TV Review: Cheers

The bar where everybody knows your name is the setting for the second greatest television show of all time.
When Cheers debuted on NBC in 1982, it was nearly cancelled because the ratings were so low. After one season, the sitcom ranked 200th out of 200 in the Neilson Rankings. Eleven years later, it became known as one of the greatest sitcoms of all-time.
Although the cast changed after what seemed like after every season, no television show in history had a core characters that were as relate able as the Cheers gang. Sam and Diane were classic opposites, feeding off each other like no other television tandem. I did prefer the Kirstie Alley episodes because Rebecca's character was simply funnier than Diane's. The show got funnier each year as the fans grew with the characters.
My favorite episode is still the Sky Diving one, where Sam, Norm and Cliff end up jumping out of an airplane. It was well written and the character development was awesome.
Because it was a 1980s show, it lacked the outrageous comedy that a lot of current shows have. It's amazing to see how much more conservative things were then. You couldn't get away with the same story lines back then.
The show is still referred to today, 17 years after the final episode in 1993. It will always be known as the bar "where everybody knows your name." Not many shows have the long lasting impact on people's memories as this one.
The know-it-all mailman, the naive bartender from Indiana, the Ladies Man, the out of work accountant, the waitress and mother of seven and the issue ridden psychologist combined to give you a group to fall in love with. You could relate to them. And their problems were odd enough to make you feel better about your day.
One of the best parts of the show was the setting. Regular people hanging out in a Boston bar, isn't that what a sitcom is?
I had a chance to visit the Cheers replica bar and the original, the Bull and Finch Pub, in Boston in 2003. I will make sure to pay a return visit to the sites the next time I visit Bean Town.