Title: Bar Bet
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Jim Parker
Air Date: February 14, 1985
Previous: The Mail Goes to Jail
Next: Behind Every Great Man
Guest Starring: Michael Richards, Laurie Walters
"Bar Bet" is the 18th episode of the third season of Cheers.
One Eddie Gordon (Michael Richards, several years before he hit it big with Seinfeld) enters the bar and greets Sam as an old friend. Sam has no idea who Eddie is and eventually admits it, which is when Eddie says he and Sam met during a night of drinking—this happening during the time that Sam was Off the Wagon following his breakup with Diane. Soon it becomes clear that Eddie has ulterior motives. It seems that during some drunken binge Sam made a wager with Eddie that if Sam wasn't married to actress and famous sexpot Jacqueline Bisset (Bullitt, Day for Night) within a year, Eddie would win the bar. And Eddie intends to collect.
Sam huddles for advice from his friends, and one of the bar patrons, a law student, says that there's no way Eddie could collect on his bet: Sam was drunk when he made it and it's a bet, not a contract. But Sam realizes that even so, he will be required to stand up in court and admit to having fallen off the wagon, and he dreads the thought of doing that. So the bar comes up with another idea: find anyone named Jacqueline Bisset, and marry that person.
The first episode that Nicholas Colasanto (Coach) missed due to his rapidly declining health. In fact, this episode aired just two days after Colasanto died of heart failure.
Tropes:
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Sam is unpleasantly reminded that he bet the whole bar in a drunken wager that he would marry Jacqueline Bisset.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Sam introduces Eddie to Jacqueline Bisset (Laurie Walters), Eddie says "Wow, Jacqueline Bisset. What happened to her?"
- Continuity Nod: A reference to the alcoholic spree Sam went on between Seasons 2 and 3, which was a major plot point at the beginning of Season 3.
- Named Like My Name: His chances of marrying the Jacqueline Bisset being slim, Sam decides to marry any Jacqueline Bisset.
- Nice Girl: The "Jacqueline Bisset" Cliff finds for Sam is a sweet, innocent young farm girl. She's reluctant to participate in this at first but warms to Sam as she gets to know him.
- Perfumigation: One of many many jokes Diane makes about Sam's cologne.Diane: I believe I do detect a hint of fresh air coming through your cologne.
- A Round of Drinks for the House: Sam offers "drinks on the house!" after he sends Eddie packing.
- Simple Solution Won't Work: Downplayed. Strictly speaking, the simple solution of telling Eddie to take a hike and letting him try and take them to court on such an obviously absurd bet probably would work, but Sam refuses. As he says, the press made him a laughingstock after his drinking problem ruined his baseball career and he doesn't want to risk going through that again by standing up in court and admitting he made a stupid bet while drunk.
- Written-In Absence: Due to the absence of Nicholas Colasanto, Coach is said to be off in Vermont taking a driver's test. He heard it was easier there.
