Title: The King of Beers
Directed by: John Ratzenberger
Written by: Dan O Shannon
Air Date: October 8, 1992
Previous: The Beer Is Always Greener
Next: The Magnificent Six
Guest Starring: Cameron Thor, Paul Willson
"The King of Beers" is the third episode of the eleventh season of Cheers.
Norm is approached by a researcher looking for people to participate in a focus group where they're going to taste different beers. Naturally, Norm eagerly accepts. He has such a discriminating tongue when tasting beers that he gets his dream job: quality assurance at a brewery.
Meanwhile, Sam ordered a blood-pressure machine for the bar, but accidentally received a nickel slot machine. Despite the fact that it's super-illegal in Massachusetts customers start playing. The slot machine is surprisingly generous and at one point or another everyone wins—except for the terminally unlucky Rebecca. The two plot threads come together when Norm is facing his final interview for a permanent position at the brewery, and Rebecca, who can't believe how Norm isn't nervous, tells a story about how she once blew a job interview.
Third of four episodes directed by John Ratzenberger.
Tropes:
- Busman's Holiday: When Norm takes his lunch break from the brewery, naturally, he goes to Cheers to drink even more beer.Sam: A little busman's holiday, Norm?
Norm: None of those fancy drinks for me, Sam. Give me a beer. - Damned by Faint Praise: A rare example of a character doing this to themselves. Rebecca crows about the idea of being some who isn't a loser, but just a "break-evener".
- Digging Yourself Deeper: Norm's nuclear meltdown when facing Mr. Hoffmeyer for what should have only been a formality of an interview. He melts down just as Rebecca did in her story, first by complimenting Mr. Hoffmeyer's pants, then saying his shirt is lovely, but a manly kind of lovely, "Go ahead, run around naked for all I care!", eventually bursting into song with "This Old Man" just like Rebecca.
- Heartbreak and Ice Cream: The Rebecca Howe method of coping with self-induced failure. She gives Norm a bucket after his meltdown. Norm doesn't want to share.
- The Jinx: Rebecca's despair over not being able to win the nickel slots leads her to declare that "I've been a jinx my entire life!" Sure enough, she jinxes Norm, making him nervous with her tale of woe and causing him to blow his interview at the brewery.
- Right Behind Me: Cliff says that having a wedding ring is a babe magnet. Frasier dismisses that as nonsense. To prove that it's nonsense, he walks over to two hot ladies at the other end of the bar and chats them up, flashing his wedding ring and saying "I'm married, but I'm not dead!" Lilith is coming into the bar as the words leave his lips, which Frasier realizes, saying "Lilith is here, isn't she?"
- A Round of Drinks for the House: Norm orders drinks for everybody (on his tab, of course) after getting a job at the brewery.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Every man in the bar (except Sam) flees when Lilith enters, figuring what's about to happen when she catches sight of Frasier pretending to flirt with two women.
- Time-Passes Montage: Norm's first week at the brewery is shown by a montage where he's sampling the hops, driving a forklift with a bunch of kegs, and slapping an "OK Norm" sticker on a vat of beer that meets his standards.
