https://web.archive.org/web/20070225141752/http://jumptheshark.com/
Other Thoughts:
Diane and Sam hook up. The fun dies.
Paul becomes a regular at the bar.
Too many episodes centered around Cliff...then Lillith.
when Shelly Long left and Kirstie Alley took her place. The show went straight into the crapper after that. All of the nonsense with Sam wanting a child and that whole mess was stupid and certainly not funny.
The best things that ever happened was when coach and diane left the show...
When Cliff Clavin went postal and gunned down the whole bar.
The crux of the whole show was the tension between Sam and Diane. It was actually before Kirstie Alley showed up though. Diane leaving dramatically changed the chemistry of the show. That scene where Diane was in the monastery, and Sam snuck in, that was the beginning of the end to me. A close second was losing Coach. However, Woody Harrelson saved that from being a jumped shark. In fact he was the only redeeming quality of the show when Alley was on, because Woody can banter with anyone and make them look good. Had they tried a lover's triangle between Sam, Rebecca and Woody, where Woody's completely oblivious to Rebecca's advances and Sam's jealousy, and Rebecca constantly berated herself for liking Woody for very shallow reasons on her part, the show would have had a chance to never jump.
This show was consistantly great. Even with the change in cast, Diane - Rebecca, Coach - Woody, it still went on. One small hiccup - Sam and Rebecca trying to have a baby. But they held strong til the end.
Did you notice that despite 11 seasons of boozing it up, nobody ever got intoxicated?
Maybe nobody ever got intoxicated on the show, but the cast were all absolutely ****faced at the post-finale party on the Tonight Show. One of the most embarrasingly funny moments in TV history.
When Shelley Long's Diane left and Rebecca came on board. Diane was witty and fun to watch. Rebecca was plain stupid. The show went downhill right here.
Never jumped, so many years airing can not lie.
So many years of air time don't lie? If that were the case, then Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Married with Children and Roseanne never jumped--which is obviously not true. What happened here was the same thing that happened with MASH. First, you have an obnoxious prissy character (Frank Burns, or in this case, "Hot Lips") who butts heads with the main character. Yes, Diane was almost TOO obnoxious, but her sparring with Sam was what kept the show going. When she left and Rebecca stepped in, it was like "Hot Lips" morphing into "Margaret", the born-again virgin who was now just one of the boys. Her loopiness was not as funny as it could have been; the writers tried too hard to make her into Lucille Ball. What saved "MASH" was that they could still come up with comical situations, if not characters. Cheers turned into a soap opera with all the pregnancies, marriages, love triangles, etc. If people wanted Dallas, they'd watch "Dallas".
To say that this show jumped is being kind of overly critical (sort of the nature of this site though I realize). Sure, some people thought it tanked once Diane left, but I'd wager that even more liked it after she left. After all it's only critical people like us that bother to post here anyway. I personally liked the whole series. I liked Rebecca's character, but I was irritated by how ditzy they made her the last two years. Still, to say that this show went downhill is too much. Shows like Cheers and MASH with the caliber of writers they had may experience slower seasons or episodes, but if you take it in the context of the whole program or contrast them with other shows, you've still got to appreciate the quality of the program. Ten or twenty years from now you'll still see Cheers episodes on reruns and there's a reason for that: even at its worst, Cheers was the last solidly funny comedy written in the traditional sit-com format of story, before the Seinfeld revolution of dialog-driven comedy.
Some bad episodes, but consistenly this was one of the best shows, great writers, great cast, I miss it.
When Kirstie Alley joined the show, Cheers jumped. All the characters changed and became very exaggerated version of themselves; woody was completely ********, sam was extra-horny, etc. And Rebecca was just awful - first of all they couldn't decide what to do w/ her character - hard nosed bitch? sobbing idiot? in love w/ sam? every time they changed the character it got worse.
I think this show jumped the shark when Diane left and Rebecca came in, her character was so whiny. Now she whines away at Veronica's Closet.
One of the few shows that never jumped, IMO. Every episode was a good one, and I thought that Rebecca and Woody were actually funnier than Diane and Coach! Rebecca started out trying to convince everyone that she was all business, but we soon learned that she is just as neurotic and dysfunctional as the rest of the barflies! Woody was so sweet, he would never harm a fly, but he could inadvertently zing Carla in a way that no one else would dare!
I guess Cheers never really jumped, but Paul changed the dynamic of the show-he became higher than Cliff (even Cliff should be able to pick on someone!), which interfered with the Cliff/Norm dynamic, and he was even able to get a hot girl that rejected Sam, which blew one of the constants of the show. In addition, he was an annoying little so-and-so and not funny. Cheers was still the best comedy ever, but it was a little closer to the pack-shorter of breath, and one step closer to death.
When Sam and Rebecca started sleeping together. It led to a series of unfunny episodes of the two of them trying to consieve. Sam and Diane as a couple worked. Sam and Rebecca as co-workers also worked. But Sam and Rebecca as lovers Stunk!
Cheers jump? NEVER! The only possible time anyone could consider a jump was right after Sam said "Sorry, we're closed"3
Sam & Diane. Never shoulda boinked!
This is probably my all-time favorite show, but the last season was not very good. I survived the switch from Shelly Long to Kirstie Alley. I wasn't crazy about it, but I eventually accepted it. And several years of hilarious episodes followed. However, the last season just didn't seem very funny. Bringing everyone back for one last shot (from Harry the Hat to the Tortellis to Gary and his Old Towne Tavern to Diane Chambers) seemed rather forced--a good idea, but it probably should not have happened. And Sam should always be Sam--as un-PC as that may be. At least when he appeared on "Frasier" he was pretty much back to his old ways.
When the episodes started taking place away from the bar.
When Diane left, and Sam got really stupid. When she was on the show her over-intellectual personality was a great foil for his "dumb jock" personality. But he still had common sense and a sense of humor. When she left, he just acted dumb without any of the wit or sense.
This show jumped the shark when Diane left the show. There was the hint when coach died, but after a few shows Woody did well. Cheers is the one show that I miss.
Cheers became a show in which the supporting cast took over. By the later years, Sam became a vague, fuzzy character: Were we supposed to think of him as a dope or a lech, as a nice guy or a jerk? Nor did the writers ever really get a handle on Rebecca: Were we supposed to think of her as a witch or a hot tomato, as a sexy slyboots or a high-heeled heel? Too often, we just didn't care about Sam and Rebecca one way or the other, since we were too busy laughing at the enduring funniness of Norm and Cliff and Carla, as well as the gloriously neurotic marriage of Frasier and Lilith. In fact, Frasier and Lilith became the bar's most valuable players, consistently subtle scene-stealers; But for a show without a center, Cheers was still awfully funny.
Diane wasn't a likeable character but at least she was amusing for being ridiculously pretentious. Was it my imagination, or did Rebecca always sound like she was drunk?
What's this show doing here? No way did this ever jump the shark! It survived through numerous cast changes and extreme character changes. One of the best sitcoms ever! Also, it was great that it left while it was still popular and didn't slowly die out.
This show never jumped. I remember thinking that it would not be that good when Diane left, but I think the Rebecca years were much funnier and Ted Danson knew when to end the show because it was funny all the way up to the end.
Jump the shark?!?!? This show was dead in the water to begin with! I NEVER found this show funny. The characters are ALL unlikable -- I would never frequent a bar inhabited by these losers! Who the hell cares about when Diane left -- I couldn't stand her. I tried watching it when Rebecca (Kirstie Alley) came on, but the show did not improve. Ted Danson gave the entire male race a bad name. Even Frasier, whose spinoff show I enjoy, I can't stand to watch -- he just does not fit in that whole setting. Best thing he ever did was move outta Boston to Seattle -- evidence of this is when Woody Harrelson comes to visit, Frasier can barely stand him anymore. Finally, that Tonight Show fiasco, where the cast shows up absolutely ****-faced, completely unprofessional. I thought, "How appropriate. America's favorite sitcom, in all its glory. Good riddance."
As great as Cheers was, Bebe was just too damn good for the show. The show went through several great phases, but after the end of Frasier/Lileth the show was never really the same. Of course, there is noone on earth more annoying than Kirstie Allie, so she shouldn't be spared.
It's not true that no one ever got drunk--Carla did when she didn't remember who she slept with. She and Diane both did that night they were friendly.
Overall, a great show. I don't think it ever really jumped. It hit a few hard spots towards the end. But, I think it was one of the most consistant shows of all time. Even with the changes in cast. The show remained great. Usually, when two major characters, like Shelly Long leaving and Coach passing, go off a show, it usually goes downhill. But I think the addition of Woody Harrelson and Kirstie Alley were great. Although, I have to agree with others, I found Rebecca's character to be very annoying towards the end. Way to whiny. I liked her better when she was more hard-nosed, I found her very sexy when she first came on the show. But not at the end. If the show came close to jumping at all, it was the very last episode. This was a great sit-com and there was no need for this type of ending, with Bob Costas and all that other crap.
This show came incredibly close to never JTS. The last 5 episodes are when they finally did it. The show got better, not worse, when Kirstie Alley joined (the people who say otherwise are focusing too much on the last season, where the writers forgot how to write her and seemed to have her as a different person each week) The show almost never jumped, but the last 5 episodes, it finally did. NBC had a HUGE build-up for these, and they weren't funny AT ALL.(the only one that approached being funny was the one where Sam sought help for his sex addiction and shot off that line to the fellow sex addict "OK, wiseguy, I'm gonna write down a number" and, after hearing an attractive female addict tell her story of sexual deprivity, asked her if she liked Chinese takeout. Vintage Sam) Otherwise, those episodes were bad(Woody running for City Council stands out in my mind). Still, this is the 2nd greatest comedy of all time(to the Simpsons)and the writing/producing team that put this together was making good TV 10 years before anyone else had a clue how to do a sitcom this good
Cheers Jumped when Sammy revealed to Carla that he wore a hair piece. It broke my heart. I couldn't see him as a babe-magnet after that. The illusion never should've been broken.
The first season of this wasn't bad, but it went from the bar where everybody knows your name to the bar where everyone hurls labored, nasty one-liners at each other. Why the critics insisted on calling this a "quality" show, when it was just as dumb as all the other "non-quality" shows on the tube, is beyond me. Plus, it lacked what all great sitcoms have -- heart. There are episodes of "All in the Family" that make you want to cry. I'd never cry over this one, except when I realize how just about every character is a stereotype (the stud, the intellectual, the dumb guy.) No one seemed to really care about each other at the bar, and, as a result, I couldn't care about them.
Never Jumped!!!!! Beyond question, the best sitcom ever. You can be critical of some of the changes made over the years but each character involved in the show brought a refreshing change that kept the show on the cutting edge of comedy. I never cease to be amazed how I can still laugh at every episode, even after seeing every show dozens of times. There has never been a sitcom that pokes fun at all our human faults as effortlessly as Cheers. I watch the show every night and will probably do so until the day I die. My only regret is they had to end this national treasure when the did.
Sam and Rebecca never had the chemistry that Sam and Diane had.
Funny but the best way to summarize this great show is "A nation of people with no life, watching a cast of people with less of one."
I was kind of surprised this show is listed here and one of the top vote getters no less. I'm a world class cynic and love the whole premise of this site, but there's no way this show ever jumped. Sure, it had a not-so-great episode here and there (every show does). But to say it jumped is ludicrous. Given the major character changes that took place in the middle of the show and the sheer longevity of the series, it's amazing it held up as well as is it did. But I thought it came through in flying colors thanks to one of the best comedic writing teams ever and a cast where every character was allowed to be just that...a character. You can keep your over-developed, psycho-analyzed-to-death characters on the other shows thank you very much. Norm is just Norm and I love him for it. If a person doesn't consider this show one of the finest sitcoms ever...well, you're certainly entitled to your opinion. But I personally don't think that there will ever be a better show for giving people that warm, relaxed feeling at the end of a long day that this show seems to exude. Long live Cheers in syndication.
Actually I don't think the show ever jumped the shark. First of all, it picked up on the secret that kept M*A*S*H on the air so long...changing casts can actually be a plus, bringing in some fresh blood. Secondly, the writers actually became more creative during the later years, revealing at least one really funny secret about each regular (Norm's flair for interior decorating, Diane's bowling expertise, Woody's talent for money management, Sam's hairpiece), something I've never seen any other series do. But the show almost JTS when Robin bought the bar, and the multi-millionaire hung out there so much...what were they thinking? And those endless episodes where Sam's about to tell Rebecca he's crazy about her, then Robin bursts into the office to sweep her off her feet again...Dammit Sam, lock the door already!
Sam becomes a doofus like Cliff and Norm.
The final episode!!!! What the hell was that?!
When they filmed the darn pilot! The show was obvious, telegraphed, lame and targeted to the lowest common denominator. The only good thing about Ted Danson is that one day he will be dead. I live for this day.
When Rebecca first came on the show, I thought she was a breath of fresh air- especially since they had played out *every* possible angle of the Sam and Diane Love-Hate bit short of marriage and murder. Rebecca started out as this cool, intelligent exec who shrewdly hid her attraction to Sam BUT by the end of her first year , she had devolved into this crass,whiny, crybaby MORON!! ARGHH!! To be fair, though, I don't believe this is entirely the writers/producers' fault! While it requires great intelligence to *superbly* play dumb ( as Lucille Ball and Gracie Allen proved), one can't convincingly play brilliant if one is an idiot. . I've never met Kirstie Alley but, thanks to her appearances on talk /award shows, I was left with the impression that she isn't the brightest bulb in the marquee! IMO it's a possibility that the writers/producers might have decided it wasn't worth bothering continually attempting to squeeze blood from a turnip!
The last episode ended so lamely. Up til then, it was good and the change from Shelley Long to Kirstie Alley did not hurt it at all.
You must be kidding! Two of the funniest moments in TV both involve Rebecca being extremely intoxicated. The first is at Robin's party when Rebecca tries to sing along with the opera singer. The second is when Sam goes to her apartment and she is just a mess. She tries to seduce him and falls asleep during her attempt. This is best show ever created from the first to the last episode!
How can anyone not enjoy Cheers. Yes, the characters aren't particularly likeable but that adds to the appeal. I miss it loads! In fact, Cheers has so not jumped the shark that it's whole cast has developed a water phobia. Highlights include any of the "Bar Wars" episodes, and any of Cliffs pointless trivia. Yes, it's an easy target but why don't Cheers' critics just go pick on Friends...!
You've got to be kidding! One of the most highly-praised, and popular shows ever JUMPING? Not even on a stack of Sam's black books could anyone swear that this would have EVER JTS! True, the romantic foreplay took a speed bump when Rebecca replaced Diane, but that only made the rest of the cast stronger! And for the posters on here that have to insult Cheers, or any other show, by also damaging Friends,-why dont you all Lighten Up! Friends is the the next best thing to Cheers! This could have gone on for many more years, and it should have, considering the careers of most of the cast-excepting Frazier and Woody-there's a surprise, him being the most successful! Was a shame that Coach died, but those things, unfortunatley happen, and that the show came back even stronger is a testiment to the greatness of this American classic! There should only be 20 more Cheers,(like every other bar name in Boston!)- and TV would have no dissenters! Long may it last!
The first jump was Diane leaving. No brainer. However, one category that is hardly mentioned from show to show is the "over exposed supporting character syndrome." Even the best shows like Cheers for example, JTS when they end up using too much of a good thing-EVEN when it's part of the schtick...ala "Norm!!! or Carla's "Right on Q" one-liners. Every one of the supporting characters had their moments, but I knew that the show had ONCE AND FOR ALL jumped the shark when Fraser, dropping one pithy Fruedian/Jung aphorism after another, became standard operating procedure. . Need any more evidence. Hell, the only reason Fonzie jumped the shark is because he had become too much of a good thing-it became his show. Supporting characters are much more effective as Supporting characters.
Most people say that Cheers jumped the shark when Kirstie Alley joined the show, or when Sam stopped walking out with a girl on each arm, or with Coach's passing. My suggestion is a bit more vague than those. In the last 2 or 3 years, the show seemed to rely on it's own formula way too much. Norm comes in, says a wacky comment. Cliff starts to talk to Norm, Carla buts in and blasts Cliff. Woody misunderstands something that was said, and confuses himself. There was more variety in the writing style and comedic pacing early on, and the later seasons had just ran their course.
Never jumped! Sam Malone was and is a great TV character. We, the viewers, were able to live vicariously thorough him. I mean, how many of you can truthfully claim to have had over 1000 sexual partners? Ted Danson was able to create on screen chemistry with two different leading ladies (laid-ees?) The cast of characters that spent their time at Cheers was a typical group of losers that we all seem to be friends with. And don't we all have an aquaintence that is a know-it-all like Cliff? Or a duffus friend like Coach or Woody? And a cool friend like Sam? Or a smart friend like Frasier? The truth is, the creators of the show nailed American society on the head with this congolmeration of compatriots. This show lasted first run for 11 years, and has been on iin syndication since before it even ended the original episodes. It will be a lasting icon of Americana. Evidence enough ought to be the fact that Norm's barstool is in the Smithsonion!!! One of the greatest shows ever, never jumped!
when Diane left and Rebecca came on. No more sexual tension, because Rebecca was never sexy. She was pitiful.
Faltered a bit after Coach died, but Woody was a good replacement. The Rebecca-lusts-after-rich-dorks stories got pretty tired though.
The show had wavered and returned to its normal high standards before that, but Rebecca is really almost like a female Ted McGinley: if she's near your show, your show is nearing the grave!
The show a mediocre, sometimes funny overlooked time-slot filler until Diane left the cast. Upon her departure, the show took off. It became the most charater driven, laugh-out-loud comedy television had seen in its time. Thanks to the quality programming 'Cheers' provided up until its finale, other shows such as 'Night Court' and 'Seinfeld' were able to ride the coattails and become successful where they had previously failed. Unfortunately for Bull and Co., 'Night Court' lacked the quality writing needed to carry itself on Tuesday nights while Seinfeld exploded into a cult classic of its own.
When Shelly Long took her no-talent career elsewhere and the (then hot) Kirstie Alley replaced her!
Cheers was always good. I think people on this site need to realize that shows can still be good, even if they don't particularly like them. For instance, Jerry Seinfeld annoys the crap out of me, but I do recognize that his show was good, even though I didn't watch it. Lighten up.
Cheers never jumped! It successfully adjusted to the departure of Diane by adding a completely different type of character. And while adding new characters usually means the death of a sitcom, Cheers did it better than any show - Woody, Frasier, Lilith - even Kelly and Nick and Loretta Tortelli. I also thought that the finale was one of the best - after Newhart and Larry Sanders. It was subtle and reminded us that the true love of Sam's life was Cheers.
People on cheers did get drunk! Don't you remember when Diane drank Carlas "Open Grave" and Cliff was drunk on several occasions. Norm was drunk before too. Don't you remember that Coach had to drive him home several times. Before you start saying something about Cheers, you must do your research.
Cheers in my opinion never really jumped the shark. However after Sam and rebecca finally hooked up and decided to have a baby the show seemed to get a little silly. The producers did not really know where to take that that story line. But to even begin to suggest that the show went downhill let alone that it was Kirstie Alley's fault is a bunch of bull. Whats more in my humble opinion Ithe Diane and Sam romance had ran it's course. The introduction of Rebbecca to the show gave it new life. The first few seasons with Kirstie Alley were the best ever in the shows long run. I must admit though as someone else suggested on this site that the "dumbing down" of Rebbeca and the whole cast for that matter brought the show down a bit. To this day though I still enjoy Cheers (in syndication of course) especially the Rebecca years.
When Shelley Long left, and Kirstie Alley came on board. Shelley and Ted had an incredible chemistry, even though they supposedly didn't like each other in real life, as well as one screen. But they were the perfect foil for one another. Kirstie Alley has been a whining, puling, crying weakling in almost everything she has ever been in, and added NOTHING to the show. If I see at the outset that Shelley is not on the reruns, I just turn it off.
When Sam sold the bar. Rebecca was a waste. And a whack job!
Diane got very, very annoying after a while. Kirstie Alley was a big improvement, and made the show great right up until the end! People who think she hurt the show are crazy - that's why it lasted so long after she joined the cast.
This show JTS when Sam suddenly became unable to score chicks. What the hell happened? And it wasn't immediately after Diane left, it was like two seasons after. He goes from playboy to leper overnight. Still it's my favorite show.
Jay Thomas - Eddie LeBec has jumped for TV shows and a few Ad Campaigns
Cheers never did. It was always good. Different maybe. And perhaps Rebecca was no Diane but the evolution and changing of the characters was by no means bad just different. Without a doubt never sucked.
Quite simply, when Sam and Rebecca started trying to have a baby, the show became unwatchable. Alternately, too many episodes revolving around Woody! Post Diane Cheers was still good otherwise. Who can deny all of the cool contests with Gary's Olde Time Tavern?
When the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in this case, Admiral Crowe, appears on a SITCOM, you know the writing staff is scraping the bottom of the idea barrel. Oh sure, like a four star admiral strolls around Boston alone in full dress uniform, and maybe stops into a bar for a cold one. Gimme a break. Still, it could have worked if they had done something really over the top. Instead, they just paraded out a pompous old admiral wearing as much uniform as the law would allow. Cheers was so good in its day, it was sad to see the show resort to such ineffective ploys to generate interest.
"THANKS NORM, I COULD USE A BRICK" -Coach
It's a tough call, but I'm willing to say Cheers never jumped the shark, even with all the cast changes. Cast changes are more believable in a workplace setting. The writing remained solid throughout.
I think Kirstie Alley is the worst actress alive and I detest her TV characters even more.
tho cheers kept being okay, it did do some small leaps. let's say that is jumped a baby tiger shark, not a great white, when that roger rees guy was on. it started to get real dumb at that point. sam became sort of a stupid charactor. he lost his edge as a ladie's man and i guess they had to make him look dumb for all the feminists, who knows. but the show was still kinda okay towards the end. ted dason pulled the plug for a reason, i think, although what was he thinking, leaving tv for the movies, bombing with that 'getting even with dad' movie, then bombing on two shows (i know, becker is still on the air - but c'mon). anyhow, i think it is sad to see all the cast trying for new shows and failing, oh wait, cept for fraiser, but i hate his show. the saddest was seeing that reah perlman had a show, and that malcom mcdowell was on it (clockwork orange) - what a let down that such a great actor was in a failed, excheers sitcom - now i am rambling. cliff rules. you gotta hand it to him. he's the best actor of the bunch and i will tell you why. he is the only guy with a boston accent. say no more!
Like it or not, when Diane Chambers left the show it was no longer the same show. When a main character is replaced by a new actor, yet the character remains the same, it's ok. (See Bewitched where one Darrin was pretty much the same fool as the other. But when a major character disappears then the show is a different show. Some people hate Shelly Long, some hate the dyslexically named Kirstie Alley. Who cares? These actress fans haven't got a clue. It's the character, not the actor, who makes the show. The loss of Coach did not hurt Cheers at all because the writers forced Woody Harrelson to be the same dolt, with unintended words of wisdom, that Coach was. The character remainded the same though the actors and the names changed. But when the actor and the character change you have a new show. So if to Jump the Shark means to change a show so that it is no longer the same show then Cheers definitely jumped in 1988 when Diane flew the coop and Rebecca crawled out of the ooze. It became a new show and cannot be honestly compared to the tremendous dynamic that existed between "characters" during the inimitable first 5 years. Some people will quibble about this because they will cite the fact that the "writing" was still good. Be that as it may, it's like comparing those well-worn apples and oranges. Such an argument is specious at best; Shakespere is still considered the best of all writers and yet he has not even one show on TV and the attempts to ape his works in Hollywood have all been failures. Good writing alone does not make a good show. So get over it folks. Cheers is really two programs requiring two JTS estimates: Cheers and Life After Diane. Both shows had many good scripts and some bad scripts but without a doubt the original Cheers kept us on the edge of our seats until the very end. Life After Diane dribbled away into inaninty and character assassination just so Ted Danson could show Ms. Shelly long that he could go a whole year longer without her than he lasted with her. And now a final word in closing. If you're at all like me you have asked yourself many times why Ted Danson (and some of the other actors too) could not try to live up to the characters they were given by the excellent writers. Teddy could pretend to be Sam the Don Juan of Boston extremely well. In real life he's much more of a Cliff Claven! Clueless. Let's face it: we like our actors to be like their on-screen characters in real life. Nothing is more stupid than to hear actors behave or speak contrary to their on-screen image. We accepted and applauded Ted Danson as the skirt-chasing Lothario in Cheers while the naive goof who chased Whoopie Goldberg around in black-face and eventually shagged Mary Steenbergen, his real-life Shelly Long substitute, is appalling. At least Ms. Long's post-Cheers persona remained constant whether you like her or not.
This was the best sitcom ever. Sure, there were some lame ass episodes in the last couple seasons (remember when Frasier and Rebecca nearly had sex) but no other sitcom kept such a high standard of quality for 11 years like Cheers did (The Simpsons doesn't count as a sitcom although it has maintained a similar level of quality) Cheers was all about comedy-no very special episodes, no preachy social commentary, never any an attempt to teach any kind of moral lesson. And the last episode, with the whole gang remaining in tact to drink beer and babble on about life's trivialities, ended the show just as it should have.
I thought it was a good solid show at the beginning about a neighborhood bar where most of the conversation was "about nothing". Then it became the Sam-Diane show; and will they do it. Who cares?! Luckily, the show actually improved with Shelley Long went on to greener pastures (Troop Beverly Hills, Outrageous Fortune, oy!). The timing and writing became really impeccible (sp?). My favorite show: When Rebecca leaves Cheers (ends up working the Auto Show) and Sam hires "Earl" who wins everybody over but Sam lets Earl go to give Rebecca her job back. (Norm: "How do you like the sound of this: 'Mrs. Earl Peterson?' ") I don't know who that actor was -- I think he used to do an aspirin commercial -- but it was the greatest sitcom guest star since the Barney Miller days. Great show.
In my mind Cheers never jumped.This is my number one comedy show,of all time!They did a tremendous job of replacing key characters.My favorite episode is the one where Sam and Diane broke up over Christopher Lloyd,the weird painter.What Great writing!This show stayed funny from begginning to end. Sometimes you do have to go where everyone knows your name!
This one jumped when the producers turned on Shelly Long and made her into a shrew, upsetting the until then flavorful balance between Diane and Sam. The show descended into ceaseless misanthropy from that point on, presenting the Cheers crowd as eternal losers, instead of well-rounded real people.
