Cheers: The Best TV Show of the Eighties

Hands down, the best TV show of the eighties was Cheers. There was not much like the American sitcom on television when it debuted, and despite the deepening verisimilitude of American television, there has not been much like it since. The show, which dealt with the romances and addictions of a bar owner, and the lives of the bar's various staff and patrons, dealt with social issues such as homosexuality, addiction, romance, class, and gender in a straightforward manner that was tempered by a deft balance of high and low humor. Few sitcoms since All in the Family were as wide-ranging in social depth as Cheers, and while its quality began to deteriorate a bit in its second act, it retained its good humor and charm throughout.

The amazingly talented ensemble cast had a magical chemistry together: Ted Danson's aging Lothario and addict, former ballplayer Sam Malone and the effete and pretentious graduate student cum waitress Diane Chambers (Shelley Long), to the bar's staff and regulars: the contemptuous Carla Tortelli (Rhea Perlman), the logorrheic Cliff Claven (John Ratzenberger), the snobbish Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) and his equally snobbish wife Lilith Sternin (Bebe Neuwirth), the social climber Rebecca Howe (Kirstie Alley), the lovably daft Woody Boyd and Coach (Woody Harrelson and Nicholas Colasanto respectively), and the resident drunkard Norm Peterson (George Wendt). All of the actors were marvelous comedians in their own right (indeed each of the aforementioned received, at the least, an Emmy nomination for their work on Cheers), but together they were unstoppable. And while the show dealt with social issues, it was rarely preachy or overly moralistic - how could it be, set in a Boston bar? The emphasis was on the humor, so while feminism, in the guise of the neurotic Diane, the bellicose Carla or the repressed Lilith might be a recurring theme or an episode might deal with adultery, you were never at a loss for laughs.

From the opening bars of the show's opening theme Where Everybody Knows Your Name, the show exuded an intimacy, a warmth, a familiarity, that has rarely been matched. It might be the theme, that instantly recognizable Portnoy tune. Or it might be the fact that the action rarely took place outside the bar. Or it might have been the talent of the actors, the writers, or both. Or it might be the generally good natured-ness of the characters (Carla notwithstanding). Or it might be the show's length (eleven seasons), or some or none of all of these factors. However it was achieved, Cheers is one of the most critically acclaimed and beloved series of the decade. All things considered, in writing, in acclaim, in influence, in popularity, in acting, and in spirit, it outpaces every other television show of the eighties.