History Series / Cheers

* DiagonalBilling: used for Ted Danson and Shelley Long in the credits.

''Cheers'' can be neatly divided into the Diane years and the Rebecca years. Shelley Long played Diane Chambers for five seasons, in which the Sam-Diane romance was the central theme. After Long left for a less-than-brilliant career in movies, Kirstie Alley joined the cast as Rebecca Howe. While the sexual tension between Sam and Rebecca remained a plot element, the show became more of an ensemble for its last six seasons.

The first draft of the ''Cheers'' script was originally set in a ''hotel'', with wacky guests coming and going (the creators were inspired by ''FawltyTowers''). After the vast majority of script ideas ended up set in the hotel's bar, the producers just dropped the hotel concept entirely.

-->'''Phillip:''' Yes, I spent three months in jail. College types don't ''understand'' me. ''(wistfully)'' I do however still get a few Christmas cards.

* BigDamnKiss:

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Most of the cast is susceptible to this, but Diane is probably the biggest offender on the show, as evidenced by Dr. Simon Finch-Royce's (JohnCleese) famous sarcastic rant at Sam and her, after Diane keeps refuting his insistence that she and Sam were a disaster waiting to happen.

-->'''Diane:''' ''(long pause, then turns to Sam and grins)'' [[ImmuneToSarcasm See?]]

* {{Crossover}}: With ''Series/{{Wings}}'' and, improbably, ''StElsewhere'' placing Cheers as a spur on many {{Intercontinuity Crossover}}s.

* DiagonalBilling: used for Ted Danson and Shelley Long in the credits.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: An episode involved a guy who wanted to be a priest, who was having cold feet one day before being ordered, who managed to touch an old piano in the bar that has been out of order by years. The piano worked! CloudCuckooLander Coach even says: ''“I can’t believe it”''. All the cast convinced the guy that it must be a signal that he was special and he must become a priest. He agrees and left the bar. When all comment the miracle, Coach says he repaired the piano a week ago. When they ask him why he said ''“I can’t believe it”'' if he knew the piano was working, he answered that all those years he left the piano broke without any further thought, ''but just a week ago he felt the irrepressible urge to repair the piano, before it was too late''.

* NewOldFlame:

* PantsPositiveSafety / RecklessGunUsage / ShotInTheAss : An angry husband comes into the bar looking for Sam with a revolver for having an affair with his wife. After the man is talked out of the shooting and the gun is taken from him, Sam puts it in his back pocket for storage. Afterward, he goes to sit down, and [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace shoots himself in the butt]]. The situation spirals out of control when he attmpts to explain the injury by claiming he got shot in an attempted hold-up.

* PrecisionFStrike / RealitySubtext: In the final episode, after everyone has left the bar ([[RealitySubtext for good]]), Sam looks around, and exlaims, "I'll be damned. I'm the ''luckiest'' son-of-a-bitch in the world."

** Another recap featured Cliff explaining what happened in an episode that happened to be Frasier's first appearance, while showing a slideshow of his (Cliff, that is) vacation in Florida.

* RecurringExtra: Many of the barflies.

** Even funnier is when the next winner's ball is "11". Woody looks at it and calls out "Eleven!", then looks at it upside down, and mutters, "Oh, no. Not again."

* SocialSemiCircle: Most of the time people only sat on 3 sides of the bar, if they did sit on the side facing the audience they were only background characters.

* TropaholicsAnonymous: In the next-to-last episode of the series, "The Guy Can't Help It", Sam decides that he is a sex addict and joins a support group. This was a jarring plot twist, given that Sam was able to stay faithful to Diane when they were dating, and his [[TheCasanova Casanova]] ways had been generally PlayedForLaughs during the show's run.

* UnderNewManagement: Between seasons 5 and 6 Sam sold the bar to a corporation and left to live on a boat. Unfortunately, he crashed and sank the boat in the Caribbean. Without any money or assets left, he came back in the first episode of season 6 and took a job as a bartender at the bar he used to own.

* YouLookFamiliar: Paul Willson first appeared in first-season episode "Someone Single, Someone Blue" as a character named Glen. In second-season episode "Little Sister Don't Cha" he plays a character named Tom. Then in fourth-season episode "Fools and Their Money" he appears as Paul Krapence, the character he played for 53 episodes, becoming a semi-regular in the show's later years.

* DevelopmentGag: Former NFL star Fred Dryer was up for the part of Sam Malone, and Julia Duffy (later of ''{{Newhart}}'') was up for the part of Diane Chambers. Dryer later guest-starred as a Boston sports anchor and a more crass, dumber version of Sam, while Duffy appeared in one episode as Diane's even more pretentious, even snootier best friend.

* RealLifeRelative: Phil the barfly was played by Phil Perlman, Rhea Perlman's father.

