 00:41:50.360 --> 00:41:52.699 his own female employees, first Diane, then Rebecca. 00:41:53.059 --> 00:41:55.239 He was aggressively hitting on his customers. 00:41:55.480 --> 00:41:57.840 He basically used his own place of business as 00:41:57.840 --> 00:42:00.840 a personal hunting ground. Now, in the 1980s, 00:42:00.840 --> 00:42:03.599 he was portrayed on screen as the charming rogue. 00:42:04.039 --> 00:42:06.219 He was the undisputed hero of the story. He was. 00:42:06.260 --> 00:42:08.900 He was the cool guy every guy wanted to be. But 00:42:08.900 --> 00:42:12.539 today, if we look at those exact same actions 00:42:12.539 --> 00:42:14.480 through the modern lens of workplace harassment 00:42:14.480 --> 00:42:17.400 and corporate power dynamics, is he actually 00:42:17.400 --> 00:42:20.699 a predator? It is a very complicated television 00:42:20.699 --> 00:42:23.780 legacy. The reality is, if you aired those exact 00:42:23.780 --> 00:42:26.719 early episodes today on network television without 00:42:26.719 --> 00:42:29.659 any historical context, Sam's behavior would 00:42:29.659 --> 00:42:31.860 absolutely be flagged as incredibly problematic. 00:42:32.460 --> 00:42:35.000 He crosses professional lines constantly. He 00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:37.239 frequently doesn't take no for an answer on the 00:42:37.239 --> 00:42:39.800 first try. He actively manipulates workplace 00:42:39.800 --> 00:42:42.659 situations to isolate women. But the framing 00:42:42.659 --> 00:42:44.360 of the show tells the audience it's romantic. 00:42:44.559 --> 00:42:47.340 It does. And that is the massive difference in 00:42:47.340 --> 00:42:50.360 the cultural lens. In the 80s, that relentless 00:42:50.360 --> 00:42:53.380 chase was broadly seen by society as romantic 00:42:53.380 --> 00:42:56.289 persistence. It was flattering. Today, we have 00:42:56.289 --> 00:42:58.630 a much clearer understanding that when your literal 00:42:58.630 --> 00:43:01.550 boss chases you romantically, it's not cute romance. 00:43:01.630 --> 00:43:04.130 It is the definition of a hostile work environment. 00:43:04.269 --> 00:43:06.409 It really changes how you watch the older episodes, 00:43:06.489 --> 00:43:08.829 doesn't it? It definitely adds a layer of friction. 00:43:09.570 --> 00:43:11.949 But it doesn't mean the show itself isn't still 00:43:11.949 --> 00:43:15.110 incredibly funny or masterfully written. It just 00:43:15.110 --> 00:43:17.090 means you have to acknowledge that you are watching 00:43:17.090 --> 00:43:20.309 a very specific time capsule of gender dynamics 00:43:20.309 --> 00:43:22.670 that have fortunately evolved quite a bit since 00:43:22.670 --> 00:43:25.630 1982. You can still appreciate the character's 00:43:25.630 --> 00:43:28.389 internal struggle and Ted Danson's undeniable 00:43:28.389 --> 00:43:30.989 charm, while also openly acknowledging that, 00:43:31.010 --> 00:43:33.369 yeah, a modern HR department would absolutely 00:43:33.369 --> 00:43:36.889 have a field day with Sam Malone in 2026. A modern 00:43:36.889 --> 00:43:39.150 HR department would have that basement bar shut 00:43:39.150 --> 00:43:41.210 down and boarded up in about a week. Without 00:43:41.210 --> 00:43:43.510 a single doubt in my mind, the lawsuits would 00:43:43.510 --> 00:43:45.750 be astronomical. Just something interesting for 00:43:45.750 --> 00:43:47.710 you to mull over the next time you hear that 00:43:47.710 --> 00:43:50.829 iconic piano intro start playing on a rerun. 00:43:51.150 --> 00:43:53.269 And that is going to do it for this deep dive 00:43:53.269 --> 00:43:55.570 into the anatomy of Cheers. We really hope you 00:43:55.570 --> 00:43:58.250 enjoyed dissecting this incredibly dysfunctional 00:43:58.250 --> 00:44:00.489 TV family with us. Thanks for listening.