Re: Cheers: For whatever reason I never caught much of this iconic comedy when it originally ran on TV back in the '80's & early '90's. So, to rectify that, starting last summer I started watching the series on DVD - in order; I'm now mid-way through the 9th season. Great series! Many of the scenes are laugh-out-loud funny, and there are a lot of great one-liners as well. This is an extremely well-written show! And, if anything, the show gets funnier as the seasons progress- up to a point. Some comments:

- Norm & Cliff are my two favorite characters. It's very funny how each considers the other their "best friend", but despite this - for the first three?! seasons Cliff had apparently never met Vera (Norm's wife), nor been invited over to Norm's house - nor has Norm ever been to Cliff's home. However, Cliff living with his mother may have something to do with this - LOL. In any case, it seems their so-called "friendship" begins & ends at the bar, for the most part at least - not surprising ;) And, when Norm was finally invited over to Cliff's house (Season 4?!) it was only so Cliff could have the help he needed to paint the attic - hilarious.

-Vera's first actual appearance on the show (in S05) was great. After being mentioned (but never seen) by Norm throughout the series, she was scheduled to show up for a Thanksgiving dinner @ Carla's house with the rest of the gang. Then, when she finally did appear @ the end of the dinner, you (the viewer) didn't see much of her since she caught a pie in the face, thrown during a childish food fight that the gang were having - and then promptly left - LOL.

- It's funny how Cliff sees himself as "lady's man" to a great extent, when in reality he's actually the complete opposite - LOL.

-I didn't realize until I started watching Cheers that Frasier Crane was originally on that show in the '80's, as Diane's boyfriend & later almost-husband. (However, while I was aware of the dedicated Frasier show in the '90's, for whatever reason never caught the series).

And, of course, the show features numerous & classic jokes/one-liners:

Cliff: [to Eric] We swear not a word you say will ever go beyond this room.
Norm: We never go beyond this room.

Coach: What can I do for you, Norm?
Norm: I am going to need something to kill time before my second beer. How about a first one?

Coach: My friends call me 'Coach', but my other nickname is 'Red'.
Helen: Why? Because your hair used to be red?
Coach: No, because I read a book.

Coach: Norm, you're in here every night. Doesn't your wife wonder where you're at?
Norm: Wonders. Doesn't care.

I'm actually glad I waited so long to watch the show, since I feel I'm getting more out of it now as a guy in his late 40's, than I would have a teen back in the '80's. I.e. the storylines/situations on the show are a lot more relatable to me now than they would have been when I was a kid.

Diane & Sam were initially funny, but after she almost got married to Frasier & her on again/off again relationship & almost marriage to Sam, I think the comedy surrounding them had lost steam by the end of S05 - and had become more grating/annoying than anything else.

Unusually enough, back in the '80's I was more familiar with Shelley Long in the hilarious '80's films like The Money Pit (with Tom Hanks) and Outrageous Fortune (w/Bette Midler) - than for her role in Cheers.

Cheers S05 was an excellent season, and a good swan song for Diane (Shelley Long). Not going to go into a review of each episode, but some stand-outs:

-Episode 21, "Simon Says". Hilarious UK actor/comedian John Cleese guest-starts as an "eminent psychiatrist" that Frasier hired to question/psychoanalyze Sam & Diane to see if they should get married - this was a "wedding gift" from Frasier to them - LOL. After Cleese asks them some pointed questions, he insists that they shouldn't get married. However, they keep bugging him by showing up at his hotel room (at all hours - LOL), and he finally tells they they are suited for each other - but it's obviously only because he wants to get rid of them - ha ha.

-S05, Episode 24 "Cheers: The Motion Picture". This is quite possibly the funniest episodes of the series I've seen (so far) and involves the gang putting together some footage for Woody Boyd to send to his parents - in order to convince them that he didn't need to go back home to Indiana, and isn't being "corrupted" by the big, bad city of Boston - ha ha.

The "footage" that is shot features at least one setting that had been referenced, but hadn't been seen in the series previously, i.e. "The Hungry Heifer" (the greasy spoon "restaurant" that Norm frequents). Another scene was a funny cook-out with the gang - which includes a scene of someone putting tennis shoes on the grill, that Woody ignorantly tries to cook without looking at them; etc.

