Recap / Cheers S 11 E 18

Episode: Season 11, Episode 18
Title: The Last Picture Show
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Fred Graver
Air Date: February 25, 1993
Previous: The Bar Manager, the Shrink, His Wife and Her Lover
Next: Bar Wars VII: The Naked Prey
Guest Starring: Pat Hingle

"The Last Picture Show" is the eighteenth episode of the eleventh season of Cheers.

In local Boston news, the Twi-Lite Drive-In Theatre is closing. Feeling nostalgic, Norm, Cliff, Frasier and Woody decide to go pay it one last visit, and experience a bit of vanishing Americana.

Meanwhile, Gus O'Malley, the previous owner of Cheers, stops by for a visit. At Sam's suggestion, Gus takes over the bar for the night, for old times' sake. Much to Rebecca and Carla's irritation, Gus turns out to be a demanding tyrant, making them do work.

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Tropes:

• Bait-and-Switch: When Woody innocently asks if something like Godzilla could happen in real life, Norm patiently tells him that of course it could happen.
• Benevolent Boss: The strong implication is that the reason Cheers has such a narrow profit margin is that Sam is too much of a benevolent boss, letting Carla be mean to customers and also carrying Rebecca, The Load. When Sam sees the eye-popping nightly take that Gus's crack-the-whip style yielded, he tries to do the same, but Carla and Rebecca just blow him off.
• The Constant: Gus goes behind the bar. Norm comes back from the men's room and without blinking says "Can I have a beer, Gus?". Gus says "Sure Norm,", and it's only after that when Norm registers that Gus is back for the first time in 17 years.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Meeting Woody, Gus assumes he's Coach's son.
  • Waaaaaaaaay back in the second episode of the series, "Sam's Women", a man comes into the bar looking for Gus, only for Coach to explain that Gus sold the bar to Sam several years ago.
  • Series Continuity Error: Coach also said that Gus is dead. Although this is Coach we're talking about, so who knows where he got that idea.
• Drive-In Theater: Deconstructed. The guys go to the drive-in, and realize that drive-ins aren't so great and what they're really nostalgic for is their youth. They go home early.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Cliff. Apparently when he used to visit the Twi-Lite with his friends, he'd get sent off to find snacks, and be unable to find the car. Norm tries pointing out why this might've happened, then thinks better of it. Soon enough, it happens again.
  Norm: Ma's Rule #1: Ditch the mailman.
• Hypocritical Humor: After the top on the convertible jams, the guy in the car behind them starts yelling. Frasier says "I am a great believer in the retort courteous", then turns around and yells "Why don't you move your car, butthead?".
• Inadvertent Entrance Cue: Gus tells Sam, who's had issues with Perpetual Poverty since he bought the bar back, that it's all in the management. Cue Rebecca walking out of the office asking Sam for money to buy lottery tickets, since that's the only means she can think of to generate revenue.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Watching the cinema, the gang note an actress who left the Godzilla series. Woody asks, "Why would an actress leave right in the middle of a successful series?". Amazingly, Kelsey Grammer, George Wendt, Woody Harrelson and John Ratzenberger manage to keep a completely straight face as the studio audience laugh their heads off.
• Momma's Boy: Cliff, naturally. He's too cowardly to just ask his mom if he can borrow her car, and refuses to admit it. When he does take the car anyway, he badgers the others by insisting on following Esther Clavin's stupid rules to the letter.
• The Precious, Precious Car: And it's not Sam's 'vette, for once, but Esther Clavin's convertible. She's very reluctant to let anyone touch it, especially Cliff. At the end, Cliff figures she'll blow her stack when she sees what's been done to it.
• Punk in the Trunk: Frasier, who's never been to a drive-in theater before, is given the role of trunk boy. He learns all too late this involves being smuggled into the theater in the car's trunk. Then they're unable to get it open...
• Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: At the end of the night, Gus gets fed up with Cheers and storms out... then he immediately comes back in to thank Sam for the most fun he's had in years.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: According to Gus, a newly-wed Norm and Vera were this. Norm would rather he keeps this to himself.
• Too Much Information: Cliff remembers going to see Herbie with his mom, causing Norm to pause as he works out the math on when Herbie came out and how old Cliff is, until Sam begs him not to. ^note Cliff was established to be born in 1947(same as John Ratzenberger), so Cliff would've been 22 in 1969 when Norm says The Love Bug came out. (It actually came out in 1968)
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: Gus, compared to Sam's laid-back approach, refusing to let Carla and Rebecca get away with anything, including complaining.