The Name Fits the Character

[Chambers]

I've always admired the fact that the creators of the show chose such great names for the characters.

Here are just a few that I like:

Norm, as we all know, is perfect because Norm Peterson IS the "norm" - the average guy.

Lilith Sternin - couldn't be more appropriate. Lilith, in rabbinic myth (I believe) and medieval demonology, was Adam's first wife - a woman who wouldn't agree to be his subordinate...or something like that. So then she became a witch demon. Sternin obviously reflects her sternness.

Frasier Crane: Frasier...from the word strawberry in French...well it's unusual and pompous sounding, so it works. "Crane" connotes his tendency to be cerebral.

Cliff Clavin - great nerdy name for a nerdy guy. And, if you want to stretch it, he does seem to be teetering at the edge of a "cliff" - both mentally and socially.

Diane Chambers - waspy name for a prim and proper New Englander.

[Teddy02]

idk but i just have to say sam. it suits him, imo, perfectly. sam isn't exactly an amazingly sophisticated or cultured sounding name, and neither was Sam. Malone of course is Irish- drinking problem. it just sounds like a player's name. good old sammy, you know?

[FamilyTiesGOP]

Lilith Sternin and Cliff Clavin.

[Pirate Jenny]

definately Lilith
If you guys want, i can give you the scoop on the Original Lilith...
I have been studying her for years, both as a Jew and as a feminist, and plan to include her in my Senior Thesis on the Psychological Effect of Women in Mythology...
I am absolutely in love with that character, that story...so I would be MORE than happy to explain it all...its actually a very complicated story, but... I'd love to tell it!

[Chambers]

Originally posted by periacta
definately Lilith
If you guys want, i can give you the scoop on the Original Lilith...
I have been studying her for years, both as a Jew and as a feminist, and plan to include her in my Senior Thesis on the Psychological Effect of Women in Mythology...
I am absolutely in love with that character, that story...so I would be MORE than happy to explain it all...its actually a very complicated story, but... I'd love to tell it!

please do! I've only studied her in passing - something to do with her wanting to be on top? lol. i'd love to hear the whole story!

[Brian Damage]

Frasier Crane

[CheersChild4life]

Sam because it's just the perfect name for a guy like that.

[barwars]

Frasier Crane

perfect name for the perfect character.
although he's not my favorite, he's the only one that could remain interesting for 20 years.

[CheersChild4life]

Originally posted by barwars
Frasier Crane

perfect name for the perfect character.
although he's not my favorite, he's the only one that could remain interesting for 20 years.

My life can't even stay interesting for 20 minutes.

[Pirate Jenny]

yup...you're right about the "on top" thing!
here's the long and the short of it. (don't you just love that phrase?)

Here’s the short of it.

Lilith was created at the same time as Adam, of the same material. Lilith refused to lay beneath Adam during copulation, while he insisted that she yield to his needs. Big Fight, she leaves. Shacks up with some demons by the Red Sea. G-d sends angels to bring her back to Adam. She refuses to return, as a result of her refusal, all of her children are killed, and as revenge, Lilith preys on newborn boys under 8 days of age (or until his brit milah or bris) and newborn girls under 20 days.

This is the most an average person of Jewish faith will know of the story. However, there are many more layers to be considered.

Well, I'll delve a little bit deeper next time I get on, but I need dinner. Sorry.

[Pirate Jenny]

alright, more on the Original Lilith

Her story actually predates the Bible, and (like many old stories) bits and pieces of what may have been different stories have come together to form one. Lilith may be composed of many different women, but over the aeons, she has been condensed into one person. She is known as Lilith, Lilit, Lilitu, Lillake, Lili, and, to the Greeks, Lamia.
While she is known mainly as the first wife of Adam, many other identities and stories swirl around her central being.

-After the loss of her children, she becomes jelaous of new mothers and takes their children, in a desperate attempt to regain her place as a mother. For millenia, she was thought of as the cause of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). Talismen were placed in a baby's cradle, with inscription saying "Bind Lilith In Chains!" or "'Adam and Eve. Out, Lilith!'" in Hebrew.

