Title: The Beer Is Always Greener
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Tom Leopold
Air Date: October 1, 1992
Previous: The Little Match Girl
Next: The King of Beers
Guest Starring: Jackie Swanson, Glenn Shadix, Julia Montgomery
"The Beer Is Always Greener" is the second episode of the eleventh season of Cheers.
Two weeks have passed since the back part of the bar burned down in "The Little Match Girl". After some amazingly quick renovations (including magically recreating all the knickknacks and decorations on the wall), Cheers is ready to reopen.
In the meantime, Carla has been working at some chain bar/restaurant called Mr. Pubb's. Sam sends word to come back to Cheers but Carla doesn't come. It turns out that even though she hates it there—it's bright and cheerful, she has to wear a uniform, she has to sing "Happy Birthday" for customers, she has to be nice—they are paying way more that Sam does. Norm and Cliff are sent to retrieve Carla, but Mr. Pubb's has complimentary ribs for happy hour, and attractive hula girls, and a whole row of big-screen TVs, each tuned to a different game. Eventually all of his regulars are at Mr. Pubb's, and Sam has to go there himself.
In the B-plot, newlyweds Woody and Kelly have reached their first fight: Woody is Lutheran Church of Missouri Synod whereas Kelly is Lutheran Church of America.
Tropes:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Bernard, the guy repairing the phones at Cheers, is a creepy fat guy who makes a series of crude sexual advances towards Rebecca. He winds up going home with Carla.
- Analogy Backfire: Trying to mediate between the arguing Boyds, Lilith brings up the example from Gulliver's Travels of Silly Reason for War. Unfortunately, Kelly and Woody disagree on that as well.Lilith: One is put in mind of Gulliver's Travels, in which two countries warred over which side of an egg gets cracked, the narrow end or the rounded end.
Kelly: Well, that's ridiculous. Of course it's the rounded end.
Woody: (distraught) Oh, Kelly, I don't even know who you are anymore! - Artistic License – Religion: No, devotees of the Lutheran Church of America and Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod do not believe members of the other sect are going to hell.
- Bad Job, Worse Uniform: Among the indignities that Carla has to suffer at Mr. Pubb's is wearing a dorky uniform, one that is rather similar to the dorky uniforms that Rebecca made her employees wear way back at the beginning of Season 6.
- Foreshadowing: More foreshadowing of the coming Crane breakup, as Frasier's attempting to reassure Kelly and Woody that their differences are no big deal leads to him raging at Lilith (who is Jewish) for not allowing him to have a Christmas tree.
- Gratuitous French: Seems that this Ellen, much like a certain other barmaid Carla once knew, can't say "actually", instead preferring "actuallement".
- Hypocritical Humor: Cliff, laughing over Carla's Mr. Pubb's uniform, says "Wearing a dorky uniform, out in public all day—there but for the grace of God, eh Norm?". He's wearing his USPS uniform.
- Kitschy Themed Restaurant: Mr. Pubb's is one of those casual chains like TGI Fridays or Applebee's, with neon and big screen TVs and huge rib platters. It's way different from Cheers, which is basically a place to get drunk and maybe stuff peanuts up your nose. All the Cheers regulars wind up liking Mr. Pubb's way too much.
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Playing Against Type: Glenn Shadix, already known for playing flamboyant fey men, plays a boorish telephone service agent who hits on women with the most creepy, obnoxious lines, and calls them “lesbians” when they reject him. Shadix himself was famously out and proud. - Saying Too Much: When Norm and Cliff enter Mr. Pubb's, Norm boggles at the neon and light and says that it looks like the inside of a UFO. Cliff says "No, actually they're quite different." Then after Norm gives him a look Cliff says "I guess."
- Serious Business: Kelly honestly believes that in Heaven, the members of the Lutheran Church of America and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod are kept separate by barbed wire fences.
- Similar Squad: Despite how much she hates it, Mr. Pubb's pays Carla much more than Sam does. She's tempted to stay for good, until she's introduced to a new recruit—a blonde Boston University student called Ellen, who is ludicrously pretentious and insists she's a "poetess". And happens to be an eerie dead ringer for Diane Chambers. Carla screams, runs for it, and makes Sam vow to never set foot in that bar again.
- Status Quo Is God: After nearly being burnt down last episode, Cheers is almost entirely rebuilt in this one, the only holdout being Carla, and she's back by the end.
- Tempting Fate: Carla says that she hates everything about Mr. Pubb's, but for that much money "there's nothing I can't take." Then she's introduced to her new trainee, a clone of Diane. Carla runs from Mr. Pubb's, screaming.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Carla's got one when she thinks about what, or more accurately whom, she encountered at Mr. Pubbs.
- The Unsmile: Carla, who is always angry and mean unless she's inflicting misery on others, has to be happy and cheerful at Mr. Pubb's. She wears a frightening rictus of a smile.
