Choose as many as you like.
since I didn’t like the show as much after Diane left, I chose Diane. and Diane only. I thought all the characters had their moments although I really detested the neurotic Rebecca Howe character. I would love to drink a beer with Norm, and hate to drink a beer with Cliff.
If I had to vote for one and only one it would be a tough choice between Sam and Woody. Luckily I did not have to make that choice. I’d probably lean towards Sam because he was on the entire run of the show. Ted Danson was brilliant.
I’ve been watching reruns on Netflix. The interactions between Sam and Diane are some of the best scenes in all of television; great writing and superb acting. Shelly Long was simply awesome as Diane. She redefined what could be done in a thirty minute comedy regarding character depth and development. After Diane left the show became just another sitcom, a good one to be sure, but it lost the magic.
I’d be interested to see a poll for the most hated character. Surely Rebecca.
Am I really the only person who loves Paul?
All of the supporting cast. Sam, Diane, and Rebecca drove the main plotlines, but the rest of the bar denizens drove the humor.
Coach, Woody, and Norm, in order. Carla would be next, but three was enough.
Vera.
Frasier. (And Lilith.) I’m more of a fan of Frasier than Cheers, though, so that makes sense for me.
This is one of those shows where I pretty much have to choose everyone.
Ditto. That and Cliff&Norm are a classic comic duo.
Nick Tortelli is not on the list.
I am withholding my vote in protest.
Cliff Clavin has always reminded me of myself, since i’m of Bostonian stock and have an obsession with trivia.
He was the natural choice.
A wonderful show. I fear sometimes that I am the Cliff Clavin character in my local.
Lilith. She’s smokin hot and has a brain.
Coach, with a side of Woody.
Who holds the record for HBP? “Go ahead - try and miss me.”
And Coach was the star in probably my two favorite bits from the show:
Lisa Pantusso: Beautiful? Daddy, you have been saying that I’m beautiful ever since I was a very little girl. But look at me, not as my father, but like you were looking at me for the first time and please, try to see me as I really am.
Ernie ‘Coach’ Pantusso: [after looking deep into Lisa’s eyes] Oh my God, I, I didn’t realize how much you look like your mother.
Lisa Pantusso: I know. I look exactly like her, and mom was not b…
[Lisa pauses to reflect]
Lisa Pantusso: …comfortable about her beauty.
Ernie ‘Coach’ Pantusso: But that’s what made her more beautiful. Your mother grew more beautiful every day of her life.
Lisa Pantusso: She was really beautiful.
Ernie ‘Coach’ Pantusso: Yes, and so are you. You’re the most beautiful kid in the whole world.
Lisa Pantusso: Thanks, Daddy.
And the bit where Harry the Hat (who should have been on the list also) needed some one he could trust to run the scam correctly when saving the bar from some con man - and he picked Coach.
Whenever I think of “Cheers”, I think of these two.
And for some reason the two of them always reminded me of Statler and Waldorf from “The Muppet Show”. Kind of like a cross between the Peanut Gallery and a Greek Chorus.
That episode where she and Frasier are on that talk show…smoking.
I liked Rebecca when she first came on the show, with her “bitchy businesswoman” persona. Of course, they showed from the start that she had neurotic tendencies, but they really, really overdid it by the end. After a couple of seasons I really didn’t like her, and by the end, she was a blithering idiot who would start crying at the drop of a hat.
By the way, I didn’t vote for him, but I did like the running joke that Paul misses everything.
Why was he never added as full cast member on that show?
Dianne isn’t doing well in the poll, but I thought she was great.
In case you don’t know, Kurt Vonnegut was a fan:
[INDENT]By the end of the show’s run, author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., was moved to call Cheers the “one comic masterpiece” in TV history. The author of many comic fiction classics added, “I wish I’d written [ Cheers ] instead of everything I had written. Every time anybody opens his or her mouth on that show, it’s significant. It’s funny.”[/INDENT]
(And I don’t think Mr. V was being sarcastic there.)
Interestingly Lilith is doing very well in this poll. I think that’s a manifestation of the SDMB’s attraction to smart women. The link above describes her character as “humorless,” but that never bothered me since Bebe Neuwirth was obviously having fun playing the role.