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Cheers: The Complete Series (1 Viewer)

Chip_HT

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The episode "Cheers Has Chili" kind of bugged me while watching.

Rebecca wants to turn the back room into a tea room. Sam doesn't want to get rid of the pool room because of the money it brings in. So he makes a wager with her, if she can make $500 in a night, the tea room can stay. Of course, she's not bringing any money in, until Woody shows up with chili that everyone wants, so Rebecca grabs the pot and runs to the back.

Of course, Sam goes through typical sitcom shenanigans to keep Rebecca from winning the bet. But not once does anyone bring up the fact that Rebecca basically stole the chili from Woody. Therefore, she was cheating from the start. Obviously, if Sam had just tried to "win" on a technicality, there would be no sitcom plot. But then Sam tries to completely sabotage her by calling the fire marshall. Yet, wouldn't Sam have gotten into trouble himself as owner of the bar?

Sam may not have been written as the smartest guy, but he generally wasn't a dummy when it came to running his own business.
 

The Drifter

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I'm about mid-way through Cheers S09. This is another season which starts out with a significant change (though not a casting one); at the beginning, Sam buys back the bar & hires back Rebecca as the manager. So, he's not working for a corporation anymore & is now Rebecca's boss. It was funny seeing Rebecca with a job hawking car wax early on in the season, prior to getting her job @ Cheers back - LOL.

-One of the better episodes of this season (so far) was when Melville's (the seafood restaurant upstairs) got a new owner, who ended up getting into a feud with Sam over who owned the building space(s), the parking space(s), etc. At one point, the Melville customers are treating Cheers as a "lounge" to sit in while waiting for the seats upstairs to open up - LOL. During this time, Norm & Cliff go to the back room, and then come back to sit in their seats @ the bar - only to find them temporarily taken by a couple who were waiting for their restaurant seats. Norm nicely asks them to move, but they refuse - even after he asks them repeatedly - ha ha. Then, he feigns a seizure/fainting incident, and then when the couple & others leave their seat to see what's wrong with him, he & Cliff quickly take the vacated seats - LOL.

-Also, general observation about these later seasons: In the earlier seasons, I got the impression the Cheers gang were at the bar in the evenings (which would make the most sense), and would in many cases be there until the bar closed. However, in these later seasons, it seems like Norm, Cliff, and others actually start drinking @ Cheers in the morning/afternoon - sometimes starting right after the bar opens - LOL. Don't these people have jobs & lives?! Ha ha. This just makes Norm & others seem even more pathetic - and funnier - than in earlier seasons - ha ha.

Also interesting was the 200th episode special, which was a retrospective/round-table discussion on the show by the cast & creator(s) - showcasing some of the show's best moments (up to that point). Notable in this special were:

-The extended version of the opening theme song.

- Danson is seen here without his hairpiece; I always knew he was balding (in real life), but it's amusing that Sam makes a big deal about his full head of hair on the show, when IRL he's got a significant bald spot - LOL. I guess that just adds to the humor re: the scenes when he's bragging about his hair - ha ha.

In any case, these episodes are funny & worth seeing. Even though the show is not quite as good in these later seasons (than it was in the earlier ones) - these later episodes are still far superior to almost any modern comedy I've seen from the 200X's-on.

You’ll like Grease- the episode where Norm tries to save his favorite restaurant from the wrecking ball. This episode is early on in season 9.

-Yes, this episode was hilarious. It was very funny to see how attached Norm got to "The Hungry Heifer" & the sub-par food there - he obviously felt the restaurant's continued existence was even more important than his own marriage - LOL. It was also funny how Norm (after he tried to save the restaurant) realized that the owner really wanted to sell the place - since he was not only ready to retire, but was also going to get much more than the property was worth from a developer.
The scenes when Norm had to stop the owner from destroying the place were very funny - LOL.

I know of one big omission in the episode Grease (I think it’s in season #9) when Norm tries to save his favorite restaurant The Hungry Heifer. There’s a running joke in the show about Rebecca’s boyfriend in jail where Sam plays a song on the jukebox- “I Fought The Law”. On the DVD, this song is replaced by another song, which completely ruins the punchline.

