Title: The Magnificent Six
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Susan Herring
Air Date: October 22, 1992
Previous: The King of Beers
Next: Do Not Forsake Me, O My Postman
Guest Starring: Anthony Cistaro, Eddie Jones
"The Magnificent Six" is the fourth episode of the eleventh season of Cheers.
Henri's quest to steal Woody's girlfriend ended in failure after Woody and Kelly got married in the tenth-season finale, but everybody's least-favorite Frenchman is still hanging around. Henri comes into the bar, hoping to get rejected for a job so he can keep his unemployment going. Cheers is shorthanded with Woody on his honeymoon however, so Sam gives Henri temp work as a bartender.
Sam tells Henri that he sees Henri as a younger version of himself, a babehound. Henri, eternally obnoxious, takes this as a challenge. Henri and Sam wind up engaging in a contest to see who can get more phone numbers by the end of the evening.
In the B-plot, Rebecca's resolution from just three episodes ago to quit smoking is apparently over, even after she burned down the bar. Sam, furious after he catches Rebecca smoking in the office, enrolls her in a stop smoking program.
Anthony Cistaro's fifth and last appearance as Henri.
Tropes:
- Auto Erotica: When Sam and Henri are discussing the strangest place they've ever made love, Sam says it would be the back seat of a car for him. When Henri points out that is not too unusual, Sam adds that the car was still on the assembly line.
- The Bet: Between Sam and Henri as to who can get more phone numbers by the end of the evening.
- Character Development: Sam is very reluctant to engage in the phone number bet, and only does when Henri insults America. There would be a few episodes this last season in which Sam seemed to be contemplating his advancing age and getting tired of the babe-chasing life, a plot that would culminate in him going to a sex-addiction class in the next-to-last episode.
- Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: When Henri wins the phone number contest, after Sam spends the last couple of minutes having a serious talk with a depressed woman, rather than getting her number.Henri: France has won! France has won!
Frasier: There's something you'll never hear! - Comically Missing the Point: Cliff reads an article about the "Eco-Pod", some scientific project where a bunch of people are going to live together in a closed ecosystem environment. He's very excited about the chance to participate in such a project, but he doesn't realize the real reason why his friends at the bar start signing a petition to send him there.
- Foreshadowing: The bit about the Eco-Pod is a throwaway "Cliff is weird" gag in the cold open. But it's also setting up the breakup of Frasier and Lilith's marriage a couple of episodes down the road, when Lilith actually goes to live in the Eco-Pod.
- How's Your British Accent?: Henri chats up a woman, but strikes out when she tells him she doesn't like French guys. Undeterred, he drops into an American accent, introduces himself as "Chuck from Portland", and succeeds in getting her number. Anthony Cistaro was American (he grew up in southern California).
- Hypocritical Humor: The last instance of the Running Gag where the gang grumbles about how they can't stand Henri because (amongst other things) he's a two-faced phony, only to greet him cheerfully.
- Radish Cure: The doctor at the stop-smoking clinic tosses a whole case of cigarettes onto the table and says Rebecca is going to smoke all of them. The story ends with the two of them smoking together as the doctor moans about how his father forced him into medicine.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The whole bit about the Eco-Pod is inspired by Biosphere 2
, a highly-publicized experiment. - Secret Test of Character: Sam approaches a woman only for her to tell him that she's in an emotionally vulnerable state. He backs off and apologizes. Moments later she tells him that it was a test and he passed.
- Shout-Out: Henri's challenge to America finally gets Sam to engage in The Bet. After he goes back into the office Sam says "Every time I think I'm out, they pull me back in!", which is the famous line from The Godfather: Part III.
- Henri taunting Sam to "come to the Dark Side" was a shout out to Star Wars.
- A Threesome Is Hot: There are two minutes left in The Bet, and Henri is ahead by one. Sam approaches a sexy blonde sitting at the front of the bar, but she says she's not interested in a "bar pickup", because she's in an emotionally vulnerable place. Sam backs off and apologizes, and Henri wins the bet. Then the woman approaches Sam and says that her comment about being emotionally vulnerable was a Secret Test of Character. She brings over her two sexy friends and says "We do everything together." Sam goes off for his foursome, no longer minding that Henri won the bet.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Henri gets one lady's number by wearing a sling and telling her he saved a bus full of orphans.
