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82 comments in total

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32 out of 38 people found the following comment useful :-
Raise your glasses to a comedy legend., 1 February 2000
Author: Devyalento Latchford Deschanel from London, England

Cheers was a fantastic situation comedy, huge in all areas, such as cast, episodes and laughs. Cheers was so real it felt as if you were sitting next to the regular barflys of the most endearing watering hole in TV history.

The characters of Cheers were excellent, with characteristics so real it was fascinating to observe. Sam (Ted Danson) was disgraceful yet lovable, Diane (Shelley Long) was just sublime, with her constant snobbery yet acceptance that this was where she suited best. Carla (Rhea Perlman) was viciously acidic to all yet there were rare moments when she showed her tender interior. Norm (George Wendt) and Cliff (John Ratzenberger) were a hilarious comedy double act, constantly getting into crazed situations and forever fretting about where their next jar of love was coming from. Woody (Woody Harrelson) was divinely dim, sometimes so dense it was just TOO funny to watch.

Yet among Cheers were three characters that really shone, that elevated it even further to the lofty heights of greatness. These characters were Rebecca, Frasier and Lilith, played by Kirstie Alley, Kelsey Grammer and Bebe Neuwirth. Rebecca was adorable and ditzy, always searching for her meaning in life as well as the riches she craved, Frasier was pompous yet yearned to just be 'one of the guys' and Lilith was a comedy creation to be admired, with Bebe Neuwirth playing her dry, totally devoid of emotion and cold character perfectly.

Cheers was a sitcom that deserves to be remembered as a classic. Hopefully, in twenty years from now, it will still be doing the rounds on cable TV. Only time will tell.

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27 out of 32 people found the following comment useful :-
What Television Is Meant to Be., 29 July 2003
Author: tfrizzell from United States

A dominant block-buster of a television series that put NBC on top in the ratings race in the 1980s and the network has not looked back since. When "Cheers" first came into homes around the nation in 1982, it was greatly ignored by the viewing public. The Emmy Awards more than anything resurrected a series that had no life after a first season that found the series consistently in the gutter of the Nielsen Ratings. After several big-time awards (including one for Best Comedy Series) "Cheers" sky-rocketed and was almost always a top 5 show and most of the times the number 1 program in America. In modern-day Boston, a small tavern does prove that there are still places where everyone does indeed "know your name". A former baseball player (Ted Danson) owns a bar that caters to many (bar-flies George Wendt and John Ratzenberger, former professional coach Nicholas Colasanto, waitress Rhea Perlman and love interest Shelley Long). Quirky stories, heartwarming moments, heartrending situations and consistent comedy would always follow the key players. As the years passed, the cast changed (Long left the show and was replaced with Kirstie Alley who became the owner and Colasanto passed away in real life and the Woody Harrelson character was created), but the constant was always the show's outstanding group of creative writers and top-notch directors. Psychiatrist Kelsey Grammar (and wife Bebe Neuwirth) would also come along early in the series and just add more color, heart and intelligence to a show that had a surplus of all those elements throughout its 11-year-run. From the emotionally-charged theme song to its smallest of bit players, "Cheers" proved that there could be quality on television and that it could sustain and withstand unfortunate problems with its players in real-life. Monumentally important to the art of television study. A truly outstanding achievement for all involved. 5 stars out of 5.

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26 out of 33 people found the following comment useful :-
Cheers - where everybody knows your name!, 6 March 2004

Author: fluxsoda from Norway

Cheers - a tv-show you just can't stop watching! Many people dont like the show that much in the beginning, but when you get to know the persons in the bar, you start to understand them and their great humor.

They will become your friends, and you want to go out to Cheers to meet them, and hang out with them. You want to shout "NORM" when he enters the bar. You want to listen to Cliffs theory about why the next president has to be named "Gelnic Mcwava", and you want to listen to Sam telling about his great baseball career. If you need help, you got dr Frasier Crane, if you need someone to cheer you up, you got Diane, if you need a loose, you got Rebecca Howe. IF you want to be yelled at, Carla is there for you, and if you want to listen to funny stories about Indiana, Woody will tell you all about it.

All i can say is that Cheers is the place everybody wanna go, because you are allways welcome the place EVERYBODY KNOWS YOUR NAME

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28 out of 45 people found the following comment useful :-
After all these years, still the best, 11 January 2004
Author: mrenzella from Canada

The difference between Cheers and about 90% of the other sitcoms that have come and gone, is that in Cheers, nothing seems forced. The characters interact with such chemistry, that all you have to do is tune and it's like sitting at a bar listening to you're best friends tell tall tales. The characters, especially Sam Malone and Coach, are so well-rounded that the joy comes simply from watching them interact. As far as I can remember almost every episode of Cheers ended with someone smiling or laughing, and it's that sense of warmth that is so rare in television, that it makes Cheers stand tall amongst any competitor, then OR now. I feel wholly justified in calling Cheers the best program ever made. It's just that good.

