Title: Little Sister, Don't Cha
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Heide Perlman
Air Date: October 13, 1983
Previous: Power Play
Next: Personal Business
Guest Starring: Rhea Perlman, Paul Willson
"Little Sister, Don't Cha" is the second episode of the second season of Cheers.
Carla goes into labor while working at the bar. She goes off to the hospital to have her baby, and while she's gone her little sister Annette Lozupone (also played by Rhea Perlman, who's credited as a guest star) comes to Cheers to cover her shifts. Annette gets along great with everyone at the bar, including Cliff, who asks her out.
Unfortunately it turns out Annette gets along too well with everybody at the bar. Specifically, she's having sex with absolutely any man that's interested, and Sam has to fend her off after she tackles him in the office. While the gang is startled by this behavior, the real problem comes when poor unsuspecting Cliff falls in love with Annette.
Tropes:
- Armor-Piercing Response: The guys have just about talked themselves into accepting that Annette's promiscuity doesn't matter if she and Cliff are really in love. Sam comes back out from the pool room and tentatively says something to Annette about how great Cliff is. Annette's response—"Which one's Cliff?"—causes the rest of the gang to decide they need to re-evaluate.
- Comically Missing the Point: Coach as always. Sam and Diane are flirting intimately when Coach interrupts with bar business. When Sam indignantly says "Coach, we were gonna kiss," Coach answers with "We were?"
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Cliff is very confident with Annette, and has sex with her casually, a stark contrast to the nervous wreck he'd become.
- Identical Grandson: Carla's little sister (not a twin sister) Annette is played by Rhea Perlman.
- Really Gets Around: It becomes clear that Annette will sleep with anybody. Diane calls her "The Thing That Devoured Boston".
- Series Continuity Error: Carla says that Annette is her little sister, but in season 1 episode "The Tortelli Tort", Carla says that all her sisters are older than her.
- Shout-Out: Carla goes to have her baby at St. Eligius, the hospital where St. Elsewhere is set. (Later, an episode of St. Elsewhere would have St. Eligius doctors Donald Westphall, Daniel Auschlander, and Mark Craig stop at Cheers and meet Norm and Cliff. Interestingly, an earlier episode of St. Elsewhere had fellow doctor Jack "Boomer" Morrison and his young son going around the town in Boston, with one of the stops being the Bull & Finch Pub, the real life restaurant-bar which inspired Cheers.) Carla later says she thinks St. Eligius is a truly crappy hospital; she's not wrong.
- Stupidest Thing I've Ever Heard: Sam says Annette's promiscuity isn't their business.Sam Malone: She can do whatever she wants with her sex life. It's in the Bill of Rights.
Diane Chambers: Where is it in the Bill of Rights?
Sam Malone: Well, you know, the part about the right to assemble and bear arms.
Diane Chambers: That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard.
Sam Malone: Hey! I thought that you weren't going to call me stupid now that we're being intimate.
Diane Chambers: No, I said I wasn't going to call you stupid WHILE we're being intimate.