What was especially funny here was that after Diane initially saw the footage, she re-cut/re-edited this to be much more "cinema verite" (ha ha) in appearance, in an pretentious attempt to make an "art" film - but the end result just ended up being a ridiculous - but extremely funny - mess ;)

The scene with Cliff misdelivering mail is one of the funniest in the episode; he brags about how difficult his job is, delivers some mail, and then you see that all of the mail obviously went to the wrong addresses - LOL.

-The final episode of S05, "I Do and Adieu". Excellent finale to the season, and a great turning point to the series. Sam's "daydream" of what life would be like for him & Diane (if they settled down) 30+ years in the future was both funny & depressing. The penultimate scene of them standing in front of the justice of the peace & then Diane getting a phone call about her book - which led to Sam's letting her off the hook for the marriage....was a classic scene - LOL.

I'm glad they didn't end up getting married. They obviously weren't suited for each other. Their friends knew it, and I believe they both knew it too (though didn't want to admit it to each other or themselves).

- S06 (1987-1988) of Cheers was fantastic; seeing this on DVD earlier this year was the first time I've ever seen these Rebecca Howe episodes. Great casting & writing. Kirstie Alley is the total opposite of Shelley Long's Diane in many cases, but her sarcastic comments/commentary are great, and IMHO she may even be a more interesting character than Diane. She definitely has a harder, more businesslike edge to her, but at the same time is extremely attractive - even without necessarily meaning to be.

-Also wanted to mention that this 6th season has a completely different feel/vibe than what was seen in the previous five seasons. I.e., the bar has been sold to RH's company & has gone "corporate", so is much less "homey" than the previous five seasons. In one of the first S06 episodes, Sam comes back to the bar after having sold it & trying to sail around the world (presumably it's only been several months) - and barely recognizes any of the customers. Yes, RH "replacing" Diane Chambers seems to be the only real major cast change. However, I wonder if the bar being sold was not only a way to "change things up" on the show, but was also a kind of social commentary on how local, small businesses were being bought up by large corporations - something that seemed to be happening more often by the late '80's.

-Some of the main characters are going through some obvious changes here. Most notably, the houses in Cliff & his mother's neighborhood were bought out by a developer in order to make way for a shopping center/businesses, and Cliff & his Mom eventually & reluctantly took the payment offered by the developer. And, soon after his Mom moved to Florida. Though, initially Cliff was so reluctant to leave his childhood home that he actually handcuffed himself to a beam in the house to keep it from being demolished - ha ha.

As with the buy-out of the bar by a corporation at the beginning of S06, this buying out & tearing down old neighborhoods to make way for new businesses seemed to start happening quite a bit in the '80's - or at least that's when I first started paying attention to things like this.

That being said, in this particular fictitious case, it was obvious that this change ended up being for the better, since it forced Cliff to move out from under his mother's apron strings, temporarily move in with Norm and Vera, and then eventually into his own "bachelor pad" condo - which led to his starting to date, etc.

-Some of the funniest sequences in S06 involved Norm & Cliff discussing Cliff's temporarily staying w/Norm & Vera (before he got his condo) and how Norm didn't want him to leave - due to Cliff helping with the cooking, cleaning, rubbing Vera's feet (LOL) and "talking" to her - which Norm didn't want to deal with. So, instead of portraying Cliff as being a burden (as the majority of house-guests would be) he actually ended up being a benefit to the house-hold - ha ha. There was another sequence when Vera called Cliff at the bar, and he enthusiastically discussed cooking strategies/recipes with her - LOL.

-The sequence when Cliff invited some of his friends from the bar over to his new condo was hilarious; at one point, one of them asked why his refrigerator wasn't working & he gave a ridiculous answer. As it turns out, it wasn't even turned on properly - something he obviously hadn't even realized before it was pointed out to him - LOL.

Cheers rules! Easily one of my top 3 all-time favorite TV shows. I can't imagine watching it today for the first time, surreal. I'm glad you like it. Try watching Frasier next. The first 5 seasons of Frasier is great. Welcome to Sitcomsonline, LG. Big Andy Kaufman fan myself, although he's no Tony Clifton obviously.

Welcome to the forum LG! I like Cheers as well.

