Cheers
Situation comedy about a bar in Boston with comic assortment
of chronic misfits and eccentric regulars.
Cheers Actors & Actresses
Cheers Shows / Spin Offs
Fraiser
Cheers Episode Guide
Season 1
1 Give Me a Ring Sometime
On the eve of her intended elopement, Diane Chambers sits on a
Cheers barstool and watches her life crumble before her eyes.
"Where better than here to study life in all its facets?"
Diane asks, rationalizing why she has stooped to accept Sam's
offer of a job as a cocktail waitress. "People meet in bars,
they part, they rejoice, they suffer, they come here to be with
their own kind." It's a flimsy rationale from a perennial
student who is suddenly confronted with the fact that her entire
life has prepared her for nothing more challenging than serving
drinks in a bar. In her shallow appraisal of Cheers, Diane even
misses the irony that Sam and the gang have offered her sanctuary--even
though they have just met--while the man with whom she planned
to spend her life didn't think twice about dumping her on their
doorstep. Though she complains that her stay at Cheers is a form
of purgatory, Diane, too, has come to Cheers to be with her own
kind. She just doesn't know it yet. First
Aired: September 30, 1982
1.2 Sam's Women
men of limited intellect; and a visitor to Cheers demands to speak
to the former owner. The show's producers were well acquainted
with writer Earl Pomerantz from his many contributions to Taxi
during their own tenure on the series. First
Aired: October 7, 1982
1.3 The Tortelli Tort
Sam is slammed with a lawsuit after Carla assaults an outspoken
Yankees fan who dared to wander into Cheers.First
Aired: October 14, 1982
1.4 Sam at Eleven
During a TV interview with a local sportscaster, Sam reveals how
much he misses the spotlight of his major-league days. The loudmouth
sportscaster was played by Fred Dryer, who, along with film star
William Devane, had been a contender for the role of Sam Malone
in Cheers's original casting sessions. First
Aired: October 21, 1982
1.5 The Coach's Daughter
Coach meets his daughter's fiancé, an obnoxious salesman
who's so thoroughly detestable that even the Coach can't stand
him. Philip Charles MacKenzie would become better known as the
flighty Donald on Brothers, cable TV's first sitcom; and Allyce
Beasley found much greater renown as Miss DiPesto, the gal Friday
of Moonlighting. First Aired: October 28,
1982
1.6 Any Friend of Diane's
An old school chum of Diane's arrives at Cheers and hankers for
an afternoon of lustful abandon with Sam. Julia Duffy, who, along
with film star Lisa Eichhorn, was one of the actresses considered
for the part of Diane in the series's early development, soon
landed the plumb role of Stephanie, the self-absorbed maid on
Newhart. First Aired: November 4, 1982
1.7 Friends, Romans, Accountants
After a disastrous office party at Cheers, Norm tries to score
points with his boss by fixing him up with Diane. Norm succeeds
only in losing his job--which helps explain how he was able to
spend so much time at the bar. Norm, Cheers's all-purpose underachiever,
was based on a real-life guzzler Les Charles remembered from his
days as a bartender in college. First Aired:
November 11, 1982
1.8 Truce or Consequences
Carla calls a truce with Diane to reveal a shocking secret. First
Aired: November 18, 1982
1.9 The Coach Returns to Action
Sam participates in an unwitting rivalry with Coach when both
have designs on the same woman. First Aired:
November 25, 1982
1.10 Endless Slumper
Sam becomes an accident-prone wreck after he lends his good-luck
charm to a Red Sox pitcher who's stuck in a slump. First
Aired: December 2, 1982
1.11 One for the Book
An aging doughboy holds a lonely World War I reunion in Cheers;
and a novice monk comes looking for one last night of debauchery
before he checks into the monastery. First
Aired: December 9, 1982
1.12 The Spy Who Came in for a Cold One
The gang at Cheers copes with an inveterate liar who's convinced
Diane that he's a poet, while Carla is certain he's really a spy.
