Cheers - Spin-offs, Crossovers, and Cultural References

Spin-offs, Crossovers, and Cultural References

Some of the actors and actresses from Cheers brought their characters into other television shows, either in a guest appearance or in a new spin-off series. The most successful Cheers spin-off was the show Frasier, which directly followed Frasier Crane after he moved back to Seattle, Washington. Sam, Diane, and Woody all had individual crossover appearances on Frasier where they came to visit Frasier, and his ex-wife Lilith was a constant supporting character throughout the show. Cliff, Norm, Carla, and two of Cheers' regular background barflies Paul and Phil, had a crossover together in the Frasier episode "Cheerful Goodbyes". In that episode, Frasier, on a trip to Boston, meets the Cheers gang (though not at Cheers itself) and Cliff thinks Frasier has flown out specifically for his (Cliff's) retirement party, which Frasier ends up attending.

Although Frasier was the most successful spin-off, The Tortellis was the first series to spin-off from Cheers, premiering in 1987. The show featured Carla's ex-husband Nick Tortelli and his wife Loretta, but was canceled after 13 episodes and drew protests for its stereotypical depictions of Italian-Americans.

In addition to direct spin-offs, several Cheers characters had guest appearance crossovers with other shows.

• In The Simpsons episode "Fear of Flying", Homer stumbles into a Cheers-like bar after being kicked out of Moe's. Most of the Cheers central cast appears in the episode, including Frasier, though Frasier does not speak, as Kelsey Grammer already had a recurring role on The Simpsons as Sideshow Bob. The tag line for Moe's Tavern, "Where nobody knows your name", is also a reference to the theme song of Cheers.
  • Sideshow Bob's voice sounding like Kelsey Grammer would later be used as a plot point of the episode "The Bob Next Door", where Marge tries to reassure Bart that the new neighbor isn't Sideshow Bob. She and Homer list "Frasier on Cheers", "Frasier on Frasier" and "Lt. Commander Dodge in Down Periscope" as examples of people who sound like Sideshow Bob, all of which were played by Kelsey Grammer.
• Characters also had crossovers with Wings – which was created by the Cheers producer–writers – and Boston-set St. Elsewhere in a somewhat rare comedy–drama crossover.
• The Scrubs episode "My Life in Four Cameras" makes numerous jokes about Cheers and multiple-camera setup laugh track sitcoms. In addition, the main patient treated was fictional Cheers writer "Charles James", a mixture of Cheers creators James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles. The episode makes repeated comments about these "traditional" sitcoms and ends with the opening notes of the Cheers theme playing while J.D. says "Unfortunately, around here things don't always end as neat and tidy as they do in sitcoms."