Best CHEERS character

not a rejection note, a "soon and inevitably to be published" note

just struck me that cheers episodes are half-hours that are 24 minutes long and new half-hours made today are at least a couple of minutes shorter

thanks, capitalism

Tbf to capitalism, Cheers theme song intro and end credits over still image took up a good share of that time difference.

you have cause and effect the wrong way around there

Huh it's only the 6th episode into Rebecca Howe era where her mask falls, eg Norm sees her crying. In my memory that was kept up for a couple seasons.

weeks lasted longer when we were kids

i blame capitalism

Thatcher surely?

roger rees also amazingly bad and annoying in law and order

he is not just an employee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The first quarter or so of Season 6 is a real dip, you can feel them struggling to nail the new dynamic and Diane is a gigantic absence. Can't help but feel that if the internet was watching it in real time it would be declared over.

Once they realise that Rebecca is funny because she's dorky not because she's an impenetrable hard businesswoman it starts to work, but Frasier and Lilith are absolutely killing it this season.

Also you can always tell who the writers are most interested in by who they allow the camera to follow out of the bar. They're going big on Cliff this season as well as Frasier.

The episode where Cliff's house is about to be demolished is pretty strong. Also loved the one where Lilith buys Sam in the batchelor auction (the scary woman who purchases Woody resurfaces a few seasons later as a scary IRS official who blackmails Norm into an affair). But yeah, I feel Season Six is a fallow season - in fact, I don't really think the show hits true form again until the Sam/Rebecca/Robin Colcort triangle kicks in (sorry not sorry Mark S).

I disagree actually, I think it hits its stride straight after the episode with Cliff's house - from the charity auction onwards its really strong. Admittedly I'm only as far as the Christmas one but the sense of the tone being off has gone and the one-liners are still as sharp as ever.

Vera appeared, except with her face covered in pie or something like that.

I woke up early the other day and turned on the TV and this episode was just finishing. They were having Thanksgiving's at Carla's(?) house and there's a massive food fight but then they're all friends again and Norm wants to introduce them to Vera but a giddy Diane says, "Who's for dessert?" and picks up a chocolate cake or something and throws it, hitting Vera full in the face just as she's walking through the door.

coldcord is unwatchable which is a pity bcz the writing was good at this point and the idea of the triangle unimpeachable

sadly they hired the useless and terrible roger rees who punches unfunny holes in the otherwise good stuff

I've reached S11 (that's the final season, iirc?). Carla deciding to leave Cheers for more money at the neon-laden chain bar was genuisly reversed by meeting her new trainee.

I love that episode so much. Mr Pubs!

cliff’s veggie garden gag making a glorious comeback in s07e19 via the beet-a-baga fajita-in-a-pita, “that little taste of cairo,” is supreme.

I love the vegetables running gag so much.

series 11 is incredibly strong, with the ensemble really keeping the show fresh

Zero vote for Eddie LeBec OTM by the way, just not very funny at all.

yeah, huge misfire there

eddie's got heart, i always like it when he shows up.

Watching much slower than the rest of you, apparently, but the big revelation for me yesterday was that there used to be a different guy named "Paul" who sat in future Paul's spot

you're biased

yes season 1 has a different Paul from the guy who eventually became Paul:
The character was first called Paul in season four. In his first appearance, in season 1, Coach calls Paul's character "Glenn" (confusingly, the credits identify the character as "Gregg"), and in another early appearance, he is credited as "Tom", although this name is not spoken aloud in the episode. Towards the end of the series' run, a reference by Paul that he's been drinking at Cheers for 10 years makes it plausible that Coach had mistaken his name in his first appearance 10 years prior, and that "Glenn" and Paul are meant to be one and the same person.

amazing Halloween costume

https://assets.fontsinuse.com/static/use-media-items/112/111698/full-700x764/5eaacd11/2013-10-Brett-Bumgarner-cheers-costume-21.jpeg

I remember Paul being a much more prominent character in later seasons, as it stands he's barely even a character and much less prominent than other rotating regulars like Al or the hopeless lawyer guy.

civil servants
stamps from around the world
mothers and sons
beer
bar trivia
celibacy

lmao

"Seriously... Drink-driving. What's up with that?"

the spontaneous "we will rock you" moment that opens s08e18 is SO good

isn’t it great? it’s also the only time i can recall close-ups of anything at all in this show. they never go in tighter than a head-to-waist shot (unless it’s a one-shot of norm at the bar, in which case there are always people milling about behind him).

How are you all blazing through so fast? OK, maybe stupid question, but I'm still on S2 despite sheltering in place. I find I can only binge 3-4 episodes at a time

we’re smashing out 20–30 episodes a week (watching s09e09 right now)

ooh, hill just introduced himself

Finished season 6 last night and the closing run of episodes is so great. The whole season really works as an extended excercise in knocking Sam off his pedestal.

Rebecca is crucial in that, because Sam is an alpha male by the standards of the dudes in the bar, and also by the standards of the eggheads that Diane knows, but absolutely not by Rebecca's standards (the business elite of Boston).

Also Danson was clearly getting older and the scripts needed to reflect that.

took a break at the beginning of season 5 bc im not ready to say goodbye to Dianne.

I’m definitely in the thick of when I started watching in real time though. It’s pretty wild in the way smells can trigger memories, apparently so can Sam’s blousy collarless um henleys?

close-ups of anything at all in this show

this caught my attention for sure. it was kinda cool to "experience" the bar in a more intimate way.

i also kept expecting somebody to burst in with a wisecrack. when nobody did and the credits just started to play it made it even funnier.

Another low-key running gag I love is Woody writing the Cheers Newsletter for no reason whatsoever.

cheers-era kirstie alley is my current crush btw

Another low-key running gag I love is Woody writing the Cheers Newsletter for no reason whatsoever.

the show is full of gorgeous stuff like this, e.g. rebecca rifling through a box of receipts but never achieving anything (iirc they call her out for this towards the end)

just watched the s02 one where diane teaches andy the murderer to act and they do othello. it's basically perfect

i love it! a desdemona who fights back!

I think that might be the best episode of all of them.

ooh, hill just introduced himself

"oh Sa-aam"

the effect hill has on sam is glorious, and gives danson an excuse to unleash some of his best comic and physical acting. he really lights up the screen. we’re in the same series now and it’s a joy to watch.

we’ve just hit the daffy-nitions episode

What's up with that?

I was up early this morning and saw a good Lilith episode (be still my beating heart).

Was rewatching some S05 episodes earlier, and as much as I appreciate the later, more cynical Sam Malone, the bit in Everyone Imitates Art, where it is revealed that Sam has saved all his love letters from Diane, bound up with a silk ribbon, is such a warm and startling moment. Theirs really is the best-written romance in all sitcom - prickly, mismatched, with crackling dialogue straight out of screwball, but the warmth and love ring just as true. And as much as Diane's made out as some kind of nightmare by all the other characters, and as much as their final reunion in the last episode ends, predictably, in disaster, Sam's affection for her is very real, and gave the show an emotional centre it lacked later on.