Other than Cheers, is there another network TV show besides MASH that shows as much overall drinking, in a mostly positive (and in the early seasons, downright glorified) depiction?
They seemed to drink a lot on Frasier, but it was not even close to the amount of screentime or number of scenes that MASH showed the heroic surgeons boozing it hard…
Oddly enough, there is not much drinking in Cheers. I mean, Sam is a recovering alcoholic.
There is a lot of drinking on Supernatural, but it isn’t glorified.
Other than Frasier and Niles sharing an occasional evening sherry or being pompous about their wine club, and Martin having a beer as he watches TV, I actually don’t recall much drinking on Frasier, either.
Well, I would say that there was constant drinking. They all always had a beer in hand and Norm in particular counterbalanced Sam’s abstinence. But of course, they never got drunk more than tired.
I’m going to have to ponder a drinker glorifying network show. Cougar Town comes to mind as I type.
How many beers did Norm drink per episode?
If he did more than just nurse one throughout an evening, he’d’a been dead by the second season.
I mean he spent a lot of time in that bar.
It’s been many years since I last saw an episode of Bewitched, but it seems like Sam and Darrin usually had a highball or 6 in the evenings…
If I was married to hottie Sam, I would be mixing her all the stiff drinks she could choke down!!!
One? He’s almost never(if ever) seriously drunk on the show.
I’ll be darned, it was still (hardy har-har-har) around.
Don’t forget, Frasier dreamed of becoming Corkmaster!
mmm
Ah…no. Norm imbibes gallons of beer. How else do you explain his girlish figure? Or his bar tab, for that matter?
Speaking or MASH and alcohol, there was one episode where the only source for a rare-type blood transfusion was a very drunk bomb disposal expert. After the surgery, BJ asks the patient, “How do you feel” and the patient replies, “I feel…” and trails off.
I always suspected that the writers wanted him to say, “I feel drunk” but were told by consultants that such a small amount of alcohol in a transfusion wouldn’t make a patient feel drunk.
DUI could cost me my job. Any felony charge gets reported back to the bosses. I never drove drunk anyway. Way back 20 or more years ago I’d drive after a couple beers, but the alcohol tests weren’t as tough. They’ve toughened the limit since then.
Worth mentioning that MASH was based on some true experiences of Surgeons in the Korean War. No doubt, the fiction was more extreme, but I suspect the real guys and gals consumed plenty of booze.
Thanks for your answer.
I just watched the pilot episode. Norm was definitely pounding 'em down; by the end of the evening he was nodding off at the bar and Coach had to drive him home. (“Thanks, Coach–hey, why don’t we stop off somewhere on the way and I’ll buy you a beer.”)
He’s a big guy and he’s a regular. He should easily be able to pound back six pints a night without really showing it.
That’s not hypocrisy; that’s a double standard. It would be hypocrisy if Hawkeye had given that order.
The original MAS*H book is a true to life look at the 1950’s standards.
People who weren’t around before the 1970’s and all that women’s lib stuff do not realize how deep the double standard was. Men could smoke, drink and have sex indiscriminately. Any woman who did so was labelled a tramp or far worse.
Men were doubly praised for keeping to extremely high standards; women were doubly damned if they didn’t.
That’s 1950s and 1970s without the apostrophes. Why do so many women get that wrong?
I imply from the advise these two give that their English majors.
mmm
Actually, they’re just grammar nazis. 