Cheers/Characters

Regular Cast
Sam Malone

Former relief-pitcher for the Boston Red Sox and also a recovering alcoholic. Sam bought the bar during his alcoholism and kept running it since. He's in love with Diane and can't admit it. Played by Ted Danson.


 * Adult Child: Basically his other major trait besides his skill with the ladies. He's in his 30s, but still has prank wars with other bars.
 * Discussed openly by Diane as early as the second episode of the series.
 * Always Someone Better: His brother.
 * Later, John Allen Hill.
 * All Men Are Perverts
 * The Casanova
 * Sam always rambles on about the Glory Days to get laid, get free stuff, or get laid some more.
 * Ladykiller in Love: His main conflict with Diane.
 * Lovable Sex Maniac: What'd else you expect?
 * Men Are Uncultured: So naturally he falls for a brainy, book-smart, naive girl.
 * Really Gets Around: All the bars patrons love him for it. Even Carla.
 * Slap Slap Kiss: He even spanked Diane with a ping pong paddle once.
 * Would Hit a Girl: And Diane learned it first hand.

Diane Chambers

Graduate student whose fiancé dumped her at Cheers the night where they were supposed to be married. Worked as a waitress in Cheers for five seasons. Played by Shelley Long.


 * Adorkable
 * Back for the Finale
 * Butt Monkey: Her ego gets deflated regularly courtesy of cutting remarks from bar patrons.
 * Women Are Wiser: Zig-zagged. Both Diane and Sam can be jerks, and either one can bring the other down at any time.
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Ditzy Genius: Diane is well-educated, and can quote any philosopher you want, but even after extensive training isn't much good at working in a bar.
 * Love Interest: Sam's.
 * Insufferable Genius: The main reason why everyone treats her with little regard.
 * Moe Stare: Rare live-action example. And she's a grown woman at that.
 * Not So Above It All: As much as she prides herself on being sophisticated, she can be incredibly immature.
 * Put on a Bus: At the end of season 5.
 * Small Name, Big Ego: She's typically sweet-natured, but can't tell when people want nothing to do with her.
 * Straw Feminist
 * Wide-Eyed Idealist: Poor girl never knows what's hit her after the plot's done with her.
 * What Might Have Been: Wendie Malick (Just Shoot Me, Hot In Cleveland) auditioned for the role of Diane

Carla Tortelli

Bitter single-mother working as a rather unfriendly waitress at Cheers. A fan of Sam from his baseball days, but holds a strong resentment towards Diane. Played by Rhea Pearlman.


 * The Bully: To be fair, Cliff and Diane are easy targets.
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Dysfunctional Family: She's got 7 kids, and it's hell. Her mom is also pretty manipulative. Unfortunately for Sam, when he pointed this out to the Tortellis, they took offense, attacked him and locked him in a closet.
 * Hair-Trigger Temper
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She treats Diane and Cliff like crap, but all in all she's just a mother trying to make a living.
 * Kavorka Woman: She's not the prettiest chick in the world, and her personality stinks, yet she still gets around...
 * The Ladette: Carla's got no problem with listening in on the guys' sex stories, and neither do they.
 * The Napoleon: At around 5'5", most everyone in the bar towers over Carla. Most everyone tries their hardest not to cross her as well.
 * Overly Long Name: Carla Maria Vittoria Angelina Teresa Apollonia Lozupone Tortelli Le Bec.
 * Tsundere: Don't worry, she only calls you an idiot out of love. Except for Diane, anyway.
 * Unfortunate Name: Not for her, but her eldest son. The rule was, give him your father's first name and mother's maiden name. Carla's father was named Benito. Her mother's maiden name was Mussolini.

Ernie "Coach" Pantusso

Sam's assistant bartender in season 1 -3; Also Sam's former coach in their Red Sox days. Played by Nicolas Colasanto


 * The Character Died with Him
 * Cloudcuckoolander
 * Cool Old Guy
 * The Ditz
 * Eccentric Mentor: The whole bar listens his every word...even if they don't make sense.
 * Happily Adopted: Hilariously inverted. According to Sam, Coach once received an invite to a family reunion. The family was black and Coach got the invite by mistake, but he showed up anyway because he didn't want to be rude. The kicker? By the time viewers hear this story, Coach has already attended several reunions and will be hosting that year's one.
 * Literal-Minded: He and Woody were pen pals. According to Woody, it was Coach's ideas to exchange pens.
 * Retired Badass: Let's put it like this. He's one of the few people who can command Sam's respect.
 * Team Dad

Norm Peterson

Unlucky accountant and Cheers most frequent customer. Regularly avoids going home to his wife. Played by George Wendt.

