Cheers
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Template:Infobox television Cheers is the name of a long-running sitcom made by Charles-Burrows-Charles Productions in association with Paramount Television for NBC. The show premiered on September 30, 1982 and had its widely-watched series finale on May 20, 1993, followed by a long and ongoing run in syndication. In eleven seasons, there were 273 episodes.
The show was set in a Boston bar, where a colorful group of locals would come to sit, drink, state daft facts, complain, and play elaborate practical jokes on the devotees and owner of a rival bar in town. The show also spawned the character Frasier Crane, who went on to a TV show of his own (Frasier) after Cheers ended. The show's tagline and theme song (http://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/cheerslyrics.html) refrain is "where everybody knows your name..."
The show's main theme in its early seasons was the stormy romance between upper-class, over-educated server Diane Chambers (Shelley Long) and earthy ex-baseball pitcher and bar owner Sam Malone (Ted Danson). Long's departure from the show in 1987 shifted the emphasis to Sam's relationship with a new character, neurotic corporate executive Rebecca Howe (Kirstie Alley).
Social class was a strong subtext of the show. Upper-class characters like Diane, Frasier (Kelsey Grammer), Rebecca and Lilith Sternin (Bebe Neuwirth) rubbed shoulders with working-class characters like Sam, Norm Peterson (George Wendt), and Clifford Clavin (John Ratzenberger). Strong comedic support came from the bar staff, including sassy waitress Carla Tortelli (Rhea Perlman) and sometimes-befuddled assistant bartender Ernie 'Coach' Pantusso (Nicholas Colasanto). Following Colasanto's death in 1985, the assistant bartender role was filled by an even more naïve character, Woodrow 'Woody' Boyd (Woody Harrelson).
The producers, not wanting the show to be construed as promoting drinking, had Sam's character written as a recovering alcoholic. Most of the early episodes took place entirely within the confines of the bar. When the series became a hit, the characters started venturing further afield, first to other sets and eventually to the occasional exterior location. The exterior location shots of the bar were actually the Bull & Finch Pub, north of Boston Common, which has become a tourist attraction because of its association with the series. It is said to be the bar that the series creators saw and wanted to model the bar in their show after. It has now been renamed as Cheers on Beacon Hill, though its interior is quite different from the TV bar. To additionally capitalize on the show's popularity, another bar was built to be a replica of the show's set to provide tourists with a bar whose interior was closer to the one they saw on TV. It is near Faneuil Hall within a mile or so of the Bull & Finch Pub. [1] (http://www.cheersboston.com/combined/history.html)
The show was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles and Les Charles. It was nearly cancelled during its first season (in which it ranked dead last), but eventually became one of the most popular shows on TV, earning a top-ten rating during seven of its eleven seasons. The show earned 26 Emmy Awards, out of a total of 111 nominations.
NBC dedicated a whole night to Cheers' final episode. It began with a "pre-game" show hosted by Bob Costas, the final episode itself (which was ninety-eight minutes long), Cheers tributes during the affliates' local news, and concluding with a special Tonight Show live from the Bull & Finch Pub (where fans gathered to watch the final episode). Critics called the episode of The Tonight Show in poor taste because much of the cast was drunk and doing silly things on camera (example: John Ratzenberger had a spitball fight with Woody Harrelson).
Trivia
- Ted Danson (Sam Malone), George Wendt (Norm Peterson) and Rhea Perlman (Carla Tortelli) are the only actors to appear in every episode of the series.
- All ten of the actors who were regulars on the series received Emmy nominations for their roles.
Other meanings
"Cheers!" is a common phrase used before sharing a drink with someone.
In British English, it is also commonly used to express gratitude.
Cheers is also a 2003 album by rapper Obie Trice.
Children's Environmental Exposure Research Study, or CHEERS, was a now-defunct study commissioned by the EPA.
External links
- Cheers (http://imdb.com/title/tt0083399/) at The Internet Movie Database
- Cheers, from the Museum of Broadcast Communications (http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/C/htmlC/cheers/cheers.htm)
- The Cheers bar in Boston (http://www.cheersboston.com/)
- The Unofficial Rhea Perlman Homepage (http://www.rheaperlman.com/index.html) (Carla Tortelli)de:Cheers