Title: The Groom Wore Clearasil
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Peter Casey & David Lee
Air Date: October 24, 1985
Previous: Someday My Prince Will Come
Next: Diane's Nightmare
Guest Starring: Timothy Williams, Mandy Ingber, John Ingle, Sherilyn Fenn, Al Rosen
"The Groom Wore Clearasil" is the fourth episode of the fourth season of Cheers.
Carla is troubled. Her 16-year-old son Anthony is getting way too serious with his girlfriend Annie. In fact, Anthony's talking about marriage. Carla, desperate to stop Anthony from making the same mistakes that she did, asks Sam to take Anthony out for a night on the town to show Anthony that there's more to life than marriage. This backfires horribly, however, as one look at Sam's hedonistic, skirt-chasing lifestyle leaves Anthony more determined than ever to get married.
In the B-plot, Cliff comes into the bar with a potato that he says looks just like former President Richard Nixon. In the C-plot, Diane's worried her teaching assistant job may come with sexual strings.
A pre-Twin Peaks Sherilyn Fenn appears as Annie's cousin Gabrielle. Timothy Williams and Mandy Ingber would make several more guest appearances over Seasons 4-6 of Cheers as Carla's oldest child and his girlfriend.
Tropes:
- Black Comedy: Woody gets letters from his dog back in Hanover, or rather letters from his mom written in the voice of his dog. After Woody hears about how the dog chewed up his father's bowling shoes and pulled a pot roast off the table, the dog says "By the way, now that you're not here to keep me in line, your mother's thinking about putting me to sleep." Woody frantically dashes back in the office to make a phone call.
- Call-Back: Sam calls up an old conquest named Candy and says "You still into hot fudge sundaes for breakfast?" As a smitten Anthony follows Gabrielle out the bar at the end of the episode, he says "So, you ever have a hot fudge sundae for breakfast?"
- The Casanova: Every so often the show would take a negative view of Sam's Casanova ways, like in this episode, when Anthony is appalled by Sam's babe hunting and becomes even more determined to marry Annie. However, Anthony's eye wanders even while with Annie.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: Diane has a job offer to be a teacher's assistant—on the recommendation of Sumner Sloane, who had an affair with Diane when she was his teacher's assistant. Diane dismisses Sam's suggestions that her new professor will want sex, but the suspicion gnaws at her. When it comes time for her interview, the professor is talking to her pleasantly when Diane blurts out of nowhere, "I will not sleep with you!". It goes downhill from there, as Diane frantically tries to repair the damage only to make things worse, until she hightails it out of the office, having definitely lost the job.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Carla is about to sign the consent form when Annie's pretty cousin Gabrielle comes in. Anthony follows Gabrielle out of the bar, and Carla's off the hook — and consoles Annie: "Let me fill you in on something, Annie. There are three things you can say about Tortelli men. One, they draw women like flies. Two, they treat women like flies. Three, their brains are in their flies."
- I Have to Wash My Hair: Sam calls up an Old Flame named Beth, but when she says she can't go out tonight because she's going to her first Weight Watchers meeting (that is, she's gotten fat), Sam says "Well God, Beth, I think my appendix just burst!", and hangs up.
- It Kind of Looks Like a Face: Cliff, always kind of a weird guy, gets weirder in this episode, when he brings into the bar a potato that he insists looks just like Richard Nixon. Norm has to make an intervention on his buddy's behalf when Cliff comes back to the bar with the potato stuck on the body of a Ken doll in a suit.Carla: Big deal! Show me a potato that doesn't look like Nixon.
- Paper Destruction of Anger: Anthony comes back with a consent form that Carla has to sign in order for him to get married at the age of 16. Carla crumples the paper into a ball and throws it into Anthony's face, saying "This is my new way of signing my name!"
