Cheers 6.8: “Bidding on the Boys”

Airdate: 11/19/87

Time for Cheers’ annual “Bidding on the Bachelors” auction, with all proceeds going towards charity. Egotistical Sam is sure Rebecca is being coy in not directly asking him to participate, despite the fact that she’s completely and utterly indifferent to the matter. Meanwhile, Frasier and Lilth come to a bump in their wedding plans when he broaches the topic of prenuptial agreements; ironically, Lilith, for all her anti-romantic sentiment, finds the notion repellent. Come auction time, Woody gets won by a chain-smoking vamp, and Sam, after a close call of getting Rebecca’s winning bid (which would’ve made a good episode too) gets bagged by Lilth, as an act of revenge against Frasier. But Sam has a plan: he’ll go through with it, and then Frasier can barge in heroically at the right moment and “steal” her back. It sort of works- barely – Lilith couldn’t get more smouldering if she were on fire, and Frasier catches the two in a more compromising position than he had expected. All’s well that ends well, it’s just that the engaged couple now needs to have breakfast with a couple Frasier had mistakenly disturbed.

This one’s a real gas, as it includes all the starring and supporting Cheers players and features some solid writing, well-timed gags and overall funny moments. Concept of an auction gives it structural heft – and the near comedy of errors that is the second act proves that Sam’s charm is irresistible to all women, even icy over-psychoanalyzers. Although, truth be told, Lilith’s seduction of Sam is hands down the sexiest moment of the series thus far.

Cold open: Woody, eating spaghetti, gets his appetite spoiled not by Carla’s detailed description of varicose vein removal, but by Frasier’s clinical reference to one of his patients’ sexual problems.