Episode: Season 5, Episode 19
Title: Dog Bites Cliff
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Joanne Pagliaro
Air Date: February 19, 1987
Previous: One Last Fling
Next: Dinner at Eight-ish
Guest Starring: Anita Morris
Title: Dog Bites Cliff
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Joanne Pagliaro
Air Date: February 19, 1987
Previous: One Last Fling
Next: Dinner at Eight-ish
Guest Starring: Anita Morris
"Dog Bites Cliff" is the 19th episode of the fifth season of Cheers.
Cliff walks into the bar limping and using a cane. It seems that while he was on his mail route, he was bitten by a dog. With only a little bit of encouragement from Frasier, Cliff decides to file suit and get a pay day. However, when the owner of the dog comes to the bar and is revealed to be a gorgeous, voluptuous redhead named Madeline (Anita Morris), Cliff has second thoughts.
In the B-plot, Diane takes two weeks off to go to a Buddhist retreat, enraging Carla.
Tropes:
- Accidental Adultery: It's a con, but Madeline pretends that her husband has come back from the dead so that she can get out of sex with Cliff.
- Cannot Talk to Women: Also a Continuity Nod. This is one of several episodes in which Cliff and Norm are rendered literally incapable of speaking to hot women, being reduced to stammering grunts. In this episode Cliff finally manages to start talking to Madeline by looking back at Sam and repeating whatever Sam says, verbatim.
- Ice-Cream Koan: When Sam seeks reassurance that Diane will come back from her Buddhist retreat, she smiles smugly and says "No, I won't be coming back, but I will." Then she laughs and says she just made a Zen koan, triggering an entire conversation in which Frasier tries to explain the concept of a koan to Sam.
- I Have to Go Iron My Dog: After getting Cliff to sign the waiver Madeline then comes up with a transparently phony excuse, pretending to receive a phone message from a husband that came Back from the Dead. Cliff chooses to believe it.
- Mailman vs. Dog: Cliff gets bitten on the leg by a dog, then has a romance with the dog's owner.
- One-Hour Work Week: Throughout the Diane years there was one legitimate, concrete reason for Carla's hatred of Diane: Diane's laziness at work and her habit of taking time off all the time. In this episode Carla asks "Is Diane taking the day off again?", and is furious when she's told that no, Diane is taking two weeks off.
- Sexy Sweater Girl: Madeline wears a series of very tight tops over her large bosom in an obvious attempt to seduce Cliff.
- Shout-Out: After Madeline succeeds in scamming him out of the lawsuit and dumping him, Cliff says "I guess we were like a pair of lovers that were never meant to be. Like Romeo and Juliet. Rhett, Scarlett. Heathcliff and Cathy.Woody: Heath, Cliff, and Kathy. Isn't that three people, Mr Clavin?
- Three... Two... One...: Cliff comes into the bar limping and says "I don't want to talk about it." Norm silently counts down from five on his fingers, and as he's finishing Cliff launches into his story.
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: Madeline is in bed with Cliff, wearing a nightie, when she says she can't have sex with Cliff until he signs the waiver form. When he says he doesn't have a pen she produces one from her Compartment.
