Title: The Executive's Executioner
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Heide Perlman
Air Date: March 7, 1985
Previous: If Ever I Would Leave You
Next: Cheerio, Cheers
Guest Starring: Richard Roat, Mark Schlubb, David Wohl, Raye Birk, Warren Munson
"The Executive's Executioner" is the 21st episode of the third season of Cheers.
Norm is drinking in the bar, having left early (as he does every day) when his boss Mr. Hecht (Richard Roat) enters. Norm panics and runs to the bathroom, where Hecht chases him down. Norm thinks he's getting canned for leaving work, but in fact Mr. Hecht is giving Norm a promotion. The catch is that Norm will be the company's "killer" that fires other employees. The logic is that people take it badly when they're fired by people they believe to be their social superiors, so Norm, who has nothing anyone could envy, is the perfect choice.
Norm is not comfortable at all about this new assignment. He takes his first victim out to a Red Sox game and then to drinks at Cheers before finally firing him—whereupon Norm burst into tears. The first victim (Mark Schlubb) winds up comforting Norm instead of the other way around. A red-faced, sobbing Norm assumes that he has botched his new job, but it turns out that another member of the company, Phil Wagner (David Wohl) was there and watched the whole thing. He is delighted at the painless way in which Norm terminated an employee. Norm gets a new office at work, and regularly starts taking employees to Cheers to fire them. But while he's making more money than he ever has, the stress and guilt start to eat at him.
In the B-plot, Cliff complains about his nosy neighbors.
Fourth episode in a row that Coach does not appear in due to Nicholas Colasanto's declining health. Unlike the previous three, no excuse is given for his absence.
Tropes:
- Catapult Nightmare: They can happen when you're sitting, as Norm bolts awake and stands up after falling asleep in his chair and having a nightmare about throwing accountants down an elevator shaft.
- Crocodile Tears: Norm gets so jaded at his job that he can no longer cry or even really express sympathy when he fires people. He tries to fake it with his last victim, who isn't fooled, and says "You hide your true feelings behind a shower of crocodile tears!"
- Dream Sequence / Guilt-Induced Nightmare: Norm describes a dream where he is pushing a line of accountants one at a time into an empty elevator shaft. It's a nightmare in which the last accountant is Norm himself.
- Every Man Has His Price: Combined with An Offer You Can't Refuse. Norm's boss offered him the position of their company's "corporate killer". He told Norm that there was a large raise involved, and that he'd be fired if he didn't accept it. Norm's stern response:Norm: Sir, I cannot be threatened... And I cannot be bought... But... Put the two together and you've got a deal.
- Evil Laugh: In the dream, Norman cackles with glee as he murders accountants. At the very end of the episode, Norm adopts a theatrical Evil Laugh as he calls up Mr. Hecht to scare him.
- Hypocritical Humor: Diane criticizes Norm, saying "You should have more pride than to do repugnant tastes for people at their bidding!" This is followed by Sam pointing and saying "You wanna wipe up that bar sweat over there?
- Inelegant Blubbering: Norm has a messy breakdown, crying and blubbering and getting red-faced. Cliff is not impressed.Cliff: Maybe a manly tear or two, but never blubbering.
- Inhuman Resources: Inverted at first when Norm takes the firings worse than the people he's firing. Near the end, when Norm is burnt out and can't even fake sympathy anymore, he's playing this more straight.
- Searching the Stalls: It doesn't take Mr. Hecht very long to find Norm, since the Cheers mens' room has only two stalls. Norm is precariously perched on top of one of them.
- Serious Business: Cliff does battle with Walt Twitchell (Raye Birk), a fellow mailman who is even more of a fanatic about the Postal Service than Cliff is. When Cliff wants to retrieve a letter from Walt's bag, Walt refuses, and Cliff has to physically overpower him in order to get the letter back.
- Your Mom: When Cliff finally gets his letter back, Walt says "They're gonna have your bags!" Cliff answers "Your mother's a bag!"
