CHEERS Season 9, episode 9: “Bad Neighbor Sam”
Hosted by Ryan Daly with special guest Rob Kelly from the Fire and Water Network.
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Great discussion, gentlemen! I didn’t fully appreciate Keene Curtis’s portrayal of John Allen Hill when I was younger, but now I definitely do. That’s a good point that the show is well served by having a recurring character who is an antagonist for Sam, similar to the role that Robin played last season. And I agree Ted Danson deserves credit for his hilarious performance here in showing Sam totally losing it.
I’m no expert in Massachusetts property law (though I am a lawyer), but I can’t help thinking Sam has a strong argument that Cheers has a prescriptive easement, which is a legal right to use someone else’s property through long-term, continuous, open, and exclusive use. It seems like Cheers has exclusively used the bathrooms and pool room for decades. I don’t think we’ve ever seen Melville’s use that part of the property. I guess that lawyer guy from the Diane years who kept failing the bar exam until season five doesn’t hang out at Cheers anymore, although I guess he probably wouldn’t have been much help!
I liked your guys’ discussion of whether there is a way to get from Melville’s to the pool room, like an old elevator or stairway. I actually borrowed that idea today. I was on a Cheers page on Facebook, and someone asked how that lady in the wheelchair got into the bar in the pilot episode. I replied that she used the elevator from Melville’s to the pool room, and I added that this was how Harry the Hat got into the pool room in a season-one episode. So far no one in that group has attacked me for saying that lol!
I’m not a lawyer, Mike, but my parents were in a similar legal situation when I was younger. A strip of land between my parents’ house and our neighbor was long considered an alley. A contracter built a house behind my parents, and planned on putting a driveway through that area, rather than come off the street the new house faced. My parents protested, and through legal proceedings found that that strip of land actually had never been zoned to any property, but since my parents had maintained it for over 15 years at that point, it was essentially theirs. So they blocked the guy from putting the driveway in, and my Dad put up a fence at the end of his property line. Case closed!
If Sam had won like that, Ryan probably would have liked this episode and John Allen Hill more then, but we’d be robbed of a very funny episode!
That’s great, Mike! Nice work.
I know I’ve seen this episode in reruns, but for some reason, I feel like I missed it when it originally aired. Maybe it was a time when I had other commitments on Thursday night, and hadn’t made a habit of setting the VCR yet. Just interesting trying to put the pieces together in hindsight.
Curtis completely nails the part of Hill, and he’s a great addition to the show. Since Cheers had moved away from being a “will they/won’t they” love story to ensemble comedy, it benefits from having antagonists. And here’s a new owner of Melville’s, part of the show but not necessarily important, now elevated to causing conflicts for our hero Sam. And unlike Gary’s Olde Towne Tavern, there’s no escape. It’s right upstairs! I’m really looking forward to this rewatch, because I enjoy all of Hill’s appearances.
Now this got me thinking. Why wasn’t the bathrooms and pool room an issue with the previous owners of Melville’s? Did they not know or care about that enough to bring it up to Sam when he bought Cheers? I do have a no-prize theory. Since Sam was still a relatively popular celebrity back then, the owners might have appreciated the draw and carryover business he could bring to Melville’s. Now it’s a few years later, and Sam’s fame has decidedly dimmed, so it’s less of a factor now, and definitely irrelevant to a businessman like Hill. The only problem is when “the corporation” bought Cheers from Sam, unless we assume they gave Melville’s a onetime settlement payment for continued use of the back rooms. But I know, at its heart, the more you look into this situation, the less fun it gets. This twist results in hilarious stories, and that’s worth it.
So glad to hear R&R together!