Cheers
Publicity artwork for Cheers featuring caricatures of Shelley Long, Ted Danson, Rhea Perlman and Nicholas Colasanto. TV Guide, September 25 - October 1, 1982, New York Metropolitan edition. Use of this image constitutes fair dealing for review purposes.
The show was set in a Boston bar, where a colorful group of locals would come to sit, drink, state daft facts, complain, and play elaborate practical jokes on the devotees and owner of a rival bar in town. The show also spawned the character Frasier, who went on to a TV show of his own after Cheers ended. The show's tagline and theme song refrain is "where everybody knows your name..." (lyrics of Cheers theme).
The exterior location shots of the bar were actually the Bull and Finch bar, north of Boston Common, which has become a tourist attraction because of its association with the series.
The show's main theme in its early seasons was the stormy romance between upper-class, over-educated server Diane Chambers (Shelley Long) and ex-sports hero and bar owner Sam Malone (Ted Danson). Long's departure from the show shifted the emphasis to Sam's relationship with neurotic corporate executive Rebecca Howe (Kirstie Alley).
The show was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles and Les Charles. It was nearly cancelled during the first season (in which it ranked dead last), but eventually became one of the most popular shows on TV, earning a top-ten rating during seven of its eleven seasons. The show earned 26 Emmy Awards, out of a total of 111 nominations.
Social class was a strong subtext of the show. Upper-class characters like Diane, Frasier Crane, Lilith Sternin and Rebecca rubbed shoulders with working-class characters like Sam, Norm Peterson, Clifford Clavin and Carla Tortelli.
The producers were also concerned that the show might be construed as promoting drinking, so they made the main character, Sam Malone, a recovering alcoholic.
Most of the early episodes took place entirely within the confines of the bar, probably for budgetary reasons. Only when the series became a hit were the characters able to venture further afield, first to other sets and eventually to the occasional exterior location.
Today there are several real-life bars called Cheers, but, as Paramount owns the name, unlicensed bars with this name could be sued for trademark infringement.