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| Available at Amazon.com |
Sometimes a network executive gets smart and goes with his gut rather than the numbers concocted by the beancounters. Such was the fate of Cheers. The series about regulars at a Boston bar finished dead last for its premiere season. Instead of being yanked off the air like Super Train, the NBC suits renewed it without any drastic changes. They didn’t add a mouthy kid to be the mascot or have Ted McGinley arrive as the new owner. They trusted the talent of the cast and crew to grow an audience. It became a ratings monster when The Cosby Show joined it on Thursday nights. For a series that could have died in the crib, it became a cultural monster. It made hanging out in bars cool since you’d have friends who knew your names. Cheers: Season 10 displays the series’ superstar status during the penultimate outing.
“Baby Balk” kicks off the season with Sam Malone (Ted Danson) promising that he’ll get Rebecca (Kirstie Alley) pregnant. The procreative nature of the sex dampens Sam’s delivery. He has to get help from Fraizer (Kelsey Grammer), but Rebecca gets conflicting advise from Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth). Will he ever get her knocked up? “Get Your Kicks on Route 666” lets the guys flee the bar on a trip out West. Things go wrong when they let Sam take a nap. Will they be a buffet for coyotes?
There’s two episodes that elevate the feud with Gary’s Olde Towne Tavern. “Bar Wars V: the Final Judgement” has Sam pulling a Halloween prank with fatal results. Gary gets Sam’s goat with creative ways to inflict a song into Cheers. This is one of those replacement music moments. In the broadcast version, Sam and the gang suffer to “Monster Mash.” Instead of giving us a piece of anonymous canned music, the replacement track is a ditty called “Vampire Twist.” It’s so much more annoying than “Monster Mash” that it works as a torture device. “Bar Wars VI: This Time It’s for Real” finds Gary selling the Tavern. Sam wants to welcome the new owner to the neighborhood with a prank. The new owner is a mobster who has no sense of humor and an itchy trigger finger. The gang fears that they’ll be floating in Boston Harbor.
This season attracted plenty of great guest stars. “Where Have All the Floorboards Gone?” brings back Boston Celtic great Kevin McHale. This time he becomes obsessed with the number of bolts that hold together the parquet floor at the Garden. Bar trivia can become mentally destructive. The gang attempt to find the answer so that McHale can focus on the game. What’s astonishing is his wife, Lynn McHale, does a hilarious job playing herself. When she interrupts Kevin’s call to Sam, it’s comic gold. “Rebecca’s Lover…Not” rekindles her high school flame played by Harvey Fierstein (Torch Song Trilogy). She can’t quite realize that he’s changed since their torrid romance days.
The ultimate guest appearance arrives with “Heeeeeere’s… Cliffy!” This turns into two NBC legends winding up their network runs. Norm claims that Johnny Carson will be using one of Cliff’s jokes on the air. The prank goes out of control when Cliff gets plane tickets to Burbank so he can take his mom and Norm to see this historic moment. Naturally it’s Cliff’s mom that steals both the show and the episode as she deals with Carson.
The finale is a 45 minute “An Old-Fashioned Wedding” with Woody (Woody Harrelson) marrying Kelly (Jackie Swanson). The gang isn’t allowed to be proper guests at the reception. They’ve been hired to work the bar for Kelly’s elitist parents. Things go completely insane when the minister has a slight issue, Sam encounters a horny guest and Rebecca upsets the chef. Lilith dominates the episode as she entertains the wedding party with insane acts.
Cheers: Season 10 has quite a few great moments with McHale, Carson and the feud with Gary. However the storyline about getting Rebecca pregnant plays flat. She’s not my favorite character on the series. Luckily the ensemble nature of the show keeps her off the screen and lets the other characters shine. She can’t hope to compete with a perfect Lilith moment. Even after a decade on the air, Cheers was as intoxicating as a freshly poured draft beer.
The Episodes
“Baby Balk,” “Get Your Kicks on Route 666,” “Madame LaCarla,” “The Norm Who Came in from the Cold,” “Ma’s Little Maggie,” “Unplanned Parenthood,” “Bar Wars V: the Final Judgement,” “Where Have All the Floorboards Gone?,” “Head Over Hill,” “A Fine French Whine,” “I’m Okay, You’re Defective,” “Go Make,” “Don’t Shoot… I’m Only the Psychiatrist,” “No Rest For the Woody,” “My Son, the Father,” “One Hugs, the Other Doesn’t,” “A Diminished Rebecca with a Suspended Cliff,” “License to Hill,” “Rich Man, Wood Man,” “Smotherly Love,” “Take Me Out of the Ball Game,” “Rebecca’s Lover… Not,” “Bar Wars VI: This Time It’s for Real,” “Heeeeeere’s… Cliffy!” and “An Old-Fashioned Wedding.”
The video is 1.33:1 full frame. The transfer is sharp enough so you can read the signs around the bar. The audio is Dolby Digital Stereo. It was pretty quiet for such an active bar.
None.
Cheers: Season 10 has the series coming near the end of its run without sputtering out of comic gas.
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CBS DVD presents Cheers: Season 10. Starring: Ted Danson, Woody Harrelson, John Ratzenberger, Kirstie Alley & Bebe Neuwirth. Boxset Contents: 25 Episodes on 4 discs. Originally Broadcasted: Sept. 19, 1991 to May 14, 1992. Released on DVD: September 2, 2008. Available at Amazon.com
About Joe Corey
