Best CHEERS character

Cliff. or Woody. or Norm. or Lilith. or Carla.

Woody arrived at Cheers expecting to meet his "pen pal" Coach, with whom he exchanged pens instead of letters.

Frasier on "Cheers" was such a great character in ways that now feel distinct from the character on "Frasier"

glad harry the hat's included

embarrassment of riches

ive been watching this recently on netflix, from the beginning. i never saw much of the coach/diane years either, so it's been a pleasant surprise to discover what a gifted comedienne shelley long was. it's easy to imagine why a movie career was considered a no-brainer for her after a while, tho i guess she never found a decent vehicle aside from The Money Pit

oh man, ppl who never saw the Coach/Diane years are REALLY missing out

is it true or false that Night Court happened because ppl liked Harry Anderson's Cheers appearances so much

― Lil Swayne of Pie (DJP), Wednesday, August 22, 2012 11:07 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

i dont know but it sounds plausible!

Night Court, according to the first season DVD, was created without comedian/magician Harry Anderson in mind, but Anderson auditioned with the claim that he was Harry Stone. Anderson had developed a following with his performances on Saturday Night Live and made several successful appearances as con man "Harry the Hat" on another NBC sitcom, Cheers.

I just looked it up; Night Court was already in development but Anderson basically walked into the audition after his Cheers spots and some appearances on SNL and said "fuck you, I'm Harry Stone" and the production team went "well duh, of course"

xp: well that's made me useless

some random cable channel (Reelz i think?) runs 2 Cheers episodes every afternoon, which i've been watching and enjoying the hell out of now and again lately, although it never fails to irritate me that invariably one episode is Diane/Coach era and one is Rebecca/Woody era (i love both eras, just kinda wanna spend time on one or the other and not switch gears halfway through the hour).

"Cliff, with his secret!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7qWq5u2yMA&feature=player_embedded

Woody vs. Norm vs. Lilith

Carla vs. Lillith vs. Nick Tortelli

Lilith vs Woody vs Coach

Cliff or Lilith.

decided to vote based on the reruns Reelz aired today and Woody got the biggest laughs from me. also one of the episodes featured a young Sherilyn Fenn and holy crap.

Cheers is on Netflix. This fact makes the world slightly better.

Nick Tortelli, because I used to do an impression of him that made a co-worker laugh so hard she peed her pants.

the kid who played carla's eldest son did a pretty amusing dan hedaya impression.

I have never seen a single minute of this show.

dan hedaya is pretty amazing

The thing is the Norm-Coach-Cliff-Woody characters are p much walking jokes, albeit pretty good ones, deftly played. There's more of a burden on the leads. (Rhea Perlman actually gave 3D heft to her insults, I thought)

I stopped watching when Long left so I guess that signals my choice.

My first vote would probably be for Frasier and Lilith in tandem; Woody, Cliff, Diane and Rebecca (thought they were both great in different ways), and Coach after that. Paul would say something now and again that killed me. Can't vote for two, so I guess Cliff.

Norm was funny most of the time, repetitive occasionally. Almost always found Carla a drag.

Guess I'ma be the only Rebecca vote here.

appreciation of Rebecca clouded by Kirstie Alley becoming a walking joke in real life

Dave Richards . . . (Fred Dryer)

Worlds colliding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxlIYukmlVw

People, people. No mentions of Sam "Mayday" Malone. Seriously? Danson just kills on this show.

The thing is the Norm-Coach-Cliff-Woody characters are p much walking jokes, albeit pretty good ones, deftly played. There's more of a burden on the leads. (Rhea Perlman actually gave 3D heft to her insults, I thought)

I stopped watching when Long left so I guess that signals my choice.

― Pangborn to be Wilde (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, August 22, 2012 2:25 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark

i pretty much agree, which is why I'm leaning towards Diane. the sam/diane stuff could be a little forced at times, but when they got it right you couldnt tear your eyes off it.