Thanks for all the replies. Yes, Cheers is a great show. I've only got a couple more seasons left, and after I'm finished I'll start watching Frasier - like Cheers, I had caught part of some episodes when it originally aired, but never watched much of the show. So, it will be interesting to see this for the first time.

Continuing my review of Cheers S06:

Great season, and one of my favorites (so far). It's interesting that Rebecca Howe - despite being cool & professional (for the most part) still harbors an unrequited "crush" on her boss, the wealthy Evan Drake (Tom Skerritt). I think this humanizes the character to a great extent, and it's funny how Sam, Cliff, Norm, etc. use this knowledge to their advantage.

Some stand-out S06 episodes include:

- Woody & Sam make a bet that one of them will be able to kiss Rebecca first by the end of the night. And, once Rebecca is onto them - she enlists Carla for help in humiliating/tricking them both - LOL.

- Rebecca hires Sam & Woody to serve as bartenders at a party for the "big boss" & his wealthy big-shot friends/co-workers. While there, Rebecca accidentally breaks an expensive vase - and, in order to protect her, Woody takes the fall - with unexpected & hilarious consequences.

-Sam is hired to work at the corporate office by Evan Drake, but it's only because they temporarily need his skill on the company baseball team so they can beat the opposing team - LOL.

-Sam "accidentally on purpose" locks Evan Drake's chauffeur in the bar's basement (temporarily) so that Rebecca can take over the role as the car's driver & take Evan to the airport....and use the opportunity to tell him how she feels. However, the plan back-fires when Evan has Rebecca pick up his gf on the way - LOL.

General comment(s) about this show:

I'm always interested in background characters in shows like this, and it's interesting that in the last several seasons I've watched there are a couple of funny "stand-outs", notably the little old guy w/the squint (always wearing a hat) who makes amusing one-liners throughout the episodes - I think his name is "Al"?!; there is also an older woman who sometimes gets inadvertently pulled into the main characters' shenanigans - LOL. Both of these characters are obviously "regulars".

Rebecca Howe is a complex and emotional character - even in S06; she is a much more nuanced & interesting character than Diane Chambers. I.e., she is initially introduced as this hard-edged "career woman" who was married to her job - but then, you found out soon after that she has this "schoolgirl crush" on her unattainable boss & finds herself in ridiculous, avoidable situations because of this - i.e., getting stuck at his house (while he's asleep in the next room), etc. I.e., even in S06 I felt that she presented an exterior 'facade' of being calm, cool, and collected - but in reality was the exact opposite, and all that was needed were some elements that weren't going her way to 'set her off' - LOL.

On to S07; I'm breaking up these reviews so the posts won't be too long, and will be easier to read:

-Rebecca Howe has to "pretend" to be dating Sam, in order to avoid having to date her new boss - who looks like a younger version of actor Martin Short - LOL. In fact, when I remember this character I jokingly think of him as Martin Short 2.0 - ha ha.

- Norm is painting Frasier & Lilith's apartment, and gets inadvertently pulled in to being their new interior decorator. They then recommend him to others, and he doesn't want his buddies at the bar to know about this because it will ruin his "macho" image - LOL.

-Cliff has to go into the hospital for routine surgery, and is disappointed that the Cheers gang doesn't miss him more when he's out & that they they don't come to visit him in the hospital. So, he comes to the conclusion (with Frasier's help - LOL) that he is saying the wrong thing/making inappropriate comments - and that's why he isn't more liked. So, he goes to a doctor/psychiatrist?! and decides to go through some type of therapy, where he will be "shocked" whenever he makes stupid/inappropriate comments. He then goes to the bar (with the doctor observing from the side-lines), and proceeds to make an @$$ of himself, thereby causing the doctor to repeatedly shock him - hysterical ;) This is definitely one of the funniest episodes of the series - LOL.

- Sam, Woody, Cliff, and Norm brag that they aren't afraid to try sky-diving - with hilarious results.

- Cliff is training a female postal worker, that he ends up dating. He doesn't want her to meet him at his apartment for a 'tryst' because his mother (who now lives in Florida) has visited him & is acquainted with some of the neighbors, and he doesn't want it getting back to her that Cliff is doing "bad" things - hilarious! So, they end up meeting in an anonymous motel room - LOL. Extremely funny episode.

