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Friday, June 7, 2019

Show Notes: Episode 6-1: Cheers

*As you can tell from listening to the podcast, selecting episodes to talk about was particularly difficult this time out. The ones we went with are:

Season 2, episode 1, Power Play, which premiered Thursday, September 29, 1983, at 9:00 P.M.; and season 3, episode 14, The Heart Is a Lonely Snipe Hunter, which premiered Thursday, January 10, 1985, at 9:00.

*As we mention, this episode focuses on The Diane Chambers era (seasons 1-5), and somewhere down the road, we will look at the Rebecca Howe years (seasons 6-11). overall Cheers ran 11 seasons and 275 episodes.

*The series' low initial ratings in its first season are legendary. It finished 74th in 1982-1983, then climbed significantly the next two years (starting its climb even before The Cosby Show, apparently fueled by critical acclaim and viewers finding it in reruns) and was a reliable top 10 performer the rest of its run.

*Cheers earned 28 Emmys and 117 nominations; perhaps most impressive is its streak of being nominated for Outstanding Comedy for all 11 of its seasons (with 4 wins). Among the cast, the big winner was Rhea Perlman, who won Outstanding Supporting Actress (Comedy) 4 times.

*Gary Portnoy performs theme song Where Everybody Knows Your Name, which he co-wrote with Judy Hart Angelo.

*We Got It Made ran one season on NBC and one later season in first-run syndication. It starred Tom Villard and Matt McCoy (and for a while, Stepfanie Kramer of Hunter) but was built around Teri Copley.

*It's Not Easy only lasted 4 episodes on CBS!

*On the Sunny Side of the Street was written in 1930 by Jimmy McHugh, and you can see it sung in the cold open of The Heart Is a Lonely Snipe Hunter in this week's YT playlist.

*According to Wikipedia, the snipe hunt tradition dates back to the 1840s. I bet Abe Lincoln was involved in one somehow.

*Iconic TV director James Burrowes is still active at 78 and still highly sought after to direct multicamera sitcom pilots. He directed about 240 Cheers episodes, then all of Will & Grace. In recent years, he had stints on Man with a Plan and Superior Donuts.

*For further reading, we recommend this excellent oral history from GQ. Also, go digging in Ken Levine's outstanding blog; he has scores of great posts about the show.

*As always, check out our official YouTube page for a playlist specific to this episode as well as past installments of our podcast!

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