Episode: Season 2, Episode 3
Title: Personal Business
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Tom Reeder
Air Date: October 20, 1983
Previous: Little Sister, Don't Cha
Next: Homicidal Ham
Title: Personal Business
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Tom Reeder
Air Date: October 20, 1983
Previous: Little Sister, Don't Cha
Next: Homicidal Ham
"Personal Business" is the third episode of the second season of Cheers.
Carla is irritated at Diane for goofing off at work—reading a book, flirting with Sam—thus leaving her to pick up the slack. When one of Diane's customers asks Carla to fetch her, Carla literally grabs Diane by the face and drags her to the table.
Diane makes matters worse when she leans on Carla to take a shift so that Diane can go to one of her intellectual gatherings. When Sam suggests that she should do it, Carla digs her heels in, accusing Sam of favoring Diane over her because he and Diane have a sexual relationship. This blows up into a confrontation that ends with Diane quitting the bar.
In the B-plot, Norm delivers some bad news: he and Vera have separated.
Tropes:
- All Men Are Perverts: Diane's reaction when the only thing Mr. Hedges from the publishing house wants to know is whether Sam has seen her naked. When Sam says she shouldn't judge all men on "a few bad apples", Diane says it's "an orchard".
- High-School Sweethearts: Norm reveals that he and Vera were high school sweethearts and that Vera was known for giving hickeys. This is the first hint that Vera isn't the harridan that Norm makes her out to be, and that Norm cares more about Vera than he lets on.
- Hypocritical Humor: After he finds out that Diane's been harassed at all her job applications, Sam says "Boy it just makes me crazy to think of those guys treating my squeeze like a sex object!"
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: One of the first times Cliff is shown to be spouting nonsense rather than actual Little Known Facts. Cliff says Diane's "il faut cultiver son propre jardin" is idiomatic and can't be translated into English. When a smirking Diane says "one must cultivate one's own garden?", Cliff says that Diane took some liberties with the "derogatory tense."
- One-Hour Work Week: One of the main reasons Carla hates Diane. When Carla discovers that Diane is yacking with some customers rather than serving another table, she grabs Diane and yanks her over there.
- Sleeping with the Boss: The central conflict. Carla believes that she is being unfairly treated now that Sam is having sex with Diane. Diane for her part decides that being in a relationship with Sam means she has to quit her job at Cheers.
