Additionally, I've hit a bit of a roadblock when it comes to my vision for the block. As I've said before, I'm unsure of how to treat these posts. Should the posts cover every 2-4 episodes? Should I summarize episodes then give insights? Should I just discuss what I was thinking about while watching a certain episode? Etc.
I believe there is no answer to this and, as I'm still only in the first season of Cheers, I'm just going to write posts of various lengths and see what happens with this space organically.
But enough of the excuses. From now on, you can expect a more concerted effort on my part to update this blog regularly, you lucky seven follower of mine.
Coincidentally (or conveniently) speaking of burdens, I want to point out that I don't have it out for Sam "Mayday" Malone. True, a great number of his actions in season 1 have some across as extremely sexist and chauvinistic, but I think we would all agree that all in all, Mayday is a good guy.
This was reaffirmed early on in the series when he left a hotel room through the fire escape because he couldn't have relations with a college friend of Diane's because his conscience got the better of him.
But it's episode 16, "The Boys in the Bar," where Mayday shows he's not just a man of (mostly) good moral fiber, but also a civil rights pioneer. Sam, you see, has offered up Cheers for the afternoon to his former teammate, Tom Kendersen, to promote his new memoir to reporters and Sam's regulars (who all love the Sox, naturally). In the book (entitled "Catcher's Mask"), the teammate comes out as being gay. Yet, and here's where the hi-jinx begin!, Sam is unaware of this fact because he didn't read the book the night before as he promised Tom he would because he was out tomcatting. Oh, that Sam!
So the press conference begins with reporters questioning Tom about his deceision to come out while Mayday stands by the side of his old buddy and slowly figures out the book's subject matter. Of course, Mayday only figures this out after talking up Tom and saying that in their playing days they were always roommates on the road and joined at the hip. (Again, oh, that Sam!)
After learning that Tom is a, you know, a gay, the bar's regulars become concerned that the press coverage of the book will lead Boston's gay community into believe Cheers is a place for them. And by golly, do these alocholics of 1982 have a real problem with that.
Hell, even Coach seems a little ruffled. "I should've known," he says of Tom's sexual orientation, "I was in a piano bar with him once and he requested a showtune!"
The customers voice their concerns to Mayday who reassures them there's nothing to worry about. The next day, however, two come into the bar, one sporting a 1970's porn 'stache and immediately Norm, Cliff and the others are afraid there are gay men in their presence. Sam takes their order and he's told they read about Cheers in the day's paper and thought they'd come down and check it out. And of course, that's the smoking gun for Norm Peterson and His Merry Band of Homophobes. One gay guy gave a press conference at the bar, it got covered in the Boston Globe, and now all the gays are gonna come down to the bar.
Their suspicions are affirmed when Diane tells the regulars that she has it on good authority two men somewhere in the bar are gay. (Again, the horror!) The regulars are this point are all riled up, one of them even sarcastically saying "Way to go, Mayday!"
One patron even suggests they "test out" these two gentlemen to see if they're gay or straight, because, you know, every straight man should be able to accurately answer any sports trivia question asked of him.
Another patron goes on to explain that if Sam doesn't show these two gays the door, Cheers is going to end up like Vito's Pub which "turned gay" in a matter of weeks after they let in their first gay guy. "Within a month's there's gonna be wild music and guys dancing and exchanging phone numbers," he warns. Exchanging phone numbers?!? Jesus Christ! Of course, something has to be done to stop this nonsense!
And that something is a harebrained scheme the Band of Homophobes devise in which they all cash out with Coach and tell everyone the bar closes down at 7 pm. The "gays" sitting at their own table, now with a third guy, remark that they thought Cheers was a nice bar but find it weird that it shuts down at 7 o'clock. All the customers leave the bar and the regulars come back in, beaming with pride after tricking the gays into leaving of their own accord.
And here's where Mayday steps up to the plate (no pun intended). He takes issue with what his customers have done. They tell him that he's got to decide what kind of a place Cheers is going to be, meaning a bar for the straights or a bar for the gays (apparently 1983 Boston was much like the Deep South in the 1950's).
To that, Sam full of righteousness responds with "It's not going to be the kind of bar I'll have to throw people out of!" What I particularly love about this episode, and Sam's defiant statement in particular, is that it begins with the former teammate coming out of the closet but shifts to homophobia in general. And here Mayday is on his own island with everyone else on another. Had this been Malone standing up for his friend and teammate, it could be presumed he may have some issues with gay people but will vouch for a gay person he knows. Instead, we have Mayday standing up for gay people as a whole, and really just people in general by declaring his bar to being welcoming of anyone and everyone.
Norm, Cliff, et al. reluctantly decide they perhaps got a little out of hand with their tactics. Diane then informs the crowd that the gentlemen they tricked into leaving were not the gay guys she was talking about. Rather, the two gay men in the bar are two members of the mob, each standing at Norm's side. At this revelation, the crowd is taken aback and the two men give Norm a simultaneous kiss on the check.
At this point, I'm expecting the patrons to get into an uproar. But no, they don't. Sam's already given his speech, defined himself as a man of good moral character, and established himself as a civil rights activist (by early 80's standards, at least). Instead, the live studio audience applauds and cheers. And, to end the episode on a high note, Norm declares "Hey, it beats kissing Vera!"
And in terms of addressing the social issues of the day, this episode and the series itself certainly fail in comparison to the Norman Lear sitcoms of the 1970's I've loved so much ("All in the Family," "Good Times," "Maude" and so forth). But for what/who they are, this episode and Sam Malone as a character beat anything else that was on TV at the time.
Wow, I've never seen this episode. Fascinating, indeed.
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