For Your Consideration: The under-appreciated greatness of Cheers

Sam had a better role when he was the horndog boss to Diane. He was cuckolded by having Rebecca as his boss, and so I thought the power dynamic made for funnier situations with Sam/Diane. Not to say that the later stuff wasn't funny, but Sam was funniest when he had the most swagger. My two cents, at least.

 

Five seasons of Sam vs./with Diane was great.

11 seasons would have been a few too many. It had run its course.

The show's dynamics kept changing, and it adapted well. How many shows "jump the shark" when a character leaves or arrives?

 

I agree. The entire tenor of Cheers changed when Diane left, and the show simply evolved and, to some, improved. That's remarkable.

 

That oral history was awesome. Thanks for posting that link.

 

A few of my Cheers faves:

The Bar Wars, especially the one where Sam recruits Kevin McHale as a basketball ringer.

The first episode with Rebecca, where the gang gets rid of the new bartender by getting him to make a "Screaming Viking." Then, as the bar chants "Screaming Viking, Screaming Viking!", Cliff, who hadn't been seen the entire show, comes out from the pool room and orders one.

The episode where Sam gets locked out of his apartment at night, and goes around to everyone asking for a place to sleep. He gets so desperate, he even goes to Cliff's.

Cliff trying to hook up with his GF, only he goes blind.

 

Loved the one where Gary's was getting ready to show some big PPV fight but the Cheers gang wired their signal so they got An Evening of Poetry with Norm Peterson and Clifford C. Clavin.

And John Hill was one of the great latter-day characters on that show.

 

Good series. Excellent story.

Thanks, DD. Still prefer M*A*S*H at top of 30-minute comedy lists, but Cheers is worthy nevertheless ...

 

Loved MASH but I don't know if Cheers ever went for the big shit MASH did over its last few seasons.

 

There were certain things overdone, to be sure; the crying out of "Norm!" was no better than Jimmie Walker getting his "Dy-no-mite!" into each episode of Good Times, and there was a certain repetitiveness to the dimwittedness of Woody, the obnoxiousness of Cliff, the prickliness of Carla. That said, they were very engaging characters who made you care. And Rebecca's replacing Diane did for Cheers what the additions of Hunnicutt and Winchester did for M*A*S*H: made it a somewhat more mature, complex show that was still quite humorous, just in a different way. I think the best-written comedy ever, Frasier, was the logical next step for the Cheers creative team.

 

I have the exact same, very vivid memory of Coach's song in that episode.

Ragu, sometimes I believe we are the yin/yang of SportsJournalists.com posters. I'll let others decide which one of us posts longer/more often.

DD, thanks for linking to the oral history. I saw it on a friend's FB page last week and thought it was a great read. I did not watch the later "Cheers" years as religiously because I was generally in a TV-free life zone (late college, then first few years out) but I agree it's one of the alltime greats. As someone who now tries to ply my trade in that realm, it is also very instructive. I appreciated and agree with the quotes from Schur, Amy Poehler and Shawn Ryan (creator of "The Shield").

And just in general, oral histories for TV shows and movies I've enjoyed are almost always a great read, such as the Grantland ones on "White Man Can't Jump," "Friday Night Lights" and WFAN radio, the SI ones on "Bull Durham" and "Major League," etc. Also the "Saturday Night Live" book. It's a great format for behind-the-scenes tales, which is exactly what you want.