- Carla's young son ends up being temporarily "adopted" by Frasier & Lilith. They spend a lot of time with him, to try to see what it would be like to have children of their own. The episode ends with Carla "dressing up" (ha ha) & going with her son & Frasier/Lilith to a fancy restaurant; it's amusing seeing Carla in a "business" suit with her hair straightened/pulled back - she's barely recognizable, which is the whole point. In any case, her son doesn't want to eat the high-end food that's served (despite Frasier's encouragement), so he & Carla both leave - LOL. One of the funniest lines here was when Carla refers to Frasier & Lilith (behind their backs) as Dr. Cyclops & Mortitia - ha ha.

-This only?! episode with Susan (Rebecca's sister) was towards the end of S07, and is one of the funniest in the series. After Susan walks in the bar & Sam finds out who she is - and discovers the so-called "rivalry" between them, he soon after tells his buddies that he's going to "use" this rivalry to try to hook up with both of them. I.e., according to Rebecca, Susan had a habit of always "stealing" Rebecca's boyfriends. So, all Rebecca had to do was show interest in a guy, and Susan was all over him. Sam decided to use this to his "advantage" - LOL. The scene when he is sitting at Melville's (the seafood restaurant above the bar) between them & tries not to smirk as they "fight" is frickin' priceless ;) As it turns out, Rebecca & Susan set up the whole fictitious scenario to "hook" Sam & then humiliate him in front of the entire bar - extremely funny!

This episode is also notable as being the first?! time you see what Melville's looks like; it's referred to throughout the series & characters are always going up there to eat, but rarely do you actually see what the restaurant itself looks like.

More posts/reviews are forthcoming.

Re: Cheers S08:

- Rebecca wants to throw a huge promotional "party" for the bar, to drum up business & invites the Mayor & the media, etc. This is to celebrate the 100th anniversary of "Cheers" (which opened in 1889). So, she pulls out all the stops & brings in a singing barbershop quartet, dresses up as if she were from the late 1800's, etc.

However, this all back-fires because the 106-year old man (whom she brings in to the bar as part of the promotion, since he's one of the only people left alive who was around when the bar opened) ends up being a real lech; he pinches both her & Carla, feigns a heart attack so he can get a "peek" down women's shirts, etc. - LOL. Also, the Cheers "regulars" embarrass her as well; Cliff is his usual obnoxious self, and is taken away by the authorities for being a potential crazy person; Frasier & Lilith make inappropriate (as usual) comments in front of the Mayor & his retinue, etc. Hilarious!

-"Death Takes a Holiday on Ice": One of the best episodes in the series. Carla's husband Eddie LeBec dies in a freak accident on the ice, and at the funeral Carla finds out that Eddie was actually married to another woman named Gloria, and had kids with her as well Here are some hilarious quotes from that episode - LOL:

Gloria LeBec : I want to talk to you.
Carla LeBec : Yeah? I want to scratch you bald, paint your butt blue and mail you to Guam.
Gloria LeBec : I'd like to see you try.
Norm Peterson : Yeah, I'd like to see that too actually.

Carla LeBec : I bet the only reason he married you was because he knocked you up.
Gloria LeBec : How do you know that?
Carla LeBec : Babe's intuition.
Gloria LeBec : Yeah? Well, maybe that's the same reason he married you.
Carla LeBec : Yeah, but with me, it wasn't a cheap thrill. It was a very tender moment in the back of a Datsun hatchback.
Gloria LeBec : [raises her hand] Toyota Corolla. Front seat.
Cliff Clavin : All right ladies, ladies, let's stop right now, huh? Uh, all this talk about conceiving your children in these cars. This makes me sick. Doesn't anybody buy American anymore?

HA! HA! HA!

Continuing with my review of Cheers S08:

-"What is Cliff Clavin?": one of the funniest episodes in the series - LOL. Cliff somehow ends up being a contestant on the famous game show Jeopardy, and Norm & others watch from the side-lines. Cliff initially seems to be sitting pretty, since the categories are all things he can definitely relate to, i.e. "Mothers and Sons", "Bar Trivia", etc. - LOL. And, since he's the king of useless trivia you would think he would ace the questions. As the contest progresses, it's obvious that he's winning by a large margin. However, he screws it all up at the end by betting everything on a stupid movie category guess that he should have known he would get wrong - so ends up losing all of his $. What an idiot, especially considering that this was easily avoidable - LOL.