Yes, this is right - I saw the episode on the DVD & a song that has nothing to do with the situation (with Robin C.) is being played - I don't even remember the song. Though I never saw the episode as it originally aired, this made absolutely no sense.
 
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Jeffrey D

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Interesting and valid points you brought up about the Cheers Has Chili episode. By the time that episode was written and shot, the creative team was running thin on material, so these mistakes can be sort of forgiven due to lack of better ideas.
 

The Drifter

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The episode "Cheers Has Chili" kind of bugged me while watching.

Rebecca wants to turn the back room into a tea room. Sam doesn't want to get rid of the pool room because of the money it brings in. So he makes a wager with her, if she can make $500 in a night, the tea room can stay. Of course, she's not bringing any money in, until Woody shows up with chili that everyone wants, so Rebecca grabs the pot and runs to the back.

Of course, Sam goes through typical sitcom shenanigans to keep Rebecca from winning the bet. But not once does anyone bring up the fact that Rebecca basically stole the chili from Woody. Therefore, she was cheating from the start. Obviously, if Sam had just tried to "win" on a technicality, there would be no sitcom plot. But then Sam tries to completely sabotage her by calling the fire marshall. Yet, wouldn't Sam have gotten into trouble himself as owner of the bar?

Sam may not have been written as the smartest guy, but he generally wasn't a dummy when it came to running his own business.

I removed the SPOILER tags above since I suspect they may be for my benefit (if so, Thanks) due to my not having seen all of the series yet. However, I just saw this episode so I did want to comment: I agree with everything said above. This "tea room" episode started off very amusing w/Rebecca wanted to add a touch of "class" to Cheers by replacing the pool room with the "upscale (ha ha) tearoom in the back - which was ridiculous, since the regular patrons of Cheers would have had little use/interest in a tea room - which was the whole point - ha ha. An early scene here was especially hilarious; Frasier & Lilith (the only customers) went to the Tea room (and you got the impression they did this more because they felt obligated to Rebecca than any other reason) & Rebecca aggressively tried to push pastries, sandwiches, etc. on them - when they wanted to just have tea & that's it. Due to Rebecca's obnoxiousness, they abruptly leave soon after. Then, Rebecca calls after them that they should recommend the place to their friends, and she was being serious - LOL; great sarcasm here.

However, after that scene the episode did fall apart in terms of making any kind of sense. Yes, it's ludicrous that Sam would have called the Fire Marshall re: a fictitious "fire hazard" that was allegedly happening in the tea room re: the chili being served; obviously the tea room was part of the bar (even if Rebecca "owned" the space), and he would definitely not have wanted to attract the fire marshall's attention re: anything negative going on in that part of the building - which would have negatively affected the bar's operation as well. In other words, he would have been a fool if he intentionally did anything that led to the bar's being shut down (even temporarily).

Going along with this, the plot re: the tearoom was a spin-off from the "feud" that the new owner of Melville's had with Sam. He keeps insisting that, based on the building plans, etc. - he owns the Cheers bathrooms and pool room, and was insisting that Sam pay "rent" on them. Then, somehow Rebecca took over ownership of the pool room, and turned it into the tea room - as seen in this episode. I felt this was one of the show's weaker sub-plots; when it first began it was funny (i.e., Sam dated the Melville owner's daughter to "get back at him" - LOL, etc.) but then wore thin as time went on & this kept coming up.

Interesting and valid points you brought up about the Cheers Has Chili episode. By the time that episode was written and shot, the creative team was running thin on material, so these mistakes can be sort of forgiven due to lack of better ideas.

Maybe, but it would have been preferable to have come up with better story-lines to begin with. Though, the show is still very funny.
 
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Blimpoy06

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"Cheers Has Chili"
As far fetched as the plot is, it still contains one of my favorite lines of the series. After Sam refuses to show real remorse for ruining her dream, Rebecca is heard breaking the windows of Sam's Corvette off screen. As the show is about to fade to black Rebecca explains to Sam what she had just done and says, "Now, there's those tears!"
 

The Drifter

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"Cheers Has Chili"
As far fetched as the plot is, it still contains one of my favorite lines of the series. After Sam refuses to show real remorse for ruining her dream, Rebecca is heard breaking the windows of Sam's Corvette off screen. As the show is about to fade to black Rebecca explains to Sam what she had just done and says, "Now, there's those tears!"

