This article was originally published on beingtheremag.com, an independent music and film magazine that ran from 2004 to 2007. It is presented here as part of the Being There Magazine archive.
By Adam Anklewicz | Being There Magazine, October 2004
Rating: ★★★½ (3.5/5)
Starring Ted Danson, Shelley Long, Nicholas Colasanto, George Wendt, Rhea Perlman, and John Ratzenberger.
Cheers is a Boston bar where you can go and feel at home. The NBC sitcom, starring Ted Danson and Shelley Long, began its eleven-year reign in 1982 and it was arguably the best sitcom since The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Through its long run, Cheers told great stories with a great heart and a lot of laughs. While some television series take a few years to get into their groove, this one started with a bang. After a slow pilot that stumbled to introduce the characters properly, the first season of Cheers had some great episodes including “The Coach’s Daughter,” which featured Coach’s daughter wanting to marry an asshole, and “Pick A Con… Any Con,” which featured guest star Harry Anderson (as Harry the Hat) helping Coach get back his money from a card shark.
What made Cheers so great in the beginning was the chemistry between Diane Chambers (Long) and Sam Malone (Danson). Sam seems obsessive about a challenge, feeling he can get any woman he wants. Diane proves the first challenge in his romantic life, and whether or not he actually likes Diane, he feels he still must conquer. Diane and Sam are so obviously wrong for each other, yet the audience enjoyed watching their relationship as their personalities clashed.
The romantic tension helps build two very strong characters in Sam and Diane that are supported by the one-liner quirkiness of innocent and simple bartender Coach (Nicholas Colasanto), the bitter barmaid Carla (Rhea Perlman), self-depricating barfly Norm (George Wendt), and his cohort Cliff (John Ratzenberger), the know-it-all mail carrier. All of the characters marvel in watching Sam, the master of seduction, get the ladies and provide the humour as Sam works to advance the plot.
After watching Cheers: The Complete First Season on DVD, it became apparent that some of the best moments of the series were during this season, and it’s a great laugh. The worst part of the DVD set is the lack of special features. The fourth disc features a handful of clip compilations that compress the season into 10 minutes and a short interview with Ted Danson telling the audience that he likes all of his fellow cast members. Paramount could have done a much better job at digging up old interviews with the cast and crew and/or putting in audio commentaries.
All in all a great season that loses points for its lack of extras, but definitely deserves a place on the DVD shelf.