-When Cain killed Abel, it is said that Adam seperated from Eve for 130 years, and attempted to remain celebate, not wanting to bring more murder to the world. During these years of solitude, Lilith returned to seduce him. From this union were spawned a multitude of female demons: the "lilim," and it is said that Lilith and her progeny visit a man sleeping alone, and take from him, in his dreams, his "nocturnal emissions" (if you don't know what that is...look it up yourself, I'm trying to keep this relatively PG), from which more demons were spawned. It was because of this that medieval monks often slept holding a crucifix over their nether-areas.

-She is thought to have been the serpent that so tempted Eve

-In the Kabbala, it is said that Lilith has dominion over "children who issue from a man who has intercourse at candlelight, or with his wife naked, or at times when he is forbidden to have intercourse." Yes. That's right. Any children that were born from a man who had sex with his naked wife. I won't say anything.

-She is said to be the consort to Samael. Thats Satan to Gentiles.

-It is also said that when the Shekhina (the feminine aspect of G-d) descended from the heavens to follow her Children after their Exile from Israel, G-d (you must keep in mind that this G-d is not G-d in entirety, but simply one aspect of the whole) took Lilith as His consort.

-The Greeks took Lilith and transformed her into their Lamia who was once a lover of Zeus, and, when Hera found out, she murdered their offspring and transformed Lamia into a monster. the Lamia became obsessed with the images of her children's death, and Zeus, in an act of pity, removed her eyes to relieve her of this. In jealousy, Lamia takes to stealing newborn infants and devouring them.

-The only direct reference to Lilith in the bible is Isaiah 34:14, which reads
"Wildcats shall meet with hyenas,
goat-demons shall call to each other;
there too Lilith shall repose,
and find a place to rest.
There shall the owl nest
and lay and hatch and brood in its shadow"

this was later changed (in the King James Version, at least) to

"the screech owl also shall rest there,
and find for herself a place of rest."

Lilith was often associated with owls, in fact, the earliest known artifact related to Lilith: a nearly 4000 year old Babylonian relief of her, has her standing between two owls. This relief was found in southern Iraq sometime in the early 20th century, and is now on display at the British Museum.

As you can see, Lilith has garnered quite a bad reputation in her long life, and is only recently being embraced by a number of women (Jewish or not) as a stong role model. Literally, the world's first uppity, independent woman. It has been posited (by me, at least), that the Patriarchal society of old demonised Lilith as a way to keep women from following her example and leaving their husbands, and, this was best executed by villifying Lilith and making her a threat to that which was a woman's foremost priority: her children. She was a beautiful, fiercely intelligent women who refused to bow to her husband's will, and for this she has been vilified, defamed, and spat upon for centuries, violently repudiated by her own gender, but has emerged, on the other side, still just as vibrant, and with an ever growing embracement amongst modern women.

And I think that I have thoroughly justified my vote...

anyone else?

[Ria]

Clearly I cannot follow that up, but I will provide the only reference to the connection between the original Lilith and the Lilith that we know from Cheers/Frasier. This is from Frasier ("Lilith Needs a Favor"):

Lilith: My name's Lilith.
Albert: Ah, the demon-goddess. Are you like the independent fireball that was your predecessor?
Lilith: I make her look like a vacillating cream puff.

That's all I got!

[Moondance]

Originally posted by Ria
Clearly I cannot follow that up, but I will provide the only reference to the connection between the original Lilith and the Lilith that we know from Cheers/Frasier. This is from Frasier ("Lilith Needs a Favor"):

Lilith: My name's Lilith.
Albert: Ah, the demon-goddess. Are you like the independent fireball that was your predecessor?
Lilith: I make her look like a vacillating cream puff.

That's all I got!

I loved that quote!!! I chose Lilith!

Cliff: Uh-oh. Frost warning!

Feen