Our Hourly Bread 

Sam and Woody mastermind a raffle to get themselves raises.

Director:

Andy Ackerman

Writers:

Glen Charles (created by), Les Charles (created by)

Stars:

Ted Danson, Kirstie Alley, Rhea Perlman

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
Ted Danson	...	Sam Malone
Kirstie Alley	...	Rebecca Howe
Rhea Perlman	...	Carla LeBec
John Ratzenberger	...	Cliff Clavin
Woody Harrelson	...	Woody Boyd
Kelsey Grammer	...	Dr. Frasier Crane
George Wendt	...	Norm Peterson
Bebe Neuwirth	...	Dr. Lilith Sternin
Thomas Ryan	...	#99
Ron Boussom	...	#66
Eric Menyuk	...	Larry The Mailman
Al Rosen	...	Al
Hugh Maguire	...	Hugh
Peter Schreiner	...	Pete

Storyline

One by one, Woody, Sam and Carla go into Rebecca's office asking for a raise. All three come out of her office only with superficial new titles. In other words, Rebecca has duped them. However she confesses first to Sam then to everyone in the bar that she cannot afford to give anyone a raise since the bar has been losing money for the past three months and the corporation is threatening to close the bar and take its losses. After brainstorming, the gang at the bar come up with an idea for a raffle for a Caribbean cruise to raise money and bring customers into the bar. Despite thinking it's futile, Rebecca goes along with it. The bar ends up being packed for the duration of the contest and the idea is a success. But an incident regarding the raffle may threaten the bar regardless. Sam, however, comes up with a solution that has an unwitting and absent Frasier and his one month anniversary with Lilith at its core.

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Plot Keywords:

abstract painting | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Did You Know?

Goofs

Streamers and balloons inexplicably fall from the ceiling with nobody having triggered anything and directly on the raffle winner. And the camera's view of the room makes it seem impossible.

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Quotes

Sam Malone: Norm, you've worked for the big firms. What do they do when they need a lot of money?
Norm Peterson: All right, first off, they go and fire all the dead wood.
Sam Malone: And then what?
Norm Peterson: I'm long gone by then Sam.

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Connections

References Sesame Street (1969)

User Reviews

ONE WEIRD THING ABOUT THIS EPISODE

Great episode but Norm keeps asking for free drinks which got old. It was also very strange that he kept shouting about free drinks during the raffle when he knew that the bar was on the edge of bankruptcy. Why would Norm, who loved the bar and would hate to see it close, stir the crowd into demanding free drinks? The whole point of the raffle was to get more money into the bar. That seemed extremely out of character for Norm. Woody or Cliff I could see doing it because they were slow enough to miss the point. But Norm the former accountant? Just seemed almost like he wanted to sabotage the raffle.

It also seemed strange that nobody brought up the fact that when Sam was running the bar, it never had money trouble. I would think Mr Drake would immediately look into putting Sam in charge of the bar again since he clearly was a better manager...

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

10 March 1988 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions, Paramount Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1