It was especially funny how host Alex Trebek (playing himself) went to Cheers at the end of the episode and told Cliff that he was so upset that Cliff lost that he was planning on quitting the show. However, Cliff "talked him out of it" & told him he needed to stay as host, etc. So, Trebek "relented", and said he would stay because Cliff had talked him out of leaving. Cliff, enthusiastic, went to call his mother to tell her that Alex Trebek didn't leave as host of Jeopardy because of him - LOL. Then, Trebek admitted to the guys at the bar that he made the whole thing up, and only told Cliff he was thinking of leaving the show because Cliff "scared" him & he wanted to make him feel better. Hilarious! The sarcasm here was great!

-"Severe Crane Damage" - Lilith is invited on a talk show to promote her book, Good Girls, Bad Boys. Sam & Frasier also get invited to appear on the show - to illustrate the contrast between a "Bad Boy" and a "Good Boy", respectively. The female audience ends up fawning over Sam (including Lilith - LOL), and practically ignoring Frasier. Later, Frasier and Lilith temporarily break up - and Frasier starts dating a woman named "Viper" who rides a motorcycle - presumably to become more of a "bad boy" so he can be more attractive to women - ha ha.

-Some of my favorite episodes of S08 were the last two, "Cry Hard" and "Cry Harder" - LOL. In these, it's revealed that the extremely wealthy Robin Colcord (whom Rebecca is dating) is just using her to get information so he can attempt a hostile takeover of her company. Soon after, Robin is going to get in trouble re: insider trading, so he disappears (it's presumed he's left the country). Rebecca initially doesn't want to believe that Robin took advantage of her, but the evidence is all there - and so she finally tries to forget Robin by hooking up with Sam. The final scene of the season is classic: Robin goes back to Cheers to try to win Rebecca back - and finds her with Sam :) You knew Rebecca & Sam were going to hook up eventually (at least temporarily), but didn't know the circumstances - or necessarily when it would happen.

And, Robin is such an entitled, rich jerk - that you're glad when his sins end up catching up with him at the end.

I also feel these last two episodes are very topical re: some of the "hot issues" that were in the news at the time. I.e. in the late '80's/early '90's I remember hearing terms like "hostile takeover" & "insider trading" in relation to corporations, stocks, etc. This was more fully explored in movies from this era, like the iconic Wall Street (1987), etc.

Re: Cheers S09, Part 1 of my review:

This is another season which starts out with a significant change (though not a casting one); at the beginning, Sam buys back the bar & hires back Rebecca as the manager. So, he's not working for a corporation anymore & is now Rebecca's boss. It was funny seeing Rebecca with a job hawking car wax early on in the season, prior to getting her job @ Cheers back - LOL.

-One of the better episodes of this season was when Melville's (the seafood restaurant upstairs) got a new owner, who ended up getting into a feud with Sam over who owned the building space(s), the parking space(s), etc. At one point, the Melville customers are treating Cheers as a "lounge" to sit in while waiting for the seats upstairs to open up - LOL. During this time, Norm & Cliff go to the back room, and then come back to sit in their seats @ the bar - only to find them temporarily taken by a couple who were waiting for their restaurant seats. Norm nicely asks them to move, but they refuse - even after he asks them repeatedly - ha ha. Then, he feigns a seizure/fainting incident, and then when the couple & others leave their seat to see what's wrong with him, he & Cliff quickly take the vacated seats - LOL.

-Also, general observation about these later seasons: In the earlier seasons, I got the impression the Cheers gang were at the bar in the evenings (which would make the most sense), and would in many cases be there until the bar closed. However, in these later seasons, it seems like Norm, Cliff, and others actually start drinking @ Cheers in the morning/afternoon - sometimes starting right after the bar opens - LOL. Don't these people have jobs & lives?! Ha ha. This just makes Norm & others seem even more pathetic - and funnier - than in earlier seasons - ha ha.

Also interesting was the 200th episode special, which was a retrospective/round-table discussion on the show by the cast & creator(s) - showcasing some of the show's best moments (up to that point). Notable in this special were:

-The extended version of the opening theme song.

