Title: Get Your Kicks on Route 666
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Dan O Shannon and Tom Anderson
Air Date: September 26, 1991
Previous: Baby Balk
Next: Madame La Carla
Guest Starring: Anthony Addabbo, Paul Willson
"Get Your Kicks on Route 666" is the second episode of the 10th season of Cheers.
Frasier Crane is at the stage of his life where some men get a mistress and others buy fancy sports cars. Instead he's in search of his "inner hairy man
". Specifically, he's going on one of that most important American male rituals: the road trip. Soon Sam, Cliff, and Norm are coming along, and they take Cliff's station wagon.
They seem to drive quite far way, making it from Boston to some unspecified desert region in the west. Unfortunately, Sam falls asleep at the wheel and crashes the car. They all emerge from the car unscathed, but they soon realize they are in a very bad spot, stuck in a Thirsty Desert by the side of a remote, rarely trafficked road.
In the B-plot, with both Sam gone and Woody gone (Woody's also on vacation), Carla's nephew Frankie comes to get some temp work at the bar. Frankie turns out to be extremely handsome and muscular, and Rebecca and Lilith can't stop staring at him.
Tropes:
- Butt-Monkey: Cliff, of course. The absent Woody sent postcards to everyone saying "Having a great time on vacation. I miss you most of all." Except that on Cliff's Woody left off the second sentence.
- Call-Back: Cliff says that when he was ten, he lost his Hopalong Cassidy watch in Meramec Caverns. Later, the rest of the gang yells at him for getting stuck in the cave, and Cliff says he was looking for his watch.
- Delayed Reaction: The guys notice that Sam is asleep. Norm says "Oh, look how cute he is, sleeping like a baby," before they all realize that Sam is driving the car. They scream in panic as the car veers off the road.
- Delirious Misidentification: Sam's attempts to hotwire the car result in Sam shocking himself. When Cliff asks if he's ok, Sam says "Diane?"
- Hassle-Free Hotwire: Averted. Sam attempts this and succeeds only in shocking himself.
- Mr. Fanservice: Rebecca and Lilith can't stop hungrily staring at Frankie, much to Carla's irritation. They each drop their purses on the floor so Frankie has to bend over and pick them up. (Then all the other women in the bar do the same.)
- Not So Remote: At one point Norm wanders off. Just before sunrise, Norm comes back—driving a golf cart. There's a luxury resort on the other side of the hill.
- Road Trip Plot: The guys go on a road trip, which seems that it may go very wrong when Sam runs the car off some remote desert road.
- White Sheep: Frankie, Carla's sweet, mild-mannered, and religiously devout nephew, who doesn't fit in with the delinquents and criminals of Carla's clan.Carla: How the hell did he ever get in my family?
