‘Cheers’: Norm ‘Made the Writers’ Life Miserable’ Co-Creator Says
Everybody knows the name of the characters on the NBC classic comedy Cheers. The theme song promised they would. George Wendt played Norm, the Cheers regular with an ever growing and never paid bar tab. Cheers co-creator James Burrows said Norm posed major challenges for the show’s writers.
Burrows was a guest on the Smartless podcast on July 18 to talk about his book, Directed By James Burrows. He explained how the character Norm created major problems from the very first episode of Cheers on.
George Wendt inadvertently gave ‘Cheers’ writers Norm homework
Burrows describes Norm’s very first entrance in the pilot for Cheers. What Wendt did became a tough act the writers would have to follow for 11 seasons.
“On Cheers, when Georgie Wendt entered and people went ‘Norm,’ Sam said, ‘What do you know?’ and Norm said, ‘Not enough,’ it was never written as a joke,” Burrows said on Smartless. “It was not a joke. Because of the person saying it, and how he looked and a guy like that in a bar, it all gelled to become this huge laugh and made the writers’ life miserable because every time he entered they had to come up with a new Normism.”
Diane played a role in the Norm tradition on ‘Cheers’
The staging of the Cheers pilot also determined what would become Norm’s regular seat for the rest of the series. In the pilot, Diane Chambers (Shelley Long) accepts a waitress job at Cheers when her fiance leaves her. When Norm first entered, Burrows couldn’t put Norm on a stool closest to the entrance. In making Norm walk around the entire bar, it left room for more dialogue.
“In the book, I talk about Norm’s seat,” Burrows said. “Where he sat, he’s got a long haul to get to that seat. Normally, he would walk in the bar and I would put him in the first seat he came to, but the fact was Diane was in that show. She enters and she has to be there closer to the door because she’s waiting for her fiance to come with the ring so it forced me to take George all the way across. So it made the Normisms have to be a little bit longer to get him around there.”
Casting George Wendt as Norm was impeccable
Burrows credits Wendt with making Norm the memorable Cheers character that he became. It was where great writing met the perfect actor.
“The way the character of Norm was written, George is the perfect person to play that,” Burrows said. “He looks like he’s had a few beers, he never gets off the barstool, he’s dry which that character was. Again, we took a great part, put a great actor in it and it took off. You take a great part and put a kind of good actor in it, it’s not going to be as effective.”