- Danson is seen here without his hairpiece; I always knew he was balding (in real life), but it's amusing that Sam makes a big deal about his full head of hair on the show, when IRL he's got a significant bald spot - LOL. I guess that just adds to the humor re: the scenes when Sam is bragging about his hair - ha ha.

In any case, these episodes are funny & worth seeing. Even though the show is not quite as good in these later seasons (than it was in the earlier ones) - these later episodes are still far superior to almost any modern comedy I've seen from the 200X's-on.

Part 2 of my S09 review:

-Another S09 episode that was particularly amusing was the one where Norm finds out that his favorite greasy spoon restaurant (and I use that term very loosely - LOL) "The Hungry Heifer" will be closing down soon. Norm is so broken up about this, to the point that it was obvious he felt the restaurant's continued existence was even more significant to his life than his own marriage - LOL. As it turned out, the owner really wanted to sell the place; he was not only ready to retire, but was also going to get much more than the property was worth from a developer. The later scenes when Norm had to stop the owner from destroying the place were especially funny - LOL.

- "Cheers has Chili": The tearoom episode. This story line was a spin-off from the "feud" that the new owner of Melville's had with Sam. He keeps insisting that, based on the building plans, etc. - he owns the Cheers bathrooms and pool room, and was insisting that Sam pay "rent" on them. Then, somehow Rebecca took over ownership of the pool room, and turned it into the tea room.

This "tea room" episode started off very amusing w/Rebecca wanted to add a touch of "class" to Cheers by replacing the pool room with the "upscale (ha ha) tearoom in the back - which was ridiculous, since the regular patrons of Cheers would have had little use/interest in a tea room - which was the whole point - ha ha. An early scene here was especially hilarious; Frasier & Lilith (the only customers) went to the Tea room (and you got the impression they did this more because they felt obligated to Rebecca than any other reason) & Rebecca aggressively tried to push pastries, sandwiches, etc. on them - when they wanted to just have tea & that's it. Due to Rebecca's obnoxiousness, they abruptly leave soon after. Then, as they leave in a huff - Rebecca calls after them that they should recommend the place to their friends, and she was being serious - LOL; great sarcasm here.

However, after that scene the episode did slowly fall apart in terms of making any kind of sense. I.e., Sam didn't want Rebecca to operate the tea room because he wanted to bring back the pool room, so when Rebecca decided to serve chili in that room - Sam called the Fire Marshall because of a fictitious "fire hazard" that was allegedly happening because of the chili being served; obviously the tea room was part of the bar (even if Rebecca "owned" the space), and he would definitely not have wanted to attract the fire marshall's attention re: anything negative going on in that part of the building - which would have negatively affected the bar's operation as well. In other words, he would have been a fool if he intentionally did anything that led to the bar's being shut down (even temporarily).

Note: The DVD's (which is the way I'm watching this show, since I prefer this to streaming) do unfortunately have some music replacements (obviously because of copyrights/licensing). Though, since I'm watching these episodes for the first time - I'm not able to pick up on most of them. However, I do know of one - which was in the above mentioned Hungry Heifer episode:

In this episode, one of the sub-plots discussed is that Rebecca's boyfriend Robin C. is in jail for insider trading. So, at one point in the episode Sam plays a song on the jukebox which apparently was "I Fought the Law" when the episode first aired on TV (since I never saw the episode as it originally aired, I don't know which version of the song this was - I'm only really familiar with The Clash's version). However, on the DVD this song has been replaced by a forgettable song that I don't even remember. Too bad, since the song on this DVD set has absolutely nothing to do with the situation being discussed & therefore makes no sense - and does mar the episode to a great extent.

Watched through S10 of Cheers. Hilarious season. Some of my favorite episodes:

"Don't Shoot - I'm only the Psychiatrist": Frasier brings his low self-esteem group to Cheers in order to try to help them. Norm, Cliff, and Paul befriend this group - and they start joking around, enjoying themselves, and laughing. Frasier comes in & sees this, and is happy that everyone is obviously feeling better - until he realizes that this is only because the guys are laughing at & making fun of him... so the jokes are at his expense - ha ha

"Here's...Cliffy": Cliff is falsely convinced by the gang that The Tonight Show has bought one of his stupid jokes, and he takes a trip to CA (with his mother & Norm in tow) in order to be in the audience when his joke will supposedly be read by Johnny Carson. Extremely funny episode, with an unexpected twist.

