Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
Going to call an audible here.
I just started hunting around Netflix for something 20ish minutes long I could watch in the background while chasing around twins and a puppy.
Man, I've always been a 'Cheers' guy in the Cheers v. Seinfeld debate but I'd really forgotten how truly excellent Cheers was. Netflix and Prime both have the whole series, start to finish, available.
Any of you guys who haven't watched it in awhile need to give it another run and you'll be reminded quickly of how that show stuck around for 11 years and was still killing it when it ended. It's just so damn good, all the way to how they utilize the multi-cam format and the distinction between a studio audience in the background and a laugh track. The characters are warm and likeable and the humor is just a hell of a lot more dry than I remembered at times. And because there's not a laugh track hammering it at you, those little almost throwaway jabs are just amazing.
"Hey, I know you - what's your name?"
"Sam Malone"
"That's it...."
"Yeah, I usually get it right..."
And it's just here and gone; no laugh track and the obnoxious Yankee fan almost steps on the line so it's just this sharp delivery and onto the next beat. The multi-cam across the entire bar gives it an expanse that you don't feel at all on modern sitcoms - the bar feels genuinely huge and some of the scenes that pan across it just make it seem more human when they're raising voices and it's trailing off across the set. You also occasionally see them stifling little laughs and grins here and there and it's just...real feeling. Almost like a play in the way they shot it rather than a traditional sitcom. The chemistry of the key players is spectacular. And the humor is timeless. That's what separates it from Seinfeld to me (that and the fact that all the characters in Seinfeld are just assholes) - Seinfeld's jokes just don't work as well.
It's not surprising that Mike Schur - who writes the best comedies on the air right now - is a Cheers acolyte. And comedy that has been working so well since The Office (also involved Schur) has the DNA from Cheers all over it.
Just an absolutely fantastic show. Seriously - go watch Cheers.
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Cheers was a great show. The story behind the theme song is fun too.