Cheers: Season 1

Good grief - was it really over 25 years ago when I used to set the VCR every Friday night to tape this at 10PM while I was at the pub? Yep. Doesn't time fly...

Anyway, I usually hate sitcoms. In the past 25 years or so I can count on one hand (well maybe two) the number I have liked and this and "Taxi" were the first. I watched every episode of "Cheers" from the pilot for about 5 years until it started to really go downhill.

The best series' are the earliest ones like this featuring the late Nicholas Colosanto as "Coach" with his brilliant portrayal of total stupidity. Unfortunately NC died only a couple of years into "Cheers" and, whilst this did not quite ruin it, it was never the same again and took a lot of getting used to without him. Buy the early series' with him in them. They're way better than the rest.

Set in a US bar named "Cheers", virtually every episode is a hoot from start to finish. You won't believe that you can make a brilliant sitcom confined to… more »

Good grief - was it really over 25 years ago when I used to set the VCR every Friday night to tape this at 10PM while I was at the pub? Yep. Doesn't time fly...

Anyway, I usually hate sitcoms. In the past 25 years or so I can count on one hand (well maybe two) the number I have liked and this and "Taxi" were the first. I watched every episode of "Cheers" from the pilot for about 5 years until it started to really go downhill.

The best series' are the earliest ones like this featuring the late Nicholas Colosanto as "Coach" with his brilliant portrayal of total stupidity. Unfortunately NC died only a couple of years into "Cheers" and, whilst this did not quite ruin it, it was never the same again and took a lot of getting used to without him. Buy the early series' with him in them. They're way better than the rest.

Set in a US bar named "Cheers", virtually every episode is a hoot from start to finish. You won't believe that you can make a brilliant sitcom confined to a bar if you've never seen this. Watch it and you'll see that you can.

Besides Coach you have bar owner Sam, a womanizing, no-brain, reformed alcoholic, baseball has-been, Norm the big drinking big man there every night to escape his wife, Cliff the Postman, a teller of boring stories, Carla the hard-nosed, common, wisecracking barmaid/waitress, who likes nothing better than to get under the skin of Diane, the toffee-nosed "I'm better and brighter than you" new recruit.

It has a decent quality picture and stereo sound which is OK for a TV series from the time (early 1980s). If it were made in GB then you'd be stuck with good old mono. Stereo TV broadcasting had yet to start here when I bought my first Nicam TV in 1988. We Brits were and still are way behind the times with this sort of technology.

Now slip another pint of real ale in my pewter tankard please. Oops there's no such thing as real ale in "Cheers" of course - you can only get decent draughts in good old Blighty. Roll on the annual Newcastle Beer Festival at the University Students' Union in April where I can down as many different ones as I can handle.