Title: Bad Neighbor Sam
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Cheri Eichen and Bill Steinkellner
Air Date: November 15, 1990
Previous: 200th Anniversary Special
Next: Veggie-Boyd
Guest Starring: Bebe Neuwirth, Keene Curtis
"Bad Neighbor Sam" is the ninth episode of the ninth season of Cheers.
Melville's, the hoity-toity seafood restaurant that sits above Cheers, has been bought by Manhattan restaurateur John Allen Hill (Keene Curtis). Rebecca is pretty excited about this, anticipating a lot more business for the bar. Sam, on the other hand, is nervous.
He's right to be. Hill is a horrible snob who regards Sam, Cheers, and everyone in Cheers as beneath contempt. He also goes out of his way to antagonize Sam. Hill insists on putting a place mat at the foot of the stairs to Melville's, to stop the uncouth denizens of Cheers from tracking dirt upstairs. He starts treating Cheers as his "lounge", which leads to a bunch of yuppies swarming into Cheers and crowding out the regulars. He infuriates Sam by treating Woody as one of his employees and ordering Woody around.
Worst of all, he presents Sam with a nasty surprise: according to the blueprints, he owns the bathrooms and pool room for Cheers, that area having once been the Melville's storage basement. Sam manages to restrain himself through all these provocations, but when Hill has Sam's Corvette towed, open war breaks out.
In the B-plot, Woody starts to get suspicious that Kelly may have a new boyfriend over in France.
Tropes:
- The Bad Guy Wins: John Allen Hill forces Sam to pay rent for use of the bathrooms and pool room that Sam used to think were his.
- Bald of Evil: A furious Sam calls John Allen Hill the "hairless king of the snobs."Woody: Boy, that was a shot at you out of nowhere, Dr. Crane.
- Drop-In Character: John Allen Hill, the new owner of Melville's, who delights in antagonizing Sam. Hill would be a periodic guest character for the last three seasons of the show's run.
- Foreshadowing: Kelly, studying at a Paris convent, sends Woody some racy pictures. Woody starts to worry, and starts worrying more when he sees a hairy, masculine thumb in one of the pictures. Henri, the French Jerk who is determined to steal Kelly from Woody, will appear later in the season.
- Jerkass: John Allen Hill clearly does take pleasure in antagonizing Sam.
- Laughing Mad: Sam completely loses it at the end, giggling madly as he tries to destroy the place mat with a sledgehammer (that doesn't work) and set it on fire (that also doesn't work). Finally he decides to take revenge on Hill by taking the place mat home with him, laughing like a loon as he dashes out the door.
- A Round of Drinks for the House: Sam starts the episode in a really good mood, ordering a round of drinks for everybody as he arrives at the bar after a night with his latest babe. The good mood doesn't last.
- Side Bet: The gang takes bets on when Sam will go completely bananas. Sam goes even more bananas when he finds out that the winner of the $200 pot is...John Allen Hill.
- Similar Squad: The yuppie infestation of Cheers has clearly gotten out of hand when a fat yuppie version of Norm enters the bar.Yuppie Norm: Ciao, gang!
Other Yuppies: BRADLEY! - Smug Snake: Smug, arrogant John Allen Hill, who drives Sam absolutely insane.
- This Is My Chair: In one scene Cliff and Norm come out from the pool room and are shocked to see that a yuppie couple are sitting on their stools. Norm in particular is horrified, saying that he's been sitting there since "the Ford administration".
- Under New Management: Melville's has a new owner, and it works out very badly for Sam.
- We Need a Distraction: The yuppie refuses to get off of Norm's stool. Finally Norm starts breathing heavily, then collapses to the floor with a seizure. As a crowd gathers around him, Norm scoots out from beneath them and reclaims his stool.
