Who provides the voice of Vera, Norm's never-seen wife? Bernadette Birkett, Wendt's real-life wife. ![]() The questions fans ask most: What inspired "Cheers"? John Cleese's "Fawlty Towers," a British comedy series. Like most love affairs, the one between "Cheers" and us leaves behind some mysteries. More than any other sitcom, "Cheers" confronted the side effects of sexual attraction: humiliation, despair, self-loathing and stuck pants' zippers. Carla dreamed of "doin' it 'til the sheets burn," Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth) seduced Frasier just so she could wage conjugal warfare. Indeed, "Cheers" seemed obsessed with the female libido. Though Rebecca eventually succumbed to Sam, it was on equal terms: she two-timed him as blithely as he cheated on her. Just as we wearied of Sam and Diane's on-and-off hotsies, in strode Rebecca (Kirstie Alley). "Cheers" was the first sitcom to make sexual tension its central premise (thus making Bruce Willis possible). ![]() "Yesterday I sat next to the same guy for 11 hours." Bars are such sad places," complained Norm (George Wendt). As the show's writers displayed remarkable adaptability over 11 seasons, adding strong new characters and giving the regulars new dimensions, only the bar, a kind of night-care center for losers, never changed its character. Yet even the nastiest sparring went down smoothly: it sprang from recognizable frailties and understandable needs. Bars are also places where inhibitions dissolve and put-downs tend to ricochet, and the insults in "Cheers" approached comedic art. "The stories could walk in off the street," explains Charles. Respect must be paid.įor openers, the creators were smart enough to set it in a bar. "Every idea we came up with, someone would say: 'Don't you remember we did that already?'" Yet even after 274 episodes, "Cheers" still hovers near the top of the Nielsen chart, and its 111 Emmy nominations make it the most-honored series in TV annals. "It was getting harder and harder to keep it fresh," allows Les Charles, the show's co-executive producer. Granted, the show lacked the bite of " M*A*S*H" and the guts of "All in the Family," and it wheezed noticeably toward the end. From its very first round in 1982 to its May 20 finale (expected to draw 100 million onlookers), "Cheers" has remained TV's most unsentimental comedy, as disdainful of schmaltz as it was resistant to preachiness. Indeed they are-and perfectly in character. "But the next time it happens, you're all out of here!" "I don't know which of you staffs groped me," she snarled. Slouching by the stools occupied by NBC Entertainment president Warren Littlefield and former NBC chairman Grant Tinker, Perlman suddenly jerked upright. Rhea Perlman (Carla) wasn't any nicer to two VIPs playing extras. ![]() ![]() Shelley Long (Diane), returning to the show after a six-season absence, found something other than welcoming embraces: the boys at the bar hung spoons from their noses to make her flub her lines. Between takes Woody Harrelson (Woody) lay flat on his back on the bar, Ted Danson (Sam) retreated to a corner to do stretching exercises and Kelsey Grammer (Frasier) vanished inside his dressing room. Taping the final episode of "Cheers" Ton a Paramount sound stage last month, the cast and crew seemed almost determinedly detached.
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