"An Old-Fashioned Wedding, Parts 1-2": This two-parter finished out the season, and were definitely some of the funniest episodes of the entire series. A prima donna pastry chef; a drunken priest who later dies before the wedding is performed; Carla constantly getting stuck in the kitchen dumbwaiter; and an irate German husband who wanted to "take out" Sam (for going after his wife) were just some of the shenanigans/situations the gang got involved in when attending Woody & Kelly's wedding. Hilarious ;)

Thanks for posting these reviews, LG. Great reads so far.

Welcome to being a Cheers fan! To be honest, I hated the show in it's heyday and since I assumed that Frasier was going to be like it, I never watched it either. A friend introduced me to Frasier back in 2010 and got me hooked on it and gradually I would started watching Cheers because it came on either before or after. I'm not a huge Cheers fan but I do like the show. Lilith and Frasier are my favorites but I also like Sam.

I love finding shows way after they start airing or went off the air. It's an advantage because like you said you can watch the whole series in it's entirety instead of having to wait for the episodes to air. I don't think I could have handled all of the Frasier cliffhangers that they had over the past 11 seasons.

Well, I finally finished watching Cheers. The last season & especially the last episode(s) were definitely bittersweet; it was almost sad to finish this up, even though the show itself ended 26 years ago - ha ha. After seeing the whole series, I can honestly say this is the THE best Sitcom of all time, hands down (though I haven't seen them all - LOL). Very funny, clever/well-written, and iconic.

I found S10 & S11 to be especially very strong, and really had a lot of the elements that made previous seasons funny; it felt like the writers pulled out all the stops here - given that the series was ending.

Some highlights from the final seasons:

-Lilith & Frasier are having marital problems, and Lilith tells Frasier she's leaving him to go live in an "Eco pod" underground with her lover & colleague. Frasier gets indignant/upset, especially when he finds out who the man is, and contemptuously calls him "That Bald guy?!" even though Frasier is almost completely bald himself (in front) - ha ha.

Then, Frasier - despondent - goes up a couple of floors above Cheers, and acts like he's going to jump. As fire trucks come in & everyone is yelling at him to come down & acting extremely concerned, etc. - Norm yells up something like, "Frase, it's Norm Peterson. You left half a mug of beer on the bar..." and Frasier yells down that it's OK if Norm drinks his beer - LOL. Frasier is eventually talked out of jumping by Lilith.

-Cliff's on/off "girlfriend" Maggie comes back to town (after living in Canada for years) pregnant & wanting to get back together with Cliff - due to her boyfriend (and the father of the baby) dumping her. She convinces Cliff to marry her & raise her child, and he agrees. However, at the end he was left "off the hook" due to her unexpectedly getting back together with the boyfriend.

This episode just showed how much of a sucker Cliff is (which we already knew) - ha ha. Though some fans may not like the Maggie storyline(s), I felt they highlighted Cliff's ineptitude & inexperience with women, and I felt this episode was a fitting & hilarious end to this story arc.

Continuing with my review of the final season:

- Extremely funny episode when con-artist Harry "The Hat" Gittes (the late Harry Anderson) plays a trick on the owner of "Gary's Olde Towne Tavern", the bar that Cheers has had a rivalry with for years. The trick involved Harry convincing Gary that he was a real-estate developer & was going to buy Gary's property for a million dollars - because he wanted the land for a shopping center. Gary naively & stupidly bought the scam hook, line, and sinker - and then had his bar bulldozed in front of Sam in preparation for the fictitious "shopping center". What a dummy - ha ha. He then went over to Cheers to gloat, and used Sam's office phone to make a call to confirm the million-dollar check had gone through. His anger & reaction to the check bouncing were priceless - ha ha! Great ending to the "rivalry" between Cheers & Gary's bar - hilarious!

-The episode when Carla drunkenly slept with Paul was cringe-worthy & funny, especially the way Paul later gloated about this. Also funny were the huge hangovers most of the gang had, given that Carla had made terrible drinks the night before - ha ha.

