Title: House of Horrors with Formal Dining and Used Brick
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: David Angell
Air Date: October 30, 1986
Previous: Abnormal Psychology
Next: Tan 'n Wash
"House of Horrors with Formal Dining and Used Brick" is the fifth episode of the fifth season of Cheers.
Carla is frustrated because she wants to move out of her apartment but she can't find a house in her price range in Boston. Cliff, who has gotten a new mail route in a nice neighborhood, mentions that a house on his route is on sale for a reasonable price. Carla pounces and buys the house right away. The gang is a little suspicious that the owners didn't haggle, until they find out why: the house is built atop a 17th-century prison graveyard. Cliff suddenly finds himself in mortal terror of what Carla will do when she finds out.
In the brief B-plot, Diane is still cheerfully insistent that she and Sam are getting married despite the fact that he dumped her four episodes ago. She once again irritates Sam by mocking the low IQs of the babes he goes out with.
Tropes:
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: After one watches this episode, Carla's taunts of Cliff suddenly seem to take on a whole new undertone. She teaches Cliff how to dance, she falls asleep with her head on his leg, and she leaps into his arms when the roaring noise comes from outside.
- Comically Missing the Point: Good old Woody.Woody: Hey Mr. Peterson, I'm a Leo. What's my horoscope say?
Norm: Young bartender should refill mug of thirsty person at corner of bar.
Woody: Those things are so vague, they could apply to anyone. - Halloween Episode: Carla finds out her house is built on an old prison graveyard, and spends a spooky night there.
- Haunted House: Carla's, built over the cemetery for a prison where some really nasty criminals were sent, implying the house was haunted by their spirits. Definitely a bad thing for the really superstitious Carla. Subverted. It's actually really cheap because it's at the end of a runway.
- Head-Tiltingly Kinky:Carla: (on teaching Cliff to dance) C'mon, I don't bite! (Beat) Well, not you.
- Hold the Unsolicited Ingredient: Inverted. Norm specifically brings a pizza with anchovies so he'll have it all to himself when Carla and Cliff are grossed out. Both of them pick the anchovies off when Norm leaves, however.
- Hypocritical Humor: Norm says "If the going gets tough, you can count on Norm Peterson." Then when Vera calls he seizes on that excuse to go home and leave Carla and Cliff in the haunted house.
- Indian Burial Ground: A prison burial ground, but the same dynamic, with Carla petrified that her house will be haunted by the spirits of the dead.
- Mailman vs. Dog: Cliff is able to tell merely from the sound of a howl that the dog in question is a neutered, 6-7 year old Dalmatian.
- Meaningful Look: Carla affects insouciance when the gang tells her about the graveyard, but the look of anxiety on her face as she walks away shows how she really feels.
- Shout-Out:
- Norm says that it's a bad idea to bother Carla when she's happy: "It's like when, uh, Frankenstein was playing with the little girl, you know? It was a bad time to go up to him with a torch."
- Carla angrily admits that she hasn't moved into the house yet because of the graveyard: "Of course I'm bothered by it. I saw Poltergeist. Do you think I want to end up in the TV?"
- Sleep Cute: After passing a night in her new home, Carla wakes up on the floor, her head on Cliff's leg.
- Twist Ending:Carla: (Let Me Get This Straight... tone) Do you mean that this house — my house — is at the end... of a runway?!
Cliff: (nervous) Uh-huh.
Carla: And that was a wide-body jet landing ten feet from my backyard?!
Cliff: (nervous) Yeah.
Carla: And this house is not cheap because it's haunted, but because it is right next to the airport?!
Cliff: (nervous) Yeah.
Carla: (Beat, then ecstatic) I'm home! (leaps for joy) Yay!
