Title: Bar Wars V: The Final Judgment
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Ken Levine and David Isaacs
Air Date: October 31, 1991
Previous: Unplanned Parenthood
Next: Where Have All the Floorboards Gone?
Guest Starring: Robert Desiderio, Paul Willson
"Bar Wars V: The Final Judgment" is the seventh episode of the tenth season of Cheers.
It's Halloween, and for Sam, that means only one thing: be on high alert from pranks by his arch-nemesis, Gary of Gary's Olde Towne Tavern. Sure enough, Gary strikes, rigging the jukebox, the phone, and even the soda jet to play "Monster Mash". However, Gary soon appears, acting uncharacteristically humble and apologetic, and with a check to cover the damages to the jukebox. Apparently that same day he got an alarming report from his doctor, that he has out-of-control hypertension. Worrying about his own health, Gary calls a truce to the Bar Wars.
Sam, however, thinks it's a trick. Soon the gang mounts their own Halloween prank, staging a pretty scary gigantic hologram of Carla's head in the Olde Towne Tavern. They make their way over to Gary's to see how he took it, and they find Gary. Dead on the floor.
Tropes:
- Cross-Referenced Titles: Like most of the battles with Gary's, this episode is titled with some version of "Bar Wars".
- Distinction Without a Difference: Lilith doesn't hate Halloween. She just objects to the idea of her toddler son going around panhandling candy from strangers. It's after stating this she realizes this means, yeah, she hates Halloween.
- Faking the Dead: Yes, Gary dying was yet another prank, just as Sam guessed.
- Foreshadowing: Carla mentioning she'd like to win the war against Gary's, just once.
- Gilligan Cut: Sam, refusing to believe that Gary is really dead, says "I wonder how far he's really going to take this thing." Cut to Gary's funeral, complete with casket, in the Olde Towne Tavern.
- Halloween Episode: For the Halloween episode, a Halloween prank goes fatally wrong.
- Hidden Depths: For once, Cliff rattles off a fact that isn't inane BS, namely about the pre-Raphaelites... but, see a few entries down for why.
- Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Rebecca Howe was not allowed to go trick-or-treating, something she's still weepy and bitter about some 25-30 years later.
- Huge Holographic Head: That gigantic head of Carla is pretty darn terrifying, especially since she's screaming.
- Inadvertent Entrance Cue: Just as Lilith's saying she won't enjoy Halloween, Frasier bursts in, overjoyed at having found a Spider-Man costume for Frederick.
- Once a Season: The yearly battle with Gary's Olde Towne Tavern. (Although there was actually a second Bar Wars episode later in Season 10.)
- Poor Man's Porn: Cliff goes to the library to look at pictures of naked ladies in Renaissance art books.
- Record Needle Scratch: In-Universe when Sam yanks the record with the Halloween song out of the jukebox.
- Re-Release Soundtrack: When this episode ran on NBC, the song that played over the jukebox and phone was "Monster Mash". On home video, syndication, and streaming, it was replaced with "The Vampire Twist".
- A Round of Drinks for the House: Part of Gary's peace offering to the gang at Cheers.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Cheers and Gary's Olde Towne Tavern do battle again.
- With Friends Like These...: Everyone at Cheers teams up with Gary to screw with Sam's head, simply because they were that sick of losing every other time.