So many things could have killed Cheers. Sam and Diane did it, and the show lived on. They found an endless stream of objectionable characters to introduce (Nick Tortelli, Eddie LeBec, Robin Colcord) and the show lived on. The show even flourished for a year or two when Rebecca came on. Unfortunately, tragedy for Kirstie Alley (her miscarriage) was tragic for the show, too. They had written themselves into a corner to accommodate her pregnancy and then when that arc ended the character became totally pathetic.
Cheers jumped the shark when Sam and Rebecca decided that they would try to have a baby out of wedlock. How can you have the ultimate bachelor settle down with a barmaid that had a waist expansion each season?
It never did. Even when Shelly Long left after the 5th season, Christie Alley and Bebe Neurith picked up the comedic batan and ran with it. This is only one of two shows that I beleive went out without jumping the shark.
When Diane left the show, the producers should have thrown in the towel. the show was funny but never even close IMO to the glory days (Seasons 1-3). After Shelley Long's departure, there were many things that hurt the show: 1. The constant emasculation of Sam Malone. It was as if the writers were trying to make him suffer so we would see that his attitude towards women was wrong (read: not PC). 2. The "winning streak" Rebecca had against Sam. Again we are being force fed the idea that Sam is wrong. At least when Diane triumphed over Sam, we cared about her. I don't believe they ever made Rebecca a sympathetic character. 3. The elevation of lower tier characters. Way too many episodes about Carla and Cliff. These were good supporting characters in the early days, but could not carry episodes in the leads. 4. The total waste of space that was Kirstie Alley/Rebecca Howe. I don't like anything this actress has done since Star Trek II, and I never once found this character remotely attractive or sympathetic. How we were supposed to believe that Sam Malone would chase that I'll never understand! These and other reasons are why I only watch the show in re-runs up to the point where Diane leaves. Sure there are good episodes in seasons 6-11, but not consistently hilarious like the early days. In retrospect, it would be nice if all we had was the first five years when the show was still fresh and strong. Maybe like WKRP which benefitted from a short life span with no prolonged decline.
"Cheers" is one of those special shows that never jumped the shark. OK, it came close a few times, I'll admit. When Nicholas Collasanto (sp), who played Coach, died, it could have been shark bait; But Woody Harrelson came along and saved the day as the lovable simpleton Woody Boyd. Even Kirstie Alley was wonderful; OK, she wasn't Shelley Long; and yes, Diane's leaving did leave some loose ends that weren't tied up until the end; but Rebecca was psycho enough to make me overlook that; and there was still great chemistry when she joined. Kelsey Grammer and Bebe Neuwirth were the perfect straight characters (althogh Frazier did turn into sort of a thinking-man's buffoon later on). And Ted Danson, Rhea Perlman, George Wendt and John Ratzenberger were the ultimate clowns in their own distinct ways. I like to think of "Cheers" as a forerunner to "Seinfeld" in that, technically, it was about nothing, i.e., it was more about trivial stuff: Sam's philandering, Diane's pseudo-intellectual pretentions, Norm's being the life of the party, Cliff's knowledge of obscure facts that nobody cares about (of course, he got it from his doting mother), Carla's fertility (not to mention that she has ungrateful kids), etc., etc. Simply stated, the show was simple. Also, it got more and more popular as time went on. In its first two seasons, nobody cared. NBC thought of cancelling it. But cooler heads prevailed, the show started gaining in popularity when the Sam-Diane storyline evolved and didn't fall off when Diane left. Finally, other than, maybe, Long and Neuwirth, there were no divas in the bunch (OK, saying Shelley Long and Bebe Neuwirth are divas is stretching it a bit). Most everybody in the cast stuck it out, realizing that they had a special show (even if money became an issue). Yes, I'll admit that there were bad episodes; but, then again, all TV shows have their less fortunate moments. Episode for episode, "Cheers" ranks up there with shows like "M*A*S*H*" and "Seinfeld" (OK, maybe a bit higher than "Seinfeld"). It even had a funny series finale when Diane came back, unlike "Seinfeld," which could have been better.
When Kirstie Alley honked her way into the bar, I got ill and never watched again.
The show JTS when Sam became a wimp. Catch the episode in either the last or next to last year when Sam wouldn't join the other guys pulling an all-nighter in the car.
Never jumped. Best comedy of the mid 80's to mid 90's
When Sam decided he wanted to be a father basically was the point where the writers waved a little white flag in recognition of the fact that they had done every conceivable storyline for characters hanging around a bar...From then on they made the fatal mistake most shows make of trying to become adult in content, which is a lot harder to to write successfully...
When Shelly Long left the show. Kirstie Alley was extremely unfunny.
I think that Cheers was a damn good show, until the point it ended. So I don’t think that it ever JTS to the point of being a pale shadow of its former self. However, I do agree entirely with the widespread opinion that Rebecca Howe was the single worst addition to the show. She was, without a doubt, a disgustingly selfish, whining, thoroughly dislikable and useless character. At first, she was an icy, annoying, and repressive hard-ass. Then, for the last four or five seasons she was a self-loathing, sobbing and unwatchable wreck of a human being. The instances where Rebecca made me cringe were numerous, but here are a few that stick out…The fact that she was a semi-slut, always trying to get with rich men (she dumped Robin Colcord when she thought he lost all his money). Another time, Sam felt sorry for Rebecca because she was working in a demeaning job at the car show. So, he let her work as co-manager in Cheers again, even though this meant getting rid of Earl, who everyone liked, and who was a competent worker. Then, a couple of episodes later, Rebecca was winging about how miserable her life is, being stuck at “this crummy bar.” Excuse me? If that wasn’t bad enough, Rebecca selfishly wanted to buy the bar off Sam – either ignoring, or conveniently forgetting, how long and hard Sam tried to buy the bar back from the corporation. When she saw that she wasn’t getting anywhere, she tried to buy the bar bathroom and poolroom off John Allen Hill, in an attempt to diminish Sam’s control over Cheers and get the bar. In another episode, Rebecca turned the poolroom into a pathetically effeminate “tea room,” despite Sam’s correct prediction that no one would use it. Rebecca bet Sam that she could make $500 from the tearoom, and then cheated by forcing Woody to make and sell chili in it (in a tearoom?), which proved popular. When Sam accidentally blew a hole in the tea room wall, Rebecca accused HIM of welshing on the deal. But the worst was yet to come. Rebecca, incompetent as always, accidentally incinerated the entire bar, and if that wasn’t despicable enough, she wouldn’t admit to it, and let Sam think he was responsible for the fire through his own negligence. When Sam eventually found out (after he berated himself with misplaced guilt) – he understandably was infuriated and yelled at Rebecca. She then had the audacity to tell Sam that HIS behavior was worse than her’s, since she accidentally burnt down the bar and he yelled at her on purpose. What the hell?! She destroyed the bar and was too cowardly to admit it, and even had Sam blame himself – and none of that was on purpose? I haven’t mentioned the idiotic sub-plot about Sam and Rebecca wanting a baby, which was surely the worst idea ever thought up by the makers of Cheers. Sorry for ranting, but I had to specify exactly why I hated the character of Rebecca Howe. Every time she started sobbing about how useless her life was, it was more than the human mind could bear. Thankfully, Cheers had such a huge and great ensemble cast that the presence of Rebecca did not ruin the show. I don’t think that Cheers went bad when Shelley Long left, nor do I think it should have been canned before Kirstie Alley joined. I do think, however, that Cheers came close to the brink of oblivion every time Rebecca played a major part in an episode. It says something about the quality of the show that it could still be the best comedy on TV, even with such a loathsome character.
Cheers never jumped! Although some of the magic seemed lost when Sam and Diane hooked up, they got it back. It seemed gone again when Diane left, but Rebecca brought a whole new dynamic to the show that made it greater than before. The greatness kept on until the end, the last episode, even the last line. "Sorry, we're closed."
Norm carries Evan Drake across his lawn in his pajamas.
Undebatably, the greatest 30 minute television sit-com EVER!
My vote for best sitcom ever. All shows have bad episodes, but Cheers had the most good ones.
This show never jumped. It had it's ups and downs, but the cast had such incredible chemistry and delivery that even the most preposterous story lines were fun.
Actually, they lost all dignity being drunk on Leno. But that was after the series was done, so it doesn't count. Cheers never jumped.
This show never jumped. The funniest all-time episode in the history of was Cliff on Jeopardy. Celibacy, men who live with their mothers, and postal workers were all categories. Cliff goes into Final Jeopardy with a huge lead, than tanks the final question with an answer like "Who are three men who have never been in my kitchen"
The ninth time Cheers was foiled by Gary's Oldtown Tavern. This told me the writers were out of ideas.
Episode 200. The cast in Boston, on stage discussing the series. It was an amazing transformation to observe. Episode 199...funny. Episode 201 to the end...lousy. It was like everyone returned from Boston and just didn't care anymore. Too bad the show still had a year and a half left.
I have read a lot of interesting commentary on this web page with respect to this show. For the most part, I have to disagree with those who said this show jumped the shark. Although Cheers was great, it was not the "best" sitcom ever; but when compared to other "great" sitcoms, such as All in the Family, MASH, Roseanne, etc., it is hard to say that it ever "jumped" in the sense that the other shows did. There is no comparable "jump" to when, for example, Edith "died" on All in the Family. Cheers may have had some spotty moments - such as the baby-making days of Sam and Rebecca - but it never really had that defining moment when the show went downhill. I guess that is what makes it so exceptional, and such a great show.
Let me first say, that Cheers survived actor changes better than any tv show in history. As great as diane and coach were, woody and rebecca brought new things to the party. but, it must be stated that 2 things were shark sightings, years apart. The first was, of course, Diane leaving the show. The chemisty was so incredible between sam and diane, it must have been real. The second, was when Tom Skerrits character seemed to be in not only every episode but every scene. That took way too much away from the modern day laure & hardy: cliff and norm. Had they let rebecca remain less on camera, she would have been great comic relief, especially in scenes with woody. However, they just couldn't control themselves. It's sort of like in basketball: when Magic went out of the line up and they would bring in Michael Cooper, Coop would play strong D, shoot an occassional 3, and bring something different. He didn't try to 'become'magic johnson. the writers of cheers tried to make rebecca a new diane-the chemistry just wasn't there, no matter how much rebecca cried, whined and bitched. bad call on NBC's part. But, the show was still good, thanks largely to woody, who replaced one of the best character parts in tv history.
Only show that quit when they were ahead. In fact the best thing that could have happened was Long leaving when she did. Example the next to last episode when the Cheers Gang finally with the help of Harry the Hat beat Garys Bar was funnier then most Seinfeld Episodes (then the newer show)
Not only was this the best show of its time, with the best regular cast, it also featured a GREAT occasional actor. Who can forget Harry Anderson as "Harry the Hat", the hustler (and the time Norm sees Harry walk in, slams a bill on the bar and says "Harry, here's the 10 bucks I'm going to owe you in about 5 minutes." Or how Harry finally got the Cheers gang even with their rivals at Gary's. And, if you watch some of the old "Taxi" episodes, you'll see that Cheers had its genesis in that sitcom (with Rhea Perlman as Zena, George Wendt as the Exterminator and Ted Danson as Elaine's pompous hairdresser). All in all, Cheers had more laughs in one 30 minute show than most movies get in two hours, and had more great moments in one show than most shows have in an entire season.
The show wasn't the same, only a few years had gone by and already so many of the characters either left, changed, etc. Loved the show when it came out, can't watch it now. Does anyone remember that stupid Kelly? That started to ruin it for me, Woody is engaged to some rich-snob girl? Come on! Jump! Jump! And that Rebecca is a dog, thinking of Sam finding her attractive after all the women he'd known is just shameless TV.
After Coach died, a lot of the laughs died with it. Woody was ok, but Coach was the consummate sitcom funny fool. Frazier was among the most annoying people on TV excepting of course Urkel.
cheers jumped the shark when carla's relationship with eddie labeck started being featured in episodes. no one really cared about these two ugly white trash people hooking up! i mean c'mon rude ugly carla with her 9 kids lands a professional athlete? my ass!
"Cheers" almost jumped the shark, when Diane left and (yuck)Rebecca "replaced" her, but the writing and acting were just too good to let one cast change ruin it...hence I feel that it merely jumped a small fish, and not a shark.
NEVER. Cheers was a great group of characters that always held my interest and kept me asking for more.
When Diane left the show. Brilliant show, and superb chemistry and writing. But when she left, it just wasn't the same. There were some laughs afterward, and it wasn't always horrible, especially in Rebecca's first two seasons, but once Rebecca's first love (Tom Scarrett -sp?-) was replaced w/ Robin Colcourt, it went down fast, like the Titanic's last minute above water.
Cheers Never EVER jumped! When Cheers went off the air it was like your best friend moving out of town. Kind of left an empty stop that has yet to be filled with the garbage on today despite was Frasier is doing.
There were a few episodes of intoxication on Cheers. Remember Cliff got wasted off non-alcoholic beer. And Rebecca had to drive to Philly to drop off a customer. A Sam's drinking binges, especially when Diane left.....
This great show was ruined with the dumbing down of Sam. The episode where everything was going wrong for him but his love of the 3 Stooges pulled him through signaled the decline.
Cheers never jumped. Not only was Woody a superior replacement for Coach, but Rebecca's goldigging was great.
When Diane left Sam at the alter. It was over. Sam was better off being a bachelor, and the tension between his lifestyle and Diane's was the show's strength. The romance between them ruined it.
This show jumped the shark many times, but when the writers thought of ROBIN "THE MILLIONAIRE" COLCOURT..it was over the top! SAM was always trying to have sex with REBECCA and this ROBIN started to wave around some cash. SAM eventually sunk ROBIN's Yacht and ROBIN went to jail for embezzling funds. ROBIN then went to a country-club type jail and REBECCA still wanted him. If this move didn't jump the shark...I then would have to say it was the return of DIANE. After her fiascos in HOLLYWOOD she had to return to her roots....begging.
The show started to go downhill after coach died but the decline wasn't all that drastic. So if the definition of jumping the shark is when it peaked then the death of coach is it. However, the show stayed pretty good after his death so if jumping the shark occurs when it just isnt consistently good then it would be when Diane left.
I don't know what's up with all these people saying Kristie Alley killed the show. The show didn't get good till she came on. Sure, some episodes with Diane were okay, but overall, the show really took off when she came on board. Once Sammy became the "babe hound" the show rocked. Never jumped the shark!
better than any other sitcom, it survived cast changes. didn't bring in a different person to play diane. it just went with the flow and kept the story line going with all the same main characters. even brought some back in the end. great ending (unlike Seinfeld)
I walked into Cheers in Boston and nobody knew my name.
Cheers was one of the best written shows to ever hit the airwaves. Characters grew and evolved, but never without motivation. No character ever really joined the cast simply for ratings. Example; Fraiser started out as a guest, but he worked, so they kept brining him back because he fit the story. Woody and Rebecca were the same. There are few shows that could ever survive a decade of network TV without declining, Cheers was a rare exception.
Not only did this show never jump, it got consistently better until the finale. Rebecca was an infinitely better character than Diane. Woody was at least Coach's equal. And the writing was unparalleled. Easily the greatest show of all time. TV hasn't been the same since it went off the air.
It was still really good after that but Diane was so much better than Rebecca.
When Rebecca and Sam became involved. it ruined Rebecca for me. I liked that she found him repulsive. I personally never understood what any woman would see in him. He wasn't good looking or charming. But this show was one of the funniest in US tv history. My favorite was when Rebecca was in love with Evan Drake. some hilarious episodes came out of that. I also missed Coach after he died.
This show never jumped! The best one liners ever heard. Diane being replaced by Rebecca only made the show better. Shelly Long is an idiot even in real life. Coach was sadly missed as he was one of a kind. Woody did a wonderful job to help fill the void.
Oh, good God, this page is ridiculous. That this many people could find this many insanely anal criticisms of a show whose brilliance is hardly ever challenged... That show went down because Ted Danson got sick of playing Sam after eleven years. It could easily have gone on for at least another five. For heaven's sake, the third-to-last episode ("Woody Gets an Election") was one of the funniest ones ever to air. You people who get all snippy about sitcom cliches and formula - have you ever enjoyed any show in your entire lives?
The Shelley Long Cheers vs. Kirstie Alley Cheers. Both great, but different. When Coach died, great loss. However, Woody Harrleson was a brilliant replacement. I agree that the Sam/Diane thing had run its course, and that had Shelley stayed, they might have married and had kids (shark jump!). I love Kirstie Alley. However, it is true that they did not know exactly what direction to take her character (hard nosed bitch, gold digger, whining drunk, trying to conceive a child with Sam (ugh!). However, this cannot be blamed on her. Kirstie Alley was not the producer of Cheers. I don't know exactly how much input she had into her role, but hey... if you have the job locked up, you go with it. Also, I enjoyed Frasier and Lilith.. Bebe Neuwirth has a great bod (check out the episode where she tries to seduce Sam by dancing on a bed!).. Very underrated. Sure Jay Thomas and Woody's rich girlfriend Kelly were annoying, but as a previous poster said, the ensemble "balanced each other out".. if Cliff or Norm was having an off episode, Sam and Woody would "pick them up"... The show did have some weak installments over the last couple of seasons (the hologram episode, the Kevin McHale counting the floorboards at the Boston Garden, etc.). However, the finale was interesting, seeing Shelly and Kirstie together, ending with a simple "we're closed"... A nice sendoff. A show that will live on forever in reruns, a true classic...
Cheers never jumped. It was a great show from beginning to end. If anything, Cheers got better after Shelley Long left and was replaced by the hopelessly neurotic Rebecca Howe. I especially liked Norm and Cliff; Norm's witticisms always gave me a good laugh. While I wish Cheers could've gone on for another season, I was pleased with the way the writers and producers wrapped-up the series. The show ended on a good note and I'll never tire of seeing it in reruns. Cheers!
Although it's hard to point to a specific episode, once Rebecca started become a goofy, silly female in lieu of the worthy "opponent" to Sam's boorish behavior (and I'm a guy!)
Kelly was a real problem here. This character led to many weak shows including Rebecca's love interest in Kelly's dad, and the truly annoying Kelly Song by Woody. How could anyone create character who was so stupid and so un-funny at the same time?
When Diane left and Rebecca came to the bar. It wasn't as great after Sam and Diane did it either, but they seemed to get it back after awhile. Once Diane left, it was over.
Cheers was consistently funny. It flirted with the shark with the various Sam wedding shows, but always came back to earth.
The addition of Robin. Truly an annoying character! And the way Rebecca would sell anyone and anything down the river for this worthless pile of crap. Sure, Rebecca could be annoying to say the least, but Colcorde made it increase tenfold!
Losing Diane to (what would later be called) David Caruso syndrome was unfortunate, but Sam was the star, and I think Norm, Cliff, and Frasier's adolation was hilarious. Never jumped.
When Sam and Rebecca finally got together it ruined the entire joke of Sam coming up with exotic ways to get Rebecca to sleep with him as Rebecca only dates people who can help her career. Whoever said that godforsaken SHELLY LONG was better wasn't paying much attention since the show's viewership TRIPLED after she left and eventually became NBC's number one show. When all was said and done Kirstie Alley was on the show as long if not longer than Shelly Long was... and what became of Shelly Long? She left the show to pursue a movie career that went ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE. She never became a "movie star" by any means. SNL even made fun of her in a segment by having someone portray her on a show called "What Were You Thinking?" and putting down her stupid decision to leave the show. Also, this show dispels the myth that Alison LaPlaca is cancer to a show. She appeared in an early episode as a reporter who eventually goes away for a weekend with Sam. The show went on for about 7 years after she was left, I'd say she didn't affect it negatively at all.
Very few shows can boast a shark-free tenure as long as Cheers'. They navigated the shark-fill stream that is a long run for a sit-com, with the mastery of Odysseus. Like Odysseus, Cheers successfully navigated dangerous water that shipwrecked others: - Death - they replaced Coach with a better character, Woody - Exit - Stage Left - they successfully replaced Diane with an even better character, who was completely different - successfully changing the show's relationship dynamics. - Birth - the addition of Frederick - in fact the addition of both his parents Frazier and Lillith over the years - They did it - Sam and Diane and Sam and Rebecca. - Cheers even developed new bit players and regular guest stars (e.g. Harry) throughout the years In the end, they navigated the roughest water of all - knowing when to quit. If only Roseanne, Drew Carey, Home Improvement, and many other series had done the same. Had Cheers gone another year, it would have undoubtedly met the shark. Towards the end, they cast, crew, and especially the network let the 'we're a TV legend, enjoy our last season thing' detract from the quality. But the show left the air before it could jump. Yes, there were occasional bad shows. Every comedy will have a few. But Cheers is one of the few shows that improved and left on top.
Rhea Perlman is a brilliant actress! I especially liked her when she used to appear as Popeye's pet Eugene the Jeep back in the 1930's Max Fleischer cartoons. It's not often that you see an actress with the ability to play an animated character in a cartoon.....especially when you consider that she wasn't even born yet! She didn't even exist, and yet.....what? You mean she's not Eugene the Jeep? ARE YOU SURE?
This show was good until Rebecca became as big as Norm. One more season and Kirstie would have been fat enough to have replaced him on that barstool.
This show never jumped for one simple reason - it was a comedy and never tried to deal with anything that was too dramatic. Nobody got raped, nobody got aids, etc.
NEVER JUMPED!, you would think that actors dying (coach), or leaving (diane), a show would lose its humor, quality, or both....CHEERS survived and was even more funnier, i at first didnt like Rebecca Howe, but she became as funny as Lucille Ball, i never laugh quite as much since its been off the air....truly a great show.
While watching the Nick at Nite Cheers marathon, I am reminded of how truly timeless and great this show is. The comic timing of 80% of the cast is FLAWLESS....any ONE of these characters (Sam, Woody, Frazier, Lilith) would MAKE a lesser show. However, I am also struck by Sam's GOD-AWFUL wardrobe....who on EARTH was advising Ted Danson as to his choice of garb? Did they WANT to immediately DATE THE SHOW to the LOUD and GAUDY 80's?? If so, they succeeded quite well..I don't know which to barf over more, Sam's STRIPED, MULTI-COLORED WINTER SWEATERS, or his POLKA-DOT LIME-GREEN "SUMMER" ATTIRE....either way, BLECHHHHH! (But, I am quibbling here....the show RULED until the END, FAT PAUL BE DAMNED!!)
Almost made it without jumping. Rebecca was better than Diane. Diane was just a whiny, obnoxious, psuedo-intellectual snob. But when Rebecca & Sam decided to try and have a baby together that was it. As far as showing off the hairpiece, that was one of the funniest things I ever saw. Actually fell of my sofa laughing. After all, everyone new Ted Danson wore a piece.
Cheers jumped when Rebecca stoped being a corporate shill type of a woman and became a total head case. Up to the point she helped the show as a personality that was a strong woman and that was very funny when she showed us her human weaknesses........ After she went soft the last 3 seasons of the show degenerated from a smart and witty sitcom to a very bad imitation of the Three Stooges. The writers killed the show so even the very funny actors could not save it.
I really can't say when "Cheers" jumped specifically, but if you look at some of the later episodes in comparison to the earlier ones, you'll see that it lost something along the way. I guess I would have to say that when episodes started taking place outside of the bar, the show started to suck. The show is called "Cheers" for a reason. Eww, and how about that "Woody Gets Married" episode?!? I'll tell you what definitely DID JTS, though: Kirstie Alley's career. When your biggest projects are a sitcom on CBS and a direct-to-video Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen video, you know that your career has tanked.
Diane and Sam had great chemistry. Rebecca wasnt ever TERRIBLE, but she couldn't compare to Diane in a long shot. If anyone thinks otherwise, or has something to say about Shelly Long or Diane... you can go through me because you need to be straightened out. End of story.
Never. I thought this show moved seemlessly from one great character to the next. I thhought that Woody was the perfect replacement for coach and I thought that Rebecca was a very nice change from Diane's character.
The writers tried to replace Coach with a young actor who acted the same way. Absolutely impossible, it did not work- Woody was too slapstick and the humor was not as sophisticated. The show was still tolerable until Shelly Long left.
Cheers is kind of like two different shows. The "Diane" years are almost uniformly great, although they're best when Diane and Coach are both on board. The "Rebecca" years are almost uniformly bad. Sam and Diane had great chemistry, and Shelley Long was a great actress--witty, urbane, arrogant as well as self-pitying. Sam and Rebecca had zero chemistry, and Kirstie Alley was an abominable actress--bitchy, lispy, whiny, and pitiful.
It's not so much that the episode where Woody and Kelly got married was terrible -- it was very good slapstick -- but rather that it marked the beginning of the end. That was the finale of the next-to-last season, and the last season just felt a little bit off. What always amazed me about Cheers was that, unlike other great comedies like Seinfeld or The Simpsons, it didn't rely on any gimmicks. It was just straight-up funny. But the last season, when it became all about slapstick and silliness (ie, Rebecca's drunken crush on Kelly's dad, everyone thinking Cliff murdered his mom), it went downhill. The final episode was no great shakes, either, but that was because after so many years of being defiantly non-self aware, the writers tried to tell us what it was all about. Cheers could certainly do serious shows when they had to (Diane's final episode was a true tear-jerker), but they couldn't pull it off in the finale. Overall, though, it was still a brilliant show, and I'm willing to forgive a slight dropoff in the final season.
The Diane Years had a more serious tone and I think those episodes aren't bad, but I HATED Diane. She was a pompous bitch and I wasn't sad to see her go. If she loved Sam, she wouldn't have belittled his intelligence. He did say some dumb stuff, but she was still a total bitch to him - all the time. The Rebecca Years I think are better. I thought she was funnier, unlike Diane. Rebecca had her bitchy moments, but I could tolerate her. And I thought Woody was funnier than the Coach but not a multi-dimensional character like the Coach. Watching this show as a kid I thought Norm had the great lines, but watching the marathon several weeks ago I realized that Woody was a laugh riot. IMO I thought he had slightly better timing and delivery than Norm. I have to agree with the above poster who said the last season was slipping. It wasn't a disaster, it wasn't great either. The finale was mediocre at best. Despite that, this show never jumped.
Cheers never jumped because it was always very funny and creative. Even after Diane and Coach left they still found a way to keep the show going strong. Credit great writing for a long period of time.
