Last week, in an effort to capture a look back at television in the 1990's, I wrote of the 20th-anniversary of the final episode of Seinfeld.
Turns out this week, 25 years have passed since the finale of Cheers.
Cheers ran for 275 episodes and 11 seasons. Much like Seinfeld, Cheers was another show NBC had to endure weak early ratings in order to build a juggernaut. And Cheers was also still at the top of its game, drawing 26 million weekly viewers when it went off the air.
By time this show was finishing up its fantastic run, I was finishing up my eighth grade year. I wasn't as much into television and movies at that time as I was into sports, writing fantasy stories, and hanging out with friends, (all while prepping to start at a new school away from many of these friends in the coming months and attempting to come to terms with a sick grandfather).
Thinking back, I wonder if my love of Boston sports teams coincided with my love of Cheers. Sam Malone (Ted Danson) was a former Red Sox pitcher after all and what wouldn't be cooler than owning a bar?
Honestly, many of the episodes I can recall now is because of the years of watching them in re-runs. It was only then I think I truly embraced Cheers as a great show because of its writing, acting, and directing, along with its wit and heart.
Before 1993, I loved the show because my father did.
Back then -- or at least as far as my memory serves -- my father liked two shows on television: Cheers and Magnum P.I. (The latter of which is currently being remade, which is another issue altogether. I digress).
I remember watching both shows growing up. Now, were these in rerun form as well? I couldn't really tell you. It's quite possible both of these shows were on past my bed time, at least before I turned 11 or 12. A simple Google search could answer this, I'm sure, but I'm just going to go on believing the shows aired after 9 pm PST.
These two shows, if I'm not mistaken, also had finales that were recorded by my father on VHS via the old VCR. (Something that was usually reserved for cartoons, movies and the occasional NCAA basketball title game.)
With Magnum, I couldn't really tell you much about the show outside of the premise, the characters, the corvette, and the iconic Tom Selleck mustache.
Cheers is different, in the way I know so much more. Thanks to the Sam/Diane (Shelley Long) relationship, Cheers helped lay the foundation for every "will they/won't they" relationship we see in classic sitcoms.
The characters were well-rounded, were personable, and were seemingly fighting an uphill battle in their lives. I believe this show -- alongside The Iceman Cometh -- served as a model for my first full-length play Poison. Life inside a bar comes with a collection of characters that it deserves to be explored.
The creators of Cheers, James Burrows, Glen Charles and Les Charles, gave us a show that still holds resonance to this day. This full retrospective from 2012, with interviews and more, offers much more than I can on the subject. I can breakdown episodes and relationships for days, but Cheers has given me much more than that.
Thanks to my father, I have much more than simply a television show he turned me onto. I have a meaningful connection that will last a lifetime.
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photo credit: flickr.com
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