Yes - I agree that part was hilarious as well. The main problem I had with the episode was the Sam/Fire Marshall plot - but other parts were funny.
 
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The Drifter

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Watched through S10 of Cheers, and am on S11. Re: S10:

Hilarious season. Even these later Cheers episodes are great, for the most part. Some of the many funny ones this season:

"Don't Shoot - I'm only the Psychiatrist": Frasier brings his low self-esteem group to Cheers in order to try to help them. Norm, Cliff, and Paul befriend this group - and they start joking around, enjoying themselves, and laughing. Frasier comes in & sees this, and is happy that everyone is obviously feeling better - until he realizes that this is only because the guys are laughing at & making fun of him... so the jokes are at his expense - ha ha

"Here's...Cliffy": Cliff is falsely convinced by the gang that The Tonight Show has bought one of his stupid jokes, and he takes a trip to CA (with his mother & Norm in tow) in order to be in the audience when his joke will supposedly be read by Johnny Carson. Extremely funny episode, with an unexpected twist.

"An Old-Fashioned Wedding, Parts 1-2": This two-parter finished out the season, and were definitely some of the funniest episodes of the entire series. A prima donna pastry chef; a drunken priest who later dies before the wedding is performed; Carla constantly getting stuck in the kitchen dumbwaiter; and an irate German husband who wanted to "take out" Sam (for going after his wife) were just some of the shenanigans/situations the gang got involved in when attending Woody & Kelly's wedding. Hilarious ;)
 
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The Drifter

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Well, I finally finished watching Cheers. The last season & especially the last episode(s) were definitely bittersweet; it was almost sad to finish this up, even though the show itself ended 26 years ago - ha ha. After seeing the whole series, I can honestly say this is the THE best Sitcom of all time, hands down (though I haven't seen them all - LOL). Very funny, clever/well-written, and iconic.

I found S10 & S11 to be especially very strong, and really had a lot of the elements that made previous seasons funny; it felt like the writers pulled out all the stops here - given that the series was ending.

Some highlights from the final seasons:

-Lilith & Frasier are having marital problems, and Lilith tells Frasier she's leaving him to go live in an "Eco pod" underground with her lover & colleague. Frasier gets indignant/upset, especially when he finds out who the man is, and contemptuously calls him "That Bald guy?!" even though Frasier is almost completely bald himself (in front) - ha ha.

Then, Frasier - despondent - goes up a couple of floors above Cheers, and acts like he's going to jump. As fire trucks come in & everyone is yelling at him to come down & acting extremely concerned, etc. - Norm yells up something like, "Frase, it's Norm Peterson. You left half a mug of beer on the bar..." and Frasier yells down that it's OK if Norm drinks his beer - LOL. Frasier is eventually talked out of jumping by Lilith.

-Cliff's on/off "girlfriend" Maggie comes back to town (after living in Canada for years) pregnant & wanting to get back together with Cliff - due to her boyfriend (and the father of the baby) dumping her. She convinced Cliff to marry her & raise her child, and he agreed. However, at the end he was left "off the hook" due to her unexpectedly getting back together with the boyfriend.

This episode just showed how much of a sucker Cliff is (which we already knew) - ha ha. Though some fans may not like the Maggie storyline(s), IMHO they highlighted Cliff's ineptitude & inexperience with women, and I felt this episode was a fitting & hilarious end to this story arc.
 
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The Drifter

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Continuing with my review of the final seasons:

- Extremely funny episode when con-artist Harry "The Hat" Gittes (the late Harry Anderson) plays a trick on the owner of "Gary's Olde Towne Tavern", the bar that Cheers has had a rivalry with for years. The trick involved Harry convincing Gary that he was a real-estate developer & was going to buy Gary's property for a million dollars to make way for a shopping center. Gary naively & stupidly bought the scam hook, line, and sinker - and then had his bar bulldozed in front of Sam in preparation for the fictitious "shopping center". What a dummy - ha ha. He then went over to Cheers to gloat, and used Sam's office phone to make a call to confirm the million-dollar check had gone through. His anger & reaction to the check bouncing were priceless - ha ha! Great ending to the "rivalry" between Cheers & Gary's bar - hilarious!