Cheers had it's up's and downs over the course of it's 11 year run. The first three seasons were the best---so I guess i would say that Cheers jumped the shark (at least for the first time) at the beginning of the 4th season when the writers turned Diane into a snotty bitch without any of the redeeming qualities she had had in the early years. The show changed course completely when Shelley Long left. But I do believe that the middle Rebecca years were better than the early Rebecca years. If I had to rate the shows seasons...1-3, 4-5, 8-9, 6-7, 10-11. In general, I thought that the Robin Colcord years were pretty good and an improvement on seasons 6 and 7. Season 9 (with Sam back in control of the bar) is a very underrated season (although it did win an emmy). There are some great episodes in this season that harken back to some of the early years of the show. Cheers went irrevocably down-hill when it started dumbing down Rebecca's character (immediately following the baby-making episodes). Although I hated the storyline in which Sam and Rebecca tried to have a baby, I actually think that the 10th season premiere (when they first try), is a classic cheers epidsode. Please share your thoughts...
Cheers managed to avoid jumping the shark when "They Did It" - Sam & Diane, that is. Unlike Moonlighting, which never recovered from Bruce & Cybill getting together, Cheers was actually funnier the season after Sam & Diane got together, if for no other reason than Carla's ongoing inability to fathom what Sam saw in Diane. Having said that, the show jumped in a big way when Diane exited stage left. I'm glad to see that other viewers out there in TV Land find Kirstie Alley to be the biggest no-talent idiot since Mr. McGinley. The contrast between Diane's pretentious pseudo-intellectualism and Sam's playboy mentality made for classic T.V. - Rebecca was just a female version of Sam, which wasn't funny at all - Kirstie Alley was jiggle t.v. at its worst. The show's other big jump was the death of Coach. Woody Harrellson was not even close to an adequate replacement. I hated him then, but who knew that lovable ol' Woody would turn out to champion every idiotic left-wing Hollywood cause imaginable in his later film career. Now you can't watch a rerun of Cheers without thinking of Larry Flynt or Natural Born Killers. Ugh. It's too bad they didn't have the sense to pull the plug after Sam & Diane had been together for about a year - they could have a Very Special Episode with Sam & Diane getting married and left the shark in the tank. But they didn't. Go to hell Kirstie Alley.
Cheers jumped the shark when Rebecca was added,first all the chemistry and humor between Sam and Diane were lost,second Rebecca wasn't supporting the cast in episodes like Diane did and third cheers lost it's edge and freshness.
Cheers suffered from relying too much on one-liners and long sets-ups to a final punch line. It should have focused more on the storyline. The storylines were often recycled from another Cheer's episode or an episode of Taxi that focusing too much on the liners and too little on the drama surrounding the comedy. Also the sexual tension thing was a little overdone. There is a lot more to Cheers than just Sam and Diane fighting off making out in the backroom. But sometimes it's like that is all the show is about plus one liners from the other characters. But Cheers still started off as a very good -probably great- sitcom. Cheers starts to slide after Coach departs. It jumps with Rebbeca- producing little more than a handful of great episodes. Pretty much all of the secondary characters like hypno Nick, Robin, Frazer, Lillith and so on are ******** and hurt the show. The sexual tension thing followed too much of a repetitive formula. Stuff like Carla being bad, Cliff running away from a beating, Coach being Coach weren't exploited enough. At it's best Cheers produced some of the greatest moments in the history of the sitcom. But it deserved to be a lot better and in serious contention for the greatest sitcom of all time. The dive it took with Rebecca and the fact that people heavily watched it is an example of why we keep getting bad sit-coms. Of course with the passage of time people have already mostly denounced the Rebecca years as greatly inferior.
Being a Brit, I've recently been watching reruns of Cheers on Paramount, and over here it's at the beginning of the eighth season. Cheers NEVER jumped the shark! It was great from start to finish, the whole cast excelling in their parts. The first five seasons were classic, with prissy, well-educated Diane Chambers the perfect comparison to dumb jock Sam Malone. Norm and Cliffie were always great, and Carla's bitchy humour was hilarious. Coach too was fantastic, with the inept Woody a worthy replacement. Even Frasier raised a laugh occasionally! However, I think the show also excelled in it's later seasons due to the recurring characters that popped up in the bar, from Nick and Loretta (and the rapport they had with Carla) to Harry the Hat and Lilith. Kirstie Alley in the later seasons was not as bad as some people here have said. Sure, she was no Diane Chambers, but that was the point. Diane was a character who was stuck in the bar not out of option, and used her snobbery and intelligence to try and rise above the people around her. Rebecca meanwhile was a deeply troubled person who couldn't deal with her situation, being that she had no man, a crummy job and an unhealthy love of millionaire businessmen. Diane could cope with her situation, she was strong-willed, but Rebecca only had a strong exterior. Overall, I don't think the last seasons were bad; in fact, they contained some of my personal favourite episodes, such as the episode when Henri challenged Sam to a phone-number competition, or Harry The Hat helping Cheers finally beat Gary's Old Town Tavern. There was also the brilliant opening moment when Andy Andy turned up, dynamite strapped to his chest, looking for Diane, only to be told by Woody she'd left years before, and then leaving disappointed! Finally, the show never jumped, the best ever episode being when Diane left Sam before they got married. That was absolutely brilliant, and Cheers at it's best. Ted Danson was consistently great as Sam, and Shelley Long made Diane Chambers an unforgettable character, but best character ever was definetly Nick Tortelli. The man's total lack of morals and all-round slimeiness made him a classic character. Anyway, long live the re-runs, and maybe next year with the 20th anniversary a reunion episode (maybe on Frasier, with him going back to Boston for a day) could be made?
Any episode that has Coach in it, and DOESN'T have Fraiser Crane in it....WATCH IT. Cheers in its first two seasons (1982 and 1983) was filled with great writing, great acting, and drama. It is rare to find a tv show that explores romance in such a profound and telling way. The pre-romance and romance of Diane (a snooty intellect and romantic) and Sam (a three-stooges-loving, womanizing jock) is certainly some of the best relationship writing in the history of television. no fooling. Once everything was explored between those two characters, they had to throw Frasier in there to shake things up...but we all know that "shakes things up" translates to "jumps the shark"
Cheers never jumped the shark. Yes, the first three seasons with Coach were the best. In my opinion, I don't think there's a more likeable character in the history of television than Ernie "Coach" Pantusso. The show did lose a bit of its luster when Kirstie Alley joined the cast but the show was still great and there were some truly hilarious episodes during the Kirstie years (Cliff losing on Jeopardy, Sam getting the bar back).
The rebecca shows were funny, just not the same.
Sam and Diane NEVER got married! Why the heck didn't they just tie the knot. Of course, I haven't seen every episode, of course, but still I have a VERY good feeling that they are never going to get married! Also, did you ever really see all of Carla's kids??????
Most entertaining show ever. Thank you Nick at Nite for syndicating the show. The show is pure magic everytime I watch it.
Diane leaving pretty much left the future of the show in question, but Rebecca coming on board clearly ruined it. With a few exceptions, the writing went straight down the tube, relying on the same old tired jokes and unchallenging, predictable scenarios, and Rebecca's presence (including everything she was involved in) was just plain lame. They were riding the wave that Diane created, but they lost their sophisticated crowd and picked up the audience who didn't know what to do after Three's Company went off the air. Bleh.
I wouldn't say that Cheers actually jumped the shark, but it did come pretty close. It continued to be entertaining, even till the last episode, but it lost a lot of it's charm, somewhere around the time Diane left, possibly even a little bit before. Don't get the wrong idea, I wasn't a huge fan of Shelly Long, but in the earlier seasons, there was just a certain warmth, that mixed in with the comedy, and it was a perfect combination. It was never to the point of being the typical sit-com sap, but I think it was just enough of all the right elements, and in the later seasons, the comedy was all that kept it going, and in retrospect, that seems a little empty now.
This show never jumped, not even when Diane left. In fact, it got better, the Diane character had become a bit tiresome. I was a little disappointed in the last episode, I had hoped Sam and Diane would get back together in the end, but I guess you can't tie a man like Sam down.
To the poster above: Diane and Sam came very close to tying the knot, but never did get married. There was one episode, after Carla bought her house, where you DID see all of her kids. I think Sam was over for dinner, and all of the kids were seated at the dinner table.
The final year of Sam and Diane came awfully close to jumping but didn't quite. The show got a burst of new life when Rebecca joined up. Kirstie Alley on cheers was a comedic genius on a par with Lucille Ball. All the shows with Rebecca and Robin Colcourt were brilliant, especially the one where Norm's the painter. I was prepared to hate the show after Diane left, but I gave her half a chance and the show improved so much I realized how lame the last season with Diane had been. Unfortunately, she couldn't carry Veronica's Closet because the writers were awful and they never played on her biggest strength, slapstick comedy. There was too much talking and not enough stumbling and fumbling and getting into embarrassing situations.
When the AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL Kirstie Allie joined. At one point, Cheers was the best show ever for not only surviving but THRIVING with new characters. Woody was great; Frasier and Lilith were brilliant as were Nick Tortelli and his wife. That all changed when the fat, ugly, irritating crackpot Scientologist (redundant?) Kirstie Allie waddled in with her forced tough chick banter (calling Sam "Malone"), her pathetic lack of self-esteem (asking Sam to tell the whole bar she was good in bed) and her fling with mid-80s Wall St. caricature Robin Colcourt. The truly final blow to the show was the addition of the supremely irritating Jay Thomas as Eddie LeBec. He was so bad that Cheers, which had a sad history of main characters leaving/dying, CHOSE to kill off his character when they realized his addition had Hot-Lips-Hoolihanned Carla by making her soft and vulnerable.
The series did a reverse jump. When Kirstie Alley joined the cast, the show got fresh again. Five years with Shelley Long was enough. The whole Sam/Diane thing was tiresome.
Kirstie Alley was pretty annoying at first, but once Sam softened her up and she became more like the rest of them. I say this show never jumped, though, because Woody, Cliff, and Norm kept it consistently funny.
I like how the category "Death (Coach)" actually is a category, much less actually acheiving 5 votes! What the hell? Nick Colasanto passed away, what the hell do expect - these things happen. I guess some people out there understand than cast changes happen. I am pretty sure that the creaters/producers didn't plan every cast change. In addition, if there was a show that ran for 11 YEARS, and it had the same cast - no one would have watched for 11 YEARS! That just makes sense to me - It never jumped!
Cheers never, EVER jumped the shark. Yes, the first five years were the funniest (the Sam and Diane relationship was wonderful). But the last six seasons had a lot of laughs as well. My only complaint about the show is that they didn't end with Sam and Diane getting back together again --this time for good. It would have been easy. Diane could have ruined her Hollywood career and come back to Boston to work for public television. Eventually, she would run into a reformed Sam. That's the ending, I pretend that is what happened. As far as my favorite moments, there are two: 1. the incredibly funny scene where Sam and Diane first kiss 2. the scene where Sam refuses to take advantage of a heart-broken Rebecca (although he managed to covertly unsnap her bra). Great show! I miss it so much. Thank God, Nick-at-Nite still shows it.
Okay... the show didn't quite die, but when Diane was replaced with Rebecca it definitely faltered.
the best cast ever! Norm,Cliff, Woody, Coach, Dianne, Carla, Lilith, Frazier...Ted Danson is the all-time best TV performer...he almost makes the wretched "Becker" worth watching...the last two years slipped a little, but don't they always?...rebecca's transition from babe to blimp was hard to take, but the writers gave it a good shot...thank God for reruns!
CHEERS jumped the shark in the 8th season when all the characters went from being real people you could relate to ,to becoming cartoon characters especially sam , the 1rst 5 seasons sam was a charming, funny , i think smart (maybe not intellectually ) ,confident , and a real & down to earth person , after diane left he became a complete moron , that 1rst season with rebecca not as much , that season they didn't try to change much with all the characters remaining true to there personalities ( the 6th along with the 5th was actually one of the best and funniest seasons ) while remaining funny cheers all of a sudden lost its warmness very much like TAXI the 1rst 5 seasons of cheers not only made you laugh but could touch you at the same time and made you care for these genuinely real & likeable characters it lost that a little after coach passed , sam & rebecca sleepin 2 gether & trying to have a baby , lilith cheating on frasier , rebecca burning down the bar ( how unoriginal) eddie dying , paul becoming a regular , carla sleepin with john allen hill , sam going to get help as a sex addict , woody running for senate , these were all terrible ideas ! they tried to do too much towards the end , except for a few episodes the last season was unfunny , i wanted diane to come back ( especially that they continued to mention her throughout the show )but the way they did it was not believable , they should have made her and sam run into eachother somewhere at the very end and ended it like that and not tell you how thy ended up , the ending was terrible - after not being serious for 6 years they tried to get serious at the very end , that crap that the bar being sam's true love instead of a human being ( we all knew diane was his rue love ) was horrible , cheers made us laugh for 11 years it should of left us laughing at the end too but it didn't , but it is still my favorite and the best show ever .
Robin should be in this category -- how awful did Cheers become when "magically" Robin Colcorde (billionaire extraordinaire) waltzes in to use the phone. Oh but all the circumstances revolving around Robin Colcorde and his affair with Rebecca -- makes me want to put my two fingers down my throat. Rebecca and her drinking problem...puhleeze! The best thing that ever happened was Robin running off the show (literally running!)
The show jumped the shark as soon as Diane left. It was starting to falter in the later episodes with her but I believe still managed to cling on. Her replacement, Rebecca was not funny at all and Sam's continuing attempts to bed her were monotonous and pathetic. It was also at the this period in the show that Sam went from a winner to a loser with chicks. He was no longer smooth and was striking out left right and center.
When the action left the bar and we got to see the "real" Cliff or Carla or Sam, in their homes or with their families. The humor of Cheers was based upon the phenomenon that people assume new personas when they step into a bar--it's their privilege as patrons. In Cheers, you knew that know-it-all Cliff was invisible outside Cheers; that witty Norm was henpecked at home; that sassy Carla was nice underneath; that ice-queen Diane was a Donna Reed wannabe. Presented in this way, the characters were human and thus funny. But when we met the family, everyone became boring. I hated the Tortellis--what a stereotype of Soprano-like Italians. Cliff's mother, though funny, was funnier when she was an aside, although the actress who played her was enormously talented (not the least because, unlike everyone else on the show, she did a great Boston accent: "Cleff," she says, not "Cliff." Great!) As for Paul-don't we all know that Paul was the inspiration for the silent white fat kid on The Cosby Show?
Cheers was a wonderful TV show, my all-time favorite sitcom. Yet in rating it, you have to look at in three different sections. First, there were the Diane Chambers' years. This was the show at its very best with brilliant dialog driven comedy. Then there were the first four years of Rebecca Howe. I'd say the show was still excellent but did not have quite the same edge to it. Then, there were the last two years. This is when Cheers started getting a little spotty in comedy. It began to rely on sight gags (like the episodes covering Woody's wedding) that were funny about one time through. There also were silly plot arcs like Sam and Rebecca's attempts to have a kid (done to accomodate Kirstey Alley's pregnancy which unfortunately ended in a miscarriage). The next to last episode is when the show hit a particular low point. There was a scene in it where Rebecca said some truly nasty, albeit accurate, things about Sam being a joke and a cliche. It was almost like we were seeing a slice of real life, a very dark one. It was not in the spirit of the show. Also, given the way the Rebecca character degenerated into a ditzy, neurotic basket case, it sounded awful coming from her. Then there was the finale. I really didn't see the point of bringing Shelley Long back if she and Sam weren't going to wind up together. Shelley Long's performance seemed rather stiff and she didn't appear in nearly enough scenes. Given these facts, I would have liked to have seen an alternative ending where Sam found himself a new girlfriend. The show's creators had one in their hands in the person of Kim Delaney, who played the widow of the man to whom Sam sold his Corvette. I think those two would have made a nice couple. They seemed to have some chemistry.
here in britain they show cheers in any old order but all the ones i hve seen are great! Stop complaining!
The 200th episode gave me a strange feeling, like something just walked over the show's grave. The cast nervously answered questions and chuckled at small jokes. Everyone knew Danson wanted out, and there would not be another 200 episodes to come.
got so much better after diane and coach left and woody and frazier were added. before, cheers was the diane and sam story. but after, cheers was brilliant at balancing several plotlines into a single episode. besides, diane and coach weren't nearly as funny as anybody who came after them.
Prior to Diane leaving, the show was bittersweet, most episodes ending with a character chagrined or humiliated. No redemption, no lessons learned. Just melancholy, but funny endings. However, after Diane left, the show became more absurdist; a little crazier. It became "pythonesque" in its absurdity. And I'll admit I frequently laugh harder at the later episodes. If the profundity of the show was watered down after Diane left, the quantity of mirth it imparted was increased.
This show never jumped, though it was much better in the beginning than near the end. The Diane years were the best. They were so good - it never seemed like they were reciting lines from a script, it was so natural. Somehow Shelly Long lost that ability after she left the show - after her Cheers years she seemed so stilted in every role she had, including her return to Cheers. But this show is by far one of the best ever made - everything about it is perfect. Thank God for Nick at Nite!!
When the bar burnt down, it had to be the least funniest episode in Cheers history. You really saw the worst in Sam's character, and my opinion towards him changed forever. He was no longer the babe magnet that everyone saw hi as, but just a bitter, balding, p***ed of bar-keep.
Rebecca, I believe was just as funny as Diane. The fact that she was always golddigging and then ended up marrying a plumber was hilarious. One of my favorite episodes with Rebecca was Woody's wedding, she is just pissed off that she is not getting married to Roger.
How could they let Diane Chambers go, and then try and replace her sexual tension and wit with Chirsty Alley, what where they thinking? First year was absolutely the best, with coach and Diane. Wasn't worth wasting the time once they were both gone.
What was up with the last show?? He was going to run off with Diane, but decided to stay because of the bar?? Okay, come on, they could have come up with a better ending than that.
ok i am going to break Cheers down into 2 categories , and i'd be very interested to see other people's opinions on this , to me cheers was 2 different shows , first you have the DIANE YEARS & then you have the REBECCA YEARS, let's start with the DIANE YEARS - these years never ever even came close to jumping the shark !the 1rst 5 seasons were perfection ,not just funny but brilliant , a very very smart show , well written , well acted ,warm , i can't say enough about it ,many people on this page have said that cheers jumped when coach died but the poor man passed away , it was either go on without him or end the show ,i think these years just got better & better as the show went on , many people also have said that in diane's last season it faltered a litle but i disagree ,the 5th season is still my favorite , then the 2nd , i guess i liked when sam & diane were a couple ,by the 5th season cheers had reached the point where it was a success but not played out or stupid yet , i think the show and all the actors hit their stride that year, it was in it's prime , go back and watch that 5th season and you'll see, it just seemed like everyone was on all the time that whole year , the actors were so comfortable with each other by then it seemed like they performed so effortlessly , it's like every episode was just non stop laughs beginning to end ,some great episodes came out of that season - the proposal , cape cad , thanksgiving orphans , tan & wash ,julian weinstein ,knights of the scimitar , cambers vs. malone , diamond sam , dinner at 8ish , never date a goalie ,simon says , godfather 3 ,spellbound etc. etc. ....if cheers would have been a 5 year plan it would have been complete perfection , the whole sam diane thing was timed brilliantly ,coach was the most loveable guy in tv history and woody was fabulous & helped cushion the blow of losing coach ,carla was great , norm & cliff were great ,all the recurring characters were great - harry the hat , nick & loretta ,andy andy ,dave richards ,frasier was introduced brilliantly too , they worked him in slowly instead of forcing a new regular character down your throat ,it was such a warm show too with big time emotional overtones ( especially in the first 3 seasons with the coach )every character was likeable and real and you cared for all of them , i know a lot of people would disagree with that cause a lot of people might not have liked shelley long but she created her diane character brilliantly & contrary to what people thnk diane never thought she was BETTER than everyone else in the bar just SMARTER , she loved and cared for all of them even carla who was always rotten to her , all diane realy wanted was to be accepted by them and fit in , the only ones( besides sam sometimes ) who really showed her any love were coach & woody ,sam was equally marvelous he was a confident guy but never cocky or arrogant & he never looked down on his friends ,he was real & down to earth, he had pride in himself , maybee wasn't intellectually smart but had a good head on his shoulders , he beat his alcoholism ,cared for his friends , and deep down maybee he was even a little insecure which is why he bedded all those woman but all he really wanted the whole time was that one woman to be with -diane , i could go on forever about these years , but now for the REBECCA YEARS -her first year the show was different obviously without diane but i believe it kept up the same level of excellence , right off the bat starting with the season premiere it was great ,they didn't try to replace diane with another diane , rebecca was completely different & they didn't try to replace the romantic chemistry , sam wanted her only cause he just wants every woman he meets and especially every woman he can't have , but rebecca wanted no part of him and it was great ,the 2nd season still had a lot of great episodes but it started to change and got the water skies ready ,by the next season it jumped the shark in all it's glory, the first year the characters stayed true to their personalities ,the writers din't try to change them & at the same time opened up some great new storylines for all of them - woody taking up acting , norm switching careers to a painter , cliffy getting his own place , frasier & lilith , carla & eddie, the 2nd season they started to dumb down sam and his come ons to rebecca which were funny the year before started to become played out & pathetic ,it's a shame what they made sam turn into ,they should have ended that whole storyline with the season finale of the first season when sam decided not to take advantage of rebecca cause they had become friends, that proved what we knew all along deep down sammy was a good guy who cared for his friends above everything else ,it could have been a real growing process for him too just being friends with an attractive woman but instead the older sam got the more the writers made him regress instead of maturing ,and when the hell did sam get obsessed with his hair ! so shallow , one thing about cheers is that the diane years were such a very very smart show , but once she left it was like a teacher being absent and the substitute ( rebecca )coming in and everyone all of a sudeen misbehaving & getting all silly , everything was dumbed down - the characters,scripts,jokes,storylines ,the entire show , it just became so slapstickish , the warmness & emotional overtones were gone, i mean come on did anyone who watched cheers really care about rebecca ,the 1rst 2 seasons she was fine but after that she became a whiny ,annoying ,selfish ,unnatractive mess ! and after sam got the bar back she was completely useless to the show -the writers even joked about it in the scripts that she did nothing around the bar ,at least the 1rst 3 years when she was the boss she served a purpose ,robin was real annoying too ! i can go on forever with this too , just some ideas , but in closing i'd like to say that any idiot can find the rebecca years funny - but you have to be smart to appreciate the excellence of the diane years .
Cheers never jumped the shark. Characters did get drunk. Dianne was certainly drunk before. And I love the episode when the boys are drinking non alcoholic beer and think they are getting bombed. Good Stuff!
First of all, this was one of the best shows ever. It was one of those shows you arranged your schedule around. It was that good. But then.... there was that episode when everything went haywire. Sam and Diane were planning their wedding and where to have the reception and he suggests they have the party at her house and she says - man I'll never forget this - she says " I don't want those people in my house." That's when Cheers died for me.
My advice if you want to watch this show; skip the first season. The first season was awkward and just doesn't hold up that well compared to the rest of the series. The second season is good because Sam and Diane are together and it worked. Then the third season Frasier showed up and the show took off, IMHO Frasier completed the cast and made it work a lot better. Seasons 3-5 are great; it was there that Cheers really became a great show. At the end of season five, just as it came about that the whole Diane-Sam thing started to get a little old; Long left to start a movie career??? And Alley came in to take her spot. The show IMHO didn't really change all that much, it remained as good as it was before; you replaced one annoying one-dimensional female character with another. Of course as long as Norm, Cliff, Frasier, Sam and Carla were all at the bar; it would continue to be a great show. Hence, they cancelled it because Ted Danson wanted to leave the show. So to sum-up: Rebecca, Diane; it doesn't really matter, skip the first season and you'll have some great TV.
The episode where Sam falls off the wagon and Norm has the gaul to the Sam that he's a drunk.
Probably after Sam bought the bar back for one dollar from the corporation and he hired a manager to replace Rebecca named Earl. Earl rocked. He was cool like Coach was. Then they have Sam fire Earl and hire Rebecca back. They should have dropped Rebecca, keep Earl and get a new waitress that Sam could go after like he did with Diane. That would have been more realistic from my POV.
I adored Cheers for many years, and I believe that is why it Jumped. The characters had done everything that was possible, conceivable & believable for that character. It's in the nature of Sitcoms that characters have to remain somewhat faithful to their original premise, or it runs the risk of committed viewers regarding their actions as false or forced. Sam towards the end went from the lad about town to the self-reflective aging playboy. Although perfectly acceptable in Drama - it destroys the dynamics of comedy.
every time we thought it jumped it didn't. 1. Sam and Diane broke up...it jumped.right? no.-- 2. They got back together (we've been through this) ...it jumped.right? no. they bring on Frasier and then Lilith soon after through Diane's return. 3. Coach dies and is seemingly replaced by woody another dimwitted character...it jumped.right? no. woody ended up being a great character and a great source for new material ( Kelly/that french dude (ENRI?)/silly farm stories) plus he took the weight off of Cliff and Norm for side plots. 4. Diane is seemingly replaced by the lovely Rebecca...it jumped.right? no. Rebecca ends up being a whole other type of character. she doesn't replace diane but adds another neurotic character to the bar. the whole Robin Colcort thing was great. okay it got weird when they were planning to have a baby. but, they ended it well, with what could have been the biggest shark jumping ever, by bringing Diane back again. it was the only way they could end it really.
Definitely when Sam and Rebecca hit the hay in order to make a baby!! That was the stupidest plotline ever. These were two of the most selfish, vain and inconsiderate folks on TV, why they decided to sleep together to conceive a child was lame. I figured the writers thought Kirstie Alley was planning to have a baby in real life (since she was pregnant the previous season and had a miscarriage). But even if Kirsite did become pregnant, they could have hidden her pregnancy (as they did for Shelley Long).
Diane leaving, Sam losing the bar, yada, yada. All of this stuff could have killed a lesser sitcom. While I often didn't like the progression of the show, the trip was always fun. It was always hilarious. If it ever did jump, it was .00001 seconds after the last episode aired. That was a jump like no other-- it jumped in real life. It was like someone died, it is the only tv show that ever really depressed me-- as I recall, no one was the same the next day. THAT sucked!
Cheers is the only TV show that I saw every episode of, from the premier to the finale, first run. As much as I loved the show though, I still think they should have ended it after Diane left. If the episode with her walking out the door of Cheers, Sam saying "Have a good life", and then the fantasy of the two of them as an elderly couple dancing in the house they were going to buy had been the series finale, it would have been a perfect TV series. As it was, there were a lot of good moments in the "Rebecca years", but the show was never quite as great overall. It really did start to go downhill the last few seasons, as the writers just kept dumbing it down further and further to try to appeal to the masses. I guess once they got a taste of higher ratings, they didn't care to appeal to the "intellectual crowd" any more.
