Recap / Cheers S 10 E 11

Episode: Season 10, Episode 11
Title: I'm OK, You're Defective
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Dan Staley and Rob Long
Air Date: December 5, 1991
Previous: A Fine French Whine
Next: Go Make
Guest Starring: Paul Willson, Julie Lloyd

"I'm OK, You're Defective" is the 11th episode of the tenth season of Cheers.

This episode has dueling A-plots. In one, Lilith is insisting that Frasier make out his will. Frasier doesn't feel comfortable discussing his own death, and Lilith's cold-blooded manner in asking "who gets the wok?" and wondering if she can pull the plug on him doesn't help.

In the other, Sam still hasn't been able to get Rebecca pregnant even after "going at it for six months like a couple of monkeys!". Rebecca blames Sam, and when a test proves that she appears to be fertile, she insists that Sam get his sperm count checked. Sam finds this deeply threatening.

There are also a couple of B-plots. The gang wonders just what they could do to gross out Norm enough to put him off of drinking a beer. Also, Paul grouses about the other barflies not including him in their activities.

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Tropes:

• Armor-Piercing Question: Surprisingly, Carla agrees with Rebecca about Sam getting his sperm count tested. Sam is brought up short when she points out that he's bedded almost every woman in New England, and then asks him "How many cards do you get for Father's Day?".
• Brick Joke: Frasier, wondering what he should leave to people in his will, asks Carla what he should leave her, and she says "A tip, for once." At the end of the episode when a morose Frasier is the last one in the bar, and drinking heavily, he says to Carla, "You know, writing this will has forced me to take a good, long look at my life—who I've been, what I've become. As I tally up the ledger of my life, I come to one unmistakable conclusion: I have tipped you adequately."
• Chekhov's Gun: An attentive viewer will notice that Frasier's will and the results of Sam's test are in identical brown envelopes and are set down next to each other.
• Flash Forward: The final scene skips forward several decades to find elderly Lilith and grown Frederick present for the reading of Frasier's will, all to fire off the Chekhov's Gun about the identical brown envelopes.
  Lawyer: Well, now I have the unhappy task of reading your late husband's will.
  Frederick: You okay, mother?
  Lilith: Yes. Thank you, Frederick.
  Lawyer: [reading] Sam Malone's sperm count is well within normal range.
  Lilith: That damn bar.
• Four Lines, All Waiting: In one episode we have plot threads about Sam's fertility, Frasier's will, Paul feeling left out, and the gang trying to gross out Norm.
• The Gadfly: Lilith messes with Frasier's head by telling him how she'd probably go about killing him, if she wanted to.
• Hypocritical Humor: Rebecca initially consoles Sam that he shouldn't be embarrassed about whether or not he might be suffering issues down there. Then when she gets her doctor's results crows that she's fine and it's all Sam's fault.
• I Have This Friend: Sam's extreme embarrassment about having to get his sperm tested causes him to approach the receptionist at the office in this way.
• Never Heard That One Before: The receptionist at the clinic hears Sam make a BS excuse about how he's lost, then does the I Have This Friend approach. Then when Sam's done, another guy comes in and says the exact same thing...
• Pet the Dog: At the end of the episode, Carla calls a cab for a drunken Frasier, and advises him to go clean himself up, a rare show of non-evil for her, especially given the tight-fisted bastard had just claimed his tips are more than adequate.
• Put Off Their Food: The gang competes to say something so disgusting that Norm's appetite for a beer is ruined. Woody wins by saying that Paul was "toweling off" after a shower when they called him.
• Series Continuity Error: One of many with Frasier. At the end of this episode, it seems that Lilith and Frasier were still married at his death, when on Frasier they were divorced. It also (as the Establishing Shot indicates) has them in Boston when Frasier would later move to Seattle and then Chicago, though the eventual revival series has Frasier moving back to Boston once again.
• Time-Shifted Actor: An actor named Rob Neukirch is credited as "Adult Frederick" in the Flash Forward.
• You're Cute When You're Angry: Or as Lilith puts it, Frasier's cute when he fears for his life.