Title: My Fair Clavin
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Phoef Sutton
Air Date: December 10, 1987
Previous: A Kiss Is Still a Kiss
Next: Christmas Cheers
Guest Starring: Karen Akers
"My Fair Clavin" is the 11th episode of the sixth season of Cheers.
The episode has two A-plots. In the first, Cliff has moved out of Norm's house (to Norm's horror, since Cliff was paying attention to Vera). He has gotten a condo in a complex that seems to cater to single folks. Shockingly, that has gotten Cliff a girlfriend, in the person of a tall, gawky shop clerk named Sally. Cliff, who seems to have a strange notion of his own attractiveness, judges Sally—very tall, dresses dowdy, huge glasses—to be too unattractive to take out, so he gives her a makeover before taking her to Cheers.
In the second plot, Rebecca, stressed out by work (and possibly by the spectacle she made of herself at the company party in the previous episode) has relapsed into a smoking habit. At Frasier's suggestion, to stop herself from another relapse, Rebecca vows that if she smokes again, she'll do the most vile, disgusting thing she can think of. Namely, she'll sleep with Sam Malone.
Tropes:
- Bait-and-Switch: A whole conversation leads the viewer to think Cliff and Sally are about to have sex on the couch—Cliff turns the lights down, Sally makes a remark about getting comfortable, and after Cliff sits down Sally says "Have you got the... you know." It turns out that she was talking about the TV remote, and they were sitting down to watch Jeopardy!.
- Cigarette of Anxiety: Rebecca says she has started smoking again due to stress at work.
- Dramatic Drop: Twice. Sam is carrying a box of glasses; after Rebecca says she'll have sex with him if she ever smokes again, he drops it and the glasses shatter. Later, when Sally comes out of the bathroom looking all glamorous, Cliff drops the magazine he got the makeover from.
- The Glasses Gotta Go: Naturally, part of Sally's makeover is ditching the enormous glasses.
- I Have This Friend: A heavily pregnant Carla doesn't try very hard when she approaches the twins at the bar with questions about her twins.Carla: This friend of mine is having twins—all right, it's me.
- The Makeover: A more flattering dress, makeup, a better hairdo, and suddenly the formerly awkward Sally is looking glamorous. This threatens to backfire on Cliff, as men handsomer than him (like Sam) start to pay attention to Sally.
- Off the Wagon: Rebecca is revealed to have a smoking habit in this episode, where she falls off the wagon and starts smoking again. This is part of the Characterization Marches On in Season 6 as Rebecca the Ice Queen starts falling apart.
- Second-Face Smoke:
- Sam uses Rebecca's smoking habit for another crude come-on, saying "You know what you ought to do, you ought to come on over to Dr. Sammy's Stop Smoking Center. Today's special is a free chest exam." Rebecca responds appropriately, by blowing smoke in his face.
- The episode ends in the same way, as Sam tells another good-looking woman with a cigarette that he can help her stop smoking, followed by the woman blowing smoke in his face before the Smash to Black.
- Twin Telepathy: The cold open has two identical twins at the bar. Carla, pregnant with twins herself, asks whether they'll have "silent, evil thoughts" about her. They stare at her in silence for a while, and after Carla says "Well?", one says "We're discussing it."