"Woody: How's life treating you, Mr. Peterson? Norm: Like I slept with its wife."
 * The Alcoholic: He once gave up membership at a men's club because beer was not allowed at the meetings.
 * Alternate Character Interpretation: Remove the laugh track, and you have a pretty sad story of a hardcore alcoholic, Norm Peterson, who neglects his work and family obligations to spend 12-14 hours per day in a bar.
 * Aww Look They Really Do Love Each Other: He really does love Vera. He'd just rather you not know about it.
 * Big Eater
 * Brilliant but Lazy: Norm has lots of business sense and many skills, and has even started a profitable business or two, but mostly idles his days away at Cheers.
 * The Chew Toy:


 * Cool Loser: Fat, lazy, unmotivated, never pays his tab. Everybody at the bar loves the guy.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Mainly to Cliff and Rebecca.
 * Embarrassing First Name: Hilary. Norman is his middle name.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: He seems to spend more time with fellow bar fly Cliff than with his wife Vera.
 * Hidden Depths: Norm believes he is a failure at life, and resigns himself to Cheers because he's too scared to face the real world. Also, he tends to break down when faced with the prospect of losing Vera.
 * Norm is a handy painter and actually quite brilliant at interior design.
 * Phrase Catcher: Every time he enters the bar, all the patrons yell "NORM!"

Cliff Clavin

Chatterbox postal worker who's Norm's best friend. Played by John Ratzenberger.

"Frasier: I slept with a woman who slept with Cliff?!"
 * Butt Monkey: Cliff's everybody's personal joke, but especially Carla's. He once proudly admits that he was forced to infiltrate another bar while dressed in only a Speedo.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Many of Cliff's Little-Known Facts plant him in this territory.
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Even without martial arts training, he smashed boards in half with barehanded strikes. Of course he needed to be taken to the ER afterwards. And he nearly cleaned up on Jeopardy with his knowledge of useless trivia.
 * Delusions of Eloquence: It's his native tongue!
 * Dumbass Has a Point: At times.
 * Failure Is the Only Option: Most apparent when he appeared on Jeopardy.
 * Know-Nothing Know-It-All: He's the former Trope Namer. Cliff's main character trait is bringing up half-baked trivia to impress his friends at the bar. Ratzenberger originally auditioned for the role of Norm, but came up with Cliff based on the fact that Cheers had no "bar know it all" in the cast.
 * A Man Is Not a Virgin: Cliff has zero luck with women, which is one of the reasons why even the fat, lazy Norm gets more respect than him. Just the thought of laying him sent Carla into shock. On Frasier, Sam calls off the wedding to his equally sexaholic fiancee when he finds out she slept with Cliff. Pretty much everyone else in the bar is fine--but Cliff?!


 * Momma's Boy / My Beloved Smother: He's in his 30s and still lives with his mother, Frances. Cliff isn't very knowledgeable or socially apt (unlike her, whom he tries to take after) so Mrs. Clavin treats him like a kid.
 * Straw Loser: It's implied when Cliff finally stops coming to the bar, older customers start showing back up.

Frasier Crane

Psychiatrist and second fiancé of Diane. After Diane abandoned him at the altar, Frasier became another regular at the bar, and later married Lilith. Played by Kelsey Grammer.


 * All Psychology Is Freudian: As Frasier would later reveal, Freud is his childhood hero.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: One of many, but the only one who got his own Spin-Off.
 * Green-Eyed Monster: For a while, he resented Sam because Diane left Frasier for him. He got over it though, after hooking up with Lilith.
 * Henpecked Husband: Lilith will get her way. No questions asked.
 * Insufferable Genius: Less so than Diane, but it's there.
 * Not So Above It All: He's got class, but he takes part in his fair share of bar pranks and tomfoolery and no one respects him less for it.
 * Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: It's his main language.
 * Sophisticated As Hell: His way of clarifying himself for the lesser-erudite bar patrons.
 * Tall, Dark and Snarky
 * You Wouldn't Shoot Me: A broken Frasier threatens to kill Sam for ruining his life, but he just can't bring himself to do it.

Woodrow "Woody" Boyd

Sam's assistant-bartender after Coach passed away. Born and raised in rural Indiana. Played by Woody Harrelson.

