Title: Home Malone
Directed by: Andy Ackerman
Written by: Dan O Shannon and Tom Anderson
Air Date: May 2, 1991
Previous: Home Malone
Next: Baby Balk
Guest Starring: Bebe Neuwirth, Pete Willcox, Tress MacNeille, Paul Willson
"Uncle Sam Wants You" is the 26th and final episode of the ninth season of Cheers.
Lately, Sam's been spending a lot of time with the Cranes, and more specifically with Frederick, much to the irritation and exasperation of Lilith. Her displeasure with Sam's overbearing presence only increases when Sam starts making unannounced arrivals at Chez Crane in the morning.
At the end of his rope, Frasier asks Sam why if he loves kids so much, he doesn't just have one of his own. Sam takes this to heart, and starts thinking about finding someone to have a kid with. Meanwhile Rebecca is going to interviews, hoping to get out of the dead-end hell that is her work at Cheers. Her job search has no luck, thanks to Rebecca being... well, Rebecca.
Tress MacNeille, legendary voice actress of The Simpsons, Futurama, and many, many other cartoons, makes a rare live-action appearance as the lady who throws a drink in Sam's face when he asks her to be a "breeder".
Not to be confused with the similarly-titled mini-episode "Uncle Sam Malone", produced for the U.S. Treasury to be run during savings bonds drives.
Tropes:
- Berserk Button: Frasier was actually pretty sympathetic to Sam's obvious desperation, and was rather gentle in asking him to leave when he showed up at the crack of dawn, until, when Sam put Fredrick down and told him to "go to daddy", he kept latching onto Sam. It doesn't take long for Frasier to start shouting after that.
- Cigarette of Anxiety: Waiting for one of her interviews, Rebecca lights one up, and manages to burn a hole in her coat, nuking the interview.
- Deconstruction: Another instance pointing out how unhealthy Sam's lifestyle is, when psychiatrist Frasier Crane notes that as an aging playboy, Sam is only now starting to realise how empty and meaningless his life is, and latching on to Freddy is substituting for his own lack of children.
- The Ditz: Rebecca's particularly dumb in this one. All her interviews go belly-up thanks to her thoughtlessness, and at the end of the episode she destroys her suit by getting it caught in Cheers' front door, then walks back in to grab her coat, not bothering to take it off the coat stand. It's at this point Sam starts questioning the wisdom of Elvis.
- Dream Sequence: Sam falls asleep watching some terrible Elvis movie, and then has a bizarre dream in which Elvis talks to him from the TV and tells him that he should ask Rebecca Howe to be the mother of his baby.
- Food Slap: A customer throws her drink in Sam's face after he asks for her opinion on a guy asking her to be a surrogate.
- Innocently Insensitive: As Sam's looking for a hypothetical woman to conceive a child with, Woody suggests Rebecca because "she's getting on in years like you."
- "Just Joking" Justification: Frasier asks for a scotch on entering Cheers, then claims he was joking. He wasn't joking, as he motions for Sam to get it.
- Large Ham: Frasier, thanks to irritation with Sam, lack of sleep, and learning he's missing potential morning sex thanks to Sam.
- Not a Morning Person: A groggy Frasier is stunned to see Sam in his house before six in the morning, and asks Lilith to reassure him it's actually just an armed intruder.
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: Sam to the Cranes, mainly Lilith, as he starts spending more and more time with Freddy. According to Lilith, he's showing up earlier and leaving later every day.
