Title: The Belles of St. Clete's
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Ken Estin
Air Date: May 2, 1985
Previous: The Bartender's Tale
Next: Rescue Me
Guest Starring: Kelsey Grammer, Camilla Ashland, Kate Zentall, Catherine Paolone, Marsha Warfield, Ellen Bernstein
"The Belles of St. Clete's" is the 24th episode of the third season of Cheers.
An old lady comes into the bar one day and orders a gin and cranberry juice. Carla is shocked to recognize her as Drusilla Dimeglio, who a generation ago was Carla's principal at St. Clete's School for Girls. Carla, it seems, has harbored a grudge against her old teacher ever since, and has sworn revenge.
Even though Carla isn't 100% sure that the woman who starts coming into the bar every night is Dimeglio, she gathers up her best friends from St. Clete's so that together, they can have their revenge on Mrs. Dimeglio. However, Carla is disappointed when her friends aren't as interested in revenge against their teacher as she is.
In the B-plot, Cliff has had enough of the gang at the bar razzing him about his hopelessness with women, and tells them that in fact he has a girlfriend back in Florida. In the C-plot, Diane and Frasier continue to enjoy their Italian vacation, although cracks are starting to show in their relationship, and Diane still keeps calling Sam at the bar.
Tropes:
- Ash Face: Made without an explosion. Frasier can't get the wood fireplace to work. While he's messing around with the logs, Diane, For the Evulz, takes one of the logs and whacks the fireplace chimney. Frasier is very irritated when he comes out from the fireplace with Ash Face.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Frasier keeps clanging away at the fireplace while Diane talks on the phone with Sam, until out of nowhere Diane turns around and screams "STOP THAT DAMN IT!".
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: A non-villainous example. Carla gets five of her best friends from St. Clete's to come into the bar for a reunion. When she tells them her plan, that she's assembled them so they can all get revenge against Mrs. Dimeglio, the others don't even seem to know why Carla would want revenge. When Carla pushes the idea one says "That was twenty years ago! We were just girls!"
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome:
- Coach continues to be absent from the show with no explanation. (This was the second episode produced after Nicholas Colasanto died.)
- In a less depressing example, Lillian the awesome waitress, hired as Diane's replacement in previous episode "The Bartender's Tale", is also gone without a word.
- Continuity Nod:
- Carla previously mentioned that she was an alumna of St. Clete's School for Girls back in episode 1-3, "The Tortelli Tort".
- Season 3 is almost over and we are still hearing about Cliff's vacation to Florida that he took between Seasons 2 and 3.
- Dean Bitterman: In the back story, Drusillia Dimeglio at St. Clete's—although we have only Carla's word for this, we don't even learn just what made Principal Dimeglio so terrible, and Carla's friends aren't interested in any revenge scheme.
- Girlfriend in Canada: Cliff proudly informs the bar that he had an affair with a woman down in Florida and she is still writing him letters. Norm eventually gets ahold of one of the letters, and it turns out the woman is the proprietor of the hotel and is demanding Cliff return all the stuff he stole from his room.
- Stealing from the Hotel: The real reason for Cliff's Girlfriend in Canada letters. He didn't just steal the towels from his Florida hotel, he took the shower curtains, hair dryer, welcome mat, bed sheets....
- Stock Footage: Some very obvious stock footage is used to show Frasier skiing down an Italian slope.
