Title: Sam Time Next Year
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Larry Balmagia
Air Date: February 14, 1991
Previous: The Days of Wine and Neuroses
Next: I'm Getting My Act Together and Sticking It in Your Face
Guest Starring: Bebe Neuwirth, Barbara Feldon, Michael Dukakis
"Sam Time Next Year" is the 18th episode of the ninth season of Cheers.
It's Valentine's Day. Apparently, Sam has a longstanding tradition in which he spends every Valentine's Day in a particular Vermont ski lodge, having a night of passion with a lady named Lauren (Barbara Feldon of Get Smart), whom he never sees at any other time. Sam and Lauren have been doing this one-night-per-year ritual for twenty years.
Unfortunately, on the way out of the bar, Sam slips and falls on the icy steps and throws his back out. He doesn't want to miss his yearly night of passion, though, so despite being barely able to move, he has Woody drive him to Vermont.
In the B-plot, Rebecca isn't drunk anymore, but she's still depressed and mainlining ice cream over being alone on Valentine's Day. In the C-plot, Frasier and Lilith are struggling to get their therapy groups (respectively, men terrified of women and women terrified of men) to relate to each other.
Tropes:
- And Starring: Barbara Feldon gets "Special Guest Star" while Michael Dukakis gets "Special Appearance".
- The Big Damn Kiss: Cliff is gentlemanly enough to get bummed-out Rebecca a card for Valentine's Day, only to be creepy enough to say "What do I get for it?". Rebecca hesitates, then lays a passionate kiss on Cliff.
- Out with a Bang: Implied. As she's leaving Lauren tells Sam that they may be able to schedule a second annual date, since the guy she has sex with on Arbor Day has died. Sam asks "How did he die?" and she says "Happy!".
- Politician Guest-Star: Michael Dukakis, former three-term governor of Massachusetts and 1988 Democratic nominee for President of the United States, is buying a newspaper outside Cheers. Sam and Norm spend so long debating how to address him that they can barely say "hi" before Dukakis walks off.
- Post-Kiss Catatonia: Cliff is zoned out for hours after Rebecca kisses him.
- Remember the New Guy?: Not only does Sam suddenly mention a 20-year-tradition for the first time, everyone in the bar seems to already be familiar with this Valentine's ritual of his.
- Series Continuity Error: It's very hard to square this idea that Sam's been going to Vermont every Valentine's for 20 years to have sex with Lauren, considering that 1) he was together with Diane Chambers for Valentine's in 1984 and 1987, she never would have stood for him taking off on Valentine's, and for all his Lothario ways, Sam never cheated on Diane, and 2) 20 years would also include his baseball career back in the 1970s, and Red Sox relief pitcher Sam Malone would have been at spring training on February 14.
- Spin the Bottle: One of the games that Lilith and Frasier play with their support groups in a desperate effort to get them to loosen up.
- Valentine's Day Episode: Actually aired on Valentine's Day. Sam goes to Vermont for a romantic getaway, while Rebecca wallows in self-pity about being single again.
