Cheers
 Set in the Boston bar of the title - Est. 1895 and
located at 84 Beacon Street - Cheers was one of the most popular comedies of
the 80s - although the show finished a lowly 77th in the ratings
after its first season.
Premiering on 30 September 1982, the show performed poorly
against Simon & Simon and Too Close for Comfort
in its 9 PM Thursday time slot.
Both Paramount and NBC believed in
the show, however, and their tenacity certainly paid off.
The series followed the lives of recovered alcoholic
ex-baseball player (relief pitcher for the Red Sox) Sam Malone
(Ted Danson) and the gang at his Cheers bar:
Other core characters included Ernie "Coach" Pantuso;
promiscuous and acid-tongued waitress Carla Tortelli (played by
Rhea Perlman, real life wife of Danny DeVito); Barfly Norm
(classic quote - "women, you can't live with 'em . . . pass
the beer nuts"); Prissy English literature graduate Diane
(played by the delectable Shelley Long, whose underwear I would
happily strain soup through . . . but that's another story) and
anally retentive mailman Cliff Clavin.
 The first season storylines were dominated by Sam and Diane's
love/hate relationship. She eventually left him to marry the
pompous and preppy psychiatrist, Frasier Crane.
Unable to forget
Sam, she jilted Frasier and returned to waiting on tables at Cheers.
When Coach passed away (as did Nicholas Colasanto in real life)
he was replaced by Woody, a simple farm boy from Hanover, Indiana.
Around the same time, the dejected Frasier took to frequenting a
bar stool and married a night creature called Lilith.
In 1987 Diane left the bar to write a novel and a forlorn Sam
sold the bar to a large corporation and set off to sail the world.
Unfortunately his yacht sunk and he dragged himself back to Cheers
where he had to beg for a job from the new manager, Rebecca Howe (Kirstie
Alley - entertaining but not a patch on Shelley Long's
Diane).
Meanwhile, Carla - full name, Carla Maria Victoria Angelina
Teresa Apollonia Lozupone Tortelli - married Hockey player, Eddie LeBec (who was
subsequently killed in an accident at the ice rink). Sam
eventually regained ownership of his beloved bar, finally making
the supercilious Rebecca his underling.
Although Cheers was a veritable gold-mine of one-line gags, it
was the stable of characters who provided the majority of laughs.
One of the most notable guest appearances came from John Cleese as
a deranged British marriage guidance counsellor.
Cheers ended after 11 seasons, but only because Ted
Danson decided to call it quits. By the time the show ended, Frasier and Lilith
had a kid, Woody was a City Councilman and Sam and Diane nearly
got married.
 The final episode screened in the US in May 1993 and
attracted a viewing audience of 150 million, making it the most
watched show in TV history (Cheers holds the record for most Emmy
nominations with a whopping 117).
The last line of the final
episode was "Sorry, we're closed."
There were two spin-off series' in the 80s - Coach and The
Tortellis, which starred Dan Hedaya as Carla's ex-husband, Nick,
and Jean Kasem as his wife, Loretta.
Nick relocated from Boston to
Vegas and took teen son Anthony (Timothy Williams) with him in an
attempt to patch things up with Loretta, who was out there
pursuing a showbiz career.
Nick split his time between running a
TV repair business and being a talent manager.
Rounding out the wacky cast were Anthony's wife, Annie (Mandy
Ingber), and Loretta's sister, Charlotte (Carlene Watkins), who
didn't exactly hit it off with Nick.
Unfortunately, The Tortellis
didn't hit it off with the audience, either. The show debuted on
NBC's schedule in January 1987 and was gone by May.) The
mega-successful spin-off series Frasier debuted in 1993.
TRIVIA NOTES
The Cheers bar was loosely based on a real tavern in Boston, the Bull
and Finch. Although the bar was fully functional (and many NBC
after-hours parties were held on the set), the suds served on
camera weren't exactly a tasty microbrew.
In fact, it was "near beer," with an alcohol content
of 3.2 percent, and a pinch of salt added so that the mug kept a
foamy head under the hot studio lights. It took 30 to 40 extras to
fill up the pub set as "customers". Any less, and the
bar looked too empty.
 Look closely and you'll notice a "seam" down the centre
of the bar. It was built on a hinge so that the right half could
swing out, allowing the wall to slide open to reveal Sam's
office.
John Ratzenberger (Cliff) originally auditioned for the role of
barfly Norm Peterson. When he lost that role to George Wendt,
Ratzenberger asked the producers if they had written a
"resident know-it-all" into their show. All bars have
one, he pointed out.
Thanks to his persistence, the character of
mail carrier Cliff Clavin became a regular patron.
Before Ratzenberger made it big on Cheers, he had bit
roles in some of Hollywood''s biggest blockbusters, including The
Empire Strikes Back, Superman, and Gandhi.
Jay Thomas was the morning DJ at LA's KPWR-Power 106 when he
auditioned for (and won) the role of hockey star Eddie LeBec. He
was brought back for several episodes in order to give Carla a
story arc, and Eddie and Carla eventually wed on the show.
Eddie might have made it to the series finale had Jay Thomas
not taken a call on the air one morning asking him "What''s
it like working on Cheers?" Thomas made several
unflattering remarks about Rhea Perlman and having to kiss her . .
. and Rhea happened to be listening to his show. Not surprisingly,
a few weeks later Eddie LeBec was killed in a bizarre Zamboni
accident.
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