Guy Walks Into A Bar...
Excellent piece in GQ on the sitcom Cheers. I don't know if it's "the best TV show that's ever been" but it's definitely up there. (I've never quite understood the love for the spinoff Frasier, which was a decent show, but not half as important, innovative or funny as Cheers at its best.)
It lasted eleven season, from 1982 to 1993. Some shows bust out of the gate, but Cheers took a while to build. Critics and the TV academy recognized it from the start, but it wasn't until the fourth season that it made the top ten. It stayed there for the rest of its run, going out while still a hit.
Sitcoms have changed since Cheers. Now shows tend to be one-camera. Also they have much shorter scenes, even those shot live (at least partly thanks to another gamechanger, Seinfeld). Cheers was content to let everyone hang out at the bar the entire show, just talking.
This lasted the first five season, then Shelley Long, who played Diane, left. It was probably a good idea. The up and down relationship of Sam and Diane probably went as far as it could. And, for whatever reason, Diane was becoming increasingly shrill. Another season and the whole thing might have gotten tired. So Cheers got some new blood with Rebecca, who ran the bar. But, even though Kirstie Alley, who played Rebecca, actually did more episodes than Shelley Long, Sam and Rebecca weren't a couple the same way Sam and Diane were, and the show was never quite so magical. Sure, it had new characters--Frasier, Woody, Lillity--but something was gone. It was still very enjoyable, but it went from inspired to professionally funny. (Not unlike Frasier, I guess.)
The article notes that Cheers seems on the verge of being forgotten. I suppose this is that fate of most TV shows, no matter how big. But I'd like to think in an age when anyone can watch any show at any time, that there'll always be those around who know its name.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:03 AM
4 Comments:
MASH was the biggest thing in its time but I haven't seen that in years either. There is a nostalgia arc at work I think
I think the last 75 percent of MASH canceled it out. And the fact that Alan Alda wasn't killed in a threesome at a Democrat convention.
And the Cheer's cast's gloating on Johnny Carson and the other victory lap stuff wasn't so seemly, either. I suppose it proved writers do something.
We have a free cable TV channel that has nothing but reruns (I think it used to be called TV Land, but they have changed it to something else). If I'm flipping channels, I will stop there if they are playing Cheers (or MASH, for that matter). With Cheers, I am almost always delighted with the episode. MASH can be a little more hit or miss. In both cases, they tend to play latter season episodes (Rebecca and Col Potter).
I think as time passes, new TV shows, like new music, will have to increasingly compete with the great work of the past. These shows are new to younger generations, and unless they get hopelessly outdated (no one on Cheers has a cell phone, for example), new generations can choose to watch these over modern fare. MASH, Happy Days, and other shows set intentionally set in a past time frame have an advantage for longevity (MASH is still seen in reruns everywhere, it seems).
I think the network rerun model has changed- the reruns I see now - on independent stations or lesser cable tend to be older seasons of current shows like 21/2 Men and Big Bang Theory. Yes TV Land has MASH and Cheers but those stations are out in the boonies of the station numbers along History Channel 2 (the only one that still shows history instead of reality TV), BBC America, Lifetime Movies and the NFL Network
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