PS-I hope in Heaven I can sit at Cheers, and watch Sam hit on girls, listen to Carl tell useles trivia, and see Norm catch curving beer bottles around the corner of the bar.

MIke Renzella

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15 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
consistently great, 15 July 1999

Author: mcfly-31 from anaheim, ca

The perfect setting for any tv show in my opinion, was this little bar in Boston. After a couple of so so seasons (NBC claims to have left it on because they had nothing else to air) the show really hit its stride in the mid 80s, with the core being the romance between Sam and Diane. But lending a comic hand were Norm, the unemployed accountant, Cliff the know-it-all mailman, Carla the spitfire waitress, Coach the dim-witted bartender (who passed away in the 85 season), Woody the second dim-witted bartender, and in later years Frasier the neurotic shrink. After the 87 season Shelley Long (Diane)left the show to pursue a film career, unsuccessfully. She was replaced, by my personal preference, with Kirstie Alley as Sams love interest and female foil. Too many high points along the years to mention, but top episodes would be the one where Woody and Sam try and kiss Rebecca, any episode dealing with Garys Old Towne Tavern, Rebeccas visiting sister, and maybe the night at the opera episode. ("Get a load of the warheads on that cellist!") Only real downside was the final episode, which didnt really tie up loose ends very well. None of the characters had any real life changes, the bar wasnt sold or destroyed, everyone stayed put, and the overall amount of laughs werent very strong. But there were so many other great moments that a bad send off can easily be overlooked.

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11 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
One of the Few Great T.V. Classics!, 19 July 2003
Author: Washu22 from Gig Harbor, WA

There aren't very many shows that I deem almost (or absolutely) perfect. 'Cheers' is, by far, definitely one of them. On the top. 'Seinfeld', 'Roseanne', 'Bewitched', 'Frasier'...(Those are just a few of the others that I think are great.)

'Cheers' is the perfect show because it has something for everyone. There are so many different character personalities to chose from in that one, simple bar that you can't NOT have a favorite. I don't think anyone (anyone that's ever watched the show) could say "I don't like it, I don't like any of them!" ...But how could you not? For the people that want an (at least) semi-intellectual character (instead of everyone being a complete moron) they have Frasier, Diane, Lilith. Everyone loves Norm's witty one-liners as he enters the bar. Coach and Woody are goofily funny in their own stupidity. Carla has her crude, sarcastic zingers. Sam and his "little black book." Cliff with his "know-it-all" attitude when in actuality he doesn't know a thing. Rebecca's a great, all-around character...

It also has the backup of being CONSTANTLY funny, some episodes aren't completely boring, then the next, twenty times funnier than the one before (though, I admit, some are absolutely hilarious!) It gets better and better with each year, not old and drawn out, just more jokes! That's why it lasted so long.

So, if any of you read this, look in you're TV guides to see when it's on. After just a few, you'll know and love the characters, and you'll be completely hooked!

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12 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
Back from an era when NBC didn't suck so much, 5 January 2000
Author: Op_Prime from Ardmore, PA

This show was great. It had clever writing and lots of classic moments. This was back during a time when tv shows were able to be funny without making constant references to sex. Ted Danson does some of his best work here, as well as the rest of the cast. A classic in our own time.

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17 out of 31 people found the following comment useful :-
A True Classic, 14 June 2003
Author: Brian Washington (Sargebri@att.net) from Los Angeles, California

This has to be one of the greatest character driven comedies in the history of television. All of the characters were just your basic every day working stiffs who just hang out at their favorite watering whole. The only one that really didn't fit in was Dianne who always thought she was more important than all the patrons. That's one reason I prefer the Kirstie Alley years to the Shelley Long era. Rebecca was more of a vulnerable character than Dianne and she was more down to earth than Dianne. However, the entire cast made this show a classic that will be a major sitcom influence for years to come.

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6 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Where Everybody Knows Their Names, 8 November 2006

Author: dataconflossmoor from United States

When this series was introduced to television in 1982, NBC was in big trouble, so much trouble that the pathetic plight of their plummeting ratings relegated them to a virtual "Old Man and the Sea" style dilemma!! NBC counted on "Cheers" to be one of their stellar instigators to reeling in the big kahuna, and thus, "Cheers" would become a crucial component to NBC's quest for nationwide television ratings escalation!! After several episodes, popular response and critical acclaim for this series were radically different!!! "Cheers" esoteric demeanor received accolades from T.V. and magazine critics, but, popularity from the television audience was tenuous!! Eventually "Cheers" non-conventionalism titillated the small screen viewer!! Once popularity homogenized the auspicious direction of this show, it became a smash hit!! People took to the unorthodox gist of the series!! Wholehearted chuckles required an academic comprehension of grandiloquent vocabulary words which Shelly Long, Kelsey Grammar, and Bebe Neuwirth uttered out by the nanosecond!! This television show's comically ugly depiction of these spawns of ivy league intellectualism, was one whereby they could easily rattle off Shakesphere, but, the slightest adversity would invoke them into a temper tantrum which was indicative of a seven year old who is forbidden to order dessert at a restaurant!! What would someone with an IQ of 9000 be doing frequenting a local sports bar anyway?...Add insult to injury, they were the ones who wound up being patronized!!"Cheers" put a humorous spin on how book smarts are often times useless, especially on plebeian turf!! This is just one of "Cheers" many attributes!!!

