Cliff and Norm had some videos they were going to watch later. Frasier looked at the titles, three of them, I believe, and observed that each of the movies was a modernization of some classical work. I think he compared Forbidden Planet to The Tempest, but I’m not sure. So Cliff and Norm got all dejected, because he’d taken the fun out of it for them. Anyone remember this?
Note: This is not to be confused with the time Frasier said he was going to a performance of Man and Superman and Norm asked if that was the one with the Mole Men. Though that cracked me up too! I did often wonder why Frasier was hanging out at a sports bar anyway. Must have been the closest one to his office.
To answer the easy one: It’s downstairs from an extremely high-end restaurant, and it’s the bar Dianne stormed into in the first episode after having a big fight with Frasier, and he followed her.
Fraiser didn’t show up until much later in the series, after Coach dies. Fraiser was a therapist (her’s IIRC), not the guy she had a fight with in the pilot. That guy was one of her professors, and his character did end up making an appearance later.
Is the episode in the OP the same one where Fraiser reads A Tale Of Two Cities, and ends up having to throw in action movie cliches to keep all the boys (not just Cliff and Norm) interested?
As I recall, Frasier first came to Cheers with Diane to be emotional support for her when she confronted Sam about Sam making her crazy and sending her to the funny farm where she met Frasier.
Frasier kept hanging out there because he liked hanging out there. As hyper-intellectual and elitist as Frasier has always been portrayed, he’s also been carefully painted as a compassionate man who genuinely enjoys people and wants to be around them.
The genius of the premise of Cheers was that you don’t really have to explain why people would go to a neighborhood bar. Anybody might show up in one, and therefore you can tell just about any story you want.
I hope someone has the answer. I remember the scene you are referring to and I am sure the dialogue will be genius. It is just about my all time favourite TV show.
I remember going away on business some years ago when Cheers was being repeated on late night TV. Sitting in my hotel room late at night I came across an episode and settled down to watch it. As usual, even though I had seen it before, it was laugh out loud funny even for a lone guy in a hotel room.
Three or four days later I was back home in Sydney and they played the same episode. I started to watch it and ended up sitting through the whole thing. I still laughed at every big gag even though I knew they were coming and spent some time watching the cast. If you look at the cast members not delivering lines they look just like folks in a bar.
Whenever people get snobby about TV I defy them to name any comedy movie as funny as 4 episodes of Cheers and I don’t think it exists.
I remember the scene clearly, though I can’t place the context. In addition to equating Forbidden Planet to The Tempest, Frasier points out that Robbie the Robot is filling the role of the sprite, Ariel. In the same episode, he comments that another video pick, The Magnificent Seven, is a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai. I don’t believe this was the episode with the mangled version of “A Tale of Two Cities”, which was hysterical. That subplot started out with Frasier reading the opening “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” and feeling compelled to jazz it up (by including a bloodthirsty clown that lured children into the sewers and swallowed them whole)after the gang ridiculed Dickens for being indecisive. The altered novel ends with: ‘As Sidney Carton climbed into the Apache helicopter, he said “'tis a far better thing I do, than I have ever done before. 'tis a far better [momentary hesitation from Frasier] butt-kicking I give, than I have ever given before.”’
The episode ends with Frasier about to regale the gang with the bloodthirsty violence and depravity of… “The Pickwick Papers”!
The professorial type from the first episode was named Sumner Sloane, played by Michael McGuire. He would appear twice more, with his last appearance being the impetus for Diane’s departure.
The show really hit its intellectual stride with the addition of Lilith. Diane had been established as something of a pretentious pseudo-intellectual, so she was never really able to hold her own with Frasier. With Lilith, though, the high-falutin’ barbs could fly fast and furious and funny, as they would later between Frasier and Niles.
Sam was drinking again, after Diane broke up with him. Coach wanted Diane to speak with him. She refused at first, but finally relented. I wasn’t entirely paying attention, so I can’t remember if she brought Frasier as emotional support, or as part of trying to get Sam to speak to a professional (which she was doing, when Frasier piped up and introduced himself).
I remember the gang going to watch Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Frasier mentioning it being about Communism. Was that the same scene?
Frasier wasn’t Diane’s therapist. They clearly state that he was working at the facility she went to and that he wasn’t treating her. Thus not breaking professional ethics.
The first episode was shown last night. Sumner and Diane walked into Cheers because it was close to the apartment of Sumner’s ex-wife. Sumner wanted to get the heirloom wedding ring he had given to his ex-wife and he needed Diane to wait somewhere.
Are you absolutely sure about this? I remember that the episode where Sam, Woody, Norm and Cliff went skydiving (as if Norm would be allowed, at his weight!) was prompted by the fact that they’d just seen Magnificent Seven for the nth time, and Carla asked if they’d ever thought of doing something brave themselves for a change. But before that, she also asked if they ever watched any other movies, and Woody said, “Well, we did check out The Magnificent Ambersons once, but it wasn’t what we were expecting.”
Yeah, I don’t think it was either. That would have been overkill.
Not sure if the line was on one of the episodes already mentioned in this thread, but I remember a discussion of Road Runner cartoons in which Cliff (IIRC) said “So the Coyote is the Antichrist”. One of the biggest laughs I ever got from the brilliant series.
yeah, I remember it. Another movie was E.T. which Frasier compared to the death and resurrection of Jesus.
I believe you have misremembered this.
From my memory :
Robin Coulcott (sp?) gives Rebecca a desk as a gift. He leaves a cryptic message about “ring.” This is the famous “ring desk” that GB shaw used while writing Man and Superman" the ring being a mark left by Shaw’s coffee cup.
Sam made a remark along the lines of : “what’s so great about a guy that writes comic books? Is that the one where he met the molemen”
Rebecca destroys the desk thinking that Robin has concealed an engagement ring somewhere in the desk.
under the answers for Q. 4, it lists movies that are mentioned on the show and along with the episode name. From that site:
Invasion of the Body Snatchers' and Forbidden Planet’ are two movies Cliff rents from Vince’s Video Emporium. [Yacht of Fools]
The Magnificent Seven' -- Cliff, Norm and Woody watch it at Cliff's house. They also rented The Magnificent Ambersons’ thinking it was a sequel. [Jumping Jerks]
TV Tome will list the next time “Yacht of Fools” is on t.v., if you’d like to see it again. FYI, it’s from S6.
That conversation wasn’t seen in its entirety, though, which helps the scene be more memorable. It started with Woody commenting on some elaborate scheme conceived by one of the characters:
W: “Wow, and you didn’t even have to send away for one of those kits.”
Other character: “Kits?”
W: “Yeah, you know, one of those ACME kits the Coyote is always sending away for. i always wondered, though, if he can send away for a kit, why doesn’t the coyote send away for some food?”
Norm: “Well, it’s not just any food the coyote wants, it’s that particular roadrunner.”
A discussion of the coyote v. roadrunner dynamic started, but the main action shifted to a conversation in Sam’s office, interrupted occasionally when someone would open the door in time to hear the latest (and increasingly hostile) contribution, i.e.:
“Yeah, and I suppose you could eat a gunpowder sandwich!”
and
“I suppose you think the coyote is the anti-Christ!”