Title: Sam Ahoy
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: David Lloyd
Air Date: December 14, 1989
Previous: Feeble Attraction
Next: Sammy and the Professor
Guest Starring: Roger Rees
"Sam Ahoy" is the 12th episode of the eighth season of Cheers.
Sam continues to dream of buying back Cheers. The Lillian Corporation, it turns out, is willing to sell him the bar—but he needs money. A lot of money.
Meanwhile, Robin Colcord continues to irritate Sam as the personification of all the money that Sam does not have. He comes into the bar with Rebecca, who's wearing a sailor's hat. It seems that Robin took Rebecca out on his yacht, named the Rebecca—it's a coincidence, he had the yacht before he met her.
Robin is about to race his yacht in the Cape Cod Regatta, but he is called away to deal with a strike at a mine he owns. When Sam, an experienced yachtsman, learns that there is a $10,000 prize for winning the regatta, he leaps at the chance to race Robin's boat. Naturally, things go awry.
Tropes:
- Continuity Nod: Several:
- Sam is a sea captain, as shown too in the Season 5 and 6 premieres.
- Rebeca is still dating Robin Colcord as seen in the Season 8 premiere, and still hasn't slept with him, two recourring plot threads during the season.
- Sam is still trying to regain the bar (and doing an awful job at it).
- Double Entendre: The fact that Robin's boat is named the Rebecca leads to a series of double entendres from Robin, which Rebecca has to pay Carla to ignore.Robin: We just got Rebecca out of dry dock. Scraping the barnacles off her bottom.
Rebecca: (to Carla) Not a word. - Footsie Under the Table: Discussed Trope. Rebecca tells Woody that she's getting a pedicure because she may be playing footsie with Robin.
- Foreshadowing: It is shown early in the episode that Robin travels with a large security detail and people want to kill him. This sets up the latter portion of the episode when Norm finds a bomb on the yacht.
- Hidden Disdain Reveal: When Carla suggests Norm jump in the ocean to be shark bait, Norm growls "I never liked you, Carla."
- Honor Before Reason: Robin is prepared to give Norm, Carla, and Sam a combined $60,000 in return for an agreement not to sue. An angry Sam (who desperately needs money to buy the bar) refuses—only for Norm and Carla to frantically chase after Colcord once they find this out.
- Incredibly Obvious Bomb: Naturally the bomb on the yacht is your standard bundle of dynamite sticks, with wires and a large digital timer.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: An exploding yacht was beyond the budget of an episode of Cheers, so after a commercial break the show cuts back to the bar, where Sam, Norm, and Carla tell the others how they piloted the boat into an inlet and got off moments before it blew up.
