Season One Ep 11 One For The Book
Sam: What you up to, Norm?
Norm: My ears.
I'll have to wait until I rewatch the whole season, but this episode's the front runner for my least favourite season one episode. There's some funny stuff here, and the sad story of a World War I veteran who arrives for his 10-year reunion to find he's the last of his troop. But the silly tale of a would-be monk who stops by for one last/first hurrah en route to the monastery pulls way too much focus and results in Diane being assaulted for the 3rd or 4th time (Sam, Norm's boss, possibly Rick Walker offscreen last ep, and now a man about to join the clergy) in just eleven episodes! Oh, and after the third assault, she immediately gets flashed by an octogenarian. I hope the tips were good, because Diane put up with a lot of crap! The whole thing feels more like a Taxi episode, and writer Katherine Green did pen four Taxi scripts, with this as her lone Cheers credit.
Buzz Crowder, played by real life WWI veteran, Ian Wolfe, arrives early to set up in the pool room for his old troop's reunion. The gang meet up every ten years and, over the course of the night, it becomes apparent that Buzz is the last man left standing from "The Fighting Double Deuce"--the 22nd Brigade. By coincidence, I just watched Peter Jackson's incredible WWI doc, They Shall Not Grow Old, the week prior for Remembrance/Veterans Day, so I found myself quite moved by lonely old Buzz. It's especially bittersweet watching this episode 37 years after it aired, long after the last veterans of The Great War have all since passed.
Had they left Buzz as the A-plot and made Diane's collection of "snippets of Americana" she overhears around the bar the B-story, it could've worked. But then they shoehorn a plot about a bumbling dweeb named Kevin spending his last day in the secular world at Cheers before he enters the monastery. One sip into his second drink, Kevin's drunk enough to lightly molest Diane, declaring, " I want you" before pouncing. This times poorly with Bud's prank...his old troop has a running reunion gag where the first man there "strips down to the altogether" and, while the others walk in, stands on the table and shouts, "Lafayette, we are here!" After the guys pull off Kevin, Diane assures Coach she's fine and just needs to freshen up a little. She heads to the back, only to find old man Buzz in the buff. Even 35 years before #MeToo, I find it hard to believe Kevin's actions wouldn't get the guy thrown out on his ass. Instead, he gets to stay and generally annoy everyone for the rest of the night. Kev figures he's not cut out for the church and decides decadence is the way to go: "I wanna arm wrestle and tell crude jokes and spit on the floor. And I wanna dance with cheap women!" Kevin plugs the dusty old player piano even though Sam swears its been rusted solid for over twenty years and, when the thing actually starts to play, he takes this piano healing as a sign from God. Only after he leaves does Coach mention he just had the piano fixed a couple days prior.
This is one of the first episodes taped, but it aired out of order, which explains both Sam's earlier hairdo and how the tone goes off the rails a little while they were still finding their footing. Also, I grow weary of how the name 'Kevin' has become a go-to shorthand for writers indicating a nerdy ineffectual character. The fact I'm a nerd named Kevin may have something to do with my frustration. And, hey, we almost forgot about poor old Buzz! "Every reunion we've had has thinned out a little more. I guess this is the last one...I guess I'm the last one..." Buzz bemoans. I'm getting weepy just thinking about it! You don't have to be a vet to feel the sting of loved ones lost while time marches on. The Cheers gang try their best to boost Buzz's morale, singing a garbled rendition of the WWI favourite, "Mademoiselle from Armentières", and Buzz decides to stick around for a game of darts with Norm. Coach sagely notes, "loneliness is a good thing to share with someone" and Diane immediately jots it down in her book which sends Sam into a mini-fit since everyone in the bar's made it into Diane's collection of bon mots but him. He deems Diane and her book stupid and pretentious, venting "What does a stuffed shirt know about blue-collar poetry?", which Diane can't resist writing down, finally giving Sam the validation he desperately needed.