Cheers was already shaky when Shelley Long left. But it seemed like it was still on the good side of the shark when Rebecca Howe (Kirstie Alley) was introduced as an ambitious, empowered yuppie in love with her boss. Then all of a sudden, she balloons up to gosh-knows-what weight, and they rewrite Rebecca as a weepy, whiny, IRRITATING cow who hides behind the bar all day. And Sam and Frasier are still supposed to be lusting after her? Cheers became the place where everybody knew the shark's name.
It's hard to choose a single moment when Cheers went into a tailspin. So many things went wrong between the early years, in which this show was one of the very best comedies in tv history, to the unbelieveably awful final years. However, at some point in the latter half of its run (I don't know exactly when, because I had quit watching it on a regular basis), the writers began writing two plots per episode -- a major plot (e.g., Woody and Kelly break up) and a sillier minor plot (e.g., Cliff gets his head stuck in a toilet)interspersed throughout the show. This had been a sure sign of death ever since the Brady Bunch did it in '72. Friends and Frasier are doing it now. Whenever you notice it, stop watching. It means one of three things: 1) the writers have run out of ideas that will carry 22 minutes of laughs 2) they no longer care about plot development and only want to write a bunch of 90 second blackouts or 3)the producers are trying to balance the performers' airtime. Regardless of the reason, it's the end of the line for the show.
If I had to pinpoint it to one episode it would have to be an episode in Kirstie Alley's first season, where Sam swears off sex for like 90 days because he swore to God. First of all watching the episode gave me a sinking feeling because it was loaded with sight gags and lifeless writing that became all too familiar during the last two seasons when the show became horribly average. Second you can't take one of the primary traits of a main character and turn it into a religious or psychiatric meditation on the character. It just takes the fun out of it. The reason this episode stood out was because every episode up until then during that season was as good if not better as the top Shelly Long era stuff. (ex-Sam getting the corporate digs so he can play on the corporate softball team; filling in for Fred Dryer's character as the local sport's guy; the guys go skydiving, etc. Then wham!! The priest episode. Now the show maintained an obscenely high caliber for the next few seasons, but the chinks in the armor just became more frequent until the malaise of the last two seasons, saved only by one of the best series endings ever. Watch Nick at Nite. They follow the episodes pretty much in order and tell me if you don't notice crappy episodes more frequently.
This show is still laugh out loud funny. They had the best writers and their comic timing was impeccable. My all time favorite is still Woody's Wedding. Those two episodes had all the elements of a 1930's screwball comedy. I still fall on the floor laughing. It was a true ensemble comedy and every body had a turn to lead the story line.
Cheers was such a great show but watch the first 5 seasons and than watch the more recent ones and tell me you don't see a difference ,the diane years were perfect , the first season with rebecca was as good as ever although obviously different , 90% of the 2nd rebecca season was just as excellent which saved it from jumping ,but there was some lame ideas that year too, just the season finale before sam & rebecca realized they were good friends and then the season premiere of that next season sam is begging her for a date , he actually repeated almost the same lame begging lines a couple of episodes later ! there was never any romantic chemistry going on with these two , sam & rebecca posing as a couple for a boss's sake ( martin teal ) gee where have we seen that before ( evan drake ) ,they were recycling story lines after only one season ,why bother making sam the boss anyway , it lasted one episode , the missing earings episode was real lame too, sam kisses rebecca and all of a sudden he's a maybee , give me a break ! talk about trying to force a romantic story line ,how bout the end of the "what's up doc ? " episode when sam is feeling really down about his empty life and rebecca convinces him to find solace in watching the 3 stooges ,how ridiculous ! this was the first sign that sam & the whole show were beginning to be dumbed down ,they could have actually made this a serious moment for sam & a somber ending that made sam think about his life ,it would have been the first serious moment since diane left , could have been one of those classic , brilliant , touching Cheers endings that left you shaking your head saying - man what a great great show ( and not just because it makes you laugh ) ,also too much rebecca that year also , but the next season was the real jump , and it is no coincidence that in that 8th season the charles bros. stepped aside and wern't involved in the writing and daily doings of the show ,at this point everyone knew the show was a huge success and decided - hey let the charcters do anything , we don't have to keep up the same level of excellence anymore people will watch anyway ,cheers fell into the same rotten rut that all shows that are on that long do , it had ran it's course the characters became goofy and cartoon like , evryone and everything was dumbed down ,also the supporting characters ( which used to be a strength ie: nick tortelli , harry the hat , etc. )became annoying , unimaginative and just plain stupid - robin colcord , henri , john allen hill , PUKE ! ,if i see cheers reruns past the 7th season i really won't even watch them ,the last 4 seasons yea they had some laughs but it just wasn't cheers anymore ,ted danson should have ended it before they had the chance to jump - after the 7th season , they could have had drake come back in the last episode and told rebecca that she finally got the dream job that she had been wanting up at corporate for years & told sam that they were gonna let him run the bar ,then at the very end they could of had sam alone in the bar and had diane show up ( it would have been a lot more believable her coming back after only 2 years as opposed to 6 ) thay could have exchanged hellos and thats it then it fades out and leaves you to wonder why she came back ? what happened between them ? it could have faded to shots of the city of boston and the outside of cheers with a cool jazz song like take 5 in the background , oh well that's how i would have ended it
I'd say Rebecca signaled the downfall of the show. More specifically, her pathetic ongoing for Mr. Drake and later Robin. Speaking of them, what was the point of introducing us to these high-flying, jet-setting wealthy executives? Would any corporate executive worth his salt spend as much time as these losers tending to a dumb acquisition like a neighborhood bar? And then there was that other guy, the little one who sent Sam to Mexico to get Rebecca to himself (reminds you of Kazoo from the Flintstones). These "executive" storylines were stupid and unbelievable.
***I believe Frasier said it best: "Sam and Diane. You two have and always will be in, I guess the word is LOVE, with eachother. I know, I know!! Now you're going to deny it, when it is completely obvious to everyone here! You love eachother, yet you hate eachother! And you hate yourselves for loving eachother!" That was the absolute PERFECT description of Sam and Diane's relationship! They actually did love eachother, only they had problems accepting eachother's faults! I, for one, ADORED Diane! Yes she was, at times, annoying and pompous and a bit of a snob, but that was part of her charm! Her chemistry with Sam made the show worth watching! Though she would never admit it, she loved every single person at that bar (well, maybe not Carla)After she left and was replaced by Rebecca, the show became jumbled and, I hate to say it, a bit STUPID. Although the show peaked during the Rebecca era, it was still VERY strong with Diane! Too be completely fair: Nobody was actually watching the station of NBC when "Cheers' first came on, and it vastly improved by the 2nd season... along with a crap load of Emmy's! It was at #3 by the time Diane took her exit (BOO!) Then Rebecca came on and caught a ride with the already popular series, THEREFORE it is NOT AS THOUGH she is what made the series #1! Diane was missed by nearly everyone... and still is! Hey, there's a miny "Cheers" reunion on Frasier in 2 weeks! yeah!
A timeless classic. Sitting back and watching this, you start to realize just how many sitcom plots and premises are lifted from the oldie-but-goodies like this and Archie Bunker. Each character on this show was appealing in his own special way, which is something a lot of sitcoms today can't seem to pull off.
I don't think the show quite jumped when Diane left and Rebecca came in. Actually, I thought Rebecca started out as an interesting character. She was a tough business woman who only let Sam come back to the bar on *her* terms, and who wasn't one to be taken advantage of. But then the powers-that-be decided to change that and Rebecca the ice queen became very insecure, then a crybaby too, and by the end she had become a neurotic, blithering idiot! It makes one wonder why Sam kept her on as manager once he regained control of the bar, especially since during the last season, it was something of a running joke for the characters to comment on the fact that Rebecca didn't *do* anything. The change is very evident in the final episode where Rebecca, having just gotten married says, "Until he finds out how screwed up I am and he dumps me...we are going to have a wonderful life together!"
Cheers never jumped. It was a class act in every way, from the opening song to each and every character(I leave none out), to each and every epsisode!!! I do think I would choose Diane over Rebecca if I HAD to chose. Actually, I think it would have been fun to have them both on the show vying for Sam. Rebecca really wasn't funny, she just made Sam funny. The Thanksgiving where Diane starts to give a sermon covered to her neck in buttoned-up pilgrim garb before she gets wacked with food was historical!!! Remember Carla referring to the turkey as Birdzilla!!! And the brief skits before the opening of every show (the punchliners) would get anybody watching. What can I say but cheers....I raise my glass to a legend!!
This is the best show of all time. It came close to jumping when Shelley Long left but because of the cast it survived. Diane is possibly the best TV character ever and the Sam and Diane love relationship shows the best chemistry between two actors in the history of TV. Greatest show ever..hoping for a possible reunion...
I really don't think this show EVER jumped! It got close several times when they gang left the setting of the bar and whenever a show leaves their normal setting, they're heading for disaster. Bringing Paul into the "group" was a plus, it added a fresh charecter to the normal setting. Also, the episodes that centered around Cliff were hilarious. How many of us know a Cliff Claven in our present lives. The writing was superb as well as the cast. I thought for sure once Coach was gone it was going to flop...but Woody was an instant hit. Without Norm and Cliff, I don't think they would have made it as long as they did. I still find myself a bit lost on Thursday nights at 8pm (central) as we used to get a large group of friends together to have "Cheers Night" at each others homes. In my opionion, Cheers is one of the best shows in our generation...second only to M.A.S.H. I also look forward to a possible reunion. Maybe Norm can buy the bar he loved so much...what a hoot that would be.
Kirstie Alley was a male "Sam", which just brought the show down - there's only room for one slut per show. Dianne, while incredibly annoying, was a perfect fit as a foil for the rest of the derelicts. Of course, Shelly Long JTS with her decision to leave - easily the worst career move in TV history.
I don't think it ever jumped the shark. I didn't always get to watch this after my child was born in 1992, but I still love the reruns whenever I can catch it in syndication. The chemistry among the cast is the key. I've seen most of them in their own shows, and they just don't seem as good as they were together.
never jumped, even with Shelley Long's fantastic character leaving and Kirstie Alley's horrendous character being added. The last few seasons suffered some from the addition of Rebecca and from too much Carla, but were saved by the emergence of Frazier and the continued solid humor from the boys at the bar, Sam and Woody. IMHO, the only sitcom in it's class for quality and consistency is The Odd Couple, but that show was completely different (i.e., not an ensemble cast). There have been other great sitcoms (Honeymooners, early years of MASH and All in the Family, Taxi, even Seinfeld and Frazier could be mentioned in this group, and I'm probably forgetting a few others), but Cheers and The Odd Couple sit at the top of the mountain.
Close call, but the show was solid for the whole run. Rebecca was not as good as Diane, but there were some great episodes when Rebecca was at the helm.
Cheers jumped back with Rebecca. Rebecca was a more realistic character than Diane. Diane had to be right all of the time, she was too stuck up, and she always had to put her intelligents in everybody's face. I couldn't stand Diane. Rebecca actually had flaws and weaknesses, but I prefer the Rebecca in the first three seasons than the Rebecca in the last three seasons. She was better as the hard nose, determined business woman than the whiny and ditzy woman she turned out to be in the last few seasons. About the chemistry thing, sure Diane and Sam had chemistry, but I don't see anything special about it so I don't understand why people say they had such rare chemistry. And to the people who said Sam and Rebecca didn't have chemistry, apparently they did or the show wouldn't have worked so well with the Sam and Rebecca thing. Wasn't the sexual tension at its highest when Rebecca was on the show I think it was. And to those who said Sam and Diane should have gotten married, I'm glad they didn't. First of all, they were too different and they probably would have killed each other. Secondly, Sam was a man that you just couldn't tie down and I'm glad they didn't have him marry Diane in the end. Plus, Sam could do better than Diane. But if I had to choose between Diane or Rebecca for Sam to be with, I would choose Rebecca because her and Sam had more in common and they were really good friends. If I had to choose a moment when Cheers did jump the shark in the Rebecca years, I'd choose when Sam and Rebecca finally slept together, the funniest episodes were when Sam was trying to get her to sleep with him and when they finally did sleep together the sexual tension was gone. Also the jokes between Carla, Woody, and the gang were really funny in the beginning, but in the last couple of seasons they were kind of tired, even though some of them still made me laugh. Like I said before the show definitely jumped back with Rebecca.
Kirstie Alley! I love this show and didn't mind all the added characters and departed ones (rest in peace Coach), but she really got on my nerves. I never noticed how much until I started watching Nick at Nite reruns. Shelly Long was annoying, but at least was all we knew until Kirstie came along.
Cheers never really jumped the shark,but it came close the last 10 shows.The chemistry of the characters made the show.They could have gotten rid of Carla after Diane left.One of the most underrated characters was Lilith.This show was one of the greatest shows ever.
Well, first of all Diane was the best character on this show, she was the main reason I watched it. Now, I wasn't around when it was originally on but I see the re runs on nick at nite. I have to be honest when I say even after all of the changes I still enjoyed it. But Diane's leaving was really a mistake. Yes, when Coach died it wasn't good news, but I could live with that because Woody really did well, and Coach couldn't help leaving, he died (GOD rest his soul) but Diane had no reason to leave. That ruined it. I didn't like Rebecca I thought the chemistry between Carla and Diane was great. But personally I really wish Carla would have said how much she liked Diane better than Rebecca. They only made Diana the butt of their jokes because she left. And when Lillith left, it was over. They went through way to many changes that were unnecessary. But the last episode when Diane comes back... Sam should have married her, but they should have stayed in Boston and run the bar like usual, and yes Rebecca could take a hike and marry that guy and left the show. It would have been great to end it like that. And then that episode on Frasier when the wives come back, GREAT! But I was upset at the reunion where it featured only Carla, Norman, and Cliff, and 2 non important cast members. But that show was exceptional, and I will continue to watch it.
I absolutely hate Rebecca Howe, yet somehow I love “Cheers” throughout all of its eleven seasons. In fact, the much-maligned 11th season had its high points (the episode when they all thought Cliff killed her mother...the return of Harry the Hat and the final showdown with Gary’s Olde Towne Tavern...I even liked the one when Woody won the council election). With the obvious exception of Rebecca, the additions to the original cast were commendable. It’s amazing how good Nicholas Colasanto as Coach was…but Woody was a more than adequate replacement. Frasier and Lilith were terrific, injecting dry humour and pomposity that was sorely needed, especially after Diane's departure. Most of the recurring characters added along the way were good – Kelly and her father, Henri, and John Allen Hill (I may be the only guy who even liked Robin). The only ones I never really liked were Eddie LeBec (Carla’s love for him was never convincing), and Evan Drake (Tom Skerritt always seemed uncomfortable on the show). I’ve noticed that some of the anti-Diane talk here is really anti-Shelley Long, which I want to address...There’s a lot to be said against Shelley Long: a) she gave up “Cheers” for a film career that pretty much blew up on the launchpad, and b) she was a prima donna on the “Cheers” set (she didn’t get along with Ted Danson and she whinged to the producers for a long time to have Frasier removed because she wanted Diane to be the only “smart” character on the show). Truth be told, the Sam/Diane relationship had been played out as far is it could go by the fifth season (they might have lasted a bit longer if they introduced a new, semi-regular love interest for Diane who rubbed Sam the wrong way, someone Sumner Sloane or Robin Colcord)...in fact, in her last year, Diane’s behaviour ranged from unjustifiably snooty to downright bizarre (i.e. the episode where she took Sam to court and refused to drop the charges until he proposed to her). But if I have to vote, I’d say the show jumped when Kirstie Alley replaced Shelley Long...not that “Cheers” turned bad when Diane left, it's just that the show was better with Diane than with Rebecca. Diane may have been a snob, but at least she bad the intellect and cultural breeding to back it up. Rebecca thought she was a class above the other characters, but she was as moronic as they were and if anything, MORE of an abject failure than any of them. I could never stand how Rebecca constantly belittled Sam, despite her being as thick as he was, and I never found Sam’s romantic pursuit of her convincing. So why didn’t “Cheers” suck when Rebecca was lumped in? Because “Cheers” was an ensemble show, with a terrific cast, so no matter how awful Rebecca was, you could always enjoy the other characters. I suspect that the Sam/Rebecca dynamic was so forced and tepid that the writers had no option but to concentrate on the other characters (and insert jokes in the final seasons about how Rebecca did nothing for the bar), so in a way Rebecca’s lousiness helped bring out the best of the others...except possibly Cliff. The eventual degeneration of his character was painful. Cliff was OK at the start when he was the useless-trivia-obsessed mailman, but over the years his character got so ridiculous he turned into a pathetic sub-Frank Burns caricature - what Frasier described as “a middle-aged, career-stagnant mama’s boy with little or no sexual experience” who never got one over anyone (even Paul was higher up in the pecking order than Cliff!!). Anyway, post-Diane “Cheers” survived and thrived in spite of Kirstie Alley, not because of her. That's how good it was...
This show was as funny in its final season as it was in its first. To those who decry Rebecca..."I am too stupid to live" has to be one of the greatest comedy moments in history. And who could ever forget her rendition of "We've Got Tonight"? This was a classic show that never jumped the shark.
Without a doubt, the best show ever. brilliant writing. Laugh out loud every time I watch it, even if I know the next words. Diane and Sam was the best relationship. Scene where there insulting each other and Sam says "are you as turned on as I am, and Diane says more" funny stuff. Didn't work with my wife though. I got the couch that night !!!
Though it survived for 5 years after Shelly Long left Cheers and from what the cast has said, Cheers jumped the shark when Diane (Long) left. When she left and Kirstie Alley came in, the whole cast just got dumb and the plots were horrid after too. Part of it was the dumbing of Alley's character. But for the most part, the show sucked when Diane left and Rebecca came in.
This show JTS when Sam and Rebecca hooked up. I would have said this show JTS when Kirstie Alley took over Shelly Long's spot, but the show had a new breath of fresh air when Alley came in. They used Alley well and used her to be Sam's girl he could never get. It was perfect this way. After they did it, the show was never the same again because the constant gags and jokes between Rebecca and Sam kinda dwindled and that started more of the dumbing of the show all together.
The Sam and Diane years were some of the funniest SEASONS on TV. After Diane left, the first year of Rebecca was Ok, but watching the re-runs on Nick at Night show me how much the show I thought was perfect, really got bad at the end. Before I started watching the re-runs, you couldn't have convinced me the show ever jumped, but now I have a diffferent opinion. Kirstie was Ok, but she was the ramp. The actual shark jumping occurred, to me, when Robin Colcorde came on the show, he was a jerky, smart-ass, with no reedeming qualities. Other jerky characters (even Nick Tortelli) had their good qualities, but Colcorde was just a creep. He wasn't funny in the least. The final in-justice was JOHN HILL and that whole crap about him and owning the building, and building the brick wall, and dating Carla, and he just totally sucked. The last two years had their moments, but they weren't even close to the first 5 or 6 When they were on Thursday nights, we'd spend all of lunch time on Fridays repeating the lines and laughing hyterically. Nobody wanted to go out on Thursdays for years, and then Cheers got weak, the good writers got burned out and left and unfunny people took over.
rebeca was a sharp as a tack business woman, i blinked, and she bacame an idiot...what happened? she was a much better character as a smart woman, not to say the later shows werent good, but it all went down hill as sam buys the bar back, and rebecca loses her intelligence.
all of these points above are right on the money the first 2 rebecca seasons were very good and she was a good character they should have left her that way and if they were gonna change the show so much they should have ended it after 7 seasons yea the last 4 seasons had a lot of funny moments but are not worth watching over and over the first 5 seasons mite have been a lil more mellow and maybee not even as consistantly funny but the show was much smarter and the characters were a lot realer and u could relate to and care about them the first 5 seasons were a work of art i watch those years over and over it was just a different show when diane left the charles bros and james burrows are geniuses the first 5 years of cheers had the same warmness that taxi had ~ i also have a little alteration that i would love to see added to diane's last episode too i would like to get people's opinions on this idea on this page too..... at the end when sam & diane are dancing when sam is imagining them old the words YEARS LATER should be flashed on the bottom of the screen letting you know that eventually they did end up together and grew old together that would be the perfect ending
I tuned in mostly for Sam and Diane at first. The minor characters were great. Fraiser, Lillith, Woody, and Norm esp. While I know it is a group, and you want to see all of them, you need a story driven front. Sam and Diane were great. While Rebecca was great also, her and Sam couldn't get together, for she was a dumb female driven version of Sam. IN fact, to fill the void of Diane, they upped FRaiser and Lillith's roles to keep the intellectual end going, and added Rebecca also. But, then we got stories of Cliff and his mom, Carla and upstairs John (the possessed house still makes me cringe.) Do I want supporting cast not to shine? No, of course not. But, when I watched Moonlighting, as long as you kept the focus on Bruce and Cybil, it was good.. as soon as stories started about the receptionist and her boyfriend, it fell apart. Role of thumb: keep the supporting cast with great lines, memorable moments, and supporting!!!
The show stunk in its first few years with Coach and Diane. Woody filling in helped a lot, but the topper was when Rebecca debuted on the show. From then on, the show was just great. Frasier became a regular, and came into his role of one liners and explaining the world psychologically to the gang. Also, Cliff was given a regular part that he grew into nicely. From being a background player to being the insecure, living with mom, trivia geek. These were the best years of Cheers, not the early years.
THIS SHOW JUMPED THE SHARK WHEN KIRSTIE ALLEY JOINED THE CAST OF CHEERS!!! Okay, I admit, she was a LITTLE less annoying than Diane the first season that she was on, but after that, she was just a whiny little brat. I THINK THAT THE CAST OF CHEERS SHOULD HAVE A REUNION SHOW WITH EVERYONE ON THE SHOW!!! (Except Coach, obviously)
This show was consumed by the shark as soon as Sam got moronic and began dating Diane Chambers that first time. I didn't mind Diane before that. After she began dating Sam, she (for some reason) became snobby, like she was envied by women in general. All that time Sam was on the show,he wore a toupee. He was as bald on top as Lou Grant. I saw a pic of Sam without his 'rug' when he started on Cheers. Actually, Lou was better looking than Sam even when sam wore his rug. but, I digress. iane was an even more loon after she dumped frazer and began making remarks to sam that he (sam) still loved her. Everytime Sam went back to that bitch he was more stupid. he was a ***** who never told her off. Diane always taunted Sam's dates because she was jealous they had tits and a figure and she lacked both. Diane thought she was an expert in matters of love, classical music, opera, classic art, ballet, foreign languages, and classic plays. And if a person has no interest in any of those things after love, they are stupid, to her. She's full of crap. I have a brother who is a psychiatrist and has no interest in any of that stuff, after love, and same goes for my husband and he has a high IQ. Diane fell asleep at some opera she kept bragging about. If she was as smart as she thinks she is, she would have sought a career with top pay instead of at a bar. Also, for a barmaid, she wears alot of costly designer dresses and blouses, and her apartment is overly nice,too. It's unreal that at her job she can come and go as she pleases while carla has to work her butt off. She's neurotic and a lunatic. And Carla, being a woman, what is it to her that Sam keep his womanizing lifestyle and not sell his 'vette? As a woman, I sure wouldn't care. The show also jumped when the dull, village idiot Woody was cast. I hate that guy.
Cheers definitely jumped the shark at the point when Sam & Rebecca decide to have a baby at the beginning of the 10th season. It experienced some close calls prior: Nicholas Colasanto’s death, Shelley Long’s departure. But I believe the real jump to have been that idiotic idea. Whoever thought of this should have been fired. I remember the show had a very shaky start. Some of the early Cheers eps. haven’t aged well. The show didn’t hit its stride imo until the end of the first season when Sam & Diane’s relationship finally got going. And the show really took off when Kelsey Grammar joined the cast in the second season. He was a superb addition to the show and worked very well w/Long & Danson. I was never a huge Coach fan so I wasn’t that upset with the loss of the character and Woody Harrelson, after a questionable first few eps. fit in like a glove. And, of course, Bebe Neuwirth was icing on the cake as Lillith. I may be in the minority here but looking back and re-watching most of the early Cheers eps. I am of the opinion that it was time for Long to go. Trust me, if you watch some of the second-half of the fifth season eps. her characters quirky-funny traits were slowly becoming quirky-annoying. Plus I feel the writers pretty much used up every possible story idea between her & Sam. What more could they have done? So after being angry with the change at first and hating Kirstie Alley through most of her first season, I adjusted to the change and Alley’s performance as Rebecca began to take shape. So I say those first few Rebecca seasons probably up until Robin Colcord left were, for the most part, very good. Yes, I did like the Robin Colcord character and felt he was a great foil for Sam. The show became more of an ensemble with the addition of Rebecca which was a good thing and a nice change. Though I was never one that thought Sam & Rebecca made a very good couple. I thought alot of the Sam-Rebecca situations toward the end of the shows run(especially when they tried to have a baby, as I stated earlier) felt forced. The chemistry was much better with Diane. And the Sam-Diane sparring is what made the first five seasons hum. Sam & Rebecca were much better as friends. I think the last really good Cheers ep. was probably the Woody & Kelly wedding 2-parter.(I think that was the end of the 10th season) The show certainly had its moments after. But it was obvious that the entirety of the cast was going through the motions. In those last couple of seasons I could swear I spotted some of the actors nodding off during some scenes. J In a nutshell, the show became extremely predictable like you could almost write the lines yourself. So the slipping in quality of the writing was, I feel, the biggest problem. I think some of the quality writers and producers left during the last two years, if I’m not mistaken. It was sad to see this happen to what was once a very fine show. I remember being so disappointed in the last season eps. that I think I watched maybe 10 of them, if that. Woody becoming a councilman. Give me a break!!! I also hated that whole Lillith cheating on Frasier thing. I didn’t like the way that was handled at all. Poor Bebe Neuwirth. They turned her into a real BITCH!!! And the series finale. Please!!! I was really psyched for it with all the hype and everything that preceded it. But they totally dropped the ball. Shelley Long looked so out of place. And she didn’t seem sharp. The whole thing seemed almost perfunctory. Cheers and its fans deserved a much better send-off.
