‘Cheers’: NBC Complained They Didn’t Understand Highbrow Jokes — ‘We Don’t Care,’ Director Replied
The NBC comedy Cheers lasted for 11 seasons, and spun off Frasier for 11 more (and an upcoming revival). That’s proof that audiences responded to it, but networks being networks, they were risk averse, at least in the early seasons. Director James Burrows recalls telling NBC where to stick it when they complained.
Burrows was a guest on Rob Lowe’s Literally podcast on Sept. 14. Discussing his book, Directed by James Burrows, Burrows shared some stories about Cheers and other shows. Here were NBC’s complaints and why Burrows ignored them.
NBC sitcom ‘Cheers’ employed both highbrow and lowbrow humor
Cheers was the bar where everybody knows your name. That included regulars Norm (George Wendt) and Cliff (John Ratzenberger), waitress Carla (Rhea Pearlman) and bartender Sam Malone (Ted Danson). But, when Diane Chambers (Shelley Long) entered the picture, her cultured snobbery was the point of her obscure jokes.
“In the beginnings of Cheers, we did Kierkegaard jokes,” Burrows said on Literally!. “We did Schopenhauer jokes and the network would call us and say, ‘Nobody knows who those people are.’ And we’d say, ‘We don’t care’ because it’s the intent of Diane Chambers saying those names which is what is important.”
Sam and Diane were the mismatched lovers of Cheers. She was intellectual and he was the everyman. If they’d toned down Diane, it would have betrayed the point that they could still find love despite their differences.
The highbrow jokes didn’t stop when Diane left ‘Cheers’
Long left Cheers after season 5. By then, Cheers had already introduced enough characters to carry on her highbrow tradition, no matter how the network complained.
“Then when Frasier entered the scene, the character on Cheers in the third year, it became more and more of that verbiage,” Burrows said. “And then when Lilith came it became more and more and the audience roared at it. They didn’t understand. It was Noel Coward.”
Kelsey Grammer played Frasier Crane and Bebe Newirth played Lilith, Frasier’s love interest after Diane.
This episode proved James Burrows right
Burrows had the clout to shoot the scripts as they were without network interference. Plus, the ratings spoke for themselves. Burrows cited one specific episode that proved it didn’t matter if Diane or Frasier’s jokes were too obscure.
“We did a show on Cheers called ‘Dinner at Eight[-ish]’ where they invite Sam and Diane over, Lilith and Frasier, and it’s total Noel Coward,” Burrows said. “It’s high end comedy. The great thing about it was you had Teddy there who was Sam Malone and while they were talking and arguing, all he did was sit at the table and eat and react. So it let the audience [know] if Sam doesn’t understand it it’s okay that we don’t understand it.”
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