-The episode when Carla drunkenly slept with Paul was cringe-worthy & funny, especially the way Paul later gloated about this. Also funny were the huge hangovers most of the gang had, given that Carla had made terrible drinks the night before - ha ha.

-I didn't like the episode when Frasier took Lilith back, because IMHO it made the character look weak. That being said, it goes along with his personality, so it makes sense. I know they truly split up later.

-Great three-part finale, when Diane finally came back to Cheers. Some highlights:

When Diane Chambers was first noticed (again) by the gang, as she was giving a speech on TV for some obscure cable-TV show she had won an award for, and became so long-winded that she had to be literally dragged off the stage - LOL. Her final parting words "You have to be taught to hate!" were classic! Hilarious!

Hilarious sequence when Sam & Diane sat down to eat at Melville's with both of their "spouses" (Rebecca & Diane's hairdresser); when they were revealed as being fake, it was in a funny, humiliating way for both Diane & Sam - ha ha. Going along with this, It was also funny how Sam had to "clean up" a drunken, despondent Rebecca in order to make her "presentable" enough to serve as his fake spouse - ha ha.

Not surprise at all when Sam & Diane decided against going to CA & getting married - while on the plane (which was significantly delayed). I can't think of a couple who were less suited for each other, either in TV/film - or IRL - ha ha.

The final moments of the finale were great; Sam was finally left alone & as he was closing down the bar, looked around at everything & said "I'm the luckiest son of a b$#%$ on earth." - which led right up to the ending credits. Very fitting & understated.

 
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The Drifter

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General comments about the show:

-Though Cheers is the bar where "everyone knows your name", it's interesting that the only barfly that is consistently & collectively called out by name is Norm. I know that Cliff isn't called out because people don't like him. But, I don't remember Frasier, Paul, or any of the other characters being called out in this way - at least not consistently.

-I didn't like Frasier when he was first introduced on the series as Diane's boyfriend (S03? S04?), since I felt he was a pompous @$$. But, I felt he improved as a character as the series progressed. He's still a pompous @$$ at the end of the series, but definitely became more sympathetic - and funnier - as time went on.

-Cliff was hilarious throughout the series. And, his "momma's boy" situation looked like it was going to change in S06, when his childhood home got torn down & his mother moved to Florida. He then moved into his own place, started to date, etc. - and, though I never thought the character would get married or settle down, it looked like he was free of his mother's apron strings to some extent. But, then his mother lost all her savings/money (betting on dog?! races) and moved back in with him, making his situation even more pathetic & funny that it had been before - ha ha. I wonder if the writers of the show always intended to do this, or if they just ran out of ideas re: the Cliff character....and so decided to bring his mother back so they could weave her into the storyline/episodes.

-Carla's frequent jokes about Lilith's pale features making her look like a ghost/corpse/vampire & the associated references to morgues, sleeping upside down (like a vampire bat), etc. were always spot-on - LOL.
 
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David Norman

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Not a big Digital person, but sometimes an incredible deal does come along for those that are

ITunes Cheers the Complete Series $19.99 (SD or HD) -- weird since the individual seasons are 19.99ea so I thought there was a glitch in their system, but it is listed on their front page specifically as a DEAL
 

Scott Merryfield

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Not a big Digital person, but sometimes an incredible deal does come along for those that are

ITunes Cheers the Complete Series $19.99 (SD or HD) -- weird since the individual seasons are 19.99ea so I thought there was a glitch in their system, but it is listed on their front page specifically as a DEAL
I took advantage of this deal a day or two ago. It's been a few years since we last watched the series via Amazon (and I don't think they had all the seasons). I watched the show during its original run, and have seen it in syndication a lot, too. But it's nice to have it available whenever we want to revisit it again.
 

Dave Scarpa

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Yep alot of older series itunes will be the only way we get them in HD, so while i still buy TV for my Plex Library, I'll buy itunes if they have good deals or HD, glad the ratios on these were maintained unlike M*A*S*H, still if itunes drops Mash to $20 i'll buy them in a second even with the cropping
 

Chip_HT

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The way they added Sam's sexual compulsion issue at the end of the series felt a little tacked on, or late. It would have fit right in a couple of seasons earlier, but by season 11, they really had downplayed Sam's "quest for babes". They had developed the recurring theme of Sam starting to notice his age and slowing down in that department. Other than a few cases of low-hanging fruit, I can't think of too much of Sam's skirt chasing in the last season or so other than the episode where he made the bet with Henri about who could get the most numbers.
 