Never jumped. Alley replacing Long? Well, did we really want 6 more years of Sam and Diane? It surely would have gotten stale. Woody replacing Coach? Hey, the later died, they had to do something. And Woody the actor and character fit in perfectly. Frasier and Lilth? Probably the most interesting characters on the show. And I loved how John Hill always got Sam's goat, the idea of giving Sam an adversary was a good one. I can't think of any bad episodes, and for a show that lasted eleven years, that's saying something. They were constantly coming up with secondary characters (Hill, Cliff's mother, Gary) to keep things fresh. And it was smart to beef up Paul's role, he was a funny character. Didn't you love how he was always complaining that the others never included him in anything? I liked the idea of Rebecca coming in and Sam selling the bar, it revitalized the show. And the creators were smart enough to see that Alley and Danson didn't have the same sexual chemistry as Danson and Long, so they made Rebecca and Sam friends. And they brought on celebrity's without it coming across as being forced. Why can't Cliff go on "Jeopardy?" Why can't Spanky McFarland walk into the bar for a drink? Long live "Cheers"!
"Cheers" was never a great show but it was fun, until Sam and Diane "did it" which was the beginning of the end. How did it stick around after that? As Mencken once said, "No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public."
The death of Eddie Lebec. Finding out he was a bigamist at the funeral was one of the classic episodes! The cast from the ice show placing the penguin head on the casket, friggin hysterical!
It never really did in my view. Ok it wasn't as funny towards the end but what an incredible show!! The ending with Sam and Norm will stay with me forever. It was one of those shows that one could not wait to come on. And the theme song was one of the best ever. Put simply, they just don't make shows like Cheers anymore.
When Diane left. Shelley Long was the best part of 'Cheers'! I only hung in there for five years to see what happened between Sam and Diane. No one else in the bar mattered much. Diane was the best, and Shelley, the most perfessional. It went down hill when Kirstie came. She's a great actress, but I think the character of Diane had more affect on me than the character of Rebecca. You put Diane in a bar and it's interesting because there is a smart girl, serving beers, and she keep striving to get out of there and persue her dreams. Rebecca was a manager, a normal person you see working in a bar. The work-a-holic only in it for the money, wants to marry a rich man. Diane just made it...funny...and Rebecca made it...more realistic, which I didn't like.
When Sam and Rebecca were trying to have a baby. A) Wasn't Kirstie Alley fat enough? B) Pregnancy/Babies are not funny and do not need plotlines, and C) it was already covered with Fraiser and Lillith's kid. Come to think of it, the only pregnancies/babies that work are when they are minor and never take over the whole show, i.e. Carla's kids.
The show never jumped really. Coach dying was a close one but Woody was a great replacement. The Shelley Long leaving topic seems to be popular here but me let me say something about that. Yes the sexual tesnion was there between Danson and Long but Diane started to get kind of annoying in the last season. Sometimes I just wanted to jump into the screen and slap her. i guess that's how you were supposed to feel but anyway, Rebecca was a good replacement. I admit the dumbing down of Rebecca was kind of a minus because sometimes i got sick of her whining, but I think they should have kept her the way she was for the first season, but have her whine OCCASIONALLY about her life sucking. But anyway, great show, but came close to jumping when Rebeccca and Sam did it. But that was only because Alley got pregnant and they wanted to make that a plotline. When she misccaried they got rid of it.
This was a wonderfully well-written, well-acted ensemble show that was consistently funny and fresh all the way until... the last episode. Instead of a classic idea, or a startling moment, the show dumped on of all its faithful viewers one of the worst last episodes in history. Bad writing, bad plotting, and most of all, the actors all looked as if they were drunk, stumbling over cues and basically saying, "screw you, fans, we're history." Bummer.
This show never jumped the shark. It almost jumped when Diane left but Rebecca gave the show a new enthusiasm.
The Show never jumped. Sure, Shelly Long left, and Rebecca was dumbed down. I hated these moments, esp. when Rebecca started as a good replacement. But, in my opinion, this was the BEST show that went more than five seasons, as far as shark jumping goes. Sure, there was some cringe-worthy moments (including ANY episode that starred Cliff), but all in all, this was a great show and a television gem. Come on, people, you've seen much worse!
I think this show jumped the shark a little before Diane left but, overall, even the lesser shows with Diane were better than Cheers A.D. (after Diane). Cheers A.D. lost the kernel of intelligent, sophisticated femaledom it had and gave in to non-stop, no holds barred, frat-boy, men-on-top, beer swilling excretia-- pandering to the lowest common denominator of viewers. No wonder so many people don't think it jumped. They didn't start watching until Cheers was already a tired, male-dominated jokefest that, at its worst, invented situation after situation to display the supposed vapidity, frigidity, and inferiority of women. It became completely ordinary. Notice how the Cheers characters most hated by jump-the-sharkers are the female characters? That's because the ENDLESS and POPULAR Cheers A.D. attracted a less than evolved audience. That said, watching the early Diane seasons is like watching the best All in the Family years: comedy built around the energy of a really terrific ensemble cast that acted out scripts that were really like one act plays. Dynamic, literate, intelligent and entertaining shows that touched on the strengths and weaknesses of all the characters (and actors).
Many people are saying the show jumped when Diane left and Rebecca started. I would say that it changed, but if anything, it became funnier. Less touching and semi-dramatic moments, and more hilarity, which was just fine by me. It's cleverness never stopped.
All those people above HAVE to be kidding! This show's last season was the finest of them all, and nothing along the way was bad. As for those twelve people who said the show "jumped" when Robin bought the bar, their votes shouldn't count. They obviously have NO idea what they're talking about, as Robin NEVER, EVER bought the bar: he was the CEO of a corporation that was the RIVAL of Lillian, the corporation that bought Cheers. It was his use of Rebecca for insider secrets from Lillian that got him sent to prison--beat that! Never mess with a Cheers geek. This is one show that should definitely be on the "never jumped" list (*Police Squad?* *Chevy Chase Show?* The first lasted six episodes, the second lasted not too many more. How can you compare six episodes to 275?!)
I religiously watch the re-runs on Nick at Nite. Back when the show was on the air, I was in high school and then college, so I didn't have time to watch. Now, I realize what a great show it was. Both Shelley Long and Kirstie Alley were great in their respective roles. But by the final season, the show was stale. You could tell the cast got along great, and loved being together (Remember seeing them all getting sh*tfaced and partying on Leno? Hilarious!) BUT, I think the jump occurred when Lillith left Frasier. Without Bebe Neuworth, (sp?) there were fewer and fewer "laugh-out-loud funny" moments. Both she and Kelsey grammar are multi-talented, and their comedic timing is amazing. My absolute favorite episode, is "One Hugs, The Other Doesn't" when they celebrate Frederick's second birtday, and Lillith discovers that Frasier was married before. Emma Thompson as his first wife, a children's performer named "Nanny Gee" should have won an emmy! (Did she?) I dare anyone to watch this episode and not burst out laughing. Loved the show and the entire cast, but I did not like any of the storylines after that. Like Seinfeld, this show cheated its loyal viewers out of a decent farewell episode, dragging out another season, with a bored cast and mediocre writing. Lillith phrased it best, "Always leave them wanting more."
It's been gone 10 years now, but sometimes I feel like Cheers really isn't off the air. Yes, the show isn't on every Thursday at 9 anymore, but thanks to Fraiser we have a pretty good idea what everyone's been up to -- Cliff, retiring. Diane, writing. Sam, Norm, Carla, Paul, the same. Rebecca, divorced and eating, presumably. In fact, I think a reunion movie would be a waste with this crowd because by all avilable evidence, very, very little has changed among them since Frasier moved out to Seattle in '93. It would be better to do a fresh series of episodes set in the bar. Bring in Frasier from Seattle and Woody from wherever he is and have the whole gang try out for Fear Factor. Let Carla's son Lud tutor Frasier's son Frederick to get into Harvard. I can't see this show working in anything other than a sitcom format.
Never jumped--one of the best sit-coms ever. Even with the change of cast members, it was always a laugh-riot. Preferred Diane over Rebecca, but Rebecca was good too. The episode with Woody's wedding has got to be one of the most hilarious sit-com episodes ever. Although Woody being elected to the Boston City Council? Well...
They decided to dumb down Rebecca. That left... who? as the intelligent one? Norm? Good idea.
Okay, the earlier poster who labeled this show a piece of sexist swill must have clicked to a rival network when Lilith was on. Lillith was one of the smartest, sexiest women in TV history and Bebe Neuwirth is a great actress -- she was as compelling and believable spouting academic jargon as she was getting drunk and unbuttoning Sam's pants to make Frasier jealous. She was the kind of woman Diane could only hope to be. Then Bebe had to do Broadway (she's a very accomplished dancer), and they come up with a ridiculous way to get rid of Lillith -- she runs off to live with her boyfriend in a biosphere? Breaking up the Cranes was a great idea (never the stablest relationship) but the writers handled it poorly and they really went flying over the leviathan's jaws in the ridiculous episode where Lillith returned to find Frasier in bed with Rebecca, then had her stalked by her scientist lover, who'd gone psycho and was toting a gun. Lillith was way too smart for any of that. Before that, my only problem with the show was the idea that Evan Drake wouldn't look twice at Rebecca -- why couldn't he just use her for sex, like Robin did?
I don't know if the show technically jumped the shark.In the end it was still better than anything else on the air.A lot of people say after Diane left or Coach died the show was never the same.That's true.The show's with Coach are the best,some of the greatest moments in TV history.But I don't believe that the show suffered much the first year or two without Diane.In the third season after Rebecca replaces Diane,subtle differnces begin to show-Rebecca is an incredible loser instead of a strong professional;Carla is hateful to an excruciating degree,instead of just a little nasty;and the worst-Sam was always stupid,but cool and somehow always came out the winner(except when dealing with Diane),but about this time he became a loser on par with Rebecca.I think the writers became a little lazy.The actors were still great in their roles,but the material they had to work with was subpar,considering the earlier works.Still,when it left the air,it was better than any of the competition.I absolutely hated seeing Sam continuously losing to the guy who bought Melville's.It was the opposite of everything we had seen about Sam previously.He was not supposed to be a lovable loser.He was supposed to be a cocky lamebrain who stepped in crap but came out smelling like a rose.The episode where the Cheers gang went along with the joke that Gary had died to fool Sam was the zenith of this.These people would pull pranks on one another,but never Sammy.He was supposed to be their leader. One last remark-I loved that the Cheer's gang showed up,obviously drunk,on the The Tonight Show the night of the finale.I think it showed that,like their characters,they are a group that we'd like to hang with.
It jumped when the super slapstick started, but specific episode? the actors wanted out. They were tired of the bar and its antics. But anyone who thinks it's when diane left is crazy! it had five good seasons left. and anyone who liked Coach better than Woody is a republican.
These people that talk about the show JTSing when Diane left are smoking serious crack. For one thing, her liberal whining nonsense held the show back. I mean, it wasn't as if three times the viewers tuned in every week to think about how super she was. Secondly, Rebecca was and is much funnier, whereas Diane wants to sit around and muse about how smart she is. I mean, she couldn't even call anyone by the name they chose to go by, it had to be proper names, right? Whatta geek. Anyway, I think as soon as Sam got the Bar back, they should have ended the show. I mean, when they have Sam swearing off women near the end, the bar burning down, Robin Colcord coming back as a hobo, and the biggest slap in the face to the series...when Sam takes off his rug and we see that his hair is fake? JUST END IT ALREADY! I guess there was so much money involved, so they couldn't, but whatever, folks. It was all downhill after Sam screwed Robin over and got the bar back. Woody in politics? Jeez.
Cheers jumped the shark when the made episodes away from the bar. These episodes were not very funny. Also, the episodes didn't include the better characters. The bar was always the classic setting for the characters. Plus, that was the name of the bar so why take it away from it? It makes no sense to take them out of the bar setting.
Cheers never jumped the shark, and just like a fine vintage, only got better with age. Many say that Cheers jumped the shark when Shelly Long left, but I chalk that up to the notion that if the Diane years were what you were first introduced to when you became a Cheers fan, then you'll automatically prefer those episodes over the Rebecca years. Fundamentally, Cheers kept improving as time went on. Look back at the first season objectively, and you'll see how dismal it really was. Sure, it's better than most of the trip on television, but compared to the later years of Cheers, it was horrible. The show began to build up steam when John Ratzenberger was bumped up from a guest star in every episode and put in the main titles. The third season was even better, as Kelsey Grammer debuted as Frasier, who provided an intellectual voice at the bar that wasn't as shrill or annoying as Diane. Coach passing away was a shame, but the character itself was hit or miss most of the time, and it allowed Woody Harrleson to step in as the delightfully naive Woody Boyd. When Long left, it severed the show's focus from the Sam/Diane relationship, enabling the ensemble cast to become the center point. Rebecca wasn't very interesting at first, but as she slowly started to unravel after failing at everything she did, then the character found its place. The tenth season of Cheers is what I consider to be its finest hour, with Bebe Neuwirth's Lilith Sternin (the best character in sitcom history) becoming a regular and the early dramatic tendencies of the show's first seasons completely wiped clean, moving forward to pure comedy. Some complain about the slapstick, but Cheers always handled it in a strangely high-brow manner, something that Friends or Seinfeld never managed to do. The show's climax was, without a doubt, Woody's wedding at the end of season ten. Every character was used perfectly, and it left you breathless from laughter at the end. Season eleven managed to continue the magic of season ten to a certain degree, but very nearly jumped the shark when Lilith left Frasier. Fortunately, this was fixed when they brought Bebe Neuwirth back for two episodes to reconcile with Frasier (which meant nothing when Frasier's spinoff rolled around, but that's a different story). If there was a season twelve, then Cheers would have probably jumped, but it ended just in time for it to be a rarity - a show that was constantly reinventing and improving itself. All hail the Rebecca years.
When Coach left, this show certainly lost its funniest character, but Woody was very good (when I first saw him, I thought he was Coach's son). Coach was great, and irreplacable. Meanwhile, I've been finding Diane less and less funny as I watch more episodes, just like I recently stopped siding with Mike on All in the Family. Diane is a smug hypocrite with a terrible holier-than-thou attitude about everything...for instance, in the episode where she doesn't let the police arrest a murderer who has tried to hold up the bar, she decides to put a play on with him because all he needs is a little kindness. However, when his insanity resurfaces during the play and SHE becomes the focus of his murderous intentions, she winds up calling him a psycho and saying "I hope you fry for this!" In another, she enters the "Miss Barmaid" competition with the feministic intention of denouncing it, but after winning and getting a trip to Bermuda, she instantly becomes all giddy and wild, ditzily shrieking with joy and giving the judges high-fives. Embarassing. I don't think much of Rebecca either, however, and at least the conflict between Diane and Sam was funny (mainly because of their battles of wits; Rebecca doesn't have any ammunition). But overall it never jumped.
When Shelly Long left Cheers, the show went immediately down hill and over the shark. The strength of the other characters were barely enough to make up for the annoying and over-rated Kirstie Alley. Diane was the Frank Burns, Herb Tarlek and Howard Cosell of the show. Quick, name one episode in the last three years of the show which Rebecca didn't sob uncontrollably. The whiny-assed slob that she became, ruined what was otherwise a great ensemble cast. The story lines got prgressively stupider and more unbelievable as the show went on as well. Anyone who thinks this show never jumped, obviously wasn't paying attention in the later years. But the first five years of the show were classic.
Anyone watching the early reruns on Nick at Nite can mourn the loss of a sitcom that was funny, smart, touching, unpredictable, brilliant. Those on this board trashing the early episodes in favor of the later episodes does so because they have the IQ of a fly, much like the rest of America, who suddenly "discovered" Cheers when it became much like every other hammy overdone sitcom (tho never as bad). Long live Diane!
I believe that CHEERS jumped the shark when they took the episodes away from the bar. The bar episodes were funny but the ones away from it weren't so funny. Also the characters weren't in their "natural" environment. Sometimes the story made no sense what so ever. It would be based on the lesser characters and not the main ones. This is when Cheers jumped the shark.
It never jumped although it had plenty of opportunity to do so. Cast changes ... babies ... marriages ... semi-serious moments. But the writers and cast never gave in to the televisual conceit of taking itself overly seriously. It showed that good writing, directing and acting could keep the audience laughing and entertained even when the ideas seemed strained. One of TV's best ever.
The friction between the snobby Diane and the womanizing, conceited,average intelligence, and happy-go-lucky Sam was perfect. It was OK for Sam to have the hots for her and she him, but that line should never have been crossed. If they had not crossed it, the need for Shelley to leave might have been avoided, thus causing the 2nd huge shark jump by bringing in Rebecca.
One of the greatest sit-coms ever. It never really jumped. No question that the episodes with Diane were better, but the show was still funny with Rebecca. It came close when Sam and Rebecca were trying to have a baby...thank God they never actually did! Bottom line, it's one of the few shows that could make me laugh out loud right to the end of its run.
i enjoyed all the subplots with the regulars (mostly cliff), the addition of new characters, and even the replacement of key cast members. the addition of robin was kind of irritating because the comptition with sam made him look like a loser, but at least he was able to overcome that by getting his bar back and screwing over robin. what really annoyed me towards the end was the competition that made everyone at the bar look like losers. fair enough, most of them were, but sam was supposed to be the man s man, the guy everyone envied. with gary s tavern, he was a loser. to add insult to injury, hill began extorting money from him for the use of the bathrooms and pool room, further making him look like a loser (to be honest, i m not sure which happened first, but i remember them happening about the same time). sam should never have become a loser.
Ah, but Sam becoming a loser was what made him more likeable. Yeah, he was suave and unstoppable in his younger days, but you can only see a guy land on his feet so many times before it gets annoying. Diane leaving Sam at the alter was a defining part in the character's development, because that began a string of bad luck that brought him down a notch over the next three years. He did finally get his bar back, but then he started striking out with the ladies more and more until he finally realized at the end of the series that he wasn't happy womanizing anymore, and actually wanted to settle down. Remember... Cheers went 11 years. If Sam, or any other character, had remained unchanged during that time, the show may have ended years earlier (at the very least, it would have been repetitive as hell). Sam became more humanized, Norm and Cliff became more open-minded (remember in the early seasons when they were borderline racist homophobes?), Frasier got off the pedastool Diane never left and became "one of the guys," and so forth. This is why the show thrived for as long as it did. It was always slowly evolving, so when major cast members left or died, they never had to resort to stupid devices (cute kids as regular cast members, "a very special Cheers," and so forth) to keep the show fresh. In a sense, they were always staying one step ahead. If a cast member of Friends left, do you think people would accept it? Of course not.
A good show but overated. It is too much this sexual back and forth without enough plot development. It is too much this everything is looks and money statement without enough plot development. It is too much the isn't it hilarious how people waste their life doing nothing statement without enough plot development. The reportie takes over the plot and is often annoying. Coach was great but Diane could be annoying. Sometimes Norm's nice guy joking comments were annoying and interferred with the plot. I think Cheers is a lot better when it isn't about slapstick or everything is not getting sex, sex, sex or getting sex, sex, sex. The sex is usually the rabbid reporte between Sam and Diane, a loser who never gets sex or Sam begging Rebbecca- again at the expense of a plot. A lot of Cheers is unrealistic- "straight" people don't act like a lot of how they act in Cheers. And Sam never came across to me as an athelete. A hair dresser maybe but not an athelete. I just don't get Fraiser. Ok he is an idiot psychologist/straight man who acts like a gay man. I don't know Fraiser & Liliath just don't do that much for me. Plus sometimes Frazier has almost nothing to do with the plot but yet is the center focus of the show. Robin moved the show into this rich soap opera fusion sitcom deal. I wanted Cheers to be about best case examples of unusual situations and people that come out of bars not caviar and champange. I guess the Diane Ivy League smarter than you/rich world stuff annoyed me too. And Kelly. I wanted more of a Beatnik/film noir/counter culture bar and less British upperclass drama. Or even plots and locations more like a Cheers version of the Andy Griffith Show meets Twilight Zone. I think Cheers would have been a lot better without Diane or Rebecca. And then of course this certain type of gay man's fascination with everything is about looks and sex. I guess I just didn't care that much about whether or not Sam and Diane would do it or marry or Rebbeca would have Sam's baby or whatever. I don't care about the gay man's deal of seeing the "beautiful" crowd self destructing that much. I guess I like Cheers but feel that it has a lot of weak/annoying elements. Maybe I just don't have the same tastes as a certain section of the gay population. I guess I think it's too much of a Will & Grace/Gay man's world meets an aristocratic romance and later too much of the elements of a gay style slap stick farce.
While I think Cheers is one of the best shows ever created (see seasons 2-9 of The Simpsons for the best), and Cliff's "Jeopardy!" appearance is the stuff of legends, the episode where Johnny Carson reads that lame-ass joke from Cliff showed that the show just ran out of gas. It was just prior to the show's last season, which was dreadful compared to the quick wit the previous 11-odd seasons had. Wave your beer in the air to the theme
Jumped the shark when Diane left for a movie career that never panned out. She and Sam were better together than anyone else. Coach dyeing was hard, but Woody did an excellent recovery.
I have always enjoyed Cheers and yes, Diane and coach had some funny moments but I would without a doubt say that I prefer Rebeccas character over Dianes and Woodys character over coaches. Never really JTS to me anyway, became funnier with the new characters. If the Diane episodes are on, I will sometimes watch something else. She simply became too long winded and annoying for me to watch
"Jumping the shark" is about when a show becomes something that has nothing to do with the original concept. Even through cast changes "Cheers" remained true to the original concept...this makes it play so well in re-runs. Never was there a musical episode,live episode or an episode where a main character dies. This is one that did not jump the shark at all.
Cheers jumped the shark (and I use the term loosely, because it was still a GREAT show) when Diane left. During the first five years of Cheers, you really felt like you were a part of the characters' lives. They were very specific, and multi-dimensional. After Diane left, the whole 'feel' of the show changed. The veteran characters that we had known for years became caricatures of their former selves. They became elitist and predictable. Even the bar took on a 'glitzy' look. Rebecca started out as an aloof, yet capable bar manager, and quickly transformed into an idiotic, incompetent buffoon. Her 'self doubt' was played so subtly in her first year, much like Sam's and Diane's. Then it became way too over the top, and unbelievable. What started out as a truly unique situation comedy, became a typical (but still WAY above average) sitcom of the nineties, where the "stars" became more important than the characters.
This show never jumped it is the best sitcom ever. The chemistry between sam and diane was great and shelley long left at the right time because if she would have stayed on later james burrows said it would go into a marriage and the show isn't about a marriage it's about a bar so when they brought rebecca in it was just as good. i think the only reason people don't like her is because she and sam didn't date so what?? she was much more funnier than diane. diane was to stuck up.
When the writers turned the career-oriented, snappy Rebecca Howe into a whiny basket case.
This show never jumped, except higher and higher. All those people who voted that Rebecca replacing Diane are morons. Rebecca made funnier jokes, whined in a more likeable manner, wasn't near as snotty, and she was the perfect foil for Sam (she actually resisted his wiles for most of the series as opposed to Diane who practically jumped his bones every time she got the chance.) And anyone who got mad that Woody replaced coach is stupid too. Sure I loved coach, but gimme a break, woody practically made that show! Anyway, never jumped, not even close.
Diane was funny to watch because despite the obvious differences between Sam and her, they were always attracted to one another. Rebecca, on the other hand, was always gross looking, and she was such a prude to Sam, not to mention the fact that she was a stuck-up bitch. I watch reruns every night, but I always dread it when she's on instead of Diane.
What a great program! It started weak (that first season was pretty bad, especially with Norm as a homophobic skirt-chaser. But once it got going, there was never a better comedy on the air. It got even better when Shelley Long left and Kirstie Alley arrived; Long's character had almost jumped the shark before she jumped off the show. The last show was a bit of a let-down, hardly up to the standards that had been set, but even so, there were few sharks swimming in these waters.
this is still and will always be my all time favorite show ever i do agree with one of the above posts that i rarely will even watch the rebecca reruns i know people who rave about a show like friends and meanwhile they mite have watched cheers only a few times i tell them they don't know what they are missing they should just go back and watch the first 5 seasonds of CHEERS (the diane years) that was truly a great show no show compares to it it's in a class by itself well it's rite there with TAXI which no coincidence was made also by the charles bros and james burrows the writing was great the comedy was great the acting was great and all the actors and actresses had such chemistry they were all so natural with eachother and thier lines it didn't even look like they were acting they did thier jobs effortlessly and i am taking a shot at anyone on this page who had a problem with diane she was amazing her and sam had the best romantic chemistry in the history of telivision period see the thing that most people don't understand was that the sam diane thing was basically the main thing about cheers with all the others filling thier supporting roles beautifully i mite add but it always came back to sam and diane that's why when she left cheers became a different show still funny yea but a different show and not a great one anymore argue all you want this is the truth while the rebecca years started to rely on slapstick nonsense and unintelligent dumb humor and all the actors became cartoon characters in the golden diane years all the charcters were reality based and just regular people like you and me working class people who had normal everyday problems and plugged along in life and mixed humor in to get through life and most of them wern't particurally great looking like all the idiodic shows on tv today and besides being funny the early years of cheers also mixed in emotional overtones too taxi did the same you cared for all these people especially coach and you wanted sam and diane to be happy together in the end the season when they were a couple (2nd season) is still one of my favorites and one of the warmest which also had a lot to do with coach there was just something special about this show and 5 seasons would have been a perfect time to end it i watch these first 5 years over and over on nick at nite but i can't wait until cheers is released on dvd oh well i'll be going now to a lil' place where everybody knows your name " cheers ! "
It never did. Everyone talks about diane leaving but she was a pain in the ass anyway. Rebecca did so much more for Cheers. These stars leave sitcoms thinking they will be in movies and have a successful career anyway. That is way off, it never happens.
Cheers is a great show, but it does have a JTS episode. Remember the episode where Rebecca and Frasier are about to sleep together, but get interupted by the return of Lilith? What was that all about?
Although it was a quality show during its hayday Cheers jumped the shark when they tried to make Paul a character we should care about. He wasn't funny and didn't jell with the rest of the cast.
It's pretty simple - the show was great before Kirstie Alley, and it sucked after. It's not all her fault -- the writers ran out of things to write about, and the characters stopped being well-rounded (to the point that the dialogue was annoyingly predictable and stale) -- but nonetheless, Alley almost single-handedly took this one down. I'll watch the "Backseat Becky" episode, but other than that, Alley ruins it for me.
This show never jumped. It was hilarious nearly every episode. The cast changes went smoothly and actually improved the show. The only complaint can be made about Sam and Rebecca trying to have a baby. As for the cast never getting drunk... You are all forgetting about the time Sam lost his liquor license and served non-alcoholic beer and Cliff ended up getting drunk! Very funny!
