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Cheers
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We’re arriving at the end of an era—Netflix’s Cheers era. For as long as we can remember, Cheers has been a constant presence on Netflix, stretching as far back as at least 2014 and the launch of this very site. Over the past six years, Cheers has helped us fall asleep, made us feel autumnal, cured our hangovers, helped us fall asleep again, made us think about gay representation, got us through a garbage dump of a year, let us look at Superstore in a new way, confounded us with it’s hammered post-finale special, gave us all the feels—and for all that, we are truly thankful.
And now it’s leaving Netflix on June 30.
Okay, truth: Cheers will presumably still be available to stream on Hulu and CBS All Access after it leaves Netflix, and the show will be part of Peacock’s library when it launches in July. If you want to watch Cheers, you probably already have a subscription to a streaming service that will let you do so. But this moment is still major. An entire generation of fans discovered Cheers via Netflix, ensuring that the best sitcom of the 20th century would remain relevant in the 21st. So many of us—myself included!—associate the show with this specific service, and its departure feels major. It signals not only the end of Netflix’s Cheers era, but a massive, definitive shift in what Netflix values in its library (original content is in, classics are out).
So, with all that in mind, here are 10 episodes that you need to make time for before Netflix closes its doors on Cheers for good. Consider this your last call.
"Give Me a Ring Sometime" (1x1)
It’s beyond rare for a pilot episode to be included on any show’s must-watch list, but Cheers has a beyond rare pitch-perfect pilot. The show emerged fully-formed with a perfectly assembled cast, fully realized characters, and razor sharp wit. Never forget, Shelley Long won an Emmy for her very first episode playing Diane. That’s a lot to live up to, and she definitely rose to the challenge during her run.
"Coach's Daughter" (1x5)
Nicholas Colasanto played the lovably dim Coach with such warmth and heart, any last-minute Cheers binge has to include quite possibly his finest performance—one that came so early in the show’s run! When Coach’s daughter comes back to Boston with a deadbeat jerk for a fiance, it’s up to the usually oblivious bartender to point out the obvious. The fact that Cheers went this sentimental this soon and pulled it off shows how strong this series was from the start.
"Homicidal Ham" (2x4)
The bar was fully stocked with weirdo side characters, none more dangerous than the memorably named Andy Andy, an ex-con with a taste for theatrics and desire for Diane. Those character traits come to a head in his second appearance, when a performance of Othello takes a potentially deadly turn for Ms. Chambers.
"Fairy Tales Can Come True" (3x4)
“Heartwarming” and “sweet” are not two words you’d think to use for a Cliff Clavin-centric episode, let alone one set on Halloween. But that’s just what this Season 3 fairytale is: heartwarming and sweet. Perpetual sad sack Cliff finally hits it off with a lady at a costume party and asks her out on a date (sans mask). That leads to a nerve-wracking will-she/won’t-she-show-up wait that’ll make you swoon just a teeny tiny bit for the bar’s resident blowhard.
"The Heart Is a Lonely Snipehunter" (3x14)
Whereas other shows continually fail to add likable new characters that feel integral to the show’s lineup, Cheers excelled from the moment they added their first new series regular: Kelsey Grammer as Frasier Crane. This episode fully welcomes Frasier to the cast via a dirty and devious prank. Starting here, Frasier is not just Diane’s boyfriend, but his own fully neurotic and petty weirdo. Hey, he fits right in with the rest of the gang!
"Dark Imaginings" (4x19)
Woody’s addition to the cast after Coach’s passing before Season 4 gave the series different angles to explore, especially now that Sam Malone wasn’t the hottest and youngest dude in the bar. “Dark Imaginings” pulls on that thread, unraveling Sam’s macho exterior and exposing a previously unseen vulnerability. It’s not played for laughs, either. Sam Malone, this is your life.
And also Cliff and Frasier get into a squabble about vegetables that look like celebrities.
"Thanksgiving Orphans" (5x9)
When everyone’s Thanksgiving plans fall through, the bartenders and barflies begrudgingly come together for a meal. To cut to the chase: this is the best Thanksgiving episode of all time, and the argument can easily be made that it’s the greatest Cheers episode of all time. This is the show at its peak, the cast at the height of their collective power, and what it says about the meaning of family is remarkable. And it also ends with the messiest food fight you ever did see.
"How to Win Friends and Electrocute People" (7x7)
If you’re a Cliff Clavin completist, you have to watch this Season 7 episode that pushes the postal postal worker past his limit. After realizing that his know-it-all antics have alienated himself from people that are essentially the only family he has (other than his ma), Cliff undergoes some portable shock therapy that is definitely not medically sound, but it does give us some of John Ratzenberger’s best physical comedy.
Stream "How to Win Friends and Electrocute People" on Netflix
"Days of Wine and Neuroses" (9x14)
We have to acknowledge the fact that Cheers replaced two absolutely essential original cast members—Coach and Diane—with two more characters—Woody and Rebecca—who would become as beloved as their predecessors. That’s practically unheard of in TV history. This Season 9 episode is a tour de force for Kirstie Alley, whose immensely harried Rebecca completely falls apart after getting the one thing she’s always wanted: a proposal from the dashing Robin Colcord.
"An Old-Fashioned Wedding" (10x25-26)
This is the episode that will convince anyone and everyone of the power of the multi-cam format. This two-parter unfolds with the unstoppable rhythm of an expertly timed stage farce, as nightmare wedding-day scenarios unfold one after the other within the confines of one kitchen. It’s fast-paced mayhem as the gang tries to salvage Woody’s disastrous wedding day, and it’s a great example of how this show never lost steam in its 11 seasons.
