Episode list

Rebecca is still smarting from Evan Drake's departure to Japan. So instead of men, she focuses her energies on furthering her career - she figures that Evan Drake took all the key players from the company to Japan with him, and thus all those that knew she is a "washout" are now all gone - and buying a Mercedes. But realistically, her defenses are weakened, so when Sam asks her out again, she accepts, albeit without much enthusiasm. Just as Rebecca and Sam are about to go on their first date, Rebecca's new boss, Greg Stone, comes to the bar. Rebecca, having a boss fixation, drops Sam at the sight of Mr. Stone. For her, it is love at first sight all over again. He bursts her bubble though. He figures the bar did better under Sam's direction, so he appoints Sam as the new manager and fires Rebecca. This news sends Rebecca into a deep shock, but also makes Sam miserable as he hates managing a bar in a corporate style. Sam tries to get Rebecca her job back all the while hoping that Rebecca will be so grateful as to succumb fully to his advances.

Sam is in the middle of picking up an attractive woman named Suzanne in the bar, when he's telephoned by another former lover named Denise who wants to see him as soon as possible. So many women, so little time. He chooses to see Denise, while he puts current prey, Suzanne, on hold. However, Denise doesn't quite want a liaison: she tells Sam that he is one of two possible men who fathered her newborn child. Sam is shaken at the news, and swears to God that he will forgo sex forever if the child isn't his. He decides to change that to three months, which is like a lifetime for Sam. He quickly finds out that he is not the father, and is relieved. He is just about ready to head off for an evening of debauchery with Suzanne when Carla reminds him of his vow to God. Because of Carla's strong Catholic background, she convinces Sam, with a little unwitting help from Woody, that a vow to God is something one should not take lightly. Sam asks for advice from Father Barry and Frasier, the former who won't let Sam off the hook, and the latter who suggests he funnel his sexual energies into other endeavors. It doesn't help that another old flame, Rachel Patterson, comes by the bar on a short layover she has in Boston. Sam isn't sure he can make it through the evening with Rachel let alone the three months. A hotel room accessory may make him come to a conclusion about his vow.

Woody has some honey bees delivered to the bar and keeps them in the office for safekeeping. Luckily he does keep them safe as they do get loose and they seem rather angry. Rebecca has another pest with whom to deal, namely her new boss, Martin Teal. Greg Stone has been fired from the company, and Teal has taken his place at corporate. He wants to meet with Rebecca. In the elevator at corporate, she is hit on by a vertically-challenged man-child in a suit, to whom she basically tells to go back to his mommy. Later, she is horrified to learn that the man-child is Martin Teal. He takes an instant like to her in more ways than one. He not only reinstates her as the sole manager at Cheers, but he wants to date her. To get him off her back, she lies and tells him that she is already romantically involved with someone, namely Sam. But Martin Teal is a man-child who is used to getting what he wants at any and all cost.

Rebecca is still in a quandary over what to do about the marriage proposal from Martin Teal. In her own words, Martin, her boss, is a weaselly little twerp, but she doesn't want to jeopardize her career by saying no. She talks Sam into rekindling their fake relationship to the point of being in a fake engagement to throw Martin off her trail. Martin however makes a preemptive move by sending Sam down to Cancun on a bartender exchange for a month, Sam who is thrilled by this opportunity. While away, Sam thinks nothing about Cheers or Rebecca. When Sam misses the corporate jet back to Boston, Martin takes that as a sign that Sam has forgotten about Rebecca and his job in Boston. Once again, Martin hits on Rebecca. Rebecca manages to hold Martin off in the short term while she works on her supposed "grief". She heads down to Cancun herself to plead with Sam to come back. Will Sam give up his new carefree life to help Rebecca? If he does, he may take the ultimate advantage of her if given the chance.

Eddie is back in Boston with the ice show, and with the show comes beautiful East German skater Franzi Schrempf, who is notorious for dating her male partners. Franzi finds Sam rude and crude. She likes simpler men. Could that be Eddie? Does Carla have anything about which to worry? Carla suspects that Franzi and Eddie are having an affair but has no proof whatsoever. However the gang at the bar do find out that Franzi has fallen for some guy in the ice show. Sam tells Carla that if Eddie has strayed, perhaps she pushed him into it by not being nicer to him and by not being more "feminine". Carla is repulsed by the idea by being a frilly woman, so she confronts Eddie in her usual way. That doesn't work, so she does try being frilly and subservient at a poker night at the house. Could this be the new Carla in an effort to hold on to her man? Meanwhile, Rebecca gets two corporate tickets for Woody to a Patriots game. Norm, Cliff and Frasier compete to see who will be his date.

