Title: The Bartender's Tale
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Sam Simon
Air Date: April 18, 1985
Previous: Cheerio, Cheers
Next: The Bells of St. Clete's
Guest Starring: Kelsey Grammer, Lila Kaye, Camilla More, Rhonda Shear
"The Bartender's Tale" is the 23rd episode of the third season of Cheers.
Diane Chambers having left the bar and gone to Europe with Frasier, Sam is interviewing new waitresses. Carla, who has had enough of Sam's romance with Diane and how it impacts Carla's work, demands that Sam not hire hot babes that he wants to have sex with. This is a problem, as Sam keeps interviewing hot babes. (One is played by Rhonda Shear, who a few years after this episode would become the host of the USA Network's "Up All Night" late-night B-movie series.)
Finally Sam, Carla, and the bar are bowled over by Lillian (Lila Kaye), a British lady who is red-faced and spherical in shape and a good sixty years old, but who proves herself to be an outstanding waitress. Sam was still hoping to hire a sexy babe, but faced with Lillian's hypercompetence and Carla's ultimatum that she will quit if Sam hires a waitress for romance, Sam caves and hires Lillian.
Enter Lillian's ridiculously sexy daughter, Carolyn (Camilla More), who has come from England to visit her mum—and to do a lingerie model shoot. Sam the horn dog is now faced with the deliciously tempting Carolyn on one hand, and Carla's promise to quit on the other.
In the B-plot, Diane and Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) have made it to Italy, and Frasier struggles to understand how to use Italian lira.
The first episode made after Nicholas Colasanto (Coach) died. How can we tell? Because this is the first episode featuring the picture of Geronimo on the back wall. The picture was taken from Colasanto's dressing room after the cast and crew were told of his death, and hung in the main set, where it remained for the rest of the of the show's run.
Tropes:
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: One interpretation of Carolyn's behavior, that she genuinely does not understand the effect she has on men when she shows her lingerie portfolio (including the one nude photo!), or talks about how she likes to sunbathe naked but will settle for wearing tiny bikinis. She does seem to completely miss how turned on Sam is.
- The Joy of X: "The X's Tale" is a title format that dates back to The Canterbury Tales.
- Out with a Bang: It turns out that Lillian killed not one but two husbands by having sex, and sex with her is so intense that her other lovers routinely faint.
- Ridiculous Exchange Rates: Frasier tips the bellboy at his hotel 200,000 lira, thinking he gave $1, and is startled when Diane tells him he tipped the bellboy $100.
- The Tease: The other interpretation of Carolyn's behavior, that she's tormenting Sam with the prospect of sex that he isn't going to get. Sometimes it seems hard to believe she doesn't know what she's doing, like when she asks Sam where she can go to sunbathe in the nude.
- Tempting Fate: After giving up and hiring the awesome but not sexually attractive Lillian, Sam promises Carla, "No more sex stuff with anyone even remotely connected with this bar." Cue the smoking hot Carolyn's arrival moments later.
- Wham Line: Carolyn tells Sam that her father went Out with a Bang with Lillian, then completely catches him by surprise by saying "I suppose that's why I hate sex so" just as they're headed out the door for what Sam thought would be a romantic fling.