Dave Richards . . . (Fred Dryer)

― mookieproof, Wednesday, August 22, 2012 2:41 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

i thought about throwing him in there but iirc he was only in like 4 episodes and i didnt think there would be any hunter stans repping

I'm still trying to figure out what the "joke" was with Norm. Other than being a cool, nice, approachable dude who didn't want to go home to his wife.

'there's winners and losers in this world . . . here's hoping you're one of them'

Did Cliff ever really zing Norm? They really only work as a duo, each character alone has some pull but together they're the funniest part of the show.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5j4zoZTKz1qzjxs1o1_1280.jpg
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5j4zoZTKz1qzjxs1o2_1280.jpg
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5j4zoZTKz1qzjxs1o3_1280.jpg
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5j4zoZTKz1qzjxs1o4_1280.jpg

COACH: What's your most troublesome problem?
NORM: Ah, that's tough to say, Coach. Let's see. I'm overweight, unemployed, separated, depressed, starting to drink too much. Guess my biggest problem is I've never been happier.

the joke is "fat man/little jacket"

lol

my fav normism is when sam asks him what he'll have and norm goes "a reason to live - keep em comin." the audience didnt even laugh, i think they were just unsettled by it

TBH, I probably would've voted Frasier, but the spinoff killed that joke pretty fast for me.

but frasier on his own show was a different character!

how so?

i had no idea nick and loret-ta got their own spinoff

he was more the straight man, niles was the frasier of 'Frasier'

frasier & lilith were such a power combo that its hard to vote for one individually. lilith's 1st & 2nd appearances are so great

Yeah, voting Lilith solves that problem, doesn't it?

bebe neuwirth is just the greatest

Yeah, the Frasier/Lilith team is genius.

he was more the straight man, niles was the frasier of 'Frasier'

Sort of agree with this, in that Niles is the magnification of the already OTT Frasier character: more prissy, more class-conscious, more neurotic etc. I don't see Frasier as being different on his own show, though, just more fleshed-out. I think he's a very well-written, well-played character in both.

I think I've gotten the most flat-out laughs from Woody, but it's definitely a textbook example of ensemble comedy where every piece works. It took me a while to appreciate the Rebecca character, and I still don't think she ever reached the heights Diane did (that "Un Film de Diane Chambers" still cracks me up just thinking about it) but somewhere along the line Kirstie Alley fit in.

yeah MANCHILD IN BEANTOWN will never not be funny

Diane for her delivery of the line "You are a sand flea."

Luv ya Coachy.

Only the season 4 opener looked awful on Paramount weirdly, rest is fine.

I just learned the same songwriter-singer behind the Cheers theme also did the (even better) theme song for “Punky Brewster”

― 50 Best Fellas (Eric H.)

wow, was the punky brewster theme song randomly transphobic too

Coach was the best. IMO the show ran for eight more brilliant seasons but a part of its heart broke when he passed.

wow, was the punky brewster theme song randomly transphobic too

please explain

Roll out of bed, Mr. Coffee's dead;
The morning's looking bright;
And your shrink ran off to Europe,
And didn't even write;
And your husband wants to be a girl;

I don't recall that from the Cheers theme?

Have i misunderstood something here

The Lyrics To The Full "Cheers" Theme Are Completely Insane

I don't recall that from the Cheers theme?

I don’t think it ever ran in the show otherwise

Yeah it made #58 on the UK chart in '84. I only heard the song in full a few years ago.

Yuck, hadn’t ever heard of that verse til now

Yuck, hadn’t ever heard of that verse til now

omg

it's pretty wild looking back and realizing that trans jokes were about as acceptable back in the day as, i don't know, hitler jokes. like it's so ubiquitous that a lot of it i forgot about and had to be reminded of. i did know about cheers because... i think when i was a kid and was learning the piano i had a book of sheet music to tv themes and it had the complete lyrics in there. then i forgot about it until i was talking with this zoomer i know who's obsessed with '70s and '80s sitcoms and idolizes vicki lawrence in "mama's family" and she mentioned it and i was just like oh shit, i forgot about that bit.

the thing is that kind of thing was just so _routine_ and _unexceptional_. it's really bizarre looking back on it, because this shit was just, like, normal when i was growing up. i definitely feel that "between two worlds" thing sometimes. maybe it's that way for a lot of trans people of whatever generation... i don't know!