* RomanticFalseLead: Frasier Crane fit this trope exactly when he was introduced in Season 3 as Diane's new boyfriend. What was unusual was how the character was used afterwards. Frasier proved so popular that he stuck around for two more seasons after the Diane-Frasier romance ended, then six more seasons after Diane left Cheers, then for eleven more years on [[{{Frasier}} his own show]]. Not many Romantic False Leads have been on prime time television for 19 years.

* SocialSemiCircle: Most of the time people only sat on 3 sides of the bar, if they did sit on the side facing the audience they where only background characters.

** For the next couple seasons, Sam works to save up money to buy the bar back. After some difficulties, Sam alerts the corporation that Robin Colcord is plotting a hostile takeover, and they sell him back the bar for less than a dollar out of gratitude - creating new old management.

* PrecisionFStrike / RealitySubtext: In the final episode, after everyone has left the bar ([[RealitySubtext for good]]), Sam looks around, and exlaims, "I'll be damned. I'm the ''luckiest'' son-of-a-bitch in the world." YourMileageMayVary on whether Sam is right, but it certainly is for Ted Danson.

** Councilwoman Janet Eldridge (played by [[StarTrekVoyager Kate Mulgrew]]), who has a relationship with Sam in the three-part Season 4 finale "Strange Bedfellows".

* StarMakingRole: True for almost the whole cast, except for Kirstie Alley who got her big break a few years earlier with ''StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', and arguably Bebe Neuwirth with her stage experience. Most dramatically true for Woody Harrelson, who went on to a very successful film career.

-->'''Diane:''' ''(long pause, then turns to Sam and grins)'' See?

* ActorAllusion: A strange case. For a while, Carla's ex-husband Nick was TheFaceless, and was described as DannyDeVito. Rhea Perlman played Zena, [=Louis DePalma's=] girlfriend on ''{{Taxi}}''. [=DeVito=] was going to play Nick, but his movie career took off and Dan Hedaya was hired to play the role instead.

** As Cracked [[http://www.cracked.com/article_19109_6-things-our-kids-just-plain-wont-get.html noted]], the KnowNothingKnowItAll, here personified by Cliff Clavin, is basically extinct. In an age of ubiquitous portable communication devices, anyone could smack down Cliff's BS.

* SkywardScream: Carla, when she finds out she slept with [[spoiler: Paul]].

* CharacterOutlivesActor: Nicholas Colasanto died on February 12, 1985, while the third season of ''Cheers'' was still in production. Various references were made to Coach being away when Colasanto was being treated for illness: in one episode he is off in Vermont taking a drivers' test, and in another he is at a family reunion. After Colasanto died, three episodes were shot without him, but finally, a DeletedScene featuring Coach was used as TheTeaser for the Season 3 finale. (Fans will notice that in the teaser, Carla's ''not'' pregnant.) Finally we learn that TheCharacterDiedWithHim when Season 4 premiered and Woody Boyd arrived to replace Coach.

** The conclusion of the second season had Sam and Diane fighting over her having obnoxious artist Philip Semenko (ChristopherLloyd) for a portrait. Sam even threatens to destroy the painting sight unseen. They end up physically fighting, but instead of a SlapSlapKiss, Diane decides that they're too combative to be a couple, and announces she's leaving Cheers - and does so. Sam angrily rips off the cover of the canvas to see the picture, which is a Pablo Picasso-like abstract representation of Diane. Philip had predicted there would be no way that Sam could appreciate the non-traditional portrait, but instead, Sam gazes at it, [[HiddenDepths and makes a breathy, awed, "Wow."]] SmashToBlack. RollCredits.

* CharacterOutlivesActor: Nicholas Colasanto died on February 12, 1985, while the third season of ''Cheers'' was still in production. Various references were made to Coach being away: in one episode he is off in Vermont taking a drivers' test, and in another he is at a family reunion. A DeletedScene featuring Coach was used as TheTeaser for the Season 3 finale. Finally we learn that TheCharacterDiedWithHim when Season 4 premiered and Woody Boyd arrived to replace Coach.

* CompanionCube: Diane keeps a large coterie of stuffed animals in her apartment.

* DiedOnABus: Nicholas Colasanto died on February 12, 1985, while the third season of ''Cheers'' was still in production. Various references were made to Coach being away: in one episode he is off in Vermont taking a drivers' test, and in another he is at a family reunion. A DeletedScene featuring Coach was used as TheTeaser for the Season 3 finale. Finally we learn that TheCharacterDiedWithHim when Season 4 premiered and Woody Boyd arrived to replace Coach.

* FallenOnHardTimesJob: Sam, the ex-Red Sox star. Eddie--once a Bruin, later a Penguin ([[WorseThanItSounds in the Ice Capades)]].