The Cranes are having their apartment redone and have called in renowned designer, Ivan. They've also got Norm doing the prep work and painting. However, Ivan's ideas are all form and no function. On top of that, he's snobbish and dictatorial. So they fire him. Inadvertently, Norm, by just moving a chair in their living room so that he can spackle a wall, causes Lilith and Frasier to gush about the great placement of the chair in its new location. Norm really does show his talent for what he calls color and "where to place the ottoman", and he is hired to design the Crane's apartment, which he wants kept secret from everyone at the bar. The design turns out to be exactly what Lilith and Frasier want. The Cranes recommend Norm to their yuppie friends of friends, Kim and Robert Cooperman, who also want their place redone. Norm's initial meeting with the Coopermans doesn't start off well. It's because, as Frasier tells him, the Coopermans are snobs who expect their designers, to use Frasier's term, to be "stylish" i.e. gay and flamboyantly so. To get the job, Norm pretends to be what the Cooperman's want. What will the Coopermans do if they find out Norm is just a beer guzzling straight guy, especially as they want to do a favor for their gay interior designer? Meanwhile, Rebecca is afraid that she's looking a little fat, which Sam in particular milks for all he can. And Carla and Woody discuss other uses for Cliff's brain.

The Cranes are going on a driving vacation, and Lilith admits to Sam that she doesn't know how to drive and would like him to teach her. He soon regrets saying yes as she becomes an aggressive, maniacal driving machine, with Sam taking the brunt of other drivers' wrath against her this gives Sam a bloody nose from the driver. Meanwhile, Rebecca gets her photo taken for a newspaper article. However her photo gets printed in the wrong and unfortunate section of the newspaper. And Cliff is going into the hospital for an appendectomy. He's making a big deal about the life and death nature of the surgery. While in the hospital, he gets no visitors as everyone at the bar assumed that someone else had gone to visit him. Frasier volunteers only since he has to make rounds at the hospital anyway. When he arrives at Cliff's room, he finds out that Cliff has already been discharged. Frasier makes some disparaging remarks about Cliff which Cliff overhears. Cliff is hurt that no one came to visit, Frasier leveling with him that perhaps it is because of his insensitive and obnoxious personality. Cliff thinks that some fast acting and drastic measures are required to strengthen his so-called friendships.

Woody, Norm and Cliff come bounding into the bar after a drunken evening of watching The Magnificent Seven (1960), and are feeling all macho. They talk about the lack of danger in everyday life, and crave for such. Another patron in the bar, Bob Speakes, is a skydiving instructor and suggests that they give skydiving a try. The three are all talk and no action, but finally agree to do it after Carla goads them into it. The next day, the three are up in a plane ready for the jump. They all chicken out, the first men ever in Bob's history of teaching that have ever done so. However, the three make a pact that they will say to the gang at the bar that they did it, keeping the story nice and simple: they jumped, the chutes opened, they landed. The two problems are Cliff, who needs to embellish the story to pump up his own so-called extraordinary achievements, and Woody, who has never told a lie in his life. Carla doesn't believe that they did it, until Woody, who is nervous in the lie, says that they did. He manages to convince Carla in the lie. Sam is jealous of the three as he's always wanted to skydive, and talks the three of them into taking him up for a jump. They can't weasel out of it, but especially Woody feels that, given another chance, he could do it and the lies he told would no longer be lies. Back up in the plane the following day, the three chicken out once again and the truth comes out that they didn't jump before. But Sam also chickens out, and suggests they continue with the lie. Back at the bar, the guys talk up a storm, and Rebecca suggests that they do one more jump holding a banner advertising Cheers, the act filmed by a camera crew. They all talk her out of the idea until she infers that the macho bravado of the act might be enough for her to go to bed with Sam, which is enough for him to agree. Will it be third time lucky for the four?

