In Love of 'Cheers'

In the first episode the Boston-based, booze-fueled comedy Cheers, we see a young woman and her fiancé duck into a cozy establishment, giggling and celebrating their apparent love for one another. We’ve never been to this place before though we recognize it almost immediately. It’s a place we’ve all been to at one point or another. It’s a place that invited us in though it hasn’t met us yet either, and we’re all the greater for having been there. Not long after do we find out these characters are Diane Chambers and her, at the time, soon to be wed partner Sumner. We don’t know their history but what we do know is they have stumbled into our neighborhood friendly place. Not too long after we meet our main character, a man who we’ll follow for the next decade plus of not only his life, but ours as well. A young, stunningly handsome man who looks at home on the other side of the bar. This man is named Sam Malone, and in this episode we see the first ever meeting between him and Diane Chambers on an autumn day in 1982. We would follow their journey, with some time off, until the Spring of 1993 when Sam and Diane finally agreed that they just didn’t fit together, that the love of Sam’s life was indeed Cheers and those who inhabited it. While this may seem like a sad ending for Sam to those blind to the Cheers universe, it was fitting in a way that can’t be put into words, and what we got in the 11 years in between was a portal to a world where everybody knew your name.

​What I’ll miss the most about my time with Cheers is the comfort I felt while watching, even if I was busy with the audio humming along in the background, it brought me a sense of relief. It was a familiarity with the locations and the characters that made it seem as if we were amongst friends, enjoying the most boisterous of conversation. Cheers’ almost stage like production lent itself to the type of hang that I enjoy most, where the destination doesn’t matter as much as the journey and the laughs had along the way. And through 270 plus episodes we got to not only act as a fly on the wall and lay witness to the ride, but end up feeling as if we were occupying the barstool across from Norm, or maybe the one next to Frasier, or perhaps listening to one of Cliff’s little known historical facts. When an episode of Cheers was on, that basement bar in Boston might as well have been our living rooms, kitchens, or dens or any other room where Cheers was to be enjoyed. We were one with the cast of characters and they were one with us.

​The beauty of the Cheers was the eclectic mix of characters. While I’d consider myself most like Norm Peterson in certain ways there plenty of ways I don’t, and that was the magic of what was created. It wasn’t that we found ourselves in one character but we found ourselves in all of them. Who doesn’t have a little bit of Sam Malone’s misplaced confidence at times, who hasn’t wanted to impress the people around them by spewing off little known facts like a Cliff Clavin, who hasn’t wanted to delay in the inevitable process of going home when amongst friends like Norm Peterson, who hasn’t felt they were too good to be working in a place like Diane Chambers, who hasn’t brought an innocent ignorance to a situation like Woody Boyd, who hasn’t found themselves baffled at the utter stupidity of those around them like Dr. Frasier Crane, who hasn’t wanted to tell every single person in their lives exactly what they think of them like Carla Tortelli, and who hasn’t convinced themselves they were a loser and complete failure like Rebecca Howe. And lastly, who just didn’t find Coach’s confusion utterly and completely endearing. We were everyone at that bar simultaneously, or depending on our mood, perhaps individually. I often found myself relating most to Norm’s one liners, his matter of fact delivery on the ridiculousness of whatever was going on around him, though it didn’t seem to bother him one bit. He, like the rest of the characters at the bar and us watching at home, were part of something greater, and although everyone played their individual role, when you added it all up, including us, it became a whole.

​Cheers’ ability to adapt to change and reinvent itself throughout its run was, it could be argued, its defining characteristic and its reason for success. When Shelly Long chose to leave after the shows fifth season to pursue a career in film, that meant the end of one of the focal points of the show as Diane Chambers was written out of the show. Her will they won’t they romance with Sam was not only the main plot line of the show but also created a sitcom trope that remains wholly popular to this day. Without Sam and Diane do we ever get the famous phrase “we were on a break?” or do ever get the emotional powerhouse that was The Office’s "Casino Night?" Dealing with a loss like this could have folded Cheers in two, leaving a space for the next show to come and take its place. Cheers though persevered, hired Kirstie Alley to play new boss Rebecca Howe, and in this viewers opinion turned itself into a far more enjoyable version of the show where secondary characters were now given equal spotlight. It can be argued that Frasier Crane and his eventual wife Lilith became the breakout stars of the later seasons and the must see players of the ensemble. And Ms. Howe’s transformation from curmudgeonly boss to loveable loser. Seeing how much we loved the characters and how much the characters loved each other and the bar led to a cohesive mixture almost therapeutic in nature. Cheers was the television equivalent of your favorite home cooked meal.

​They say there is this psychological phenomenon, that people watch these television shows and ultimately end up feeling worse about their own lives. That their lives could never compare to what they’re seeing onscreen. I choose to look at it another way, and while my view may be even more psychologically skewed it’s just the way I see it. I choose to see myself as part of the experience. Sure, I wasn’t physically in Sam Malone’s beloved establishment drinking a Gansett draft with Norm and Cliff, but I got the next best thing. I got to enjoy their interactions and stories for 270 or so episodes. So now that I’ve finished my watch of Cheers I don’t choose to look at this as a goodbye to my lovable cast of characters and friends, I’m just going home for the night and I’ll see you next time, and I’ll make sure to straighten Coach’s picture of Geronimo on my way out.