Recap / Cheers S 11 E 21

Episode: Season 11, Episode 21
Title: Woody Gets an Election
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Dan O Shannon, Tom Anderson, Dan Staley, Rob Long
Air Date: April 22, 1993
Previous: Look Before You Sleep
Next: It's Lonely on the Top
Guest Starring: Philip Baker Hall, Jackie Swanson, Peri Gilpin, Paul Willson

"Woody Gets an Election" is the 21st episode of the eleventh season of Cheers.

Kevin Fogerty (Philip Baker Hall), a Boston city councilman and a stereotypical example of the gladhanding, insincere pol, comes into the bar for a campaign stop. Frasier watches in disgust as Fogerty blathers a series of absurd, meaningless cliches that the audience in the bar laps up "like milk".

Frasier's contempt for Fogerty's empty sloganeering leads him to make an experiment. He will take Woodrow Tiberius Boyd, the slow-witted Indiana rube who knows nothing about politics, and get him on the ballot. Hang some posters with Woody's smiling face and an empty slogan, and Frasier bets Woody will get 10%. When Woody makes it to 8% in the polls and gets a favorable news story, Sam concedes defeat—but then Fogerty gets arrested for public drunkenness. Suddenly, it seems that Woody might win.

Peri Gilpin, who soon would be cast on Frasier, appears as Holly, the reporter who interviews Woody at the bar.

---

Tropes:

• Acoustic License: As Rebecca's doing some phone canvasing, Carla, who was just speaking a moment ago, suddenly starts having a whole conversation silently, despite standing right next to her, until it's time to butt in again.
• Actually, I Am Him: In the cold open, Cliff asks a man if he's George McFarland (Spanky from Our Gang), and in Cliff style blathers endlessly over the man's attempts to respond. The man says he's not Mcarland, so Cliff leaves. Then Norm asks if he is, and the man admits it. Norm leaves him alone.
• …And That Little Girl Was Me: Fogerty, trying to get the measure of Woody Boyd, says "You remind me of a bright, young comer that took this town by storm thirty years ago. His name was Kevin Fogerty."
  Woody: Any relation?
• The Bet: Frasier bets Sam $10 that he can put Woody on the election ballot and get him to 10% with nothing more than some posters.
• Blatant Lies: While doing some phone canvasing for Woody, Rebecca claims she's twenty-seven, something Carla immediately calls her out on.
  Rebecca: If Woody can be profound, I can be twenty-seven!
• The Cameo: George McFarland, Spanky from the "Little Rascals" series, appears in the cold open. Cliff recognizes him. It was McFarland's last film appearance before his death.
• Catapult Nightmare: Frasier has a Catapult Nightmare about Woody getting elected President and starting World War III. After this he begs Woody to drop out of the campaign.
• Continuity Nod: Cliff's still got a bad rep with Boston's public officials. Here, Fogerty's got a restraining order on him, of fifty feet.
• Face Doodling: Carla with a particularly nasty case of this, as she slips Cliff a mickey and paints his face in very garish ladies' makeup.
• Face Palm: The moment Fogerty realizes that he is screwed comes when Kelly walks into the debate and tells Woody that she's pregnant. Fogerty slaps his forehead with his palm in disgust.
• Failed a Spot Check: Cliff wakes up from being mickey-ed by Carla and brags about how he noticed she'd tied his shoes together, failing to notice all the other things she's done to him.
• Gone Horribly Right: Woody wins. Everyone else is giddy, but Frasier is horrified. When Woody thanks Frasier and says it was all because of him, Frasier says "No one can prove that."
• Lady Macbeth: Surprisingly, Kelly pushes Woody to be serious about running for councilman, in her own, Kelly-oid way. Namely, telling Woody if he doesn't, he'll have to dance naked in front of their lava lamp all on his own.
• Meaningless Meaningful Words: Fogerty is incapable of answering a single question coherently, and manages to give off entire speeches that contain no meaningful substance whatsoever. Frasier's the only one in the bar who realizes this, and is driven to madness by it, which is what kicks off the plot.
  Frasier: But he DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING!
• Mistaken for Gay: Seeing Cliff after he's been pranked by Carla, Fogerty assumes he's this (or a transvestite) and assures him he's fighting for LGBT rights, though Cliff thinks he's talking about mailmen.
• Mistaken for Profound: Holly, the reporter who interviews Woody, keeps translating Woody's natter about life on the farm as profundities about politics and City Hall.
  Holly: This is your hook. You're the innocent farm boy telling the big city slickers to clean up the barn and all that farm crap.
  Woody: Well no, it's not crap. If you don't clean up the barn, you get rats.
  Holly: So in other words, it's time to clean up city hall.
  Woody: Well I'm just saying that if you let the rats go, then, you know, pretty soon you don't have a barn. You just have kind of a rat place.
  Holly: So if we don't do something now, we'll lose our fair city.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Fraiser doesn't explicitly say this, but when he truly realizes that he has launched Woody Boyd's political career, he has a vision of atomic fireballs.
• Noodle Incident: Yet more terrifying insights into the Hanover way of life, when Woody mentions they've got literal sheep for voters, and once had a chimp on the ballot.