Sam gets a call from an old flame, Judy Marlowe. Sam and Judy haven't seen each other in fifteen years. Back then, Judy, a divorcée, and Sam spent much of their time together with Judy's young daughter, Laurie. Upon meeting again, Sam is relieved to see that Judy is still a knock-out. What he doesn't expect though is that Laurie is now all grown up and is equally as beautiful as her mother. Sam being Sam has the hots for both Judy and Laurie, and beyond the warnings of Frasier, tries to date both. Meanwhile, Rebecca hires Woody as a clown to entertain at a corporate children's party. At the last minute, Woody is called in for a real acting job and has to ditch the party clown job. Rebecca demands that Frasier take Woody's place as he was the one who suggested she hire Woody. What Woody forgets to tell Frasier about is the handkerchief trick - pulling out the handkerchief from the clown's lapel pocket makes his pants fall down around his ankles. What's worse for the unsuspecting Frasier is that he has been wearing a new pair of French cut underwear that Lilith bought for him.

Cheers is in competition with Gary's Olde Towne Tavern once again, this time it's the annual Bloody Mary contest open to all bars in the Greater Boston area. Cheers won the competition the first two years, but Gary's, ever since it opened, has won the last four. Rebecca has at least managed to get the organizers to hold the contest at Cheers this year. Sam in particular is in Bloody Mary mode, even getting Norm to stop drinking beer and start sampling Bloody Mary's. Sam believes his secret ingredient - if he can get a hold of it - will win them the contest. Regardless, Rebecca plans on stealing some of Gary's Bloody Mary mix to have it analyzed, which they all agree - more publicly than they imagined - is the best Bloody Mary they've ever tasted. Knowing that they can't beat Gary by the quality of the Bloody Mary, the Cheers group decide other methods are in order to win. Collectively and individually, they hatch plans for Gary not to win. Will any of these plans work or will they stumble all over themselves in the process? A consequence of the scheming could be the end of a friendship between one of the Cheers regulars and everyone else at the bar.

Frasier is nervous about a speech he has to make at a seminar. Carla suggests a device she uses: picture everyone naked, but wearing black socks. She says that you just can't help but laugh at the picture. It works. As Frasier practices it with people in general, he gets more and more and more relaxed. Perhaps he gets a little too relaxed as he forgets something important. Meanwhile, Rebecca is asked by yet another Vice-President at the company to do a menial task. Mr. Sheridan needs someone to house-sit and look after his dog Buster while he's away on a trip. As usual, Rebecca agrees, although this time she does so reluctantly in part because looking after such a large house by herself spooks her out a bit. Sam sees this as the perfect opportunity to get her into bed by visiting her at the house and playing on her insecurities. However as Sam enters the house, Buster finds an open door to leave. So Rebecca, Sam and the rest of the gang at the bar are placed on Buster search detail. Thrown into the mix are an attack dog named Satan, who looks like Buster and who Woody finds as a replacement "just in case", and the fact that Mr. Sheridan is on his way home a day early.

Cliff is saddled with the task of training a new postal employee, and he's not too happy about a rookie getting in his way. However he changes his tune when he meets her: Margaret 'Maggie' O'Keefe. Maggie is as passionate about the post office as Cliff, and she vows, with his mentoring, to be the second best postal employee behind him. Maggie's post office passion transfers itself to Cliff, who is as surprised and as nervous as he's ever been to this revelation as it will be his first time with a woman. At their scheduled rendezvous at an out of the way motel, things are going well until a policeman comes by asking the motel guests about the stolen postal truck, obviously the one Maggie used to drive to the motel. Will Maggie's actions be a deal breaker for sex-starved Cliff? Meanwhile, in Sam's never ending quest to bed Rebecca, Frasier suggests that he find the one sensory stimulus that turns Rebecca's crank. She admits to Sam that she does have one, it being a song from her teen-aged years. Will Sam be able to find out the song from the hundreds of thousands that have been written, and if so can Rebecca mask her feelings about the song in front of Sam?

Rebecca is asked once again by one of the corporate bigwigs to organize a party. This time, Vice-President Walter Gaines wants her to organize a luncheon at his house as a European homecoming for his daughter Kelly. Rebecca drags along Sam and Woody to tend bar. Sam has a great time as he figures out the way to big tips is to use his ex-celebrity status. Woody doesn't have as good a time as he butts heads with Kelly's boyfriend Nash, the two taking an instant dislike to each other. It goes as far as them making a date for a fight at Cheers the following day. What transpires can't really be called a fight. Kelly finds out about the fight and comes to the bar, although she's too late to stop it. Sam, Carla and finally Woody think that Woody dating Kelly would be a good way to get back at Nash. He goes about it the old fashioned way by asking Mr. Gaines for his permission. Although Mr. Gaines admires Woody's old fashioned approach, he basically laughs at Woody for his presumption. But to Woody's surprise, Kelly, who's opinion is the one who really counts, decides to go out with Woody as she feels under-appreciated by Nash. Kelly and Woody end up having a nice date, the event which is for Kelly unfamiliar territory. Despite doing it just to prove a point to Nash, Kelly has to decide if Woody and her date ended up being "just a point".

