Tournament Finals! The Munsters vs. Cheers vs. Gilligan's Island

[icecream]

Congratulations to all the finalists who have made it this far by popular vote. I am expanding finals voting to a full 2 weeks (14 days). In the event of a tie for 1st or tie for 2nd, a separate poll will be made between just those two shows to break the tie.

This spooky family's TV show aired at the same time period as The Addams Family, two seasons from 1964-1966 on CBS. Fred Gwynne stars as giant Herman Munster, with Yvonne De Carlo as his wife Lily. Al Lewis was Grandpa, Butch Patrick was Eddie, and Marilyn was their normal looking niece who they thought was an ugly duckling. Beverly Owen first played Marilyn, then Pat Priest. Spot was their pet dragon.
How it got this far
1st Round: defeated Night Court (1984) 10-7
2nd Round: defeated The Facts of Life 16-7
3rd Round: defeated The Jack Benny Program 9-5
Quarterfinals: defeated I Dream of Jeannie 9-4
Semifinals: earned a bye to the finals with the most combined votes from the first four rounds

Cheers won many Emmys, and its series finale with over 80 million viewers was second only to M*A*S*H all time for scripted shows. It launched two spin-offs: The Tortellis which was a flop, and Frasier which tied its parent show's 11 seasons. Cheers aired from 1982-1993 on NBC, it anchored their Thursday night comedy block helping launch shows like Night Court and Seinfeld. Set in a bar starring Ted Danson as former baseball player Sam Malone. Shelley Long was the female lead for the first five seasons, snooty Diane Chambers. Starting in season 6 Kirstie Alley replaced her as Rebecca Howe. Rhea Perlman played Sam's hot headed bartender Carla Tortelli. George Wendt played alcoholic Norm Peterson and John Ratzenberger played his best friend know-it-all Cliff Clavin. Kelsey Grammer was brought in for a 6 episode arc at the start of season 3 playing Dr. Frasier Crane. That arc quickly turned into a series regular role for the rest of Cheers, then his own Frasier spin-off. Kelsey holds a record for 20 years playing the same character, also for being Emmy nominated as the same character on three different shows (Wings from the same producers was the third show). Later on Bebe Neuwirth was added to the Cheers cast playing his wife Dr. Lilith Sternin-Crane. For the first three seasons Nicholas Colasanto played Coach Ernie Pantuzo, who followed Sam from baseball to the bar. Nicholas died irl, so Coach was killed off as well. Woody Harrelson replaced him at the start of season 4 as Woody Boyd, a young bartender from my home state of Indiana.
How it got this far
1st Round: defeated The Nanny 13-4
2nd Round: defeated Fawlty Towers 11-2
3rd Round: defeated The Mary Tyler Moore Show 8-4
Quarterfinals: defeated The Dick Van Dyke Show 9-4
Semifinals: defeated The Love Boat 11-4

Gilligan's Island is the longest tour ever. Crew and passengers of the S.S. Minnow crashed on a remote island. They had only signed up for a three hour tour, that got extended to three seasons on CBS from 1964-1967. Starring Bob Denver as Gilligan and Alan Hale, Jr. as the Skipper, Jonas Grumby. Also starring Russell Johnson as the Professor Roy Hinkley, Jr., Dawn Wells as Mary Ann Summers, Tina Louise as movie star Ginger Grant, and Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer as the millionaire and his wife the Howells.
How it got this far
1st Round: defeated Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em 9-2
2nd Round: defeated Frasier (1993) 13-7
3rd Round: defeated Petticoat Junction 7-4
Quarterfinals: defeated I Love Lucy/The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour 10-6
Semifinals: defeated Taxi 11-7

[AMackII]

Cheers to win it all

[icecream]

Gold Medal Winner: Cheers
Silver Medal 2nd Place: Gilligan's Island
Bronze Medal 3rd Place: The Munsters

[James28]

