Season One Ep 14 Let Me Count The Ways
Coach: What's New, Norm?
Norm: Well, science is seeking a cure for thirst. I happen to be the guinea pig.
This episode's apparently Shelley Long's favourite. I wouldn't call it my favourite Cheers, but it IS my favourite Shelley Long episode. Uber-geek, Marshall Lipton, shares a scientifically guaranteed tip that Cheers' beloved Celtics are a sure bet to lose, so Coach and Sam do the unthinkable and bet against their favourite team. While everyone's glued to the game, Diane receives the devastating news that her beloved cat, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, has died. I dunno if the Cheers gang were all raised on farms where cats just come and go, but no one seems to grasp the gravity of Diane's loss. If this was writer Heide (Rhea's sister) Perlman's way of making us love Diane, it works.
"The cologne you always wear is totally without nuance!"
My heart aches for Diane, but Sam and Coach offer some comic relief while trying to quell their glee over the Celtics' loss. When Diane's grief gets to be too much, Sam pulls her into the office for a heart-to-heart. What follows is a masterclass in screwball! Danson and Long dance along the razors edge between sentiment and silliness, and it blows my mind every time. I won't even bother to sum up the scene, but watch it if you haven't! The back half of it's linked up above for a reminder. The last few moments are beautifully scripted, and Long earns her '83 Emmy eliciting tears and laughter in the same breath. Shelley Long's tha bomb, and my obsession only grows by the blog entry.
Danson Hair
Due mostly to episodes airing out of order, Sam's silver streak comes and goes, but it shines here like a blazing beacon from a windswept field of auburn. I still can't tell if that's Danson's natural colour peeking through or done on purpose to up the grizzled aesthetic.
Stray Thoughts
- The Cheers gang could be real jerks sometimes, and their insensitivity to Diane in her time of need ranks high on my list. But Norm, Cliff and the rest of the guys really take their douchery to the next level in two more episodes with The Boys in the Bar when they worry that Cheers might become a gay bar. More on that well-intentioned cringey episode soon!
- No one cries cute like Shelley Long. It ain't easy!
Trivia
- Heide Perlman contributes her first script and knocks it out of the park first try. She wrote seventeen episodes in all, leaving in '86 to launch The Tracey Ullman Show, returning to pen the last Cheers episode filmed. The finale was taped earlier to accommodate Long's busy schedule, so Perlman's It's Lonely at the Top was actually the last time cast and crew came together. Perlman later penned seven Frasier episodes, and capped her TV writing career (for now) scripting three episodes of Kirstie, which again co-starred her big sis, Rhea.
- Alan Koss makes his first of over forty appearances as recurring background player, Alan, keeping Cheers' Danza-esque tradition of just naming people by their actual first names.
Guest Star
Mark King makes his first of two consecutive appearances as Marshall Lipton. King looks like he's totally cribbing Robert Carradine's schtick from Revenge of the Nerds, but Marshall pre-dates Nerds by a year or two. I'm thinking the standard '80s movie geek only existed onscreen, as the closest I've seen to one in the wild might be Bill Gates, and he's got some swagger. King made a handful of onscreen appearances from '79 to '85 and I lose track of him after that. A music credit in a 1990 episode of Emmerdale suggests he might have worked behind the scenes in music after his short TV career, but I'm pretty sure that's a mistake as Level 42 had a song by the same name and their lead singer's named Mark King. Anyway, here's King's last credited work, an oddity variety-style show directed by Harvey Korman with random guest spots from the likes of Milton Berle and Danny Thomas. And one of King's co-stars here is Cheers' own "Andy Andy", Derek McGrath! Derek shows up in three more episodes, so I'll probably recycle this clip then, too, because he really gets a chance to show his stuff here, and he's a bit of a Canadian legend who deserves some attention.
The Cracker Brothers (I dunno if the title's a commentary on race, but this show IS very white)
Speaking of Level 42, here's their second biggest hit on this side of the pond:
Norm: Well, science is seeking a cure for thirst. I happen to be the guinea pig.
