Title: The Norm Who Came to Dinner
Directed by: Tom Moore
Written by: Dan O Shannon and Tom Anderson
Air Date: October 10, 1991
Previous: Madame La Carla
Next: Ma's Little Maggie
Guest Starring: Paul Willson
"The Norm Who Came to Dinner" is the fourth episode of the 10th season of Cheers.
Every so often Norm makes a sporadic effort to work, and in this episode he's painting the Cranes' house. Frasier, getting into Norm's business, climbs on top of Norm's ladder—and falls on Norm, injuring Norm's back.
It so happens that Vera is away visiting family, so the Cranes let an immobilized Norm stay on their living room couch. Lilith starts to tire of fetching Norm beers and seeing to his every need, but she really gets irritated when, since Norm can't come to Cheers, Cheers comes to Norm. When Paul and Phil and Pete show up and Sam brings a keg, an infuriated Lilith snaps.
In the B-plot, Carla is skeptical of Sam and Rebecca's plan to conceive a child, and specifically skeptical of Rebecca's parenting skills. When Rebecca gets indignant, Carla bets her $5 that she can't take care of an egg for three days.
Tropes:
- The Bet: Carla makes one with Rebecca over carrying an egg, and one with the barflies over whether Becs would carry it at all. She also made one with Woody over whether she could trick Rebecca into carrying a watermelon between her legs and clucking like a chicken. Woody loses that one.
- Brutal Honesty: When Rebecca asks if Carla thinks she'd be a good mom, Carla's answer is a flat "nope". Carla says she's just being honest, and Rebecca says that Carla isn't being honest, she's just being mean. Carla cheerfully replies "Sometimes you get a two-fer."
- Egg Sitting: After three days a defiant Rebecca shows Lilith her intact egg. Carla then says that she bet the barflies that she could make Rebecca carry an egg around for three days. Carla won $150.
- Henpecked Husband: Frasier isn't allowed to watch daytime TV, by Lilith's edict. This means while Norm is painting, he bothers him incessantly because he's got nothing else to do.
- Inadvertent Entrance Cue: Lilith, getting furious over the Cheers crowd acting like her living room is the bar, says to Cliff, "Do you see a bartender? Do you see any beer?". Cue the doorbell ringing. It's Sam, with a keg.
- Incredibly Lame Fun: Lilith plans to join in the gang's partying at the end, and it's clear even if she wants to be fun, her idea of it will drive everyone out of the house quick enough.
- Lampshade Hanging: As Carla points out to Rebecca, proving she can take care of an egg is not the same as knowing how to take care of a human baby. All Rebecca's proven is she can take care of an egg.
- Lysistrata Gambit: How Lilith eventually gets Frasier to go and try to turf the bar gang out, threatening Frasier with never seeing her naked again for the rest of the 90s. Fras grumbles this'd be more effective if she didn't use it every time she wants something (hey, if it ain't broke...)
- Not Listening to Me, Are You?: Lilith, in bed, is complaining about the party downstairs. Frasier is asleep. Lilith, realizing this, says "Doctor, are you listening to me?". This cue causes Frasier to wake up and say "Yes, yes, please continue."Frasier: I hate it when you do that.
- Orphaned Setup: Cheers writers often struggled to come up with Norm's Once per Episode one-liner after he entered the bar. This is lampshaded in this episode when Sam, at Cheers, calls Norm at the Crane residence. Sam says "Hey, what's shaking man?", listens, laughs, and says "where's he come up with these things?".
- Shout-Out: The title is a shout-out to the play and film The Man Who Came to Dinner, which had a similar premise of an unwelcome guest injuring his back and irritating his unwilling host.
- The Stoic: When Lilith tries to relax, she sits there for a moment and twitches a little. Then, with no change in expression or tone says "oh, yes, this is much better."
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: Lilith gets increasingly irritated with Norm's presence in her house. Even more so when the rest of the gang set up residence as well, partying through the night, and even treating it as a second Cheers.
