Airdate: 3/10/88
Woody goes into Rebecca and asks for a raise, but gets
goaded into gleefully accepting a title
instead. Sam berates him for his gullibility, but he doesn’t get much further
(despite his title being – longer).
Rebecca reveals the underlying problem: Cheers is bankrupt, and better
start making money soon or else face bankruptcy. Woody hatches a plan – a
raffle, with the prize being a cruise vacation, but when he picks a number,
“66,” he discovers it could also be “99,” and so two angry winners haggle over
the prize. Rebecca steps in to settle, using self-pity to guilt one into giving
up his spoils, but they wind up out-guilting her. Finally Sam has a new prize –
Frasier’s would-be gift to Lilith: an ugly abstract work most people interpret
as two dogs fighting. That settles things, for now.
Tightly wound comedy delivers many laughs, but with
increased comedic pacing comes less subtlety – and fewer “aw” moments. This is
a good example of a script that’s funny but feels churned out, not hand-wrought
like so many earlier ones did. I actually liked the subplot better – with
Frasier purchasing a painting that Lilith, with all of her epicurean
sensibilities, thinks is junk.
Cold open: Cliff talks with a mailman buddy in secret postal
argot that no one can understand; Norm considers asking but realizes “he might
tell me.”
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