Ludlow is Carla's son, fathered by Frasier's mentor, Dr. Bennett Ludlow. Ludlow has some of his father in him: he's an intellectual and enjoys cultural things in life, like the opera and classical music, unlike Carla's other children. Frasier and Lilith want to take Ludlow to the opera, both because they want to help Ludlow further his interest in the arts, but also to find out if they are parent material as they're thinking about having children of their own. Ludlow is enamored with the opera and Frasier and Lilith are equally as enamored with Ludlow and want to do more cultural activities with him. Carla feels like she's losing him to another social class. After a week of Frasier and Lilith doing everything with Ludlow, Carla puts her foot down when they want to take him out to the most exclusive restaurant in town, if only because she wants some time with her own son. But Carla gives in yet again. However Sam talks Frasier and Lilith into asking Carla along as well. At dinner, the Cranes ultimately see another side of Ludlow. With others in the bar, Woody is going to his first country club dinner with Kelly, and wants to drive there instead of taking the bus like he and Kelly usually do on their dates. Carless, he asks Sam if he can borrow his car. Will Sam, who lives for his 'vette, do this favor for his friend?

Sam is dating a young woman named Erin. Sam meets Erin on the pretense that he is totally into athletics - tennis, hiking, cycling, running to name a few activities - since she implies that's what she's into, and will only date men like that. After a few dates, he becomes so tired that he feels he needs to call it off with her, but will he be truthful about the reason? A little less active are Norm and Rebecca. Norm hasn't had a painting job in months. Rebecca just had another interview at corporate for a marketing executive job, but seems to be is getting nowhere in the company. So she suggests to Norm that she use her considerable marketing skills to help him market his painting company. Norm is reluctant to do so, until Rebecca threatens him with something called his bar tab. Rebecca has an expensive marketing plan up her sleeve. In Rebecca's mind, Norm's company is her new career when they get their first new client based on the marketing. When she finds out that she lost the corporate job to someone less qualified and after Norm gets his first lucrative painting job, she decides to go down to corporate to tell off the CEO, Mr. Anawalt. After she leaves, Norm finds out they lost their one and only client. Will Norm catch her before she tells off Anawalt, or will she lose three jobs - the corporate executive job, the job with Norm, and her job at Cheers - in one day?

Rebecca and the company are forcing Woody to take a vacation, something he has not done since he's started working at Cheers. The company is sending him to Italy, and he's not happy about it. But he goes. He ends up having a great vacation, but... Meanwhile, Lilith is well into her pregnancy and is becoming the stereotypical Earth Mother. Frasier is embarrassed by the way she's acting. However he changes his tune when he listens to the baby's heartbeat for the first time. He then becomes Earth Father. As part of this revelation, the Cranes relinquish the materialism of their lives and decide to live solely off the land out in the wilderness in a cabin Frasier intends to build. Realizing that they are true urbanites, Sam convinces them to try it for a week in a friend's cabin first before making up their minds for good. This pilot project shows them where geographically their hearts truly lie.

Sam and Rebecca each have a date to attend the same black tie event at the USS Constitution, and both are stood up. Sam suggests that they go together, but Rebecca would rather do anything else than go on a date with Sam. Sam goes alone and after the event brings back to the bar Admiral William J. Crowe Jr., Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The admiral has a good time at the bar, as does everyone there hearing his stories. After he leaves, Rebecca is in a panic when her $32,000 borrowed diamond earrings that she had left in a tumbler in a her office go missing. She thinks the admiral has stolen them as he was the only person alone in her office during the evening. These are treasonous words in the mind of patriotic American, Cliff. As she turns everything upside down in her office in search of the earrings, Rebecca says she will do anything to get the earrings back, and yes, that anything includes sleeping with Sam. Carla suggests to Sam that they recreate the scene of the supposed crime. In doing so, Sam and Rebecca come to a new understanding about their relationship, but an understanding that Rebecca would rather not divulge to Sam.