Guest Stars
Character actor Ian Wolfe's face is probably familiar to anyone over thirty. With an onscreen career that dates back to 1934, he appeared in everything from Rebel Without a Cause to Star Trek TOS and WKRP as the Carlson's sassy old butler, Hirsch. A World War I veteran, poet, and all-around renaissance man, Wolfe had a 68 year marriage to his wife, Elizabeth, and booked his last role in 1990's Dick Tracy before leaving this earth to join his old troop in the sky at the age of 95 in 1992.
Boyd Bodwell plays Kevin, and he had a succesful screen career as a character actor from '76 to '89. After which, I'm not sure what he got up to (teaching, maybe?), but his memorable mug looms large in my childhood memories from his appearances on everything from The Dukes of Hazzard to Night Court. And, from snooping around, it's pretty clear that Boyd's a true patriot and proud dad of a son who serves in the Air Force, so his appearance in this episode's well-timed!
Only one of these is specifically about WWI, but here's 3 powerful songs about war and the brave folks who fight:
Rolf Harris (private life aside, he recorded some good 'uns!) covering Theo Morse
The Pogues covering Eric Bogle
Steve Earle w/The Pogues
Norm: My ears.
I'll have to wait until I rewatch the whole season, but this episode's the front runner for my least favourite season one episode. There's some funny stuff here, and the sad story of a World War I veteran who arrives for his 10-year reunion to find he's the last of his troop. But the silly tale of a would-be monk who stops by for one last/first hurrah en route to the monastery pulls way too much focus and results in Diane being assaulted for the 3rd or 4th time (Sam, Norm's boss, possibly Rick Walker offscreen last ep, and now a man about to join the clergy) in just eleven episodes! Oh, and after the third assault, she immediately gets flashed by an octogenarian. I hope the tips were good, because Diane put up with a lot of crap! The whole thing feels more like a Taxi episode, and writer Katherine Green did pen four Taxi scripts, with this as her lone Cheers credit.
This is one of the first episodes taped, but it aired out of order, which explains both Sam's earlier hairdo and how the tone goes off the rails a little while they were still finding their footing. Also, I grow weary of how the name 'Kevin' has become a go-to shorthand for writers indicating a nerdy ineffectual character. The fact I'm a nerd named Kevin may have something to do with my frustration. And, hey, we almost forgot about poor old Buzz! "Every reunion we've had has thinned out a little more. I guess this is the last one...I guess I'm the last one..." Buzz bemoans. I'm getting weepy just thinking about it! You don't have to be a vet to feel the sting of loved ones lost while time marches on. The Cheers gang try their best to boost Buzz's morale, singing a garbled rendition of the WWI favourite, "Mademoiselle from Armentières", and Buzz decides to stick around for a game of darts with Norm. Coach sagely notes, "loneliness is a good thing to share with someone" and Diane immediately jots it down in her book which sends Sam into a mini-fit since everyone in the bar's made it into Diane's collection of bon mots but him. He deems Diane and her book stupid and pretentious, venting "What does a stuffed shirt know about blue-collar poetry?", which Diane can't resist writing down, finally giving Sam the validation he desperately needed.
Guest Stars
Character actor Ian Wolfe's face is probably familiar to anyone over thirty. With an onscreen career that dates back to 1934, he appeared in everything from Rebel Without a Cause to Star Trek TOS and WKRP as the Carlson's sassy old butler, Hirsch. A World War I veteran, poet, and all-around renaissance man, Wolfe had a 68 year marriage to his wife, Elizabeth, and booked his last role in 1990's Dick Tracy before leaving this earth to join his old troop in the sky at the age of 95 in 1992.
Boyd Bodwell plays Kevin, and he had a succesful screen career as a character actor from '76 to '89. After which, I'm not sure what he got up to (teaching, maybe?), but his memorable mug looms large in my childhood memories from his appearances on everything from The Dukes of Hazzard to Night Court. And, from snooping around, it's pretty clear that Boyd's a true patriot and proud dad of a son who serves in the Air Force, so his appearance in this episode's well-timed!
Only one of these is specifically about WWI, but here's 3 powerful songs about war and the brave folks who fight:
Comments
Post a Comment