I have a simple Cheers watching formula: Diane/Coach years- change the channel, Diane/Woody years- watch, 1st 2 Rebecca years- change the channel, last 4 years- watch. The best and funniest year was 89-90 with the Sam/Rebecca/Robin triangle.
Cheers SHOULD HAVE jumped the shark when Shelly Long left the show, however it got better. The addition of Kirstie Ally did NOT emulate the Diane/Sam saga, it took it to another direction where Sam COULDN"t bag the girl for a while. When he does "get" Rebecca, they aren't a couple but two characters cut from the same cloth. Brilliant writing from the Charles Bros. and direction from Jimmy Burrows. 11 SEASONS!
Rebecca for Diane was a great trade. Woody was a great replacement for Coach. Eddie LeBec, Fraizer, Lilith, and the bald guy who bought Melville's were all great additions. Cheers was one of the best sitcoms ever, right up until the last season when every plotline was straight out of Three's Company. In otherwords, someone overheard someone else talking about something, but misunderstood what it was and "hilarity" ensues. Not. Up until then, it was gold.
How often can it be said that the last few shows are funny or better than the first few shows? Woody's wedding has to be considered one of the funniest Cheers episodes ever. The characters "morphed" convincingly although the changes were exaggerated by the writers. I was more attracted to early Rebecca but found later Rebecca funnier. Characters like Paul, Lilith, Eddie the goalie, Harry the con man sort of kept things going so the main characters didn't become "old". Great show.
This show delivered laughs right up until the end. It could never be accused of jumping the shark. And I also have to comment on the never getting drunk complaint. They did get drunk now and then. One of the best episodes ever came later in the program's run where Carla mixed one of her killer drinks while Sam was away, and everyone got loaded. The next day each of them comes in hungover, and it just gets funnier and funnier. From Woody not being hungover at all to Cliff and Norm having to go into the bathroom to find out what the other had tatooed on their ass he night before!!!! Right down to Frasier with the funniest line when Sam says, "How you feel Frasier?" "Sam, your friend Frasier is dead. You're seeing Frasier's undead corpse."
Even better after Diane left. The Sam and Diane thing just got old. Diane was a whiny, arrogant, pseudointellectual bit**. Kirstie Alley was a tremendous improvement
The show took a turn for the worse when Rebecca joined the cast, and Diane split. I didn't want to see Sam have the same relationship as he had with the prior character. That was the problem with Cheers they always wanted to replace one character with another. But the new character was always so similar to the original cast members character (i.e. Woody, and Coach)
This show never jumped the shark. But to me every show jumps after 6 seasons. The way this show stayed the same is they completely changed everything. Before in the first part with Diane it was starring Sam & Diane. Diane was the smart barmaid who wanted Sam but didn't want to admit it. Sam was the ladies man who wanted Diane but didn't want to admit it. But then things changed when Rebecca came on it was a new show. Carla was still a hot blooded woman but had her husband and children come into play a lot more. Cliff went from a know it all to a mammas boy, proud to be a postman, know it all. Fraiser went from Diane level to Norm level. Sam was now an AGING Ladies man instead of the latter and sports came up a lot less with him. The only person who did stay the same was Norm.
Cheers jumped the shark after Diane left at the end of the fifth season. Although many of the shows after her departure were good they could never compare with the earlier ones. I could never identify with the character Rebecca who just came across as really annoying. Even after it jumped the shark though Cheers was still one of the best shows on television. It produced some of the classic characters of all time and is one of my top five favorite shows ever.
It never jumped...When Rebecca came the writing got sharper and the supporting cast was no longer overshadowed by that past-it's-prime Sam and Diane love story! Regarding the final season, the producers should be applauded for tying up loose ends from the Diane days and for keeping itin character. Andy Andy returns six years too late for Diane with dynamite strapped to his upper body as Cliff and Norm complain about boredom. Nick Tortelli walks in as if he never left, obssessed with getting funding for an orangutan (sp?) act. Harry the Hat returns as the only person able to "Get Gary!" And even the wooden Diane returns! This show was brilliant, hilarious and, most importantly, still holds up unlike the Mary Tyler Moore's and Dick Van Dyke's out there. Best comedy in TV history! Back off of it!!!
It's blasphemy to say that Cheers jumped the shark. It was a little scary when Diane left, but even if Rebecca never filled the void, Lilith certainly did. She was easily the funniest character in the last six seasons, and she continues to be great on Frasier. Long live the bun!!!
The overall success of "Cheers" was partly due to their ability to move on after they lost one of their two leads. In fact, I would even make the argument that the departure of Diane couldn't have come at a better time (the show was in the process of jumping the shark, if it had not done so anyway; I couldn't say when, because the last season of Diane wasn't so memorable . . maybe the first jump was after Sam chose Diane over the politician); Rebecca breathed much needed new life into the show. Her presence and accompanying story-lines brought a fresh, engaging personality to the show. However, it wore off after a couple of seasons. Right before her and Sam were trying to make a baby, things were getting really old.
This show never jumped! I hated Diane so much, I was really glad when they brought in Rebecca, although the Rebecca charactar was kind of insecure. Diane was just annoying. Norm is soooo funny. My favourite episode is the one where Cliff thinks his joke is going to be on the tonight show, so he takes Norm and his mom to Burbank, but when Johnny Carson reads his joke the audience boos. Then Esther makes Johnny read the joke again until the audience laughs, and then she and Norm get ON the show. The "home movie" clips they made were hilarious, and so was the part when they had the whole bar watching Esther, Norm, and Johnny, and Carla drops a plate of drinks in astonishment. I watch Frasier too, and some of the episodes where they bring back the cast--Cliff's retirement, for example, or Woody coming to visit, are some of the best. I really hope they DON'T bring back this show though---in a 21st century world I don't think Sam's plaid shirts would mesh very well at all.
The chemistry between Danson and Long was awesome. The chemistry between Danson And Alley was non-existence. Huge shark-jump there. There was also a little shark-jump when coach died. He was one of the funniest dudes ever. Woody Harrelson was okay, but couldn't replace coach.
When Diane Chambers left and Kirstie Alley entered. Alley is a really awful actress who thinks screeching equals comedy. Awful, plain awful. Thankfully the producers realized Alley and Danson didn't have chemistry and avoided the romantic trap.
For those of you bashing Kirstie Alley and her acting skills, (or lack thereof as you say) in the 6 years she was on the show, she was nominated for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy series 5 times, winning 1 of those. You can stop the Kirstie bashing now. (Granted, she and Sam having a baby didn't work well. But the show got better with her on it, not worse.)
This show MAJORLY JTS when Shelley Long left. It already suffered a major loss when coach died but then to have the character of Diane leave was too much. Kirstie Alley was not good at all, the show went from being intelligent and witty to frat boy stupid. It should've ended after the first 5 seasons.
Cheers never did. Regardless of what people say I can watch this show from begining to end. From seasons 1-11. Everybody complains about how the characters changed and how Kirste Alley is some kind of Ted McGinley. I enjoyed all of it. I remember staying up late when the show first came on. I was 12 when Cheers premiered. All i'm trying to say is that characters change and grow, some better and some worse. Think about what i've said here before you start calling actors and actresses names.
Typical answer: when Shelly Long left the show. It started out focusing on the relationship between Sam and Diane... the irony between an intellectual and a jock falling in love. I began to love that idea and the Coach was so sweet. When he was replaced with Woody, it was fine for me because he is such a lovable character, but when Diane was replaced with Rebecca, it seemed to take away the whole point of the show. It's like writing a book, focusing on one point, then trailing off and ending it with something totally different. I really loved the wit that was placed upon the show with Diane Chambers because she seemed to be the only character I could relate to... I even winced when they introduced Kelsey Grammar. (I don't hate the idea now because of the show 'Frasier'.) Well, my point is that Diane was usually the one going against the crowd; the only noble person in the bunch, and with her gone from the show, Sam took the side of everyone else and just became your normal, average, everyday jerk... with a HAIRPIECE?!? o.o;;; WAH! Didn't know that much 'til I visited this site!
The way I see it there were two different shows. One centered around the conflict of Sam and Diane...a match which will never be matched on television sitcom again. The other 6 years focused on various other characters, different love tensions, and so on...The show stayed alive because of Sam, Carla, Cliff, Norm and Woody...however Rebecca often forces me to discontinue watching seasons 6 (and on) reruns. She just had huge shoes to fill and couldn't do it. Nothing against her as a person but, lets face it..Diana and Sam were 50% of the reason the show caught on...the other 50% is because of the stellar supporting cast. First 5 years of Cheers were the best 5 years of tv sitcom comedy we might ever see...at least thats how I feel.
I spotted a fin on this show when cool-dude Sam Malone started wearing more and more dorky Cosby-like sweaters. The jump finally came when Sampson lost his hair. The show was in the toilet and they ended it mercifully shortly after the bald spot was revealed.
Cheers never jumped. Why is everyone bashing kirstie alley. She was another lucille ball the way she cried and her physical comedy. I can't stand the earlier years because that whole sam/diane mess is on practicly every soap oprea that my 65 year old mother watches. (general hospibal, charm, passions) and it's like OMG will they do it? Does anyone really care? Rebecca years were better the writing was sharper and made me laugh out loud so hard plus if it jumped the shark like you people said it did then how come it went to number one in the ratings? Shelley didn't do it. It showed that most people like rebecca years just as good as diane years. So you ignorant teenagers who are obsesed with sam/diane and just bash kirstie because she replaced shelley? Go watch a soap opera.
The entire premise of the sitcom seemed to be built around a "fish-out-of-water" story of a professional student dropped into an environment of jocks and blue-collars, white-collars etc.; on top of this a layer romanitc comedy was added (if the show wasn't about this then why in edisode one does the action pick up when Diane is jilted and left on Cheers' doorstep , esp. when all the other characters had been around each other for years already). The Chemistry of Long and Danson is palpable and went a long way in carrying the show in the first three seasons (and if they couldn't stand each other in real life then they are all the more talented as performers) but the real strength in the first season is largely due to Shelley Long whose character is the most well drawn (only one to win an Emmy for Cheers in the first season). After the writers abandoned the character (the end is nigh when Diane gets caught in the heating vent) and began to write her to be even MORE unlikable made me realize that they had hit a creative iceberg. When Rebecca arrives with all of the subplots about Evan and Robin it just bores me silly. I agree with a lot of the posters here who say that they never can make up their mind about her character. She's a prig, she's a sobbercrying basket-case...finally she's about as annoying as a fly buzzing around your head. I'm glad other characters were fleshed out over time(Woody for example), but towards the end the show seemed to grind out jokes like sausages. The last episode seemed a little forced in resolving the Sam and Diane relationship; I think they could of built up to it gradually.
As much as I missed Coach after he died, the real shark jumper was when Diane left the show. Everyone on here just about has talked about her contrast with Sam, but no one really talks about how she is basically Frasier's female clone. Think about this: they are both overly-educated, patronizing, pompous asses. Oh yeah, and Carla can't stand either one of them. Diane was perfect for the show, because of that. Her relationship with Sam made for great plots, and her dealings with Frasier and Carla were just hilarious. Cliff W. Clavin is a college textbook study in the "Appeal to Authority" Fallacy. It's great to listen to him, especially when he knows for a fact that he really knows nothing about what he's talking about, even though he wants you to believe he does. The greatest character on the show, however, is none other than Norm Peterson. One really has to admire his resolve to do nothing in life except sit on the same bar stool all day, every day, and drink beer. WHATTAGUY!!! Never really took a liking to Rebecca, especially when they tried to turn her character into Kirstie Alley's impression of Lucy. Didn't work. She's really not that great to look at either. Diane was the pretty blonde. Actually great eye candy there, but Kirstie?? Nah. Oh yeah, didn't Ted McGinley guest star on Cheers at one point? Someone out there elaborate please. Long live the reruns
I liked Cheers from the start and never missed a first-run episode. I never liked Diane, as she was a snotty bitch who had delusions of being an intellectual, and she lorded that attitude over everyone in the bar. IF she was so damn smart, why was she a barmaid at minimum wage? IF she were as rich and as cultured as she thought, having that kind of job would be beneath her.None of her stories were ever accepted for publication. She was a professional student at her age, seeming to be close to 40. She dressed unlike no one I ever knew.She & Sam were as different as night and day, and I lost patience with those stupid mind games she played on him.I was glad when she left the show! I hated Woody, because of his massive ignorance.Sam was cute and I liked his plaid flannel shirts. Usually I don't like Kirstie Alley on any show, but I thought she was funny on cheers.Her pathetic self-pity was comical, but I got annoyed that she wouldn't tell Mr.Drake how she felt about him. I hated Robin.I don't think she and Sam should've wanted a baby together...neither one of them could maintain their own lives much less be responsible for a baby.The plumber she married in the last season was cute. He had such wavy hair! I liked all the cast but Diane and Woody.
For some reason the last season wasn't as good as all the others. I agree that Alley was better than Long and I agree with the post saying she is like Lucille Ball, like Ball, she has a particular talent for animated facial contortion and exaggerated expressions of surprise.
The final season was simply lacking, it looked like the producers had ridden the horse as long as she would go. Nonetheless, Cheers is one of the greats, arguably the class of the 80's. Shelley Long's departure probably preserved the show as Kirstie Alley brought something different in one of those rare instances where new blood saves the sitcom. The setting and the writing were great. Watching the reruns, I have gotten an appreciation for how great Kelsey Grammar was. He went from a stuck up choir boy type to a stuck up malcontent that could hang with the guys. Frasier carried this show after the Sam and Diane storyline closed. Cheers was good until the end though. The last episode was lacking a little but I liked how Sam came home to the bar, sat around with the gang, talked to Norm, fixed Coach's picture and walked to the back to finish it up. Life there went on as usual, we just wouldn't see it.
3 part episode that featured Kate Mulgrew (Star Trek Voyager) who is the worst actress and acts like a defunct robot.
When Shelley Long left and was replaced by Kristie Alley, I never watched this show when it was on 1st but I watched it when Fox had it in syndication a few years back, it was a good show for 12 years but I found Alley's character to be worse than Long's character.
So maybe Rebecca wasn't a sweetheart like Dianne,but the only thing that made Cheers sour were the episodes when they compete with Gary's Oldtown Tavern. How preachy and stupid can the writers get with that kind of trash?
Cheers jumped the shark when Diane left the show. It was still funny but the moral character to keep Sam in check was lost and that hurt the show. The characters also became too exaggerated and the they all lost their good traits. Carla became much meaner. Cliff became more insane. Woody became dumber. Norm was just a drunk. Frazier became more bitter. Sam became a loser with no moral conscious. The best thing about Cheers was the many dimensions the characters had and that was lost when Dianne left the show.
This show started to tease the shark with too much Robin and Woody and Kelly's marriage, but the writing never slipped and this is as good as a cast can be. This show dodged every shark category (death, star leaving, wedding, new characters) and was better than nearly everything else on TV until the end.
The show never jumped and in many ways jumped back once Diane left. Kirstie Alley took a back seat which allowed Sammy's womanizing to take center stage which ruled!! For those who say the last season was poor, they need look no further than the episode where Sam is challenged to a "phone number" contest by a french barteneder, Sam loses by one number but ends up sleeping with three women at once, classic Sam! I proclaim Sam Malone the greatest Ladies man of all time!!!
"Friends, Romans, Accountants" was by far the WORST "Cheers" episode ever!! It moved as slow as a slug. When I watched it on DVD, I said to myself, "Why am I forcing myself to watch this s--t??" I also hated episode 16, "The Boys in the Bar". I hated how the entire bar was full of homophobics! Luckily, "Cheers" hopped back on with episode 19, "Pick a Con...Any Con". Who couldn't love Harry??
I'm going with the masses here. Cheers never jumped the shark. In fact, watching the DVDs again reminded me how much Frasier was/is the new Joanie Loves Chachi. And if you weren't bawling after that last exchange between Norm and Sam about "You can never be unfaithful to your one true love, you always come back to her." then just lay down, because brutha, you ain't got no heart whatsoevva.
Cheers never jumped. Yes, it evolved and became a different show, but what show can survive ELEVEN seasons with the same cast and plot formula? Not one can. One poster said it jumped when Rebecca went from an intelligent business woman to a weeping loser...but that was in her VERY FIRST EPISODE. Several others indicated that the show jumped when Robin bought the bar...the problem is, the corporation known as Lilian (formerly Drax Chemical Dye and Munition) bought the bar, and Robin was with a RIVAL corporation. Please. At any rate, Cheers was entertaining all the way through, and I love every single episode (except, I suppose, the one where Norm carries Drake across the lawn...although Skerrett's delivery of Drake's line "Will there be any more bees?" was absolutely hilarious!).
Cheers never jumped the shark!!! I always missed the coach and even diane, and the show changed, but all shows do, they have to if they want to make it past 3 seasons. But Cheers was always the same. Classic one liners and awesome writing. Next to Seinfeld, the single greatest sitcom of all time.
When Cliff went to the Tonight Show because he'd written a joke and he ended up arguing with Johnny Carson about it on the show. Then Norm and Cliff's mother were invited to be on the show. Yeah, right. This episode had no basis in reality, like the rest of the show had been up to that point (even the Jeopardy show you could envision really happening). I think the show ran out of ideas at that point. It had no direction. The early shows with Sam and Diane were the best. After that, the show lost sight of developing its characters and just went for cheap laughs. But with the Tonight Show appearance -- it jumped the shark!
Not only did this show never jump, it got better after Shelley Long left. Let's be honest, the Diane Chambers character had run it's course by early '87. I agree that the dumbing down of Rebecca in the last couple of years was unfortunate. Also, the Sam and Rebecca storyline of having a baby together was a little lame. Other than that, this show is/was great. Ten years after it's final show, it's still better than most of the crap that's on the networks today.
Cheers is one of those shows that I appreciate more in reruns. However, I really do not enjoy the ones after Diane leaves. Everything seems a bit less sharp (acting, writing). I do not care for the "Rebecca's in love with Robin" subplot. I only watch these episodes sporadically. The one in which Rebecca pretends to kill her sister is extremely unbelievable-JTS time. They should have ended it when Woody got married- his wife had no personality, and the wedding episode was awful. And I never understood the finale, where Sam and Diane look at each other and say "You know?" "Yeah, I know." After all the hilarious verbal exchanges between this couple, a little more humor and creativity could have been exhibited here.
When Rebecca replaced Diane the show was much less. I don't hate Rebecca (surprisingly) but she was just DULL. Diane was smart and funny, interesting, cute, and was able to be a little silly and less than dignified sometimes (so we could feel better about ourselves). Rebecca? She's so flat. She didn't even get good lines. Shelley Long also had much much better comic timing. Oh, I find her prettier as well. I'm a straight woman but I much enjoyed watching Diane than Rebecca. Diane's relationship with Sam and the other Cheers regular was also written better IMHO.
i dont think the show jumped. might've hopped, skipped & jumped now and then, but never jumped. i think the rebecca replacement was okay because really what that did was give the bulk of the show to sammy and the gang, cliff, norm, woody, and frasier, because with diane the show was all about her and sam, sam and her, her and sam and on and on. i like shelly long, i think she's a better actress than kirsty, but the thing with her and sam got old, and she didn't - couldnt - just 'hang out' or vanish for fifteen minutes, like rebecca. rebecca could walk in and out of that office once or twice and the show belonged to the true stars, the dudes. i liked this. and i liked woody far better than coach. coach was great but woody ruled, he really got some great lines. and cliff was the only one with a true boston accent, ever notice that? but anyhow i also liked the rebecca change - or rather didnt mind it - because sam not owning the bar, and having that responsibility, gave him more time to hang and be the hero of the average joes, and not the boss. just the kingpin. this was a great show...
After Diane Chambers left, the first season with Kirstie Alley as Rebecca was OK. The show degenerated into stupidity and low brow comedy after that. The Norm and Cliff characters became unrealistic buffoons and Carla should have been brutally executed.
In the days of the Blue Mountain logo prior to 1987, Cheers had some pretty classic episodes. But when the Blue Mountain logo was replaced by the Early CGI logo, to me it was a milestone that the Cheers series has squeezed out all the orginality and was now using minor variations of other sitcoms' episodes. The same thing occured when the "Embassy" logo on "Who's the Boss" was replace with the 80s Torch Lady Logo. I believe that once you change a logo, you send out some form of symbolism stating that all the older shows are veterans waiting to be cancelled by low ratings or otherwise.
This show seriously jumped the shark when Diane left and Rebecca entered the picture. Kirstie Alley was never funny and her lack of coming timing was painful to watch. Her and Danson never connected which is probably why their characters never hooked up. It was also unrealistic the way they made men drool over her given her bushy eyebrows and well-publicized weight problem.
Cheers is a great show, far better than what can be found today, and never jumped the shark. I like Diane better than Rebecca but there is only so much that you can take of Diane. Rebecca messed things up because they didn't know where to take her character, her breaking down and nuerotics were overused but funny. Sam and Rebecca trying to have a baby was pretty lame though.
I didn't like Cliff's change from a lovable nerd to a downright psychotic. They really overplayed that.
For whatever reason, the quality of the writing began to deteriorate when Diane left the show. What was for several years an amazingly clever, consistently warm, hilarious show soon became a salon of selfish buffoons tossing about crude sexual putdowns and getting into unrealistic situations which punished them for their innanity. Don't get me wrong, I ordinarily like misanthropy and crude sexual putdowns, but cheers was a damn masterpeice before and it sucked watching it lose its brains even if doing so caused it to gain in popularity.
I had to really think on this one, but it's really only fair to say that Cheers jumped.. The years with Shelley Long were great, mostly very well written, if not a little slow in the beginning. When Kirstie stepped in, it went well at first, but then began to go downhill, probably during her second to third year on board. The show was still entertaining, but the quality of the writing started to suffer, and they seemed to dumb down all the characters, especially Rebecca. I will say, the last episode seemed to be kind of poorly constructed, but the last few minutes, with the gang just hanging out at the bar was classic, and just might have been good enough to jump back to the other side of the shark.
Show never jumped the shark !!! Although the last 2 seasons definately got weaker, with the writers seemingly not knowing what to do with the characters anymore. Favorite episodes :1. any show from the 1st 2 seasons. 2. Diane's blind date with ex-con Andy Andy. 3.Cliff posing to be gay to be an interior decorator. 4. Any show with Lileth. Possible shark-jumpers, Eddie Lebec "spelling?" Robin Colcord whats the point??
Maybe too much beer killed everyone's brain cells. The show got stupid after Kirstie Alley replaced Shelley Long, and it's not so much those two characters that made a difference, but how all the others changed. The show went from pitting Sam's street smarts against Diane's academic smarts to seeing who could be more incredibly stupid. The characters in this wonderful series were more one-dimensional and less real in the later years.
I like everything about this show except Carla. She was obnoxious, selfish, apathetic, and was always one-upping the other characters. If it wasn't for her, this easily would have been the best sitcom of all time.
One of the greatest shows. Whoever wrote "When Cliff went postal and gunned down the bar" is hilarious! Episodes where the main theme involved Carla usually blew, though. She was the weakest of any regular character on the show.
"Cheers" jumped the shark when Elvis Presley (on a TV) told Sam Malone to have a baby with Rebecca Howe in the most idiotic pseudo-dream sequence in TV history. Frankly, this moment was so bad that the term should be changed from "Jumping the Shark" to "Talking to Elvis".
The moment Diane walked out the door. It was sad and strangely logical to have that blowhard Sumner take her from Cheers, but the show was never the same. I watched the show in reverse sequence, the episodes without Diane, then the ones with her. I was too young to remember the show with Shelley Long and assumed she was an overrated commodity, but thanks to Nick at Nite I see her mere presence encouraged fantastic creativity from the writers: the first (and victorious) skirmish with Gary's Old Town Tavern. Andy Andy, the serial killer. The plane ride with Diane's ex that produced an astonishingly passionate moment between Danson and Long. And lest we forget one of the best holiday shows, and TV foodfights, "the Thanksgiving orphans"? The show was wild, funny, and yet touchingly human with her - one got a genuine sense of the bar as a unit, looking out for one another. I occasionally wanted to shove a sock down her throat because she talked so damn much, but I realize Diane's critical function was to interact with Norm, Woody, Coach and Sam in a confiding manner, thereby demonstrating they were more than their caricatures. After Diane left there was no such interplay. Norm was welded to his barstool, Woody was a moron, and Sam a sex addict. Added to this train wreck was the equally stupid Rebecca, the weepy stick of kryptonite. The show tried to be just as outrageous but by then most of the tricks were played out and lacked their original tenderness. Cheers lasted five seasons, period. And god how I hated Frasier!
Last show of Season 8. Sam beds Rebecca AND gets his bar back. Suddenly there was no tension. Cheers was always bittersweet at its core, about this faded ex-jock and the stuff he wants out of life but can't get. The first five seasons it was Diane; once he lost her and the bar, he had to get the bar back to regain some of his identity and self-respect. He also wanted to sleep with Rebecca, at least partly because he genuinely cared about her. By the start of Season 9 there was nothing unattainable for Sam -- at least nothing he genuinely cared about, because he had become a caricature who had no higher aspirations than babes and sports cars. In fact, all the characters became cartoonish at that point. And it's painful for me to say, because Cheers is my all-time favorite show. But I wince whenever I catch a rerun from the last three painful seasons.
This show never jumped the shark. With all of it's changes over the years, it prevailed. It never got TOO ridiculous either (like "Seinfeld" for instance). There was always something funny in each episode because the cast was just so strong. Generally, I liked "Seinfeld" better than "Cheers" because it has more quotable one-liners than any show with the exception of possibly "The Odd Couple", but "Cheers" was a classic all the way through and definitely ranks up there with the other greats.
Norm always had this running tab, but c'mon, its getting pretty sad, norm has never paid for his tab. I mean he must owe hundreds and hundreds of dollars, sam could prolly use that money SOME TIME!!!
This show did not jump when Diane left. I liked Diane most of the time but let's be realistic. Can you imagine what it would be like if she had stayed? Lots of "I love Sam, but only in a physical way because he's such an idiot. And that's fine." And the writers would have run out of ideas and made her hook up with Woody, Norm, Cliff, and Paul. Had Diane stayed on the show, the show would ended up cancelled too soon, and her getting together with all the guys at the bar would have killed any possibility of Friends going on air (too much plot similarity). And dozens of actors and crew members would be put out of work. The introduction of Rebecca saved the show......saved Cheers...saved Friends...saved the NBC...saved the Emmys (what else would have been nominated?)...saved television as we know it. If Diane had stayed.....ugh. I shudder to think of it. I choose NEVER JUMPED.