"Carla: These guys always ask stupid questions, like, "If the Brady Bunch crashes in the Andes, who's gonna eat who first?" Woody: Well, they'd probably eat the maid because she ain't kin."
 * Adult Child: Even moreso than Sam.
 * Cloudcuckoolander:


 * Country Mouse
 * The Danza: Though the character was named before Harrelson took the role.
 * Genius Ditz / Ditzy Genius: Woody speaks simply and is completely blind to double talk, but his upbringing has given him a useful, if unorthodox insight in the big city.
 * Hypercompetent Sidekick: Even if he's slow on the uptake, he manages to keep things in line at Cheers pretty well, especially when Rebecca takes over.
 * Innocently Insensitive: Sometimes, mainly towards Carla.
 * Kindhearted Simpleton
 * Mood Whiplash: A lot of his stories about his family can be like this. Seems sweet, takes a swerve and then goes back to a sweet outlook.
 * Sarcasm Blind: Notorious for his innocent responses to sarcasm or rhetorical questions.
 * Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Of Coach. But he grows into his own character over time.
 * Wide-Eyed Idealist: Such is his outlook that a tearful, honest plead to the voters won him a seat on the City Council.

Lilith Sternin

Frasier's wife, and later ex-wife. Also a psychiatrist. Very stoic, but there's feelings in there somewhere. Played by Bebe Neuwirth.

""That damn bar.""
 * The Comically Serious
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Defrosting Ice Queen: By Frasier, she's managed to loosen up a bit. Maybe too much, because she once sleeps with Frasier's brother behind his back.
 * Emotionless Girl: Lilith is ridiculously stone-faced, even when she's angry. After a separation from Frasier, she is finally driven to tears...and even her crying sounds robotic.
 * Hot Librarian: She is rather attractive, but almost never sheds her outer layer of sophistication.
 * Men Are Uncultured: Parodied. Frasier is very cultured but still has his moments. Lilith is the kind of girl who just doesn't enjoy things that the average joe does.
 * Next Sunday AD: One episode ended with this kind of future, where Frederick is grown-up, and he and Lilith are listening to a reading of Frasier's will.


 * No Sense of Humor: Early on, any attempts at joking with Lilith would be met by a blank stare.
 * The Scottish Trope: Lilith evolved into this over time; just mentioning her name sends shivers up people's spines. The Spin-Off, Frasier, shows Frasier's superstitious maid Daphne getting psychic backlash whenever Lilith is nearby.
 * Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Bedroom talk between her and Frasier must've been interesting.
 * Women Are Wiser: She's the wet-blanket superego to Frasier's more laid back ego. Who's in the right tends to vary.

Rebecca Howe

Cheers's manager when Sam sold the bar to a corporation. Aspires to work up the corporate ladder. Played by Kirstie Alley.


 * Butt Monkey: Once Diane left, Carla needed a new target.
 * Women Are Wiser: subverted. She puts on this act to annoy Sam, but is pretty immature.
 * Defrosting Ice Queen: This was the main idea behind the character when she was first introduced, but then the writers found her funnier as a neurotic mess.
 * Feigning Intelligence: She's got no idea how to run a bar and refuses to admit it.
 * Flanderization: Into a Nervous Wreck. By the last season she was constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
 * Gold Digger: Her goal in life is to find a rich guy who will marry her.
 * Hypocritical Humor: Main source of it on the show, mostly indicative of...
 * Not So Above It All
 * The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A Running Gag in the last season was that she rarely did much actual work.
 * Pointy-Haired Boss: Rare female example.
 * Small Name, Big Ego
 * Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Alley took the vacant spot of the female lead when Shelley Long left. Rebecca and Diane were different characters though.
 * The Woobie

Recurring Characters
Paul/Glen/Gregg/Tom Krapence

Harry The Hat

Gary

Andy Schroeder

Kelly Gaines Woody's girlfriend and eventual wife.


 * Dating What Daddy Hates: Well, not on purpose, but the old man definitely didn't care for Woody.
 * Spoiled Sweet
 * Wide-Eyed Idealist

Evan Drake

Robin Colcord

Rebecca's major Love Interest.


 * Manipulative Bastard
 * Secret Test of Character: Had some money stashed away, but pretended to be dirt poor to see if Rebecca would marry him anyway. When she backed out, he revealed the money and left.

Esther Clavin

Cliff's mom.


 * Cool Old Lady
 * My Beloved Smother: Ma can certainly be this way.

Vera

Norm's wife.


 * Real Life Relative: Whenever she's heard, she was played by George Wendt's wife.
 * She Who Must Not Be Seen