This episode's apparently Shelley Long's favourite. I wouldn't call it my favourite Cheers, but it IS my favourite Shelley Long episode. Uber-geek, Marshall Lipton, shares a scientifically guaranteed tip that Cheers' beloved Celtics are a sure bet to lose, so Coach and Sam do the unthinkable and bet against their favourite team. While everyone's glued to the game, Diane receives the devastating news that her beloved cat, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, has died. I dunno if the Cheers gang were all raised on farms where cats just come and go, but no one seems to grasp the gravity of Diane's loss. If this was writer Heide (Rhea's sister) Perlman's way of making us love Diane, it works.
My heart aches for Diane, but Sam and Coach offer some comic relief while trying to quell their glee over the Celtics' loss. When Diane's grief gets to be too much, Sam pulls her into the office for a heart-to-heart. What follows is a masterclass in screwball! Danson and Long dance along the razors edge between sentiment and silliness, and it blows my mind every time. I won't even bother to sum up the scene, but watch it if you haven't! The back half of it's linked up above for a reminder. The last few moments are beautifully scripted, and Long earns her '83 Emmy eliciting tears and laughter in the same breath. Shelley Long's tha bomb, and my obsession only grows by the blog entry.
Danson Hair
Due mostly to episodes airing out of order, Sam's silver streak comes and goes, but it shines here like a blazing beacon from a windswept field of auburn. I still can't tell if that's Danson's natural colour peeking through or done on purpose to up the grizzled aesthetic.
Stray Thoughts
- The Cheers gang could be real jerks sometimes, and their insensitivity to Diane in her time of need ranks high on my list. But Norm, Cliff and the rest of the guys really take their douchery to the next level in two more episodes with The Boys in the Bar when they worry that Cheers might become a gay bar. More on that well-intentioned cringey episode soon!
- No one cries cute like Shelley Long. It ain't easy!
Trivia
- Heide Perlman contributes her first script and knocks it out of the park first try. She wrote seventeen episodes in all, leaving in '86 to launch The Tracey Ullman Show, returning to pen the last Cheers episode filmed. The finale was taped earlier to accommodate Long's busy schedule, so Perlman's It's Lonely at the Top was actually the last time cast and crew came together. Perlman later penned seven Frasier episodes, and capped her TV writing career (for now) scripting three episodes of Kirstie, which again co-starred her big sis, Rhea.
- Alan Koss makes his first of over forty appearances as recurring background player, Alan, keeping Cheers' Danza-esque tradition of just naming people by their actual first names.
Guest Star
Mark King makes his first of two consecutive appearances as Marshall Lipton. King looks like he's totally cribbing Robert Carradine's schtick from Revenge of the Nerds, but Marshall pre-dates Nerds by a year or two. I'm thinking the standard '80s movie geek only existed onscreen, as the closest I've seen to one in the wild might be Bill Gates, and he's got some swagger. King made a handful of onscreen appearances from '79 to '85 and I lose track of him after that. A music credit in a 1990 episode of Emmerdale suggests he might have worked behind the scenes in music after his short TV career, but I'm pretty sure that's a mistake as Level 42 had a song by the same name and their lead singer's named Mark King. Anyway, here's King's last credited work, an oddity variety-style show directed by Harvey Korman with random guest spots from the likes of Milton Berle and Danny Thomas. And one of King's co-stars here is Cheers' own "Andy Andy", Derek McGrath! Derek shows up in three more episodes, so I'll probably recycle this clip then, too, because he really gets a chance to show his stuff here, and he's a bit of a Canadian legend who deserves some attention.
Speaking of Level 42, here's their second biggest hit on this side of the pond:
Mark King slappin' da bass!
Did u know Elizabeth Barret Browning was a poet and the names of several of her poems are used as Cheers episode titles? So much in Cheers was well thought through
ReplyDeleteI knew she gave this episode its name, but I'll keep my eyes peeled for future references! Thanks!
ReplyDelete