Current Events > So why is cheers a big deal?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Watching it for the first time ever, it's not great but it's watchable which a lot of shows from the era aren't. Did it establish some genre conventions etc?

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Who are three people who've never been in my kitchen

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Cheers is like The Office if the Office was a bar.

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It was just how they wrote all these different characters, they captured a bar in Any Town, USA, and they make the viewer really feel like another patron there watching these events happen. There's a lot of reflection and analysis of the human soul, emotion, love, conflict, but it's all packaged in an easy-to-consume half hour comedy about Cliff Clavin and his often extremely incorrect facts and Norm and his wife Vera's relationship.

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Tyranthraxus posted...

Cheers is like The Office if the Office was a bar.

In what way do you mean? The office had a gimmick that made it relatively unique at the time of it's release, that's kind of exactly the sort of thing I'm looking to learn about cheers

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Television was different back then. If something was a hit show you had a significant chunk of the population turning in every week. And cheers was by far the most popular sitcom in the 80s

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Balrog0 posted...

In what way do you mean? The office had a gimmick that made it relatively unique at the time of it's release, that's kind of exactly the sort of thing I'm looking to learn about cheers

The show essentially played off social dynamics of people who just got off work. The plot was basically instead of going home for whatever reason, some people went to this bar instead. Religiously so. And complain about the shit that was going on in their lives over drinks. It was a show that just sort of resonated with a lot of people at the time.

Today it's less relevant. It was a show for a culture that doesn't really exist anymore.

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I never understood Cheers or the spinoff, Frasier.

FWIW, I really like Cheers
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cause everybody knows... your name!

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SauI_Goodman posted...

cause everybody knows... your name!

and they're always glad you came

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Master_Happosai posted...

Frasier

GOAT sitcom for 6 seasons

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We watched Frasier in my house when I was a kid and I definitely didn't like Cheers when I checked it out, but that has more to do with expectations than content quality.

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Cause you wanna be where you can see our troubles are all the same.

Also because you wanna go where people know people are all the same.

As always, I gotta post the full intro song that's depressing as fuck

https://youtu.be/xYcX534JqG4
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Compared to other 80s sitcoms, the writing was a way better than most. It was basically just Taxi, but in a bar. It wasn't as corny or family-focused as much as the other ones at the time.

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I just started watching it for the first time in December. I've enjoyed it. The only person I don't really find funny is Rebecca. But I think that has more to do with how corky Diane was compared to her.

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Imo so far the funniest bit was this cymbalist who came down for a drink during a concert and was tapping his fingers to keep time for when he needed to be back and Diane fucked him up counting out his change


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One of my favorites was a recurring character named Harry (Harry the Hat).

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https://youtu.be/ncc77oxnx5A
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I was watching it last night and the episode where Diane was sad about her family cat dying, which was mostly treated as a joke, made me actually cry near the end.

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