Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Cheers 7.16: “The Cranemakers”


Airdate: 3/2/89

They say pregnant women glow, but Lilith is positively nuclear. Celebrating her fertility at Cheers ad nauseum, she eventually pushes Frasier to his breaking point. But he later regrets his hasty words to her, and when he hears the heartbeat of his in utero son, he and Lilith decide to go live in a wooden cabin, stripped of all civilization and reliant solely on all things natural for civilization. A fire building exercise proves to be the ultimate test, which he of course fails, and it doesn’t take long for the urbane twosome to grab a charter flight back to Beantown, just in time for seating at their favorite restaurant. Subplot: Rebecca orders Woody to take a vacation to Italy; he spends a week at the airport, loving every minute of it!

The Cranes rough it, or at least attempt to, but of course the problem is that their idea of living off the land exists in theory only. We know how this is going to end – futilely – but there’s plenty of overanalysis and head-talk along the way. Lilith’s opening scene, in which she sings the mawkish praises of her fertility at Cheers, is hilarious.

Cold open: A lawyer comes and tells Carla of her grandfather’s passing, and about the $20 million fortune he amassed. Does she get an inheritance? Nope, except for the lucky quarter that got the old man started.


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