Best CHEERS character

Weirdly, starting around series six, some of the episodes truncate the opening credits/song.

episode length probably shrank due to ad breaks increasing; shorter credits mean more laffs

lots of the opening gags take place in the street outside Cheers.

iirc they went to Boston for some "keys to the city" type PR event, and wrote months worth of opening gags to shoot in one day while there?

I'm only halfway through season 1 but the seasons on Amazon Prime are already back up to £20 each again >:[ (a bit cheaper on Play store)

One of the things I am enjoying most is Diane's "..Norman.." after everyone else's

Less enjoyable - the visible sparkling sweat beads on several characters foreheads especially Sam's under the ruthless set lights, presumably an effect of the upscaling.

everyone else's "NORM" that should be of course

The really SHOUT it in the first couple of seasons I noticed!

Love the British acTOR type who fools Carla into thinking he's a spy and then Dian into thinking he's a poet...and then how tolerant everyone is of his genteel emotional grift. I don't suppose he returns later as a double-act with Harry The Hat..

every character in this is so great, its so hard to choose. rebecca was a little off-message her first season or two, but the whole robin colcord subplot is gravy - the episode with her getting drunk the night before the wedding and trying to seduce sam is all time.

Just caught the end of the episode where Robin Colcord makes his first appearance, preceding this Rebecca has decided to settle for Sam because "Robin Colcord or Donald Trump are not knocking on my door".

You won't tell my mother will you?
Mom's the word
You won't tell my mom will you?

that's gold, what episode is it from

i assume that’s woody in the first and last lines

surely

Yeah that's Woody, and talking to Diane.
It's season 5 episode 10 where Woodys girlfriend turns up with another bloke and Woody goes on a fake date with Sams cleaning lady

tbf she had "five stars the best" in Sam's little black book

Cliff: Check out this headline "SUICIDAL TWIN KILLS BROTHER BY MISTAKE"

Pretty sure I missed this poll, but I’d have voted for Shelley Long.

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/3f/7f/ee/3f7fee3b717b96328347c8243301baed--golden-girls-meme-girl-memes.jpg

Definitely should have been more love for Diane. Certainly above Carla

Classic cold open where Frasier attempts to discuss Ingmar Bergman with the gang at Cheers. pic.twitter.com/ufUQ72nYcf

— Adam Rackoff (@AdamRackoff) September 20, 2022

example of the good frasier material

"To the layman"--someone should have decked him!

they’re used to it by that point - it’ll take more than that - “to the layman” merely the foothills of frasier’s mountainous condescension

example of the good frasier material

The turn to Abbot & Costello/Martin & Lewis at the end is the mark of genius.

I think one of my favourite Cheers runs is the episode where Frasier is reading Dickens, and starts to read some to the bar, but when they get restless he adulterates it with some horror/action movie schtik to keep them interested. By the end, he's reading lines like, "It's a far, far better butt-kicking I give today..."

seriously how is Cliff only mid-30s when this show started..

Reaganomics

Watching this again from s01e01 with my partner, who only watched scattered episodes back in the day. It's my nth run-through, but it's still so hilarious. Really struck this time by how Shelly Long is the MVP in every episode - scripts are all unimpeachable, every actor is perfect, but she is just bringing this extra energy to every line, is entirely dialled-in to her oddball character and owns every scene she appears in.

100%

and so much of it is danson just reacting genuinely in the moment to how incredible she is

Me and my partner have been doing a similar thing (she is a scriptwriter and worships the show as the summit of all human achievement). Had completely forgotten S01 E16 The Boys in the Bar episode - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boys_in_the_Bar- which seems even more relevant today.

I’m always surprised by how consistently funny it is - there are plenty of old sitcoms that I love that are like warm blankets, comfort watches with the occasional chuckle, but Cheers is properly laugh-out-loud several times an episode. And Coach’s timing is incredible.

Coach is another MVP. My heart keeps breaking as we watch along to know he only had a couple of years left (but what a last hurrah for Colasanto). Got a bit choked the other evening telling my partner how as Colasanto's heart disease progressed and his memory faltered, he wrote his lines on parts of the set in case he forgot them, and in subsequent years the cast campaigned for them not to be painted over, and how the show's penultimate shot is basically Sam dusting off the framed portrait of Geronimo they kept on the wall in tribute to Colasanto.

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.

Matt Baume, whose work I really enjoy, did a couple of good clips on Cheers and on that Boys In The Bar episode in particular
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iIsPz0KBB0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTieRMQ2_H0

Also love the fact that Colasanto directed the Johnny Cash Columbo episode.

Indeed. He directed a few iirc.

... actually two, the murderer in the other one was John Cassevetes!

One of the best ones!

woah, i did not realise that!

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.

oh God yes, I haven't thought of that scene in decades but I'm totally welling up now.

Coach is another MVP

Coach's little song from when he was trying to learn world geography is still in my head nearly 40 years later. "Albania, Albania, you border on the Adriatic." I don't think he ever got any further.

there's a whole verse! "your chief export is chrome!"

We also get a line or two from one of his other songs, when he's triumphantly returning to the bar following their exam.

That song is also forever replaying in my head.

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

For some reason I thought at the time that Gilbert O'Sullivan was the singer-songwriter behind the Cheers theme.

At a younger age I had though that all sit-com theme songs were sung by the cast members. I was really off as a kid.

(Trying hard not to mention Dennis Waterman here)

dennis waterman sang and will continue (via the posthumous magic of AI) to sing all sit-com themetunes at all times

this is the mark s guarantee

At a younger age I had though that all sit-com theme songs were sung by the cast members. I was really off as a kid.

― henry s, Friday, September 15, 2023 7:05 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I don't know if I though this about all sitcoms, but I definitely thought it was Woody singing the Cheers theme song.

I also get Coach's Albania song in my head all the time.

I thought Nicholas Lyndhurst sang the Fools and Horses theme, and he should certainly sing the new Frasier one.