Title: It's a Wonderful Wife
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Sue Herring
Air Date: February 28, 1991
Previous: Crash of the Titans
Next: Cheers Has Chili
Guest Starring: Bebe Neuwirth, Keene Curtis, Anthony Cistaro, Bernadette Birkett
"It's a Wonderful Wife" is the twentieth episode of the ninth season of Cheers.
John Allen Hill comes down to Cheers one day looking for his hat check girl, who it turns out has been taking a Sam break downstairs when it's not her lunch hour. Naturally, she's fired, meaning Melville's will need a new hat check girl. Meanwhile, Norm's situation in the current economic depression is getting dire. Vera will need to get a job!
Rebecca, determined to be helpful, gets Vera a job. Which just happens to be upstairs at Melville's. Soon, Norm's too terrified by the mere presence of his wife to move.
In the B-plot, it's Frasier's birthday, and the gang is having a party, but they're making Frasier get all the stuff.
Another of the occasional guest appearances of Bernadette Birkett as The Voice-The Faceless, Vera Peterson.
Tropes:
- Angry Collar Grab: Norm in response to Hill remarking that being married to Vera must be an ordeal.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Norm may snark endlessly about Vera, and can't stand the thought of her being at Melville's all day every day, but when Hill fires her, Norm threatens the man for her.
- Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Sam sleeps with Melville's hat check girl, on the very afternoon Melville's actually has a customer with a hat. Whoops.
- Embarrassing First Name: Hilary Norman Peterson, everybody.
- The Faceless: We once again hear Vera's voice, and see her legs sitting on the Cheers stairwell, but we still don't see any more of her.
- Hypocritical Humor: The gang sees Henri and they all talk about how he's an obnoxious French Jerk. Then when he says hello, they all greet him with smiles and cheerful waves.
- Isophagus: The gang is eating from boxes of candy with little toys in them. Cliff winds up swallowing a whistle, which whistles when he coughs.
- Lazy Bum: Norm's situation is bad, but not so bad he'll actually consider getting off his own duff and do some work.
- Not So Above It All: Double subverted. Lilith opted for some daring photos as a gift for Frasier, but she's fully dressed in the one we actually see. Frasier doesn't quite know what to say, until Lilith shows him a series of increasingly racy photos.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Norm gets so worked up by Vera's presence he actually declares he's leaving Cheers. For good.
- Properly Paranoid: Norm is positive that Vera is spying on him somehow. When Hill later explains that Vera spent her entire workday down on all fours and looking through a hole in the floor, Norm insists he knew it. He's even able to figure out the exact location of the hole.
- Running Gag: Frasier's balloons. The first time he arrives with the balloons, Carla startles him into letting them go. The second time, Norm barreling through the front door makes him let them go. The third time, he makes it inside with the balloons and goes to the pool room—where a darts tournament is underway. All the balloons are popped.
- Saying Too Much: Crowing about the job security being a mailman gives him (ah, the early 90s), Cliff says he could throw all his mail down the drain and not get into trouble for it. Not that he has, of course, he's just saying.