"Cheers" is a fond reminiscence of my days as an urban preppy, I spent more time in sports bars than I did in my apartment!! As a matter a fact, I ran into Woody Harrelson at "SHE-NANNIGANS" in Chicago, a bar I would constantly go to for drinks!! "Cheers" reflected the happy days of the eighties to perfection!! Innocuous sex jokes, (especially by today's standards) evoked a naivety that the eighties unintentionally masqueraded!! The haughty character's cerebral rumination was often times reduced to an isolated quip and/or a ludicrous jeremiad that the majority of Americans could effortlessly ignore!! How true this is in the real world!! Social mediocrity was the prevailing villain on "Cheers" which astutely amused the television audience for 11 seasons... very successfully too!!! (obviously!!) What did people watch on Thursday nights at 9/8central? Three guesses,first two do not count!!! "Cheers"

The theme song to "Cheers" was entitled "Where everybody knows your name"..Your average barfly embraced a particular camaraderie with this song!! More to the point, however, it is a case of where everybody knows their names!! The cast that is!!! Ted Danson is synonymous with "Cheers" as are all of the other running characters: George Wendt, John Ratzensberger, Kirstie Alley, Woody Harrelson, Rhea Pearlman, Kelsey Grammar, Bebe Neuwrith, and Shelly Long. Evaluating all of the characters in "Cheers" you can attain a thorough knowledge of why this show was noted for it's remarkable acting talent!! Ted Danson, (Sam Malone) the aging rogue who exemplified the term "has been" in every aspect of his life. George Wendt (Norm Petersen); He was very complacent in his precarious plight of non-productivity!! This affliction is common in mainstream America, in reality, however, it is not very funny at all!! John Ratzenberger (Cliff Clavin) the proverbial windbag of verbosity, even the alliteration to his name insinuated the stigmatic label of your "just in general jackass!!" Kirstie Alley, (Rebecca Howe) a character who was predicated on a lot of physical humor,she was not stable at all, as a result, you did not want to touch Rebecca with a 10 foot pole!! Woody Harrelson, (Woody Boyd)he was the ultimate purveyor of the Huckleberry Finn perspective!! Rhea Perlman (Carla Tortelli) though her character was overdone, her flippant disposition with the trials and tribulations of being a single mother perpetuated an identifiable laughter from the television audience!! Kelsey Grammar (Frazier Craine) a shrink who needed to see a shrink because he did not have a normal childhood!! He went on to be a resounding success in his own television series, "Frazier" !! Bebe Neuwrith, (Lilith Craine); her agonizing contemplations became an in-veritable horror story, she would decimate any act of spontaneity by requiring it to be accompanied by a concept analysis report!! Finally, Shelly Long, (Diane Chambers) the perennial A+ student egocentric elitist who was an emotional glass house!! All of these roles accentuated many character discrepancies which are essential to the creation of a terrific situation comedy..Other sitcoms have tried to accomplish this as well, yet, they never achieved the cunning and succinct finesse of compounded character flaw creativity that "Cheers" did!! Each one of these people has gone on to be tremendously successful, and, as a result of being enormously popular on "Cheers", they all left the show multi-millionaires!!

The show "Cheers" was extremely likable, it oozes with talent, and the unconventional genre of "Cheers" became a noteworthy element in establishing NBC's impressive Nielson ratings during that era!! I loved the show "Cheers" back then for comedic entertainment!!! I love it now for nostalgic entertainment!!

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14 out of 27 people found the following comment useful :-
Cheers., 6 October 2004
Author: Richard Pullen (richard.pullen@students.plymouth.ac.uk) from Plymouth, England

'Cheers' has to be my all time favorite United States comedy of all time!

What a crazy generation the 80's was! What other era could consider wearing such crazy sweaters be regarding as okay!

The early episodes are rusty... You wouldn't have been surprised if they cancelled the show. But it wasn't cancelled and 'Cheers' got better and better.

Ted Danson is a legend as Malone, so cool! Yet you hear him in interviews and he seems so boring! Shelley Long was okay but had times of being annoying I think I preferred Kirstie Alley as the dumb bimbo! Nicholas Colasanto was genius & Woody Harrelson was just the young version of him (same I.Q!). Rhea Perlman was born to play Carla while John Ratzenberger & George Wendt were born to play Barflies! NORM!

Kelsey Grammer & Bebe Neuwirth's relationship was probably the weirdest thing about the show!

I hope they still show 'Cheers' in the years to come!

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