Title: Carla Loves Clavin
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Dan Staley and Rob Long
Air Date: March 21, 1991
Previous: Cheers Has Chili
Next: Pitch It Again, Sam
Guest Starring: Dante Di Loreto, Nathan Davis, Jessie Scott, Paul Willson
"Carla Loves Clavin" is the 22nd episode of the ninth season of Cheers.
It's the Miss Boston Barmaid Contest! Eight years after Diane won in "No Contest", the contest is being held at Cheers again. Carla scoffs, as well she might, since a competition that revolves around customer service and friendliness is going to be tough for her.
She scoffs, that is, until she finds out that the prize for first place is a Mazda Miata. Suddenly Carla is relentlessly pushing herself to be friendly and courteous in a most un-Carla way. So she's particularly horrified to find out that one of the three judges for the contest is...wait for it...Clifford C. Clavin.
Meanwhile Sam is bitterly disappointed, as apparently the contest now goes to the best waitress instead of the one with the biggest melons. And in the B-plot, Norm is finally bestirring himself to do a little work, namely (again) painting the office.
Tropes:
- Amusing Injuries: In order to release her tension at Cliff's behavior, Carla shoves Frasier to the floor. A few minutes later, when he's gotten back onto his stool, Cliff provokes Carla again, and this time Frasier throws himself to the floor.
- Bar Slide: Carla can do a trick where she slides three beer mugs down the bar and one stops in front of each of the three customers waiting.
- Cassandra Truth: Rebecca initially doesn't believe Norm when he says he's not painting the office because Carla's in it giving Cliff a massage. Then she goes into the office.
- Comedic Sociopathy: Carla does this all the time, so it's hardly a surprise in this episode when she shoves Cliff off of his stool for no reason at all. However it threatens to bite her in the butt when she discovers that Cliff is a judge in the contest.
- Continuity Nod: It's the Miss Boston Barmaid Contest, a full eight seasons after Diane won in "No Contest". Sam even has a graph of the bust sizes of the winners, a graph that, as he explains, took a big dip the year Diane won.
- Creator Cameo: Cheers co-creator and regular director James Burrows is one of the judges.
- Death Glare: When Carla realizes she's been had.
- Dumb Blonde: The winner of the Miss Boston Barmaid Contest is Miss Shawnee Wilson, a smoking hot, curvaceous blonde who spilled all the drinks, but as the emcee says, "Who cares? Look at her!"Sam: I'm so happy you won that contest. You know, it just goes to show that the world hasn't gone crazy. That, you know, deep, deep inside, people are basically good. That they can see through the rules and regulations, you know, and pick out the inner diamond.
Shawnee: (high-pitched "bimbo" voice) I won the shiny red car! - Jerkass: Cliff is pretty damned disgusting in this one, pretending to be a judge in the bar contest to extort Carla into doing physical favors for him.
- Oh, Crap!: Carla's horrified reaction when she finds out that Cliff is a judge in the contest and she'll have to be nice to him.
- Time-Passes Montage: A montage of all the stuff that the waitresses do to impress the judges. It ends with another waitress trying to trip Carla, but Carla instead doing a full forward somersault while keeping the drinks on the tray.
- Tranquil Fury: On learning she hasn't won, except for the Congeniality Award, Carla angrily remarks that "I'll make room" for it. Then she advances on Cliff with intent to kill.
- Wipe: Used relatively rarely on Cheers, but the Time-Passes Montage in this episode wipes from waitress to waitress.
- Worth It: Turns out that Cliff wasn't a judge; he put a fake paper in the pamphlet just to get Carla to cater to him. Norm suggests that it's time for Cliff to make his peace with God. Cliff says he doesn't care; it was Worth It.Cliff: I had Carla rub my bare feet. I'm gonna have that etched on my tombstone.
Norm: You can start working on it just about now.
