History Series / Cheers

* MassiveMultiplayerScam: Gary manages to get the whole city of Boston to trick Sam into thinking he was dead.

The bar was owned for much of the series' run by Sam Malone (Creator/TedDanson), a former relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox whose career was cut short by alcoholism. His employees include short-statured and short-tempered waitress Carla Tortelli (Creator/RheaPerlman) and absent-minded bartender Ernie "Coach" Pantusso (Creator/NicholasColasanto), his former pitching coach at the Red Sox. Bar regulars include underemployed accountant and armchair philosopher Norm Peterson (Creator/GeorgeWendt) and KnowNothingKnowItAll mailman Cliff Clavin (Creator/JohnRatzenberger). The lives of the Cheers staff are shaken up when book smart but street dumb Boston University graduate student Diane Chambers (Creator/ShelleyLong) is dumped by her fiancé while waiting for him at the bar; at a loose end, she accepts a job as a waitress.

* RatedMForManly: Sam, naturally--but also Jack Dalton, an OldFlame of Diane's who shows up in "Fear Is My Co-Pilot," who takes it up to eleven (which Sam himself [[LampshadedTrope lampshades]] to Diane on the plane, later). He and Sam even face off in a macho bout of arm-wrestling. Though Dalton eventually wins, Sam gives him a good run for his money--[[WomenPreferStrongMen with Diane non-verbally admiring in the background.]]

The show produced two spin-offs: ''Series/TheTortellis'', a mainly forgotten one-season show featuring Carla's ex-husband Nick and his family, and the very successful ''Series/{{Frasier}}'', featuring occasional guest appearances by the ''Cheers'' cast (most frequently Lilith and a twice-recast Frederick), which ran for another 11 years.

* LaterEpisodeWeirdness: The gang gets Kevin McHale obsessed with the bolts in the floor of Boston Gardens. Cliff is convinced that Hitler has moved next door. Harry The Hat [[spoiler: gets Gary to demolish his own bar]]. All this and more happens during the last two seasons.

** Being set in a bar there were a lot of permanent extras that could qualify as ascended extras, while they normally only said a throw-away line or two, its a testament to the excellent writing to give them significant character development as well as making them easily fit in with the regular cast.

* OverprotectiveDad:
** Kelly's Dad--although Mr. Gaines didn't seem too concerned with Kelly's pre-Woody {{Jerkass}} boyfirend....
** Also Diane's dad, apparently. As Diane notes in Season One's "Coach's Daughter," Mr. Chambers was ''very'' prone to TwerpSweating. As she puts it:
-->'''Diane:''' [[ThePerfectionist He would decide he didn’t like them for no better reason than]] one of them had bad posture [[FelonyMisdemeanor or another one had facial hair]]. I’ll never forget the night when I was foolish enough to bring home [[DirtyCommunists a utopian socialist]].\\
'''Others:''' [[SarcasmMode Woah!]]\\
'''Diane:''' [[SarcasmBlind Unbelievable, I know!]] It's unbelievable. I was a rebel then....

* TheMasochismTango: Sam and Diane go through this late in Season 2, beginning in the final sequence of "Fortunes and Men's Weights" and culminating in [[spoiler: their big breakup]] in the season finale.

*** Here, the only thing that would keep the Carla/Hill relationship from being the trope played straight is that it's emphasized that they mutually ''love'' their insult-fests--and the more caustic, the better.

After Season 5, Long left for a less-than-brilliant career in movies, and to raise her child, so the five years of WillTheyOrWontThey culminated in Diane calling off her wedding to Sam to pursue her writing career at the urging of both her ex-fiancé and Sam himself. In Season 6, Creator/KirstieAlley joined the cast as Rebecca Howe, an ambitious but neurotic executive at the corporation to which Sam sold Cheers after Diane left; although Sam was given his job back as a bartender, ownership of Cheers was traded between Sam and Rebecca several times. Though the sexual tension between Sam and Rebecca remained a plot element, the show became more of an ensemble for its last six seasons.

Cheers was modeled after the real-life Boston bar [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheers_Beacon_Hill the Bull & Finch Pub]], which was used as the [[EstablishingShot exterior]]. The two bars do not share a layout indoors, the Bull & Finch--renamed Cheers Beacon Hill in 2002--being completely different, so a replica of Cheers as it appeared on the show was built at Faneuil Hall. The replica bar closed in August, 2020. Most considered the replica a cheap tourist trap (the Bull & Finch/Cheers Beacon Hill less so, and it has some damned good baked beans).

The show produced two spin-offs: ''The Tortellis'', a mainly forgotten one-season show featuring Carla's ex-husband Nick and his family, and the very successful ''Series/{{Frasier}}'', featuring occasional guest appearances by the ''Cheers'' cast (most frequently Lilith and a twice-recast Frederick), which ran for another 11 years.

* ArtisticLicense: Chatter in a real bar of that size would make it very difficult to hear the dialogue. As well, in the 80s there would be a lot more cigarette smoke in the bar.

—->'''Sam''': Boy, I wish Cliff and Norm were here.\\

'''Sam'''Boy, I wish Cliff and Norm were here.\\

‘’’Sam’’’: Boy, I wish Cliff and Norm were here.\\
‘’’Rebecca’’’: Why?\\
‘’’Sam’’’: They'd think this was really cool.\\

* TheFaceless: Norm's wife Vera. Also, his horny niece Donna.