Something happened when Diane left. Sam went lost evey bit of suaveness, and his hitting on Rebecca was so tiresome. Ever notice how whenever Sam wants to make someone feel better or if he is trying to get some he always uses alcohol? Is that common for an alcoholic?
NEVER JUMPED..yes it's true, rebecca not as good as diane, though those were some pretty tough shoes to fill....rebecca did adequate job..as a matter-of-fact, one of the funniest episodes was when rebecca was trapped in drakes house closet, norm was incredibly funny on that episode...so nope, NEVER EVER did jump!!!
Cheers jumped the shark when Rebecca went from being coy or disinterested in Sam to informing him in the bar for all to hear that she was ovulating and that it was time for them to have sex. That notwithstanding, though, Cheers was a hit for as long as it was because for the same reasons as Seinfeld, Jack Benny, and the Simpsons to name a few: it never got preachy, and the cast, no matter how large, was made up of perfectly cast actors for the part they played (except for Eddie Carla's hockey puck of a husband!). It didn't try to create laughs from seriously dramatic plots (Edith Bunker getting raped, etc.) Interestingly enough, I phoned Carl Reiner on Larry King Live one night and asked his opinion on that subject--since he created one of the all time funniest shows, the Dick Van Dyke show. His opinion was that shows introduce drama into sitcoms because life is "like that". Anotherwords, he didn't really answer the question. The answer probably should have been, that those shows that are the funniest know when to get off the air--the stars make too much money, or whatever.
I don't think it ever jumped the shark, but when Sam and Rebecca tried to have a baby, they definitely threw some chum in the water...
When Shelley Long left Cheers, so did I. It didn't have that chemistry that made it so special as with Sam and Diane. When they would fight it was so hilarious and you just knew in the end they would get back together. Shelley added a different kind of humor to the show that set it apart. The last seasons of Cheers didn't live up to those first five.
Strictly never truly jumped the shark, still very enjoyable until the end, but I much prefer the years 1-5 as opposed to the latter years. The writers wanted to make Rebecca very different to Diane, which is fine, but the whole effect made Sam's character very one dimensional for the last 6 (count 'em) years of the show. How many really good stories involved Sam in the latter part of the series run? Why didn't they get Sam a regular girl,if only for a few weeks?
Kirstie Alley just didn't have the comedic chops to help carry the show. Anyone notice her role had diminished greatly by the show's end? Alley and Danson may have been great friends off camera but they didn't have any chemistry on screen. When Diane left, the intelligent writing dipped in quality and the show became just another highly predictable sitcom.
I definitely knew it jumped when I watched, horrified, the hour-long ordeal where Woody and Kelly got married, while the rest of the cast catered. Rhea Perlman was reduced to being dropped down a dumbwaiter over and over again, and Norm and Cliff kept applauding whenever Rebecca asked someone to "give her a hand." It was the most uninspired Cheers episode ever, and it went on for an HOUR!
The show dodged a shark when Coach was replaced by Woody. I can't stand Woody Harrelson as an actor, but he does a pretty good job here of playing a brainless dip**** (typecasting at its finest). When Diane and Sam inevitably hook up, the show lost a lot of its edge, as do all shows with a bit of sexual tension. Of course, once Diane left altogether, that was the end of the show. Many sharks then appeared and were jumped. Also annoying towards the end, were the endless straight lines being fed to Carla and her "too ready" smart-ass comebacks. Very tiring.
No question about it, this show jumped over Jaws when Diane/Shelley Long parted company with the rest of the gang. As a fan from the show’s original run I was saddened to see this warm, witty and charming show go straight into the toilet. The scripts, once gems written by the Charles brothers and the late, great David Angell, were the most abysmal tripe in the second half of its too long run. No character development at all –everyone became two-dimensional and the dialogue was leaden. I think egos overruled craftsmanship and in the end it was just plain awful. True it eventually was deemed a “hit” ratings wise but to paraphrase Paddy Chayefsky “television is democracy at its worst”; just because Cheers found a bigger audience didn’t make it a better show. You have to wonder why they inserted Fraiser into the cast when one intellectual character was plenty. It was almost as if they anticipated Diane’s departure years before it happened and were covering their bases. One poster here hit the nail head-on when they said that after Diane left there was no moral anchor and the show drifted into mediocrity. If Paramount thinks I’m going to shell out any money for season 6-11 on DVD they are crazier than hell.
I can't believe how many times Diane & Sam broke up, or the many times Diane quit the bar only to come back in the next episode or two. It got REALLY annoying, and this is my watching reruns on late night TV. I always like Rebecca better (though, she needed to tam that mane) because Diane was too weak of a character and simply never fit into the show. It jumped early on, but came back as a better show with Woody & Rebecca. Just personal preference, but the endless stream of 'On Again, Off Again' episodes with the relationship between Sam & Diane was annoying and tiresome.
Cheers jumped when Rebecca started to become stupid. I don't know how anybody could say that this show did not jump. It was horrible in the last couple of years. It got too nice and too corny. Too much Lilith!!!
This show is a mixed bag. While the preference of Long over Alley is a question of taste I have to say I prefer the Diane years. Those first five years made this sitcom worthy of being grouped in the company of “Mary Tyler Moore” “Taxi” and other greats of the genre. The latter seasons rested on the laurels of the earlier ones and the show as a whole is uneven at best. Which raises the question of just how long should a sitcom’s shelf life be? As once with “Cheers”, “Fraiser” and “Friends” are good examples of current shows ending their respective 10 year runs that have gotten a little long in the tooth but because of network avarice (hmmm? All three have aired on the same network…) there are needlessly kept alive in order to sustain this so-called “Must See TV”. Once genuinely funny shows are diluted at the expense of the bottom line. Dick Van Dyke knew that 7 seasons of his show was a sufficient run as did Mary Tyler Moore with hers. Cheers was too much of a good thing gone bad I’m sorry to say.
CHEERS Never, EVER jumped the Shark. How they Brilliantly moved Rebecca in was as smooth as butter. Great, Great Show. In the same league as Seinfeld.
This was always a great but problematic show. I thought it was virtually perfect until Diane left, but even when Diane was on, the fact that Sam and Diane consummated the relationship caused weaknesses and problems. The chemistry of Sam and Diane WAS the show, with the rest as excellent set-dressing. Perhaps Shelley Long was difficult. She was also the best actor on the show, and made Ted Danson a great comic actor for the only period of his career. When she left, the show quickly went down the tubes. The minor characters became much more important, which never works, as witness the failed spinoffs of so many "color characters". Rebecca turned into an easily manipulated ditz. Perhsps the worst change was the appalling prominence of the very minorly talented and extremely annoying Rhea Perlman, obviously promoted to please her sister, Heide. In small doses, Carla was a fun character. In anything more than 10 lines an episode, she was a disastrous shrew. And the incredible conceit of the Perlmans that Carla was somehow sexy and attractive, when she was nothing but a troll doll with a tray. Her later career has given Rhea Perlamn all the obscurity she deserves (remember Pearl? She was the only dislikable element on the show!). Then, who the hell was Paul, and why did anyone think that this man was funny and worthy of any prominence? And lastly, the smugness factor became immense. One could just feel that, having gotten rid of Long, the cast felt they were all-powerful. It is amazing how good the series could sometimes be, despite all these flaws. The writing (not the plot development) was actually better than the acting.
This show should have ended when Shelley Long left. Diane was a brilliant character, played brilliantly by Ms. Long, and her interaction with the rest of the idiots in the bar made them not only tolerable, but funny. Without her, they were neither. Cheers died a painfully slow death following her departure.
When Rebecca replaces Diane! The chemistry between Sam & Diane could've rocketed the show for many years. They made me watch, I couldn't help watching such a rare type of couple. Then she left because of pettyness behind the scenes. Then forced us to listen to a high-pitched whiner who is as greedy and selfish as they come. Then they made a womanizer like Sam turn into a begging man who chases that woman around! Why? You would think actors could ACT good behind the scenes when they ALL know they had something special!
When Rebecca replaced Diane. No offence intended to any of the participants, but Diane was one of the irreplaceable characters, and it should have been clear to everyone. Maybe it was.
How many souls were sold to the devil for this debacle of a sitcom to limp on for years after Diane left? That’s the question I asked myself after watching back to back episodes of the Rebecca years on the TV Land marathon. If the Sam and Diane romance burned itself out and the writers were out of ideas why did they have to take it out on Long? She was the funniest part of the show! I sure as hell didn’t tune in to watch the Perlman family talent show (Rhea, Heidi and Phil) or bask in the comic genius of Ted Danson (see “Becker” ;Ensemble shows that wished they were Cheers”). I’m not sure whose professional jealousy was inflamed but that was a mistake to push her out. She wasn’t the sole reason the series flat-lined but coincidence or not , the writing wasn’t as sharp afterward (but in my opinion it goes hand in hand; with good characters come good writing). I also found it unfortunate that in each of these two later episodes they felt the need to tear down Diane’s character years after her departure (Frasier even mutters “that bitch Diane”); very unnecessary. I don’t think its something Nicholas Colasanto would’ve thought was appropriate for the spirit of the original show. That is just an example of what kind of classless comedy this became and on top of everything else its just UNFUNNY. Sam battles John for the bathrooms and poolroom? Wake me when its over! Who thought this recurring situation was funny? It didn’t surprise me that the whole cast appeared drunk on the Tonight Show the night of the series finale—I would want to try to forget those last six years too (although there wouldn’t be enough alcohol). I’m not trying to flame or bait anyone in particular but anyone who says this show never jumped must have a lousy sense of humor.
Still one of the more consistent shows even with the loss of Coach. However, it wasn't ever quite the same. Woody was the same character, just 50 years younger.
Did it bother anyone else that Norm drank 12 or 13 beers and drove home every night.
It jumped, not when Lilith cheated on Frasier---there were definitely some problems in the marriage and the affair made sense---but when Lilith LEFT Frasier for her lover. It was handled incredibly poorly and took Lilith completely out of character. It just didn't work. I don't care for the fact that the Cranes broke up at all (honestly, I think they were THE funniest couple to ever appear on TV) but if they were going to do it they should have done it in a more believable and complex way. A couple such as that one deserved that much.
Diane Chambers (Shelly Long) left, it was never the same. Kirstie Alley got to be so tiresome.
I never liked Diane (nor, for that matter, Shelley Long), so the show jumped when it was revealed that Sam proposed to Diane, not Councillor Eldridge (Kate Mulgrew), over the phone in the season-ending cliffhanger. But when Shelley Long left and was replaced by Kirstie Alley (Rebecca), the show recovered; Rebecca was much funnier than Diane.
Kirstie Alley is about as funny as a Scientologist. Cheers A.D. ("After Diane") blows chunks.
The Show jumped when Diane left. It wasn't because Kirstie Alley, or Rebecca wasn't great, infact I love her too. It's just that when you watch a certain thing for many years and it changes, it's upsetting. If Kirstie was in the first place the show would have been great. Shelley Long was fantastic and so was Kirstie, but I would have liked either one or the other. But as I wached Rebecca even more I began to enjoy her years as well.
As soon as diane left this show strapped on the skies slipped right off the ramp and was hideously mauled into a bloody pulp by about 6 sharks at a time . rebecca was terrible , a selfish , greedy ,whiny , ugly person with absolutely no redeeming qualities what so ever , she didn't fit in with the whole feel of what was a warm and reality character based & smart show ,all the characters were people you grew to love and care about because deep down they were all good people even carla who acted mean most of the time , cheers should have ended after 5 seasons and it would have been perfect.
Cheers had it's bad moments of course, all shows do but it never, ever possibly jumped! It is my favorite show on tv, one of the best sitcoms ever, if not the best and funniest. The relationionship between Diane and Sam drove me crazy, but in a good way. Their relationship was so crazy and different that it was great. I was and still am on the edge of my seat and laughing continuosly when I see Cheers re-runs, especially with diane. My favorite episode was when Fraiser pulled a gun on Sam and Woody first arrives at the bar, also Diane decides to come back from the convent. The episodes after that but before Shelly Long left were great. Rebecca was pretty good, but nowhere near as good as Diane and Coach. His death was a sad point in the show but Woody's simpleton character fit perfectly in place. Overall a great show. Cheers still remains my favorite.
Cheers JTS when Shelley Long left the show. Shelley Long's portrayal of Diane is my favourite part of the show, and the dynamic shared by Sam and Diane *is* the show. I love the supporting characters, but that's exactly what they are -- *supporting* characters. More than anything else, it is the relationship between Sam and Diane that makes the show what it is in those first five seasons. Take Diane away and the entire character of the show is altered. I still like the Rebecca years, but nowhere near enough to own them on DVD. For me, Cheers ends with Diane's departure at the end of the fifth season.
When Rebecca started becoming a whiner, about 2 yrs before the show ended. She was much more effective as a cold hearted, cool lady. Her iciness made the transition from Diane to Rebecca much more effective.
Cheers never jumped. What did happen is that it basically became a different show after Diane left. Sam wouldn't be the same without Diane as a foil/obsession and I think this reflects the way people change in real life given changing circumstances and surroundings. Frasier's character also changed often throughout the series as did others. When a show runs for a long time, this kind of change is actually a good thing because it's more like reality. Befor Diane left, we saw a side of Sam that didn't surface after she left. The bar became a place of fun and refuge for Sam, like it probably was before Diane ever showed up, rather than the field of mental and emotional warfare it became while she was there. The tension between Sam and Diane was classic, but when she left, so did the tension and our glimpse into that part of Sam. Afterward it was more show about buddies and friendship...the goings on of the bar changed and so did what we saw of the people there. Great show, two great shows really.
Diane Chambers leaving the cast marked the decline of Cheers as a truly great show. There was no real story or purpose to it after she was gone. Perhaps the writers intended for the same tension between Sam Malone and Rebecca whatever-her-name-was (and who cares?), but that was clearly stillborn. I suppose they still got out a few funny jokes and entertained some people, but the heart and soul of the show was removed.
I was glad when prissy Shelley Long left Cheers. She was nothing more than an actress that tried to make her name, and then reap the rewards. And boy, did she have a successful post-Cheers career or what? LMAO!! >From what I've learned from talking to Les and Glen Charles (the creators of Cheers) in Boston this past summer, they were actually glad Shelley left, since the whole "Sam and Diane" saga was dragging on and becoming repetitve and cumbersome. Interestingly enough, the plot lines for Sam and Rebecca having a baby were actually rehashed plots and writing from a Season 6 after Sam and Diane got married. They were going to have Sam and Diane having trouble conceiving, and they put those plot-lines into mothballs. Season 8 was planned with Sam getting a wandering eye, and the "cliffhanger" was going to be "Did Sam Cheat On Diane?." Yawn. That whole "Sam and Diane" **** got old by Season 5, and I was glad to see something else become the focal point of the show. Cheers was lucky enough to have two eras - The "Diane" Era and the "Rebecca" Era - without the split, that show would have been cancelled after Season 7 or surely after Season 8. The whole "Sam and Diane" plot got real stale, repetitive, and was just becoming tiresome. And remember that I got this info from the show's CREATORS - it only cost me about $7.00 to buy the Charles' Brothers a couple of beers. How's that post-Cheers career going for you now, Shelley? I would give you a few coins in your tin cup, but I'm broke. Dumbass.
On one hand this last poster claims that if Shelley Long had stayed with Cheers then the whole series would’ve gotten stale with the Sam and Diane storylines yet concludes with mocking her post-Cheers career as a bad career move suggesting that she’s a “dumbass” for leaving the show. Which is it? She’s damned if she does and damned if she doesn’t. I mean lets be honest much has been made of Long’s flops but when it comes down to it Ted Danson’s “Three Men and a Little Lady” or Kirstie Alley’s “Look Who’s Talking Now” isn’t exactly vying to topple Citizen Kane off the all-time Top Ten list. Can you name a successful Rhea Perlman movie? How about George Wendt? I didn’t think so. It is merely a matter of perception of who’s “up” or who’s “down” in Hollywood. If this Charles brother story is true —and its doubtful—then the problem wasn’t with Long it was with the writers and creators. Rehashing old Sam and Diane plots for Rebecca and Sam —sounds like creative bankruptcy to me and frankly its pretty apparent in watching the latter half of this series. For prolonging Cheers past its prime the Charles brothers are no less opportunists than Long supposedly is accused of being. To make Long the scapegoat is disingenuous.
In contrast to previous posters I actually liked both the Long and Alley eras. Comparing the two is like comparing apples and oranges so I just try to see both eras as they are: FUNNY! In response to the previous poster who mentions post-Cheers careers of the other actors I noticed one omission: John Ratzenberger! Since Cheers, Mr. Ratzenberger has guested on Murphy Brown (memorable as the rat exterminator) and had a hilarious reunion with Shelley Long as the neighboring Doyles on 8 Simple Rules (only time we got to see Cliff, Diane, Jack Tripper, and Peg Bundy on the same show!) His best work has been on all the Pixar made computer animated feature films (though I didn't recognise him anywhere in The Incredibles, hope I will when I see the DVD). I know John is now on a cable reality series about exploring America.(Traveling more miles than Cliff Claven ever expects to go, I see!) So other than Woody Harrelson and Kelsey Grammer, John Ratzenberger seems to have the most success post-Cheers career ever! And to think he only got on because he created a know-it-all mailman on the spot at his audition when he failed to get cast as Norm Peterson...
Cheers never 'jumped the shark' as far as I'm concerned. Obviously, there were some things that I wish had been done differently, but other than that, I laughed until the very end. I do wish Shelly Long had had the sense to stay with the show, but I found myself surprised at how quickly it took me to get used to Rebecca. I think the one thing I couldn't quite understand was why Frasier was kept around? I hated him from day one, but eventually got used to looking at him(I think I only watched maybe four episodes of his spin off series). They could bring back 'Cheers' today and it would be better than the garbage that's replaced it.
Cheers survived Diane leaving and being replaced by Rebecca but the true shark jumping moment occured in the 6th or 7th season when Rebecca went from a together ice-queen to a total ditz. What, did she get hit in the head or something? It made no sense.
CHEERS was a wonderful sitcom with consistently superior writing and one of the best acting ensembles ever. I am also one of the few and proud who liked the show better after Shelley Long left. I wouldn't consider it jumping the shark, but the show did it a serious bump, or hiccup as one poster referred to it, when Sam and Rebecca decided to have a baby together. All the episodes centered on that story were stupid, but other than that, CHEERS was a consistently entertaining class act.
While I admire the frequent brilliance of this show, I can't classify it as one of my favorites. "Cheers" has to be one of the most mean-spirited shows in history. Now, I'm not a fan of sentimental slop and I certainly love cynicism and wisecracks, but this show was just too hateful. Perhaps if the characters had been equally matched barb for barb it wouldn't bother me so much, but no one ever got to zing Carla (the meanest character in sitcoms) back. Diane did in the first few years, but as with other aspects of her, this good trait was lost. In fact it's easy to see why Shelley Long left the show. She was treated abysmally by the behind-the-scenes crew and who the hell wants to endure more of that then they need to? I'm betting that it wasn't potential movie stardom that made Long not want to renew her five-year contract as much as it was the cruel things done to her and Diane by the Charles brothers, etc. For example: in the pilot, what gets Diane the job at Cheers is her memorization of the long drink order for a group of customers. But by the fourth season or so, there is a reference to Diane being so scatterbrained that she forgets tabs, orders, etc. Why the dumbing down? Revenge for Shelley Long's behind-the-scenes anal-retentiveness? (I'm sure Long was a frequent pain but as one costumer admitted, her instincts were usually right.) And I hate to watch her later years because Sam and Carla especially say the meanest things to Diane and she never gets to serve the ball back to 'em. Plus, Diane was always being made out to be a fool. She was pretentious but not stupid, in the early seasons. As for Long vs. Alley, there are good traits in both, and I agree with the early poster who said that Alley always sounds if she is drunk. "Cheers" kept adding characters (for four straight years a new main character came in: Frasier in 1984, Woody in '85, Lilith in '86, and Rebecca in '87) and so the show rarely got stale, as if it no doubt would had Diane stayed. (Although she and Sam did make a cute couple. He gave her sex and she gave him class.) I am no big fan of Alley, but she was funny, as were all the regulars. (As mean as Carla was, Rhea Perlman was flawless in zinger-tossing and I love to watch her in the background of scenes as she totes glasses, wipes tables, etc. It's a fine actress who knows how to move onstage when she's not part of the main action. But the character was pure freakin' evil! And did anyone else ever notice that Carla NEVER liked any woman Sam was dating? Was she secretly in love with him and hated any "competition"? This under-the-surface tension never was explored.) But my favorite character by far was Lilith. Bebe Neuwirth was truly superb!!!!!!!!!!! Just so wonderful and wry. "Frasier, you're spending way too much time in this bar" is not a funny line but it is the way she says it. Lilith and Frasier are one the all-time great sitcom couples and thank God she made regular appearances to "Frasier"--she was the only good female character on that show. But that's another posting.
I hate to even infer that this show ever jumped because its one of the best ever on TV. Never has any other show more brilliantly handled two major cast changes. When coach died, the Woody character fit in perfectly-same with Rebecca replacing Diane. I didnt care that Sam had relationships with both Diane and Rebecca or that Lilith went to go live in a biosphere or that Rebecca fell madly in love with every boss she had. What killed me is when Sam revealed the hairpiece. I kind of like that moment cause its such a shock but they never should have done that.
It was never as much fun after Diane left. She was the perfect foil for all the bozos in the bar, and when she left, it was all bozos. No fun.
This is another show that never jumped as far as I'm concerned. Thursday nights were never the same after 'Cheers' was cancelled. I never missed Diane once, yet, watching the repeats on TVLand, I do prefer the years when she was on. And I loved her and Sam together. The relationship was well written, because you could slowly see these two coming together, yet, fighting their feelings for one another. And Norm Peterson will forever crack me up! I wouldn't want to know Carla in real life, but without her the show wouldn't have been the same. Woody I could take or leave and I didn't mind Rebecca. The only thing I did not care for, was how it seemed as if, once Diane left, Sam couldn't get women. That and I didn't like the fact that he had to work for Rebecca. It was just too drastic a change. But on the whole, that show could've stayed on forever.
Don't get me wrong, Kelsey Grammer is a great actor and the show was still good until the end, but adding the Frasier Crane character to the mix detracted from the best, most interesting part of the show--the relationship between Sam and Diane.
When Diane left, the show changed from a cut far above the rest to just an average, dumbed-down sitcom. Too bad Shelley couldn't get along with the rest of the cast. Her movie career didn't exactly make waves. Except for Night Shift, which preceeded Cheers, and the wonderful "Money Pit" with Tom Hanks, she did nothing on the big screen worth remembering.
Unlike other shows that have enjoyed decade-plus runs, "Cheers" managed to evolve and stay fresh for almost its entire run. True, the Diane years are quite special, that rare instance when a mere sitcom manages to amuse, touch, frustrate, and inspire a fan. "Cheers" slipped in quality when the Charles Brothers handed the reins to David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee in Year Four. The new team had no idea how to write Diane as anything other than overbearing. However, their own creations--Woody, Lilith, and Rebecca--were funny in their own right and carried the show for years to come. By the time Shelley Long left in 1987, "Cheers" had lost much of its early wit and charm (although her exit, penned by the Charles Brothers, ranks among the all-time great sitcom episodes), but the show was still a very well-made, funny comedy, better than anything except maybe "Golden Girls" at the time. The Kirstie Alley years brought a slow decline in the show's intelligence (no more Donne and Yeats allusions) in favor of broader, meaner, but often hilarious gang comedy. Alley is a very good actress who was saddled with a much less interesting character than Long but who held her own with the rest of the cast. Director/exec producer James Burrows helped keep the show on track with his expert direction and gift for light comedy. Still, the bright spots became less frequent in Years 7-10--though the bright spots were often brilliant--until the Steinkellners & Phoef Sutton left in 1992 to create "Bob." Suddenly "Cheers," which admittedly had become very jokey and a little mean-spirited, wasn't funny anymore and left this viewer actually missing jokey and mean-spirited and longing for the wit and pathos of the early years. It was clear then that "Cheers" was ready to retire, and Ted Danson effectively and thankfully pulled the plug on this show. The series finale is very sad to me, first, because it cements the impossibility of the wonderful Sam-Diane relationship and, second, because it only serves to point out how far this once-classic show had declined.
“Humor”, mused Kirstie Alley in her acting debut as Lt. Saavik in Star Trek II; the Wrath of Khan ”It is a difficult concept”. A truer epitaph at the start of one’s professional career was never spoken (and if you need a reminder of this, tune in to “Fat Actress”). Not to knock her ability necessarily —I suppose she did the best with what she was given by the writers but throughout this series Rebecca went through a bigger schizophrenic transformation than Diane ever did (and they wrote hers on purpose). If only the writers could of drawn a bead about what her character was all about would have probably helped her a great deal. I have enjoyed reading everyone’s postings here on this show —some read like monographs— although it is unfortunate to see so much anti-Long sentiment. I’m not her agent or publicist but why people are miserly about giving Long her due is really mystifying to me. If Shelley Long did nothing else in her career but create the character of Diane Chambers that’s alright with me. Think of Lucille Ball; she hit gold with only one character {—the other Lucy show incarnations were diluted imitations of the original} and she also never enjoyed a successful transition to the movies. The sad fact is they couldn’t sustain a well-written intelligent woman character without eventually reducing her to a shrill harpy by the end of her run. I absolutely agree with the poster who noted that part of the fun in the earlier episodes was that Diane didn’t just sit there and take the derisive comments, she shot back [to Carla “let’s have a bottle of wine. I think we have your favorite, Chateau Guam”]. Towards the end it was so bad it was as though she didn’t have the right to defend herself — it was all about making her as negative as possible (—although I also agree that she received a classy send off). After she left, the gang at Cheers would make Diane jokes in her absence and without a come back from her it just seemed abusive. In the last episode however, when Sam derides her by saying “At least I didn’t fly across the country to make an ass of myself” her retort of “Why bother when you do it so brilliantly right here” made me cheer! She finally got to zing back after years of silence.
Cheers was one of the all-time great sitcoms, but it definitely lost a lot when Shelley Long left to pursue an ill-fated Hollywood career. Diane Chambers is one of the more charming and endearing characters in modern T.V., and her chemistry with Sam was top-notch. Kirstie Alley was a poor replacement, and it showed. Cheers still brought the laughs after Diane's departure, but it was never quite the same.
