Cheers 6.2: “’I’ on Sports”

Airdate: 10/1/87

Dave Richards, everyone’s favorite cad, drops in to the bar to invite Sam to fill in for him as the sports correspondent for the TV show “I on Sports.” After duping Rebecca into giving him the week off (which almost works), he makes his triumphant debut – as a crushing bore. His editorial, on how fans should support their home teams more, isn’t exactly setting the world on fire, so he ups the ante by attempting an impassioned plea to use natural grass instead of Astroturf. He co-anchors challenge him, and he falls flat, but, undeterred, he keeps-a-goin’, this time with some rap and ventriloquism. Finally realizing he’s made a complete fool of himself, Sam is at least comforted by support of his bar cronies, even Rebecca.

Rebecca is warming up a bit now as slightly less of a heavy and more of a member of the Cheers crew. After ditching the uniforms in the cold open, Sam, Woody and Carla look “normal “ again, but it’s hard to get used to Sam making a fool of himself without Diane to offer some pompous comment about his lack of intelligence or culture. Likely Rebecca will be her surrogate, but she’s not quite there yet. If nothing else, it certainly is worth the price of admission to hear Sam rap, and that 80’s boom box is just added pleasure!

Cold open: As mentioned, the Cheers staff gets ride of their uniforms, by spilling food all over the after Rebecca notifies them that new ones won’t be back from the cleaners for a long time.