CHEERS Season 6, episode 25: “Backseat Becky, Up Front”
Hosted by Ryan Daly with special guest Rob Kelly from the Fire and Water Network.
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Allow me to try and make the “A corporation owns the bar” idea make sense. My previous company, when I first started there, was owned by an electricity generation and distribution company. Yes, a Power Company owned a Mechanical & Plumbing contractor. Multiple, in fact. I think there were 7 or 8 contractors that were owned by this company. As a group we were a slight blip on their financial radar and when I asked about it I was told that sometime during the 90’s, in order to satisfy their stockholders, they diversified into construction. I can see that with this the Lillian Corporation, buying something small and very low risk (to them) in order to say, “Hey, look at how diverse our portfolio is!”
When Sam gets the bar back, the exec who sold it back to him mentioned something along the lines of “When we looked into Miss Howe, it turns out she works for us.” So Cheers was not exactly a big cog in their wheel.
Great discussion gentlemen. As a fan of both MASH and Cheers I enjoyed hearing the hosts of MASH Cast and Cheers Cast discussing the shows. The comparisons of certain aspects of the series was great.
I always find some of the similarities between the two series fascinating: both series ran for 11 seasons, both had major cast changes at the beginning of the fourth and sixth seasons. Both shows involved people who weren’t related forming a surrogate family, albeit in different circumstances. Yet in another way the shows evolved in opposite ways — MASH started as mostly a comedy and by the end was arguably more dramatic than comedic. Cheers was always a comedy but had more serious moments in the early years (Coach’s Daughter for example) and then became more purely comedic in the Rebecca years, albeit with some serious moments again toward the very end of the series.
As for this episode, it’s a strong finale to season six. It is a little hard to believe that Evan Drake is so oblivious of Rebecca’s feelings for him. But the show provides reasons why Evan might think she wasn’t interested. And Kirstie Alley is so great at playing neurotic that you could see how Evan might not catch on to her feelings.
In the Rebecca years I usually prefer the episodes in which the ensemble has more to do, and as you note most of the supporting cast has very little if any dialogue. When we see Frasier in the background he looks kind of drunk so I wonder if there was a subplot that ended up being cut for time. But overall I appreciated the episode and how it ended the sixth season by cementing the friendship between Sam and Rebecca, differentiating this era from the Diane years.
Congrats on finishing season six! I’m looking forward to season seven.
Backseat Becky’s back, deep cut!
There’s so much to like in this episode. How Cliff keeps droning in the background as the scene moves to someone else, but is still pretty audible. Rebecca being quite ridiculous, but so human too. Her eyes welling up in the car, touching. Sam’s “fire”, which is exactly how it feels, ladies, when it’s about to happen (note how he pulls his shirt out of his pants as he closes the door, great great detail). The sweet and unexpected friendship between them.
And how about Sam’s super-powers here? Yes, there’s the amazing disappearing bra, but how he lights the fireplace is completely impossible too.
As to your reference to Ted Danson being brave enough in later seasons to let the writers ruin Sam’s reputation, in interviews I’ve seen, Danson has said that Sam was totally opposite to who he actually was, to the point of feeling uncomfortable with the material. I’m sure he jumped at the chance to reinvent the character. Some people have one thing they can do and they keep doing it. Though he was in danger of being cast only as Mallone types (if we go by Three Men and a Baby, for example), his career has been thankfully much more varied and I account him a character actor despite his flirtation with leading man in Cheers.
The season ended strong. Order some more draft and I’ll be back for Season 7.