Originally Posted by icecream

Gold Medal Winner: Cheers
Silver Medal 2nd Place: Gilligan's Island
Bronze Medal 3rd Place: The Munsters

This reinforces Cheers's status as the greatest sitcom of all-time. Cheers is FAR more deserving of an honor like this than The Munsters or Gilligan's Island; a win by either of THOSE two would've made this whole tournament a SHAM. Plus, CatsRule, you've just saved yourself from me having to make official a bonus round vs. The Facts of Life. And, for new fans of Cheers, you'll pretty much have to overlook the final-season number omissions from the DVD sets typical of Paramount (Cheers's production company/distributor), and the all-caps dialogue on the closed-captioning, which I've seen on Cheers reruns on Pluto TV.

So, what prizes does Cheers get? A trophy? A special visit to the titular bar by CatsRule? Anything?

And now to see which long-runners got 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, etc, places in this tournament...

[icecream]

Originally Posted by James28

This reinforces Cheers's status as the greatest sitcom of all-time. Cheers is FAR more deserving of an honor like this than The Munsters or Gilligan's Island; a win by either of THOSE two would've made this whole tournament a SHAM. Plus, CatsRule, you've just saved yourself from me having to make official a bonus round vs. The Facts of Life. And, for new fans of Cheers, you'll pretty much have to overlook the final-season number omissions from the DVD sets typical of Paramount (Cheers's production company/distributor), and the all-caps dialogue on the closed-captioning, which I've seen on Cheers reruns on Pluto TV.

So, what prizes does Cheers get? A trophy? A special visit to the titular bar by CatsRule? Anything?

And now to see which long-runners got 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, etc, places in this tournament...

The Facts of Life lost fair and square in the 2nd round and does not deserve a bonus round. Talk about a sore loser, losing very early like that does not entitle you to challenge that loss, FOL was done at that point! It would have been even more disrespectful of you if you had gone through with a sham bonus round like that which would NOT have been authorized by me or connected in any way with my tournament, just petty sour grapes bitter about very legitimate results. Like them or not, short lived shows are NOT automatically poor quality. Gilligan's Island and The Munsters did very well getting the silver and bronze medals overall. Their fans deserve credit and you are needlessly insulting the fans of Gilligan's Island and The Munsters who were a lot more dedicated in voting for their show than FOL fans. I have tried to be nice to you but am fed up with your rudeness dissing my tournament and short lived shows I very much consider deserving of my top 80 sitcoms tournament.

[James28]

Originally Posted by icecream

The Facts of Life lost fair and square in the 2nd round and does not deserve a bonus round. Talk about a sore loser, losing very early like that does not entitle you to challenge that loss, FOL was done at that point! It would have been even more disrespectful of you if you had gone through with a sham bonus round like that which would NOT have been authorized by me or connected in any way with my tournament, just petty sour grapes bitter about very legitimate results. Like them or not, short lived shows are NOT automatically poor quality. Gilligan's Island and The Munsters did very well getting the silver and bronze medals overall. Their fans deserve credit and you are needlessly insulting the fans of Gilligan's Island and The Munsters who were a lot more dedicated in voting for their show than FOL fans. I have tried to be nice to you but am fed up with your rudeness dissing my tournament and short lived shows I very much consider deserving of my top 80 sitcoms tournament.

Ahp-ahp-ahp-ahp! A long-runner already won this tournament, so why should I care what you think? There's no need to be mean to me at all regarding short-lived shows being better than long runners. I am standing by the fact that Gilligan's Island and The Munsters are simply overrated, and frankly, there's no getting around it. How are their fanbases more dedicated than The Facts of Life's? Probably not enough fans voting for TFoL, that's why I was angry over it. What if Cheers makes it to the finals of a Universal Long-Running Sitcoms tournament in the near future? It might still win that by a landslide.

Maybe I'll leave this fight up to TJ.

[JamesG]

^ Start your own poll if you don't like it here.