Must See TV

Remember the old Thursday night lineup?

I was the thinking about it yesterday because I saw a photo of Cliff Clavin on Twitter.

Cheers was a can’t miss show back then, and you couldn’t miss a show in the 90’s because no one was really using a DVR and nothing was available on demand.

There were a whole bunch of shows that were great then. I liked Wings, Cheers, Frasier and the Cosby Show.

But Cheers is what we’ll settle on today.

Think Norm, Cliff, Frazier, Carla, Coach (then Woody, Diane (then Rebecca).

Jay Thomas was on the show as Eddie LeBeck the horrible hockey goalie.

Mayday Malone was one of the great sitcom characters of all-time. He was a womanizer, and I’m not even sure that a character like that could even play these days.

Women’s groups would be up in arms every week.

Norm and Cliff sat at the bar each day...

...drinking like madmen. Their characters would be studied now and we’d hear how they’re a bad influence on the youth.

As for Sam and Diane, their relationship was enough to drive the viewer nuts each week.  It was so well done that when Shelly Long left the show everyone figured it was over, but Kirstie Alley was just as good.

Coach was great and when he died and Woody took over, it was supposed to end things too, but how good was Woody?

The thing that I was sad about was that most of those jokes would be analyzed to death.

Like All in the Family or even The Office ten years later...

...political correctness would strip all the humor away.

Three or four times a month someone calls me Clavin and it makes me laugh every time.

He was full of useless facts that were usually bungled as he tried to pretend he was brilliant.

Since Modern Family went off the air, I can’t think of another ‘Must See TV’ comedy that’s still on the air.

Will we ever see another comedy like Cheers on network television?

Not sure...

...but I didn’t miss it when it was on.