By Season Three Cheers was on its way from being a critical favourite to a Nielsen ratings powerhouse. This season opener was a big chance to make an impact, and man, does it deliver.
Unlike the Season Two opener, we begin a few months after the events of the last episode. Sam has fallen off the wagon, hard, and it's not a pretty sight. Drunk Sam is convinced he's the life of the party, but nobody else is celebrating.
Meanwhile, Diane has just returned from a nervous "vacation" at a mental hospital. Coach persuades Diane to come back to Cheers, if only to help Sam. Sam is defiant about his drunkenness being "happy" drinking, and then two words change everything: "Hello, Sam."
Everyone from the showrunners to Kelsey Grammer himself swear that Frasier Crane was intended to appear in only a few episodes. Instead, he became one the shows's most durable creations, a testament to both the writers and Grammer.
For anyone who knows Frasier from his own show, it's startling to see him in his first appearance. Clean cut, soft spoken, calm - you would forgive a fan who says "my God, it's Niles!" He's also oddly intimidating to Sam, all the more so because (as we find out in the last scene) he's dating Diane. At first viewers didn't take to Frasier; Grammer was even threatened by strangers who hated him for "coming between Sam and Diane." But he's a crucial member of the "Ménage A Boobs," as Frasier himself will describe the love triangle in a future episode.
Of course it's all very funny. There's a great bit of business when both Carla react to the news that Diane is coming back by grabbing Coach's clip-on tie and throwing it on the ground. There's great dialogue ("your brain could find shelter in the shade of a snow pea.") There's not a lot going on other than the big drama - they establish Norm and Vera's season long quest to have a baby and Cliff's Florida obsession - but the show is still at the height of its powers.
Unlike the Season Two opener, we begin a few months after the events of the last episode. Sam has fallen off the wagon, hard, and it's not a pretty sight. Drunk Sam is convinced he's the life of the party, but nobody else is celebrating.
Meanwhile, Diane has just returned from a nervous "vacation" at a mental hospital. Coach persuades Diane to come back to Cheers, if only to help Sam. Sam is defiant about his drunkenness being "happy" drinking, and then two words change everything: "Hello, Sam."
Everyone from the showrunners to Kelsey Grammer himself swear that Frasier Crane was intended to appear in only a few episodes. Instead, he became one the shows's most durable creations, a testament to both the writers and Grammer.
For anyone who knows Frasier from his own show, it's startling to see him in his first appearance. Clean cut, soft spoken, calm - you would forgive a fan who says "my God, it's Niles!" He's also oddly intimidating to Sam, all the more so because (as we find out in the last scene) he's dating Diane. At first viewers didn't take to Frasier; Grammer was even threatened by strangers who hated him for "coming between Sam and Diane." But he's a crucial member of the "Ménage A Boobs," as Frasier himself will describe the love triangle in a future episode.
Of course it's all very funny. There's a great bit of business when both Carla react to the news that Diane is coming back by grabbing Coach's clip-on tie and throwing it on the ground. There's great dialogue ("your brain could find shelter in the shade of a snow pea.") There's not a lot going on other than the big drama - they establish Norm and Vera's season long quest to have a baby and Cliff's Florida obsession - but the show is still at the height of its powers.