Cheers 

The regulars of the Boston bar "Cheers" share their experiences and lives with each other while drinking or working at the bar where everybody knows your name.

Creators:

James Burrows, Glen Charles, Les Charles

Stars:

Ted Danson, Rhea Perlman, John Ratzenberger

Won 6 Golden Globes. Another 71 wins & 181 nominations.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Ted Danson	...	Sam Malone / ... 271 episodes, 1982-1993
Rhea Perlman	...	Carla Tortelli / ... 271 episodes, 1982-1993
John Ratzenberger	...	Cliff Clavin / ... 271 episodes, 1982-1993
George Wendt	...	Norm Peterson / ... 271 episodes, 1982-1993
Kelsey Grammer	...	Dr. Frasier Crane / ... 204 episodes, 1984-1993
Woody Harrelson	...	Woody Boyd / ... 201 episodes, 1985-1993
Kirstie Alley	...	Rebecca Howe / ... 149 episodes, 1987-1993
Philip Perlman	...	Phil 142 episodes, 1986-1993
Shelley Long	...	Diane Chambers / ... 124 episodes, 1982-1993

Storyline

The lives of the disparate group of employees and patrons at a Boston watering hole called "Cheers" over eleven years is presented. Over much of this period, Sam Malone (Ted Danson), a womanizing ex-Boston Red Sox pitcher and an alcoholic, owns the bar, its purchase and this life, which was his salvation from his alcoholism, which was largely the cause of the end of his baseball career. He ends up having a love-hate relationship with intellectual Diane Chambers (Shelley Long), who he hired as a waitress and whose cultured mentality is foreign to anyone else in the bar. He also has an evolving relationship with Rebecca Howe (Kirstie Alley), who managed the bar for the Lily Corporation, which bought it from Sam, but whose outward business savvy belied the fact that she was a mess of a woman who was struggling to find her place in life. The regular patrons are largely a bunch of self-identified losers, who bond because of their shared place in life, and because "Cheers" is their home ...

---

Plot Keywords:

bar | bartender | boston massachusetts | psychiatrist | mailman | 

---

Taglines:

The Laughs Are On The House!

---

Genres:

Comedy | Drama

---

Certificate:

TV-PG

Did You Know?

Trivia

John Cleese played Dr. Simon Finch-Royce, a psychiatrist and marriage counselor on this show in season five, episode twenty-one, "Simon Says". In the episode, he counsels (or confronts) Sam and Diane several times (at Diane's insistence). Cleese starred in the sitcom that was the model and inspiration for this show, Fawlty Towers (1975).

---

Goofs

IN the Cheers series Frasier Crane is said to have scientists for parents but in the spin-off "Frasier", his dad is a police man.

---

Quotes

Sam: You know what Woody, you just gave me something to think about.
Woody: I'm sorry Sam, I hate it when someone does that to me.

---

Crazy Credits

The style of the opening credits never changed throughout the series' 11 year run, unless a new cast member was added.

---

Alternate Versions

The series finale was edited into three half-hour episodes for syndication. Part one of the 1 hour "200th Episode Celebration" episode, edited into two parts for syndication, is the only syndicated episode that features the complete opening sequence used throughout the series. The first scene of the teaser of the series' first episode, where Sam walks from the Pool Room into the Bar area of Cheers', was edited completely out of the syndicated broadcast.

---

Connections

Spoofed in BoJack Horseman: Live Fast, Diane Nguyen (2014)

---

Soundtracks

Where Everybody Knows Your Name
Written by Judy Hart-Angelo and Gary Portnoy
Performed by Gary Portnoy

User Reviews

Raise your glasses!

I adored "Cheers" on its original release in the early 80's and have lately been revisiting my adoration in catching re-runs right back to the first series. Like the best series, it makes you stay with it, through series after series, cast changes or not, like other American favourites of mine "The Mary Tyler-Moore Show", "Rhoda" "M.A.S.H." "Taxi" "Newhart" and more recently "Friends". Indeed it's easy to see "Cheers" influence on the latter, both fixing much of the action on a popular drinking hole. This was back in the days when writers wrote laugh-out-loud jokes and characters you could empathise with unlike today's post modern ironic shows where the odd line might make you smile at best. "Cheers" always kept you watching for the next line, which more often than not brought forth a laugh. Set-bound as it was, like, say, the bridge on the Starship Enterprise, familiarity bred content as you got to know the characters and their surroundings. The characters were great from the start, Sam "Mayday" Malone, pseudo-intellectual barmaid Diane, the feral barmaid Carla, permanent bar-stool residents Cliff and Norm and best of all the dotty bar manager Coach, with a heart of pure gold. Newer characters entered as the series progressed, especially oddballs Frazier and Lilith Crane, Carla's combative husband Nick and later, the dim young barman Woody Harrelson's "Woody"(a great replacement for Coach) and Kirsty Alley's "Backseat Becky" (ditto for Diane). Great as the smart direction and comedic delivery were, it was all about the writing. Great writers like Heidi Perlman, the Charles brothers, David Lloyd and Earl Pomerantz kept the quality high, season after season as I'm sure my end-to-end re-viewing will testify. 7 down, 244 to go!

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 September 1982 (USA)

Also Known As:

Cheers

Filming Locations:

13 Chestnut St, Boston, MA 02108, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions, Paramount Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

22 min 30 min (266 episodes) 98 min (1 Episode)

Sound Mix:

Mono Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

4:3