Best CHEERS character

yeah, i've always been a Norm guy. i do think the show lost a lot of ~heart~ when diane left though

woody or cliff

never watched the coach/diane era tho

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

Woodrow Huckleberry Tiberius Boyd

Immediately voted for Carla but I think I underrated Cliff.

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'

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!

Saw this being shared since George Wendt's passing - cool Hirschfeld caricature of the Cheers cast (that's Roger Rees top left):

https://www.alhirschfeldfoundation.org/sites/default/files/styles/full_watermarked/public/import/piece/2015/Cheers.jpg?itok=zAYZgMLe

Ah, that's excellent.

Really nailed Cliffy's weird little eyes

Was having coffee and that insanely moronic Wang Chung song started up in the background; immediately thought of Frasier, checked and I was right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4GtOdJtgL8

https://deadly-prey-gallery.myshopify.com/products/cheers-high-quality-print-stoger

Cheers poster from Ghana...

Lilith front and center, as she should be

otm

https://deadly-prey-gall✧✧✧.myshop✧✧✧.com/cdn/shop/files/image_b1e49105-f38a-4c09-aabd-4d4475137b3b_1024x1✧✧✧@2✧.j✧✧?

https://deadly-prey-gall✧✧✧.myshop✧✧✧.com/cdn/shop/files/image_b1e49105-f38a-4c09-aabd-4d4475137b3b_1024x1✧✧✧@2✧.j✧✧

Nah, not going to work.

Lilith front and center, as she should be

100% this

Rewatching this on Hulu and I stand by my original callout of “Coach vs Carla vs Norm”

Sam and Diane have the absolute worst relationship, everything about them together magnifies the most terrible parts of their personalities. It was very tough watching the end of S2 where the show plays them slapping each other for laughs.

It’s a testament to the direction and performances that there was still part of me rooting for them by the episode’s end.

agree about that awkward slapping episode. Was that the same episode with Christopher Loyd as the artist, who put on a great performance in outing Sam for what he truly was for Diane.

Yeah, I think that's an interesting twist the series ultimately pulls off - that the first five seasons sell them as this great romcom relationship that shouldn't work but somehow does - and then in the final episode in s11, it's clear they actually aren't right for each other, and so they part again, presumably forever. The slapping episode has aged incredibly badly. But the doomed romance between them in those first five series is really compelling, and I still get choked at that final ep of s05, and Sam dreaming of growing old with Diane in the house they've just bought, now he knows it will never happen.

It's a real tragedy Shelly Long never found another role as good as this, as she's just insanely brilliant as Diane.

both she and danson give the parts so much more intelligence and self awareness than is on the page, where they’re both pretty clueless about a lot of things, so you end up with these people who are so completely alive to each other, to the tiny emotional moments, but also have blind spots the size of cargo planes. it’s such a compelling combo and gives them this tragic, sympathetic heft that would be at home in a dostoyevsky novel

Danson totally rules in this show.

Everyone totally rules in this show. It really feels like I’m watching live theater rather than an edited television show.

filmed before a live studio audience!

I feel like Fraiser lent into this in a deleterious way, succumbing to 'whoops where's my trousers' farce too often.

As much as I love Cheers, the Frasier show left me totally cold. He was not a character I wanted to spend an entire show with.

I have almost certainly posted to this effect before, but Cheers is the sitcom Shakespeare would have written, I think.

What is remarkable on regular rewatches is how shonky the camera work is on early episodes - really could be an amateur crew filming a theatrical production.

Ha maybe that’s why it feels so much like a play; it looks like all the videos that were made of the plays I did in high school.

Frasier is very meta - a show about a pretentious snob using the kind of "classical farce" structure that would make it appeal to pretentious snobs. NB this isn't a criticism and it isn't the only thing it does and Roz rules.

As much as I love Cheers, the Frasier show left me totally cold. He was not a character I wanted to spend an entire show with.

I agree, but also, the Frasier of his own TV show was a less interesting, less nuanced, less empathisable and less funny character than the Frasier in Cheers, who often got the best lines, and occasionally the last laught (cf the snark-hunting episode).

How did Weird Al miss the trick of doing a little ditty bout Sam and Diane?

Ha maybe that’s why it feels so much like a play; it looks like all the videos that were made of the plays I did in high school.

I think a lot of older tv feels like this now, with the limited sets and no outdoor locations.

Frasier made the most of an excellent ensemble, but I thought the writing was generally solid as well. The dynamic of two brothers who are both effete snobs is the kind of thing that shouldn’t have worked, yet did.