First Aired: December l6,1982
1.13 Now Pitching: Sam Malone
Sam feels used when an attractive theatrical agent lands him a
string of lucrative commercial endorsements in exchange for his
romantic favors. After Diane and Sam debate the barkeeper's options,
Coach arrives to offer Sam his own no-nonsense solution--along
with a well-placed kick in the pants. For all his confusion, the
simple-minded Coach was often the only person in Cheers capable
of straightforward thought. Glen and Les Charles admitted that
their model for Coach Ernie Pantusso was baseball's legendary
Yogi Berra, who was also well known for the peculiar logic of
his public utterances. First Aired: January
6, 1983
1.14 Let Me Count the Ways
Distraught over the death of her housecat, Diane finds few shoulders
to cry on at Cheers during a Celtics game. The script, the first
of many written by Rhea Perlman's sister, Heide, opens with a
precredit "teaser" scene, as did every episode of the
series. Here, Diane arrives, bursting with enthusiasm after attending
an Indian film festival--only to leave screaming in abject defeat
a moment later, after Coach and Carla describe their own favorite
Indian film, Fort Apache. Given the soap-operatic overtones of
the show's continuing narrative line, the producers designed the
opening teaser as a hook that would serve as an instant introduction
to the show and its characters for the uninitiated--a useful weapon
in the uphill ratings battle the series faced during the first
year. First Aired: January 13, 1983
1,15 Father Knows Last
Diane attempts to prevent an injustice when Carla schemes to convince
an unwitting computer programmer that he's the father of her baby.
First Aired: January 20, 1983
1.16 The Boys in the Bar
After Sam publicly supports an old teammate who has just come
out of the closet, the regulars are convinced that Cheers is turning
into a trendy gay hangout. First Aired:
January 27, 1983
1.17 Diane's Perfect Date
Sam unwittingly fixes Diane up with a man who was just released
from a prison for the criminally insane. The date begins when
the ex-offender refuses to eat in an Italian restaurant where
he once killed a waitress--and goes downhill from there. Andy
Andy would return to Cheers about once a year over the next few
seasons. First Aired: February 10, 1983
1.18 No Contest
Diane attempts to sabotage the Miss Boston Barmaid contest after
she discovers that Sam entered her in the competition without
her knowledge. The cameo appearance of Bostonian Cheers fan, Speaker
of the House Thomas "Tip" O'Neill, was a stunt designed
to draw attention--and viewers--to the show during the first fledgling
season. First Aired: February 17, 1983
1.19 Pick a Con. . . Any Con
Sam convinces Cheers's resident con man to stage an elaborate
sting to retrieve Coach's money from a traveling card shark. Stand-up
comic and magician Harry Anderson--soon to be the star of Night
Court--was typecast as Harry the con man. First
Aired: February 24, 1983
1.20 Someone Single, Someone Blue
Diane and Sam plan a marriage of convenience to protect her mother's
fortunes from a bizarre stipulation in her late father's will.
Diane's mother is played by British stage and film actress Glynis
Johns, in the first Cheers episode scripted by David Angell, who
would become one of the show's chief contributors. First
Aired: March 3, 1983
1.21 Showdown (Part 1)
Sam can't conceal his resentment of his visiting brother--a rich
and talented charmer with something to offer everyone, especially
Diane. First Aired: March 24, 1983
1.22 Showdown (Part 2)
Sam's brother sweeps Diane off her feet with an invitation to
Paris, but the waitress finds it harder to leave Cheers than she
imagined. "We didn't want to have two people just flirting
with each other ad infinitum," explained Les Charles. So
he and his brother, Glen, planned this season's finale--a quirky
cliff-hanger that ends with the lovers poised on the brink of
consummating their season-long tryst. It's an unlikely romantic
encounter that begins when Sam pledges his feelings under duress--Diane
has threatened to run her fingernails on the chalkboard if he
doesn't--and ends with the lovers locked in a violent embrace.
At least for the time being. First Aired:
March 31, 1983
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