One thing I enjoy about Cheers, is even when you see a joke coming from a mile away, they still make it funny. In this episode, Diane is visited by an old college friend who is down in the dumps after being dumped by her long time beau. This friend (ironically named Rebecca) is looking for a quick night of passion with a "peasant stock" dumb guy with more brawn than brains...guess who fits that bill perfectly?
Sam is instructed by Diane to say "No" to anything that Rebecca proposes as she has just broken up with her guy, and she's vulnerable. Diane says "Remember, no matter what, just say no." So how does Rebecca proposition Sam? "Would you object to joining me in my hotel room for an afternoon of wild animal passion?" Sam does as he's told and says no. When he asks what her name is, she responds, "Does it matter?" and again, he follows Diane's instructions perfectly by again saying no. Again, you see it coming a mile off, but it still works beautifully.
That is easily the high water mark for the episode, although there are some good moments later on when Diane pretends to be dating Sam in an effort to spare Rebecca's feelings. We also get a terrific Norm moment when he brings in his boss and tries to pretend that he's not a barfly and asks everyone to NOT act like Cheers is his second home. His boss says he can't stand a man who can't control his urges for liquor, and Norm does his best to pretend he's not an alcoholic, but he does get one beer and out of force of habit, he slurps the entire thing down in one gulp and then tries to act nonchalant as his boss nurses that one beer much much longer than Norm is comfortable with.
This episode really hits on a lot of the great Cheers themes including some Sam and Diane moments, Norm the drunk, Carla the absentee mother, and we even start to get a little bit more Cliff being used in the show in this episode. Quite a good one.
Best Line from the Episode:
Coach: How's life treating you, Norm?
Norm: He caught me in bed with his wife
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