Title: Ma Always Liked You Best
Directed by: Andy Ackerman
Written by: Dan O Shannon and Tom Anderson
Air Date: October 18, 1990
Previous: Where Nobody Knows Your Name
Next: Grease
Guest Starring: Frances Sternhagen, Paul Willson
"Ma Always Liked You Best" is the fifth episode of the ninth season of Cheers.
Ma Clavin is back! It seems that Esther Clavin, who moved to Florida after the Clavin family home was demolished in "The Last Angry Mailman", got in trouble with some gamblers after running up debts at the dog track. Esther has come back to Boston and is looking to move in with her son. The only problem is that Cliff has gotten used to being independent after three years of living in his little condo, and is reluctant to let him Mom move in. So instead, Esther moves in with Woody, causing Cliff to become jealous.
In the second plot, construction workers are doing some work at the top of the Cheers stairwell. The loud jackhammering and the six-foot-deep hole they've dug is hurting business. Norm suggests taking out the large window in the pool room and using that as a rear entrance, and he does—but in the process of clearing out the iron bars outside the window, he gets stuck.
Third of seven appearances by Frances Sternhagen as Ma Clavin.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: When Cliff won't let Esther come back and start dictating his life, she becomes emotionally and verbally abusive. Played for laughs, since it's Cliff.Cliff: Ma, when are you gonna stop taking shots at me?
Esther: When it stops being funny. - And Starring: Frances Sternhagen got a "Special Appearance by" credit.
- Bothering by the Book: The construction workers perform a slowdown out of spite when Rebecca refuses to let them have free beer. What should've been a one day job stretches out to a month.
- Bribe Backfire: When the cops show up and start asking about the new back exit, Rebecca tries bribing them $50, despite Sam frantically shaking his head. She's arrested.
- Broken Record: Once he tells Esther that she can't stay in his apartment, Cliff starts strutting about boasting about this, even when Norm is threatening him with a crowbar to shut up. It's implied he goes on like this for days, to anyone in range.
- The Bus Came Back: Ma Clavin comes back to Boston after a three-year absence.
- Butt-Monkey: Frasier is the only person to fall down the hole the construction workers have dug in front of the bar. No-one's sympathetic to the fact he nearly killed himself or his severe dust allergy.
- Help, I'm Stuck!: Norm decides to half-ass pulling the iron bars out of the window, and as a result gets stuck. The others compare him to Winnie the Pooh.
- Honor Before Reason: Rebecca refuses to bribe the construction workers on principle, even though their slowdown is hurting Cheers.
- A Lesson Learned Too Well: Rebecca, in the end.
- Like a Son to Me: Esther, on Woody, while Cliff's right next to her.Esther: Woody's like the son I never had.
Cliff: What about me?
Esther: You're the son I did have. - Little Known Facts: After a few days around Esther, Woody starts reciting them.
- Love Triangle: A really weird one, as Esther's lavishing affection on Woody eventually makes Cliff angrily demand to have his Ma back.
- My Beloved Smother: Ma Clavin shows up and basically demands to live with Cliff. When Cliff proves relucant, Esther starts hanging out with Woody and launches a campaign to make Cliff jealous. It works, as Cliff invites Esther to move in.
- Something We Forgot: The police were going to help get Norm out from between the bars, but thanks to Rebecca screwing up again, he's forgotten.
- Tarot Troubles: Subverted. Woody and Norm are playing with tarot cards. Carla sees them, and, being the most superstitious person in the world, she goes on a long rant about the power of tarot cards and the danger of messing with the supernatural. Turns out that Woody and Norm are just using the cards to play "Go Fish".
- Troll: Carla, again. When the construction workers are making noise, she yells to respond to Norm, then keeps doing it when they stop, to torture him. She also steals their warning signs so Frasier will fall into the hole, then returns it to behind Tecumseh where she put it.
