Best CHEERS character

Wow, never realized that was Sherilyn Fenn. I think Lisa Kudrow's appearance is pretty widely known.

Does anyone know if there is a good oral history or behind the scenes-type book about this show?

A book someone should write. The ones I've read on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Seinfeld were both excellent.

Stevie - I mean Lillian the middle aged English barmaid who is hot for Sam. One episode character I believe but the actress who played her was a classic British character actor.

ah right gotcha!

still... Lilith, tho.

my fave "cameo" is def Nancy Marchand

Still no Lilith, we're only just getting our first taste of angry passive aggressive Frasier.

so much otm in this thread, especially with regard to cliff. for someone who’s irritating and lacks self-awareness, it really feels like his lot is undeservedly terrible. he’s not a bad person yet karma whacks him pretty hard.

one thing this show pulls off is to build its style of humour on jokes with largely predictable punchlines, using the bar characters as flat stereotypes to make the jokes work. but, despite their function in the show’s humour, the characters are not flat stereotypes at all. they’re as deep and well-hewn as anything in peak tv. even as early as series 3, it’s gobsmacking just how stable, unique and believable norm is as a character. he’s lazy and does basically nothing, he loves his wife but doesn’t want to see her, everyone in the bar respects and loves him even though he doesn’t seem to (outwardly) care about anyone else’s problems or fortunes. he’s charismatic for all the wrong reasons. yet the show strikes that perfect balance with his character, and sustains it right to the end. and wendt does an incredible job making norm work so consistently for so long.

another point: this show is perfect viewing during a pandemic lockdown, especially if you’re craving a local place where everybody knows your name. we are very much living vicariously through this bar atm.

I've re-watched Cheers, Frasier, and Seinfeld in recent years, and while I consider them the 3 best US sitcomes, I found the first two much more enjoyable precisely because of all the hugging and learning (whereas famously Larry David wanted none of that). I don't know, maybe I'm just getting soft in my middle age.

Never been a big fan of Frasier tbh. I don't like the character much and Daphne is unbearable.

Still funny though. Well, up to a point.

Reading that oral history now and it's interesting about what they say about Shelley Long really getting her character before the others, b/c as good as Danson and the others are in Season 1, when you watch it you sense that Diane is the absolute centre of the show and holding the thing together. That changes from S2 onwards as the others become more developed and prominent.

I’ve started watching this again from S1E1 thanks to you guys and I’m so happy I am. The warmth and tenderness in the looks between Sam and Diane are just tremendous. And the camera finds them all.

Something I didn't pick up when it originally aired, probably because I was too young to even be looking for it, is that Kirstie Alley frequently brings some real Lucille Ball energy to Rebecca Howe. It's uncanny at times.

this Roger Rees line from the oral history is killing me rn

They said, "Do you like Cheers?" I'd never really seen it. All I knew was that it was a dark brown program on late at night. But I said, "It is indisputably my most favorite program I've ever seen."

Is "dark brown program" a Britishism?

no

'dark brown programme' is

(it's not)

I mean the show is pretty dark brown, there's hardly any outdoor scenes.

apt description imo

exquisite description tbh, hats off

stop praising roger rees he sucks

a stopped clock, etc

i will never stop praising roger rees

19th of his name

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/952972391823588719/D3474D11BDE6567025DB3236D4090F4B6140FA6E/

9pm was late for me but i was 10 tbf

just remembering the episode where Frasier was reading the bar adulterated versions of Dickens stories and LOLing

I was just reading Willli9am Goldman talking about A Bridge Too far so thinking about John Ratzenberger as a macho action supporting cast actor before he got cast in this. Not sure tow hat extent that was his standard role just do remember seeing him as a marine in that, I think he's one of the guys in the boat or inflatable raid that Redford is commanding. Think I saw him in some other stuff too.
Was he intentionally cast against type for this?

First appearance of Lilith last night, absolutely hilarious performance from someone who was presumably only originally meant to be in it for one scene?

he's in one of the joan collins vehicles as a sleazy stud but i don't think he got enough work to have established a "type" really

the reason frazier is bad not good is that lilith isn't in it (and daphne is)

" Candi Pearson : I'm Candi.

Dr. Frasier Crane : Yes, so I see from your necklace, Candi with an 'I'.

Candi Pearson : Well, I used to spell it with a 'Y', but nobody ever took me seriously, so then I switched it to an 'I', you know, like Gandhi."

they must have had superb audition screening for one-ep roles, bcz so man of them are genuinely funny

(by contrast the unspeaking background ppl at the bar seem to have been screened for anonymous undistracting uselessness: the legendary "Al" can't act to save his life, as a comic or anything else -- which is kind of funny and briefly becomes an implied running meta-joke)

(obviously he's still better than roger rees)

Lilith does make a few appearances in Frasier. I don't mind Daphne, but all her many unconvincing Britishes relatives and boyfriends are one of the series major drags.

Daphne is p good as someone who stops Frasier and his Dad from tearing into one another. She could kill the show -- and her relationship with Niles eventually does -- but there are a lot of strong characters and scripts in the early seasons.

Never seen Cheers beyond the odd clip. One day I'll give it a go!

I think Cheers is still on C4 in the early mornings, but sadly they don't have it on All4 or whatever it is now.

Cheers>>>>>Frasier for me, primarily because Cheers so rarely devolved into "whoops those are my trousers"-style farce; Frasier's reference points might have been highbrow, but the comedy was often much broader.

Like, Cheers is one of the sharpest US comedies about class, for me.

cheers is all-time

*cut to eddie the dog with the cutest expression*
*cut to mark s throwing eddie out of the window of the high apartment block*

Eddie was the Roger Rees of Frasier eh

Won't hear a word against Eddie.

(xp) Excuse me, Eddie was talented!

In his last year of life he suffered from dementia and deafness. He died of natural causes at home at the age of ​15 1⁄2 years on June 22, 2006.

So that's what happened to Roger Rees then :(

Eddie...

... managed to rehearse, preview and open in The Visit on 23 April 2015. By the middle of May, it had become too difficult for him to speak, and he left the show.

I must have missed this poll but I'd have been all DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE I CAN'T because Cheers is loaded with great characters. I remember thinking they couldn't replace Coach or Diane but it kept going and Woody ended up one of my favourites.
If I absolutely HAD to choose I'd probably go with Norm for the entrance gags.

I used to watch Frasier when it was on, but the thought of re-watching it does not appeal at all, whereas I would def like to binge-watch Cheers at some point. The first 3 series of Seinfeld are on All 4 at the moment so I'll probably watch those first

they must have had superb audition screening for one-ep roles, bcz so man of them are genuinely funny

Harry from Night Court is in S1, as a two-bit bar grifter! (2 years before Night Court began) - already with the fedora and his whole schtick

harry pops up a few times in the entire run: his thing feels as if it might already have been a stage bit? like everyone is winking to everyone else when he turns up (but perhaps that's in the later appearances)

https://i.imgur.com/w4dztIy.jpg

don't make me repost my frazier = hannibal graphic