Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Cheers 4:23: “Relief Bartender”


Airdate: 3/27/86


Sam has either a brilliant or disastrous idea, depending on whom you ask: he’s going to be the new manager/host for the bar, greeting clients, booking events, in short – turning the place into a real classy joint. Things go south pretty quickly, though, culminating in an extremely sparsely attended conventioneer’s function (only three show up, with one allergic to shellfish at an all-lobster spread). Realizing his error, Sam goes behind the bar again, but now he’s gotta fire Ken, the new bartender – an act easier said than done, especially with Ken’s two kids in tow. So maybe Woody will go, realizing Ken’s family man status, but when Sam fires him, Ken laves for a better job. Backtracking mightily, Sam goes after Woody to offer his job back to him, but the not-so-naïve Indianan won’t do it unless he gets a $100 a month raise (which later gets raised to $30 a week thanks to Sam’s not so quick on the uptake bargaining skills).

Solid episode revolving around Sam’s dream, ill-conceived and executed, but earnest as all get-out, God bless ‘im. Funniest scene involves the two kids, used both as sympathy ploys and as punchlines for jokes about Diane’s universally-offensive pretensions and Woody’s obtuseness.

Cold open: Norm recommends an auto mechanic to Cliff; Woody wonders if he can fix his toaster, so Norm has to choose calculated words to explain that the toaster is not fixable by an auto mechanic.


No comments:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...