LILITH an article by Susan Stewart

[CliffClavin]

If Sam is the heart of Cheers and Norm is the soul, then yuppie psychiatrist Dr. Lilith Sternin is the mind. Cheers has a tradition of brains-Diane Chambers, psychiatrist Frasier Crane-but these eggheads are also airheads, perfect objects of ridicule for the philistines at the bar. Lilith is different: an intellectual with some sense. Lilith joined Cheers four years ago as an uptight parody of professionalism. Diane persuaded Lilith to let down her hair (literally) before debating clinical methods with Frasier on a talk show. Both were stricken with desire. They played footsie and used such blatantly sexual metaphors that viewers would have screamed for the censors if either character had had an iota of sex appeal. For a while, the old sexual dynamic was enough to define Lilith. Egghead or earth mother? Hair up or down? This was sexual tension, all right, but not the usual kind that exists between two characters: Lilith created this tension all by herself. Once Lilith and Frasier married, something had to replace sex. In their case, it has been cultural tension. Are they trendmongers or purists? They think they're purists, which naturally makes them trendy. Great episodes have arisen from the Sternin-Cranes' struggle with the good life: Can a beer- guzzling slime (Norm) update your color scheme and improve the traffic pattern in your tastefully decorated townhouse? We owe it to the world to reproduce, but won't having a baby cut into our leisure time and destroy our careers? Whenever there is conflict, Frasier rants and theorizes, then Lilith gets her way, never losing her monstrous self-control. Once, she came close. ''Think gentle, loving thoughts,'' advised the doting Frasier when Lilith went into labor. ''Novocaine!'' she bellowed. ''Codeine! Demerol! Whiskey! Rum! Knock me unconscious with a mallet!'' And then she proceeded to have the baby efficiently, in a taxi, off-camera. Now a confident wife and mother, Lilith is used mainly to show what a wimp Frasier is. Times have changed. Jane Hathaway's mannishness on The Beverly Hillbillies was pitiable; Lilith's is powerful. She's the paradigm of the dominant female, and a perfect foil for fluttery, bumbling Rebecca. Last season the woman who once needed help to take the pins out of her hair was drafted by Rebecca for beauty advice. Rebecca wanted to look tough enough to scare a man to death. She wanted to look like Lilith. Shows you how far women have come, one way or another.