Title: Dark Imaginings
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: David Angell
Air Date: February 20, 1986
Previous: The Peterson Principle
Next: Save the Last Dance for Me
Guest Starring: Kelsey Grammer, Thomas Callaway, Tim Dunigan, Pamela Bach
"Dark Imaginings" is the 19th episode of the fourth season of Cheers.
Sam strolls into the bar with Bonnie (Pamela Bach), a hot young thing who is very 1980s (she likes Tears for Fears and The Thompson Twins, and she says "rad"), and more importantly is young, looking like she's 15-20 years younger than Sam. Diane needles Sam about going out with a woman so much younger than he is, which bothers Sam, but he's really bothered when Woody says that he hasn't asked Sam to play racquetball because Sam's too old.
So they play racquetball (off-screen). Sam beats Woody, and gives himself a hernia in the process. He goes to the hospital (which he unsuccessfully tries to hide from the guys at the bar), leaves early, suffers a relapse and has to go back. Diane visits Sam in the hospital and gives him well-meaning advice about accepting getting older, but Sam is left contemplating life as an aging Lothario.
In the B-plot, Cliff comes in with another one of his celebrity look-alike vegetables, this time a turnip that looks like June Lockhart. This time he diagnoses himself with having a problem and asks Frasier for psychiatric help.
Tropes:
- Barbershop Quartets Are Funny: The Cold Open sees one of these groups entering the bar arguing over which of them caused them to lose a contest. After their bass player quits, Norm asks if he can sing with them. When they hear his impressive voice the group asks him to join them but he declines. Woody mistakes them for actual barbers and asks for a haircut.
- Contrived Coincidence: How does the gang find out that Sam is in the hospital? Because the two nurses who are looking after him go to Cheers, out of all the bars in Boston, and while they're there they talk about Sam.
- Covert Pervert: After going back in to hospital, Sam apologises to one of the nurses for checking her out last time. She admits that she and the other nurses had been checking him out, even loosening the straps of his gown for their amusement.
- Dramatic Drop: A nurse talks about how her patient won't stop hitting on her. Diane dramatically drops her tray and says "Oh my God it's Sam!" They tell her that no, their patient isn't Sam Malone, Diane picks up her tray—and then she drops it again when one of the nurses says the patient is named "Lance Manyon." (That's a Go-to Alias of Sam's.)
- Downer Ending: Sam is feeling old because of a hernia, but Diane and a fellow patient manage to convince him he's only as old as he feels. However, when he finds out the young woman visiting the fellow patient is the patient's daughter, and she calls him "sir", Sam is rocked. The final shot is of Sam sitting at a window watching the rain, realizing that although he's not an old man, time is slipping away for him, and he has nothing to show for it.
- Go-to Alias: Sam's are "Lance Manyon" and "Honeyboy Wilson", according to Diane.
- Gray Rain of Depression: The episode ends with Sam sitting at the window and staring out at the pouring rain, as he ponders growing old alone.
- Hypocritical Humor: Diane is giving Sam advice about accepting getting older. This is followed by the doctor coming in and recognizing Diane, as his tutor when he was in junior high school.Diane: I'm old and alone in Boston.
- Inelegant Blubbering: A guilt-wracked Woody comes to visit Sam in hospital, crying his eyes out. According to Carla, he'd been like that on the way over.
- It Kind of Looks Like a Face: Another instance of the Season 4 Running Gag in which Cliff comes in with a vegetable that he thinks looks like a person. After unveiling his turnip that looks like June Lockhart, Cliff goes to Frasier for some help. But what Cliff regarded as "a little chat," Frasier calls "seven hours of intensive psychotherapy," and bills Cliff $750. Cliff's outrage is paired with him producing an ear of corn that he thinks looks like Meryl Streep.
- Ma'am Shock: A sexy babe named Judy comes into the hospital room to greet Sam's neighbor Jack. Sam hits onto Judy and is embarrassed to be told that she's actually Jack's daughter. But when Judy calls him "sir", he is rocked to his heels, and the episode ends with Sam obviously having a mid-life crisis.
- Moment Killer:
- Sam tries putting the moves on Diane while he's in hospital and she's trying to be supportive. She makes clear it's not going to happen.
- Diane then manages to do it to herself, as Sam sincerely thanks her for coming to visit. He warns her not to try and overdo it, but Diane starts on a flowery speech anyway, prompting Sam to tell her she just killed the moment.
- The Patient Has Left the Building: Not wanting to look old in front of the barflies, Sam ignores medical advice and checks out of the hospital a few days early. An innocent slap on the back from Woody requires him to go right back in.
- She Is All Grown Up: Hinted at, since Diane tutored Sam's doctor in medical school, and is surprised to find "Little Stevie" is now a full doctor.
- Shout-Out to Shakespeare: Diane is suspicious about Sam's stiff, odd gait and sweaty lip (he's trying to hide a hernia). She says "Methinks the man doth protest too much."Woody: Excuse me Miss Chambers, but shouldn't it be I thinks?Carla: Not in your case, Woody.
