Recap / Cheers S 8 E 23

Episode: Season 8, Episode 23
Title: The Ghost and Mrs. Le Bec
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Dan Staley and Rob Long
Air Date: April 12, 1990
Previous: Loverboyd
Next: Mr. Otis Regrets
Guest Starring: Bebe Neuwirth, Kevin Conroy, Georgia Brown

"The Ghost and Mrs. LeBec" is the 23rd episode of the eighth season of Cheers.

Darryl Mead (Kevin Conroy), the affable, very handsome Boston Red Sox player, stops by the bar again. Carla is extremely attracted to him, and they make a date to go out. However, Carla starts feeling guilty about going out on a date only a few months after her husband Eddie's death. Soon, she starts hallucinating Boston Bruin goalies (Eddie was a Bruins goalie) in the bar, and she becomes convinced that Eddie is haunting her.

In the B-plot, Rebecca has filed a consumer complaint after some leg-shaving gizmo chewed up the skin on her legs.

---

Tropes:

• Armor-Piercing Question: Frasier is ranting about how all psychics are con artists.
  Frasier: It's very easy for people to get hooked on this hocus-pocus, and it...well, before you know it, this woman will be holding your hand once a week, charging you $100 an hour, and filling your mind with all sorts of confusing jargon.
  Carla: And how is that different from you?
  Beat
  Frasier: Well, I can prescribe drugs.
• Brutal Honesty: Lilith says that after "an appropriate period of bereavement" following Frasier's hypothetical death, she'd start dating again. Frasier is hugely irritated by this.
• Continuity Nod: Darryl Mead, the Red Sox player who stopped at the bar sixteen episodes ago in "Death Takes a Holiday on Ice", comes back to Cheers and again expresses interest in going out with Carla.
• Hallucinations: Carla, riven with guilt over going out on a date after Eddie's death, starts hallucinating goalies in Bruins costumes everywhere.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: Frasier, pissed off after Lilith says she'd date other men after his death, says to Woody, "Would you check on the robot over there, see if it's thirsty?"
• Mathematician's Answer: Darryl comes in and asks Woody where Sam is.
  Darryl: Is Sam around?
  Woody: No, he's not feeling well. He won't be in today.
  Darryl: What's wrong?
  Woody: I miss him.
• Phony Psychic: Carla invites Madame Lazora, her psychic, to conduct a seance to make contact with the spirit of Eddie LeBec. Frasier is annoyed by what an obvious fake Madame Lazora is, but Madame Lazora taunts Frasier with how she made $250 for fifteen minutes of work.
• Polyamory: Well, what other way for Sam to get through chicken pox than to hang out in a bed full of hot women?
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Ted Danson actually contracted chicken pox, at the age of 43, which is why Sam is not in this episode. After Danson was better, they filmed a scene for the cold open showing Sam with chicken pox, in bed with a half-dozen babes.
• Ship Tease: Frasier's attraction for Rebecca was an occasional Running Gag. In this episode Rebecca is filing a consumer complaint about some ladies' automatic razor that sliced up her legs.
  Frasier: All these people care about is the grievous bodily damage that this product has inflicted on your...sensitive...firm...milky white flesh.
• Shout-Out: Woody's community theater troupe is putting on 12 Angry Men. They only have six men, so they have to be twice as angry.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Woody was a lot more aggressive and hostile in this episode, in preparation for his play as mentioned above.