Title: A Bar Is Born
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Phoef Sutton
Air Date: October 12, 1989
Previous: The Improbable Dream, Part 2
Next: How to Marry a Mailman
Guest Starring: Roger Rees
"A Bar Is Born" is the 3rd episode of the eighth season of Cheers.
Sam having blown his chance to get with Rebecca, she is still gallivanting around with Robin Colcord. She is also, however, still not having sex with Robin Colcord. This strikes everyone at the bar as odd, but Rebecca has decided she's going to get past her fears and hang ups and finally make love with Robin.
Meanwhile, Sam's accumulated bitterness over the last three years of his life—losing Diane, losing Cheers, sinking his boat, being forced to slink back to Boston, taking a job as a poorly-paid bartender in what used to be his bar—boils over. He decides to make a change in his life. Specifically, he decides to start a new bar.
Sam's quest to regain ownership of Cheers would be a season-long story arc.
Tropes:
- Berserk Button: Being told that he has to refill the pretzel bowls is what makes Sam finally snap and go on an angry rant about the poor hand life has dealt him. He ends up by deciding to start a new bar.
- Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: Norm subverts this. "Women. Can't live with 'em, pass the beer nuts."
- Cobweb of Disuse: The boarded-up bar that Sam is going to buy is covered in cobwebs and dust. However, as Sam points out to the gang, underneath all that dirt and grime is a fine old bar that will look good when it's restored.
- Foreshadowing: Everyone at the bar wonders why jet set billionaire Robin Colcord is spending so much time and money on Rebecca when she isn't putting out. This riddle will be revealed in the next-to-last episode of the season, "Cry Hard".
- Jerkass Has a Point: While he did screw Sam over, he wasn't wrong when he told Sam that he would never be happy with this place, and he should refocus his efforts in getting HIS bar (Cheers) back.
- Manipulative Bastard: After Sam makes the mistake of telling Robin about his idea to start a new bar, Robin steers him to Sam's true desire: to get Cheers back. Robin also is helpful enough to get Sam out of his deal to buy the dusty old bar. Why does Robin do this? So he can buy up the property himself on the cheap and develop it.
- Start My Own: Sam's idea, to start a new bar. Robin Colcord scams him out of it.
- Wacky Cravings: A heavily pregnant Lilith wants Frasier to get her butter and flour. No, she isn't baking; she's eating gobs of butter and flour.