Sam hits on a beautiful woman in the bar who promptly shoots him down. She is Dr. Sheila Rydell, a clinical psychiatrist and a colleague of the Drs. Crane. Because she shot him down, Sam wants her even more. Cliff suggests that he approach her on a professional level: that he should make an appointment to see her with some psychiatric problem. Despite the touchy nature of the issue itself, Carla convinces Sam to use the problem of impotence, as all women love to help a man solve such a problem. He goes in to see her at her office and she sees right through his story. When he confesses that he made up the story just to see her again and to ask her out, she accepts, thinking that the clinical part of her job is creeping a little too much into her personal life. As they spend some personal time together, they may have some problem separating their professional and personal relationships.

Rebecca, self professed as "too darn beautiful", is looking to Lilith as her new fashion role model in getting ahead in the business world. However, what works for Lilith works for Lilith. Cliff wants to go into business himself marketing his new product, the beetabaga, a cross between a rutabaga and a beet. Meanwhile, Woody is getting closer to corporate as he dates Kelly Gaines, the daughter of one of the VP's. It's Kelly's birthday and Mr. Gaines invites Woody to her party. The gang at the bar thinks Mr. Gaines' invitation is just to put Woody in a bad light in Kelly's eyes as Woody can't afford to buy Kelly an expensive gift to which she's accustomed. In fact, she does get one expensive new car after another as birthday gifts. Frasier suggests a gift from the heart, which Woody does give with all his heart and voice. As much as Kelly likes what Woody gives her, she is still wondering where her real present is. Unless Woody can convince Kelly that an ATM is not an infinite source of money, he thinks his and Kelly's relationship may be reaching its natural conclusion. In the process, Woody learns that true love is a two-way street.

There are a lot of transactions taking place in the bar this evening. Despite Rebecca's concern about its legality and its affect on the bar's license, Sam organizes the first sets of transactions: a basketball betting pool worth $500, $125 for each of the four quarters. Two reluctant bettors are Woody, who doesn't like to lose money or take money from his friends, and Rebecca, who eventually sees that $500 is more than she normally makes in an evening's work. The second transaction happens between the Cranes and Norm, the former who have hired the latter to decorate their unborn child's nursery in as neutral and unbaby-like a scheme as possible. And the third sets of transactions happen primarily between the gang at the bar and the local florist. It's Carla's second wedding anniversary to Eddie, and she is without Eddie for the evening as he's on the road with the ice show. Carla is certain that he'll come through with a romantic gesture for their anniversary regardless. He's got five and a half hours until midnight and nothing yet has happened. Many people in the bar have their doubts if Eddie will actually come through. As a result, Carla receives more than one floral bouquet that evening. The question is are any of them really from Eddie?

Rebecca's estranged sister, Susan Howe, is in Boston to shoot a commercial. She's an actress specializing in horror movies. She stops by the bar in the off chance that Rebecca might want to see her. Rebecca doesn't. Sam finds out that much of the sisterly discord is from the Susan stealing Rebecca's boyfriends when they were younger. Sam uses this information in his attempt to bed both sisters. He tells Susan that Rebecca and he are an item, after which she agrees to go out with him. He tells Rebecca that Susan is interested in him, to which Rebecca replies that to get back at Susan, Sam should break off their date and Rebecca would go out with him in Susan's place. So Sam postpones his date with Susan to take out Rebecca, with his date with Susan now later in the evening. However Susan can't wait and appears at the same time Sam is supposed to go out with Rebecca. Sam has to try and manage his dates with both sisters without the other finding out.

One of Frasier's colleagues, Dr. Lawrence Crandell, is in town on a tour to promote his latest book on human sexual attraction and marital fidelity. He is in town without his wife, Valerie, which he says is a good way to test his theories. He says he has been celibate for 10 months while on tour. Rebecca construes a private conversation between the doctor and her as an unwanted come-on. In public, she is visibly hostile toward him. Sam and Frasier don't believe her story is a come-on as she believes. Sam and Frasier convince her that she could be wrong, so she apologizes to Dr. Crandell. His come-on this time however is unmistakable as is the hole is his sock as he runs his foot up her leg. Later in his hotel room, Dr. Crandell propositions the gullible young chambermaid named Maria just as Rebecca, with Sam clandestinely in tow, come by to have the doctor admit that he did come on to her. Add to the mix a violinist to serenade whoever the good doctor is hitting on, and an unexpected Valerie, who the doctor says is the scariest woman on the face of the planet, and the doctor's hotel room gets a little crowded, albeit one where many of the players are in hiding.