The show first jumped when Sam and Diane broke up. After that, the two characters spent too much time accusing each other of still holding a torch for the other. When Rebecca left, I thought the show really picked up again. It started to slide again after Mr. Drake went to Japan and Robin Colcourt came on the scene, although it did have some occasional good episodes later. I thought Woody's wedding was very good. The final episode would have been better if they had ended when Sam found himself alone in the bar, with no friends.
The best comedy ever on television. It had some weak moments in its last few years (the whole Sam and Rebecca wanting to have a baby together idea stunk!), but no other sitcom kept this high level of quality for eleven years or introduced such a high number of unforgettable characters. Dan Hedaya as Nick Tortelli is probably the funniest character in the history of TV.
This show never jumped. Ted Danson is a likable enough actor to keep people interested. This is why the show survived the coaches death and the just as likable Diane leaving. He is the type of guy anyone would want as a bartender. Kind, hansom, charismatic and very accepting of all the goofball characters that came to the bar. If he would have left, the show would have jumped the shark.
This show never jumped. There is one thing that everyone who voted for Diane leaving as the shark jumper. If she stayed, Sam and Diane would have been married! Sam Malone would have been married! Can you imagine all the exciting plots of Sam and Diane married? With her exit, Rebecca came in and she was a solid replacement and the show became an ensemble show. So with the whole Shelley Long situation either way the show would have been different after the 5th season and I still think it all worked out for the best.
Its a personal thing about when a show jumps due to a character leaving. For me, cheers died when Diane left. it was Diane and Sam that kept me watching, not norm, not coach, not woody Carla cliff or even Frazer or lilith : they were peripheral characters to me, okay for laugh or two but not the gist of the show. Diane gave it class and edge, wit and polish. without her it was like going from brilliant mahogany to unfinished pine. The reason the show stayed on as long as it did was due to what she had brought to it the first five years, NBC backed this baby all the way, wanted to prove that Shelley long couldn't ruin it. With Jim Burrows and the Network brass, they had more than enough clout to keep it on, and Americans (of which i am one ) are creatures of habit and get used to characters they love and understand. I call it the three's company syndrome. Or the caruso syndrome. Its no longer the same formula, the same chemistry at all. But they've made SO much money on it, the other cast members cant STAND to believe that that character has really doomed the show, that they can keep it on for years after its really no longer the same quality. Cheers remained passable, I stopped watching after Shelley long left, but once In a while id turn it on over the remaining years and it was over for me, it just wasn't good. Passable yes, and ive come to learn that once we get used to a show, it can go from great to good to just okay, and people are still yuking it up over characters that are now merely caricatures of characters that were once multi dimensional and great. just look at this site, there are almost as many jumps due to Diane leaving as there are never jumped and even people who voted never jumped end up admitting Diane was better. Some of these posts said it best, cheers may have found a wider audience afterward but it doesn't mean it was a better show at all. I think what I find most insulting is how they ended up referring to Diane before and after she left, with anger and bitterness simply because she wasn't part of the good OLE boy network they had created off screen. When cheers is watched and remembered 20 years and more from now, on reruns it will become very clear, as it already has , from some of these posts, that the quality dropped completely after she left. First time viewers of the show simply didnt want to admit that, or stop watching their known Must see TV night
From start to finish, this was one of the most consistently funny shows ever. The cast changes (Rebecca for Diane and Woody for Coach) had no impact on the show, and the additions to the cast (Frasier and Lillith) just added to the hilarity. The sexual tension between Diane and Sam and their quips with each other made the show the first season and their on again off again relationship from seasons 2 to 5 was always full of great lines. Those fringe characters that popped into the bar from time to time were also quite entertaining. Nick (Carla's ex), Harry the Hat, Eddie LeBec, Kelly, Paul, and many of the other extras were blended in just enough, but never took over the show. Norm was a consistent laugh machine every week, but Cliff did get a little too far out there at times. Carla was a great character and by the way can anyone out there name all 8 of her kids? The only season that I thought was a little lacking was the season when Robin was on almost every week. The character seemed dominate a little too much, but like the Evan Drake character from season 6 he helped show Rebecca for the gold digger she really was. Overall a solid NEVER JUMPED vote here. One burning question though, what was Norm's tab anyway?
Cheers is one of the best shows ever. It is right up their with M*A*S*H as far as I am concerned. It never jumped the shark, if anything it stumped on the shark right when Diane left. Rebecca was far better for the show then Diane was. That charactor was getting old quickly by the time Shelly Long left. Kirstie Alley was like a breath of fresh air. Woody easily taking over for the dearly departed Coach was also a sign of what a great show it was. In work life people leave and new ones take their places and create a whole new feeling to the place. That is how Cheers was with the departures of Diane & Coach. It just continued being a classic and I cried like a baby when it ended. I watched Frasier and when ever a member of cheers showed up my heart beat a little faster with the joy and wonderment of the greatness of those people I loved for 11 years.
I used to watch Cheers every Thursday night when I was a young boy. I liked the bar setting because my mom used to go to nightclubs on Thursday night and that TV bar in Boston was my equvialent of a night out with the guys partying. I watched it from 1986 right straight down to the final season. However, I got into a fight at school, and I was not allowed to watch the final episode of Cheers as a punishment that night (it was either that or no Nintendo). Two years later, I finally got to see the final episode. The result was a 30-minute forgettable uber boring episode with Sam closing the bar up for good, the buddies leaving the nest for better pastures, and provided an end to the backstory that would lead up to Frasier.
I actually disagree with most people's perception that Diane leaving was a shark jumping moment. In fact the 3 or 4 seasons after that were the best in my opinion. I always prefer to watch those over any Diane episode. I can't remember the exact time it was, but it was somewhere around 1991, which i think was around the time that Sam got ownership of the bar back was the true shark jumping moment. That was the beginning of the end of the truly great episodes. There were still some funny ones after that, but it wasnt too long before the whole Sam/Rebecca trying to have a kid storyline and when Frasier and Lillith split up was written in which is when Cheers wasnt the same anymore. Overall, it was a brilliant show which had only 1 or 2 poor seasons.
Evan gives Sam an executive position so he can pitch the corporation's softball team to a championship. Why would it matter that a men's slo-pitch softball pitcher was a former major league pitcher? He'd be lobbing the ball in underhand!!! I'd have no fear batting against Bob Gibson or Nolan Ryan in slo-pitch softball!!!! One wonders if most of these writers skipped team sports on their way to Hollywood. And, for what it's worth, Sam woulda been much more believable as a former pro athlete if he'd had an OUNCE of MUSCLE on him!!!!
Towards the end of the its run when Rebecca got more and more whiny...it jumped. I watched it back in the day but mostly hated this show, especially when Diane was on it. A bunch of losers hanging out in bar. Never understood why everyone liked Diane so mch. She was an overeducated woman in her mid-30s working as barmaid and having an affair with her boss. Cute in this show. Sort of tragic in reality. At least the character of Rebecca, for all her whining and affairs with her all of her bosses, managed a bar and and had a degree that she could and was using. Then there were the barflies. Only in this show could a guy liked Norm - who was basically a fat,middleaged alcoholic who neglected his wife - be the show's hero. Fat, loser guys who like beer are now a staple of many sitcom - check out What About Jim or King of Queens. Not one of them seemed to have a life outside the bar except Sam and maybe Carla, even the shrinks spent too much time there. Probably the most irritating thing for me about this show was how in Boston for a long time (and maybe still, though hopefully not), the Cheers Bar (Bull and Finch Bar)or the setting for the Cheers Bar was the main tourist attraction. How irritating is that!!! You'd walk into the Logan Airport and be inundated with Cheers merchanding crap. It was a tv show people that was filmed on a LA lot!
It jumped at the beginning of the eleventh and final season. I presume there were new writers who took over. For some reason the jokes seemed typical of many a sitcom that I have watched silently in spite of the laugh track. Also, the episode where Rebecca and Frasier were sleeping together really pissed me off, not to mention that, well, it wasn't mentioned in between that moment and the series finale.
What a long strange trip it was for "Cheers"! Paired with "Taxi", freshly cancelled by ABC, the two shows were supposed to be the Charles-Burrows-Charles Thursday night double-barreled assault on NBC. However, their placement between dramas finished off tired "Taxi" and nearly took "Cheers" with it. The creative team's former MTM boss, Grant Tinker, was now president of NBC. Tinker felt "Taxi" had done what it could, while "Cheers" had promise. With that decision, the first building block of the eventual powerhouse NBC Thursday line-up was in place. In fact, it was the anchor of the line-up before "The Cosby Show" arrived on the scene. "Family Ties" and "Night Court" were added as book-ends for "Cheers". Slowly but surely, the Boston bar began to attract an audience that continued to grow. "Cheers" went on to survive two major casting changes that would've killed most other shows: the death of Nicholas Colosanto and the swan song of Shelly Long. Location specific and ensemble centered, "Cheers" never missed a beat. Woody Harrelson's bartender took the slow-wittedness of well-meaning Coach to a level never before seen on television. Kirstie Alley's Rebecca was brash and self-serving, in direct contrast with Long's high-brow intellectual Diane. The spin-offs could not have been more different. "The Tortellis" was simply an error in judgment. The audience had only been introduced to Nick Tortelli a handful of times. Viewers simply didn't know enough about him for "The Tortellis" to make a successful run. "Frasier", on the other hand, benefitted from perfect timing. The neurotic Dr. Crane was introduced after "Cheers" had established its premise, so it would have worked any time. Certainly when "Cheers" ended, the character was free from the familiar setting, which hindered so many other spin-off characters. Besides, Kelsey Grammer had plenty left to give to his character, matching the 11-season run of "Cheers" year for year. Unfortunately, the final episode of "Cheers" provided no closure and was subjected to inevitable comparisons to the last episode of "M*A*S*H". Still, superb acting and brilliant production kept the shark at bay. Somewhere in the world, on someone's television set, there will always be a place where everyone can escape from the real world for a little while: a place where everybody knows your name.
I never realized until the most recent go-around of the final season that Sam had almost no lines in any of those episodes. I don't recall right now, but I think he was making a record salary at the time. The whole final season is pitiful, not amounting to even shadow-of-its-former-self status. The stories are awful, just off the top of the writers' heads. The actors put no effort into it at all. Someone must have mentioned that Rebecca seemed not to have any real duties, and they kept bringing that up, as if it was an inside joke; but it failed ever to be funny to the audience. Boy, what a rip-off everyone did for that season! The viewing public kept watching (and does so in the umpteenth year of reruns) and so the sponsors kept paying the big bucks for work that could have emanated from a high-school comedy-writing class!
"Cheers" had a very consistent run for the most part, but I think Shelley Long's departure was the best thing that could've happened to this show. Don't get me wrong--Shelley Long is a VERY attractive woman and a decent actress, too--but geez, what an insufferable, psuedo-intellectual, annoying phony Diane Chambers was! Why did she always have to call Norm "Norman" and Cliff "Clifford"? Come to think of it, how come she didn't call Sam "Samuel" and Woody "Woodrow" too?And that whole "I love you/I hate you", dynamic between her and Sam (or "Sahm", as she always snobbily pronounced it) got really old really fast. I recently sat through each and every episode from the Diane years on DVD just to make sure I wasn't missing something redeeming about her character, but I came up empty, apart from Diane being the constant target of Carla's verbal bazooka! Kirstie Alley was a most welcome addition to the "Cheers" cast, indeed...
Cheers jumped the shark when Shelly Long left the show. It was Long's decision to leave and I do believe the show COULD HAVE stayed great. But what made Cheers so entertaining was the Sam/Diane dynamic. Diane was the first woman who was a real challenge for Sam. He couldn't get her out of his system. Both had attractions for the other, but both refused to give control to the other. It made for great chemistry and great comedy. But when Long/Diane left, they made Sam a loser. He became a loser at life, with women, with business. I'll never forget the episode where the corporate guys agree to sell the bar back to Sam for $1.00 because he gave them info on Robin. Sam couldn't even come up with the full dollar. Right then, I realized how far the writers had sunk him. On the series finale, I was thrilled when Shelly Long returned. I enjoyed half of the episode - up until Sam and Diane announced their engagement. When this happened, I knew I wasn't going to like the ending. No, I didn't want Sam & Di to marry. But I did want there to be some hope of the two getting together down the road. How great it would have been if John Hill got the last laugh on Sam by selling Melvilles to Diane. It would leave so much in the air as to what would happen down the road for these two characters. To prove how out of touch the writer's had become, the final scene of Cheers had Sam & crew sitting around debating the meaning of life. What a pitiful way to end a once great series.
When Sam wanted to marry Dianne, and she just left the show for such a stupid reason. I was expecting Frasier to figure out why Sam cared about Dianne at all, but he's no psychologist if he can't see that it's pure co-dependency due to his parents not loving him as much as his brother etc. Even Frasier's friend (played by John Cleese) told them that they should never get married, but Frasier tells them that they're actually IN LOVE with each other. Oh well at least he's consistent, since later on in Seattle, Frasier tells Niles and Daphne the same thing, despite that Niles is obviously suffering from Oedipal transference by falling for his father's care-taker, while his mother and wife were both ice-queens like Lilith. I just can't believe that Frasier is supposed to be such a "great psychiatrist" if he can't figure out such simple things.
Kirstie Alley has only one talent as far as I can perceive, and that is to cause me to pick up my remote control as soon as she appears on the screen. Her obnoxious personality coupled with her lack of acting ability killed Cheers. Even though there may have never been another Shelly Long, there could have been any other woman in America cast in the part and there is no doubt that a random pick would have more talent than Kirstie Alley. See, I didn't need to mention the ever increasing size of her ass.
This show NEVER jumped. Change of characters, etc. in no way hurt the show. They could have added more characters and it probably would have just gotten funnier. It was sad that Coach died. This show was super. It mainly went off because Ted Dansen had gotten worn out and simply could not do it anymore and all the cast soon followed suit. They were ready for a change or it would have lasted longer. Example a spin off----Frasier lasted as many seasons as Cheers--in a sense Cheers lasted for 20 some odd years.
Cheers was a great show. It never really jumped the shark although it came close many times. The first 5 seasons were suberb. (God Bless Coach!) Even though Diane was part of what made the show great, her departure did not cause the show to jump. It was probably good timing when she left because the Sam/Diane storyline was starting to get old and her character was starting to become annoying. The problem was not Diane leaving, but Rebecca as the choice to replace her. Rebecca Howe was obviously the worst character in the show. She was stuck-up and bossy in the beginning and then turned into a total flake near the end. Her character never added anything to the show. It nearly jumped the shark the seasons she managed the bar. What spared it was the outstanding performances by the regulars (Norm, Cliff, Carla, and Woody) and the improvement of Frasier's character especially with the addition of Lilith. She was awesome! It was great when Sam finally got the bar back for only $1 but then Sam and Rebecca started trying for a baby and those episodes were awful. The last few seasons were hit or miss. Some episodes were great but the writing was lacking compared to earlier in the series. Some of the best episodes include the bar wars episodes with Gary's Old Town Tavern and the episodes with Harry "the Hat" Gittes, both which occurred throughout the entire series. They finished the series with class by first inviting Shelly Long back to reprise her role as "Diane", and second in the final scene where Sam is straightening the photo of Geronimo. This was done to pay homage to the late Nicholas Colasanto (Coach) who kept the photo in his dressing room. Cheers was most definitely one of the greatest shows in television history.
Oh course this show jumped! If you won’t take my word for it just pick up a copy of “Jump the Shark” (Dutton Press) by Jon Hein—inventor of this pop culture death knell. Got it? Good. Turn to page 13. It is entitled “When did Cheers JTS? Exit Diane Chambers…enter Rebecca Howe”! Case closed. I’m not going to quote the whole thing but it seems like the guy who coined the phrase JTS knows a shark jump when he sees it. I agree with him wholeheartedly. First of all the foundation of the show is built on the chemistry of the principals Sam and Diane. The fact that both characters are both flaming narcissists and yet are still attracted to each other makes it funny in itself. You don’t need writers to write a conglomeration of gags—like the ill-conceived second half of the series—the comedy is CHARACTER DRIVEN. That’s why the two halves of the show don’t mesh (= shark jump). This is very apparent in the finale where Diane breezed in just long enough for us to miss what the show once was and then was given the hook (and perhaps out of deference, this is a reason that Rebecca didn’t linger with everyone else in the final moments of the show). She wasn’t the sole reason but she was a key ingredient. Secondly I find that many people who find Diane “annoying” are missing the humor in this particular personality trait. She is the comedic irritant that produces the pearl –compare Felix Unger “The Odd Couple” , Hyacinth Bucket in “Keeping Up Appearances”, Ross Geller “Friends” or Basil in “Fawlty Towers” (incidentally for a fine crossover of the two you have John Cleese in the episode “Simon Says” being driven batty by Diane Chambers –he won an Emmy for that guest appearance). Let me also add that in Bravo’s “Top 100 TV Characters” Sam and Diane made #50. Funny…. Rebecca Howe was nowhere on the list.
I don't think this show ever jumped the shark. I was just a kid when it ended. I didn't really understand the adult jokes till the last season, but if you ask me this show was the best thing around for a long while. For those who still doubt the Sam/Diane vs. Sam/Rebecca years just remember the show was at its most popular during the Sam/Rebecca years, and lets not forget it won Emmys for best Comedy four times twice with Shelley Long and twice with Kirstie Alley. Also both actresses won Emmys for Best Actress. Okay okay so maybe awards make no difference, for me though these characters always made me laugh whether it was Sam, Diane, Coach, Woody, Rebecca, Norm, Cliff, Fraiser, or Carla. It was an ensemble at there best, plus I think the bar has to be one of the greatest locations to have a sitcom. A lot of sitcoms now are mean spirited, and I was always happy to watch Cheers because everyone liked everybody, (with the exception of Carla who hated Diane and Cliff). It was just great.
The BEST thing to happen on "Cheers" was when 'Diane'(Shelley Long) left! The only character on TV more annoying was 'Ross Geller'! I was on 'Carla's' side. 'Carla' was real, 'Diane' was NOT! If 'Carla' had killed 'Diane' and I was on the jury, I would have voted "justifiable homicide". In fact, it is surprizing that the entire bar patronage didn't gang up and beat 'Diane' to death. She was at her cutest when her mouth was shut!
The best part of Cheers was its colorful supporting characters. Diane was a better girlfriend for Sam than Rebecca, but neither relationship was terribly interesting. Ted Danson was much more impressive on Becker.
Never jumped, but faltered when Shelley Long left the cast in one of the worst career moved ever. I can only think of one weak episode: the one where Rebecca is trying to sneak in (or is it out) of Evan Drake's home with the assistance of Norm. Hard to name a favorite, but I'd pick the episode where Diane tries to prove that Sam plagiarized a poem that got published. Funniest moment was when Frederick Crane's first word is "Norm!"
Sam and Diane. Diane and Sam. Chambers and Malone. They WERE Cheers. Accept no substitutes. Shelley Long was a luminous, graceful and gifted actress. Her depth and range have rarely been matched. She could do sight gags, double takes and pie-in-the-sky humor one minute, then be thoughtful, quiet and vulnerable the next. She made it all look effortless. One of my favorite moments in the whole series is when Diane thinks Sam is making eyes at Markie Post. She enters the room and yells "DINNER TIME!" so loud that your ears almost pop. For Drama, who can forget the amazing fortune teller machine episode, with that ending? TV like that is the stuff of legend. There's precious little on TV these days of that quality. More's the pity. Diane Chambers is an angel. Rebecca Howe is disgusting. She has cavernous cracks under her eyes, wheezy/raspy smoker's voice, donkey butt and slut hair. Mmmm, what a treat! I have to admit, though, it is fun to see her wear those maternity drapes. Kirstie Alley was good in Star Trek II and Summer School, and she was truly great in Village of the Damned, but otherwise...that's it sweet baby. It boggles the mind how she ever got on this show. She was harsh looking and sounding and just unpleasant to watch. Her sole requirement in each episode was to aimlessly shuffle through mail or invoices and then storm off into Sam's office when someone insulted her. She won an Emmy for this? If I only knew the Vulcan death grip. Shelley Long caused such a stir in her role as Diane Chambers that she won her Emmy during the show's debut season; the only member of the cast to achieve that honor. Catch Outrageous Fortune, The Money Pit or A Message From Holly if you need further proof of her genius. Shelley's scenes with Ted Danson are some of the best written and observed moments anywhere. You can often see Ted trying to conceal a grin when they're onscreen together. He knew there was something special happening, even if they weren't friends off camera. The golden age of Cheers ended when Coach died. Coach Ernie Pantuso, as played by Nicholas Colasanto, was wonderfully quirky and absent-minded but he wasn't stupid. Woody was stupid, and most likely brain damaged. Look at who played him. Check out Fat City and Raging Bull to see what a powerful dramatic actor Nicholas Colasanto could be. Cheers ended for me with Diane's final episode, showing Sam and Diane, in their golden years, dancing into the sunset. It is one of the sweetest, saddest, most lyrical scenes ever made. True fans of Cheers, the ones who remember watching that first episode when it aired, know that after Shelley Long left, the show lost much of its humor...and all of its warmth.
I think the guy who plays Nick Tortelli is a fine actor. BLOOD SIMPLE comes to mind. But whenever the show centered solely on Nick and Carla, I just HAD to turn the dial. Nick's tall blonde airhead wife wasn't funny either, nor was the Tortelli's son (Nick and Carla's oldest) who was basically doing a Nick Tortelli imitation, and a bad one at that. If they featured Nick as a side character in these episodes, that'd be okay, but whenever Nick came around the entire cast, Norm, Cliff, even Sam, had to take a back seat... It felt like a Tortelli hijacking.
No, Cheers never jumped. No chance. I do, however, agree with an above poster who asked why it would be advantageous for Sam to be a pitcher on a slow-pitch softball team. I also have to question the reality of the ex-Yankee who hit a home run off Sam every time he faced him in the majors. Considering that the greatest home run hitters in baseball history only homer about once every 12 at-bats, this premise defies all common sense. But these are small problems. Cheers was great.
Cheers never quite jumped, but fins did surface and the ramp-up loomed ominously. When they quit, they were still ahead, just. Remarkably, Norm and Cliff never got stale, and the resounding success of Frasier is proof positive that the latter character had plenty of potential still. Sam and Rebecca, on the other hand, didn't fare as well, because as the actors aged their relatively one-dimensional characters--Sam the sex hound, Rebecca the business-girl-turned-emotional-wreck--began to lose vitality and appeal. Rebecca's hankering after Robin was amusing a couple of times, but grew tiresome fairly quickly; ditto for Woody and the rich girl--frankly, the way they snubbed Woody was disconcerting, even depressing to watch. Kelly's dad ought to have been a mite more appreciative--after all, Woody was a pliant, clean-cut boy, who would have done pretty much anything asked of him. His daughter wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed and she was lucky to have found someone decent with a similar level of dimwittedness. As one who knows a number of Lutherans, however, I must say that the gag about Woody and Kelly being of "different religions" was absolutely hilarious--she bieng ELCA (the more mainstream liberal one) and Woody belonging to the Missouri synod branch (the reactionary one), that doesn't accept evolution, etc. Very clever. On the whole, however, Cheers maintained a very high quality, with some wonderful lines and gags: Woody tells Frasier, "Back home in Hanover, we don't talk about our feelings, we just lock it all in, push it down, deeper and deeper," in response to which Frasier remarks to Norm and Cliff, "Tick, tick..." "Yak, yak...Ma knows a lot about yaks." The Hungry Heifer, serving not beef, but "bif." "I was voted the girl most likely to marry into old money." Whitey the decomposing rodent... My favorite episode is one in which Norm creates his "Kreitzer" alter ego to goad his painting crew into getting osme work done. I saw that one in German, and when "Norm" is yelling into the phone as the Kreitzer character, believe me, it's effective!
The introduction to season 6 threw a major wrench in the cogs of Cheers. Don't get me wrong, it still is good, but the new look of the bar after Sam sold it threw me off. It made me feel as if I was no longer home. That and Kirstie Alley's introduction just seemed to me as a drastic change. P.S. An earlier comment talk of how Coach "left" the show, causing the jump for cheers. Coach died during the season. So he didn't actually leave. Sure Coach was a big part of the cast, but it's not as devistating of a death as John Ritter for 8 Simple Rules due to the importance of his role.
The entire show changed after Diane Chambers left. There were a few funny episodes but the soul of the Cheers was gone. Coach knew better than everybody what the show was about.
When Kirstie Alley replaced Shelly Long. Kirstie Alley is probably the worst comic actress in television history, and it is mind-boggling that the producers thought that she could play comedy.
Cheers was a funny and sophistocated show-- at first; I could read the psychology between Sam and Dianne, even if Frasier couldn't: i.e. Sam was the over-achiever baseball-star turned alcoholic, because he had childhood trauma from his parents liking his perfect brother "Derek" better than him; and likewise Dianne was spoiled by her rich, over-indulgent father and sheltered by her gold-digging hypocrite-mother, and so Sam and Dianne were neurotically attracted to each other-- it was pure tragicomic genius, almost modern-Shakespearian. As John Cleese's character said, they were COMPLETELY all wrong for each other, but they were incurably co-dependent and in denial over each other. That dynamic between them WAS THE SERIES, and so the show SHOULD have ended when Dianne left-- or at they should have completely least re-thought the premise to keep it going in a logical evolution of the characters to continue the intelligent comedy. Ok, so Dianne leaves-- but how does Sam change? After all, with Dianne gone, Sam should change and develop SOMEHOW in a way that suits the tragicomedic plot. But it seems that he's a one-trick pony-- and so HE DOESN'T change, he just has lots of STUPID and ridiculous antics, since the writers don't know how to resolve the character's motivation once the neurotic tension between "the odd couple" is gone. And so the lovable character Sam, is murdered, and replaced by a simpleton imposter, by having his potential and complexity completely wasted for ridiculous, stupid, and sadistic-humor plots like "John Hill" arriving to drive Sam crazy, along with "Gary" from Gary's Old-Town Tavern etc. (that episode where Gary fakes his own death just to "get" Sam wasn't just stupid, it was SICK). Then there's the thing with Rebecca the gold-digger trying to get her rich, boring boss Evan Drake; then Rebecca and Robin Colcord, and Sam humiliating himselftrying to seduce Rebecca, then Sam getting together WITH Rebecca---. SHARK! SHARK! (Cue theme from "Jaws," start the motorboat-- ready on your waterskis Fonzie?) AYYYYYYY!!!!!