Yeah, it seems nearly impossible to dip into just about any '80s entertainment and not risk getting blindsided by a (as it turns out not so) random joke at trans people's expense. There's even a nasty little moment at the end of a S7 Golden Girls episode that feels like a total sop to the shittiness of that era.

Yeah, it seems nearly impossible to dip into just about any '80s entertainment and not risk getting blindsided by a (as it turns out not so) random joke at trans people's expense. There's even a nasty little moment at the end of a S7 Golden Girls episode that feels like a total sop to the shittiness of that era.

― badpee pooper (Eric H.)

like i was watching... one of the weird things i do is watch tapes of old HBO between-movie interstitials from back in the day from, like, maybe 1984, and there's a promo for the news parody show they had, if you remember, it was called "not necessarily the news", and they had a joke to the effect that boy george was starting a finishing school for BOYS who wanted to be GIRLS! comedy gold i'm sure

i mean boy george isn't even a woman, just a guy who presents more on the femme side of things. god forbid anybody would be able to tell the difference between gender identity and presentation in those days, tho, lol just like. everything was so fucked up and i had no idea.

you have your work cut out for you

"Excuse me... where is your bathroom?"
"Right next ti my bedroom...!?!"

Apologies for the typo (my phone is a potato)

I was in desperate need of comfort viewing after watching a particularly effective horror movie the other night and I decided to start watching Cheers from the start.
A show I haven't really thought about since I was a kid watching with my parents on Friday nights
So glad to delve back in. It's sumptuous to watch this as an adult. To appreciate the scripting, the acting, just how tight and charming it is. A few beats are dated, sure, but I'll forgive it for now

Right now Cliff is only a walk on guy. Diane is fantastic any minute she's on camera. Right now I'd vote for her, Coach or Carla

There's just something about how the characters react quietly to things happening around them that works. You're in their minds as soon as the joke lands. I don't know how to describe it better

And the end of that early episode w/ his daughter is genuinely an amazing bit of acting - never fail to tear up when his daughter (Ms Dipesto off Moonlighting!!) says she's ugly, Coach says she looks like her mum, she falters as she tries to say "And mum was not beautiful", and Coach says "Your mother grew more beautiful every day I knew her"... ack, am choking up a bit as I type. And the words themselves aren't even a very strong denouement, but the way Colasanto delivers them is truly remarkable.

Got to this bit the other day during my rewatch of S1. Devastating.

yeah great scene

Saw the first Lilith (instantly great) episode recently having not been aware it's a while before she reappears.

Been watching through Cheers recently. It's such a perfect show. The only character I don't really like is Diane so looking forward to her leaving

Ah, but Shelly's performance is so strong those first few seasons - I really felt on my last rewatch that she is the centre of the show at first.

Love Diane.

It's a great performance I just don't enjoy the character unfortunately

I only remember the later seasons from the first run/syndication, jarring to see the first couple of seasons with a completely different Cliff and things 30% less wacky in general.

Oh I really like Diane. I love it when Shelley Long and Ted Danson almost break character just a tiny bit after a laugh to show they're kind-of in on the joke. Yeah Diane is quality

does Cliff change a lot in later seasons? it really is strange coming back to these as an adult, when last time i watched it i must have been about 12 or 13

I don’t think Cliff changes too much - a little more depth to his shallowness perhaps but you’d expect that over eleven seasons

Slightly mindblowing watching today to realise that Cliff and Norm are in their mid-30s when Cheers starts.

Early thirties I think! It is one of those WTF feelings knowing that the entire main cast (not including Coach) were around that age

Yeah Coach was a bit older - early 40s I think

Older surely?

Played an old mob boss in Raging Bull--two years before Cheers goes on the air.

Nick Colasanto was 59 when the show began

Sorry, failed joke attempt

Ha! Sorry!