-I didn't like the episode when Frasier took Lilith back, because IMHO it made the character look weak. That being said, it goes along with his personality, so it makes sense. I know they truly split up later.

-There was an episode where Sam showed Carla his hairpiece in the bar's office, to try to make her feel better about something. Though I knew about this scene ahead of time, I was still somewhat surprised they included this on the show. But, it just makes Sam bragging about his "perfect" head of hair all the more funny & ironic.

-Great three-part finale, when Diane finally came back to Cheers. Some highlights:

When Diane Chambers was first noticed (again) by the gang, as she was giving a speech on TV for some obscure cable-TV show she had won an award for, and became so long-winded that she had to be literally dragged off the stage - LOL. Her final parting words "You have to be taught to hate!" were classic! Hilarious!

Hilarious sequence when Sam & Diane sat down to eat at Melville's after they convinced each other that they were both married (a lie, obviously). Soon after, both of their "spouses" (Rebecca & Diane's hairdresser) were revealed as being fake, in a humiliating way for both Diane & Sam - ha ha. Going along with this, It was also funny how Sam had to "clean up" a drunken, despondent Rebecca in order to make her "presentable" enough to serve as his fake spouse - ha ha.

Not surprise at all when Sam & Diane decided against going to CA & getting married - while on the plane (which was significantly delayed). I can't think of a couple who were less suited for each other, either in TV/film - or IRL - ha ha.

The final moments of the finale were great; Sam was finally left alone & as he was closing down the bar, looked around at everything & said "I'm the luckiest son of a b$#%$ on earth." - which led right up to the ending credits. Very fitting & understated.

General comments about the show:

-Though Cheers is the bar where "everyone knows your name", it's interesting that the only barfly that is consistently & collectively called out by name is Norm. I know that Cliff isn't called out because people don't like him. But, I don't remember Frasier, Paul, or any of the other characters being called out in this way - at least not consistently.

-I didn't like Frasier when he was first introduced on the series as Diane's boyfriend & later ex, since I felt he was a pompous @$$. But, I felt he improved as a character as the series progressed. He's still a pompous @$$ at the end of the series, but definitely became more sympathetic - and funnier - as time went on.

-Cliff was hilarious throughout the series. And, his "momma's boy" situation looked like it was going to change in S06, when his childhood home got torn down & his mother moved to Florida. He then moved into his own place, started to date, etc. - and, though I never thought the character would get married or settle down, it looked like he was finally free of his mother's apron strings to some extent. But, then his mother lost all her savings/money (betting on dog?! races) and moved back in with him, making his situation even more pathetic & funny that it had been before - ha ha. I wonder if the writers of the show always intended to do this, or if they just ran out of ideas re: the Cliff character....and so decided to bring his mother back so they could weave her into the storyline/episodes.

Cliff does move his mother into an expensive, high-end assisted living facility towards the end of S11, but takes her out of there soon after - when he realizes he won't be able to afford the expensive payments for the place.

-Carla's frequent jokes about Lilith's pale features making her look like a ghost/corpse/vampire were always spot-on - LOL.

Welcome to being a Cheers fan! To be honest, I hated the show in it's heyday and since I assumed that Frasier was going to be like it, I never watched it either. A friend introduced me to Frasier back in 2010 and got me hooked on it and gradually I would started watching Cheers because it came on either before or after. I'm not a huge Cheers fan but I do like the show. Lilith and Frasier are my favorites but I also like Sam.

I love finding shows way after they start airing or went off the air. It's an advantage because like you said you can watch the whole series in it's entirety instead of having to wait for the episodes to air. I don't think I could have handled all of the Frasier cliffhangers that they had over the past 11 seasons.

Agree completely that binge-watching shows in their entirety (after they finish) is the best way to watch them. I still do that sometimes to some extent with seasons of a show; i.e., wait until a season if over until seeing this - it's easier that way to follow the storyline, make connections to previous episodes, etc.

Since the Frasier Crane character really grew on my as Cheers wore on, I plan on checking out the Frasier series next. Like Cheers, I never saw much of this when it was on - outside of some scenes I may have caught when channel flipping back in the day. So, this will be all new to me. Looking forward to this.