The Drifter

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The way they added Sam's sexual compulsion issue at the end of the series felt a little tacked on, or late. It would have fit right in a couple of seasons earlier, but by season 11, they really had downplayed Sam's "quest for babes". They had developed the recurring theme of Sam starting to notice his age and slowing down in that department. Other than a few cases of low-hanging fruit, I can't think of too much of Sam's skirt chasing in the last season or so other than the episode where he made the bet with Henri about who could get the most numbers.

I kind of see what you mean, but I still thought the sex addicts episode/scene was great. Predictably, Sam hit on an attractive woman at this meeting - which is exactly what you would expect him to do. But, this was obviously frowned upon by the leader of the meeting & the other members - LOL.

As the series wound down, I still saw Sam as a kind of "aging Lothario". I.e., as he himself mentioned he had spent much of his life going after women, with nothing to show for it. While many of his contemporaries had gotten married & had families, he was looking back on his life & somewhat regretting his actions - and was also realizing his own mortality, etc. So, while the episodes with him & Rebecca trying to have a child were ludicrous in one sense (i.e., I can't think of two people less suited to be parents), it also showed that he kind of wanted to start a family.
 
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Rob W

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Great three-part finale, when Diane finally came back to Cheers

Except the finale wasn't three parts - it was originally one 90-odd minute episode and should have been presented that way on the discs. It was cut into three parts (and slightly edited for time) for syndication, and it's just sheer laziness or incompetence that Paramount didn't pull the correct master for the final episode.
 

The Drifter

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Except the finale wasn't three parts - it was originally one 90-odd minute episode and should have been presented that way on the discs. It was cut into three parts (and slightly edited for time) for syndication, and it's just sheer laziness or incompetence that Paramount didn't pull the correct master for the final episode.

Clarification: On the DVD sets - which was the main way I watched Cheers (though I also streamed a handful of episodes) the finale was not cut up into three parts, but was shown as one seamless episode. However, what threw me off was that on the DVD menu, it describes this as being in three parts. I.e., when watching the finale I expected to see episode breaks in between, but it was actually presented as one piece - which is obviously the preferable way to see this.
 

WhitneyG

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Clarification: On the DVD sets - which was the main way I watched Cheers (though I also streamed a handful of episodes) the finale was not cut up into three parts, but was shown as one seamless episode. However, what threw me off was that on the DVD menu, it describes this as being in three parts. I.e., when watching the finale I expected to see episode breaks in between, but it was actually presented as one piece - which is obviously the preferable way to see this.
To clarify your clarification... :)

The DVD version of the finale is not the original-length version. It is a three-episode version (which is missing scenes) edited back together to form one long episode. Overall, there are several minutes of footage missing from the finale as a result.
 

The Drifter

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To clarify your clarification... :)

The DVD version of the finale is not the original-length version. It is a three-episode version (which is missing scenes) edited back together to form one long episode. Overall, there are several minutes of footage missing from the finale as a result.

Good to know. I've pretty much watched Cheers exclusively on the DVD's, so don't have anything to compare these to (never saw the show when it was originally on TV). I do know the DVD's have had some changes re: the music, and I've also heard about other edits as well. This confirms another edit - which is too bad.

I wouldn't mind seeing a re-release of the entire series on Blu - with all of the original music intact, and without any edits whatsoever. I doubt this will ever happen, however.
 

ClassicTVMan1981X

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Good to know. I've pretty much watched Cheers exclusively on the DVD's, so don't have anything to compare these to (never saw the show when it was originally on TV). I do know the DVD's have had some changes re: the music, and I've also heard about other edits as well. This confirms another edit - which is too bad.

I wouldn't mind seeing a re-release of the entire series on Blu - with all of the original music intact, and without any edits whatsoever. I doubt this will ever happen, however.
That, plus this taller-peaked Paramount Blue Mountain logo, which we saw on a few late season 1 and all season 2 episodes, as well as some season 4 episodes.


~Ben
 

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