Recap / Cheers S 10 E 25

Episode: Season 10, Episode 25
Title: An Old-Fashioned Wedding
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: David Lloyd
Air Date: May 14, 1992
Previous: Heeeeee'res... Cliffy!
Next: The Little Match Girl
Guest Starring: Jackie Swanson, Milo O'Shea, Richard Doyle, Paul Willson

"An Old-Fashioned Wedding" is the 25th and final episode of the tenth season of Cheers.

The day has finally come for Woody and Kelly Gaines to get married, at long last. Woody comes in with news that he and Kelly couldn't exactly wait for the wedding night, but wound up having sex for the first time that morning. Carla believes the wedding will be a disaster, but she's ignored.

At the Gaines household, things don't get off to the greatest start. Rebecca antagonizes the tetchy caterers, the happy couple can't keep their hands (and assorted other parts) off each other, Mr. Gaines makes it clear he'll kill Woody if he thinks he's touched Kelly ahead of schedule, Sam flirts with an attractive woman who's married to a violently protective man, and to top it all off the minister suddenly drops dead.

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Tropes:

• Almost Dead Guy: It turns out the minister wasn't quite dead, as he staggers out of the wine closet and tumbles into the cake.
• Angry Guard Dog: Mr. Gaines has a pair of angry guard dogs, Hitler and Attila, on the grounds. One of the running gags of the episode is people getting stuck outside and having to run from the dogs.
• Blinding Camera Flash: Adding to the day's irritation, Cliff's brought along a camera with an amazingly bright flash.
• Brutal Honesty: A trademark of Mr. Gaines, here directed at Woody.
  Mr. Gaines: Now Woody, I don't think I've ever tried to hide the fact that I dislike you immensely.
• Call-Back: Rebecca isn't over her failed relationship with Robin Colcord, and her aborted marriage, repeatedly and bitterly bringing it up over the episode.
• The Cassandra: Carla predicts doom and disaster will strike at the wedding, but no-one believes her. She's right.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Kelly mentions early on her uncle's a trained minister, but it'd be a bad idea to ask him given he's gone through a rough patch with his marriage.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Cliff, talking to Kelly's uncle Robert, mentions his near-marriage to Maggie.
  • Carla getting an astrological forecast for a wedding and deeming Woody and Kelly's calendar date extremely unlucky. She did the same thing with her own wedding in the two-parter, "Little Carla, Happy at Last."
  • It's already been established that for all his Casanova ways Sam doesn't date married women, although Monika may tempt him into breaking that rule.
• Denser and Wackier: The show was already going down this path after Diane left, but this is the episode that cemented it. It contains easily the most over-the-top gags in the entire show. The 2nd half especially is an extremely fast-paced, rapid-fire slapstick comedy that gives Clue a run for it’s money.
• Didn't See That Coming: Rebecca didn't expect the caterers to leave when she told them to. After all, nobody ever listens to her, how was she supposed to expect someone would at the worst possible time.
• Did You Just Have Sex?: Woody's goofy, poop-eating grin, and his slightly stoned manner, lead Sam to realize that Woody took Kelly's virginity. Sam's surprised that Woody and Kelly finally did the deed on the morning of the wedding after having been chaste for three years.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Why Uncle Roger, the substitute minister, is drunk; he's going through a nasty divorce. After Roger sobers up he gets morose and refuses to perform the ceremony, which is when Sam and Frasier realize they have to get him drunk again.
• Dude, Not Funny!: Lilith scolds Frasier for quoting a Noel Coward bon-mot about a man committing suicide, not seeing any humor in the quip.
• Dumbwaiter Ride: First, Kelly hides in it since Woody's there and the ceremony hasn't started yet. Then the justice of the peace dies and they send him to the basement in it. When they try to bring him back up, he's gone. Now, Carla goes down the dumbwaiter to find him, only to get dropped. Both times she tries to come back up, she gets dropped again.
• Extra-Long Episode: This episode is broken into two parts for syndication and sometimes for streaming, but it aired as a special hour-long episode.
• Foreign Fanservice: The very hot German lady who tries to seduce Sam. The gag seems to be set up to introduce her husband, a very Prussian-looking fellow who carries a sword and only speaks German.
• Foreshadowing: Lilith and Frasier's increasingly nasty sniping ("a life of endless bickering") is foreshadowing the Crane marriage breaking up in Season 11.
• French Jerk: Maurice, the chef in charge of catering for the wedding. He's mean, but instead of ignoring him Rebecca antagonizes him into walking out.
  Maurice: I am the caterer. You are just bar people.
• From Bad to Worse: The Extra-Length Episode!
• Godzilla Threshold: Lilith figures out something's wrong because Sam asks her to entertain the guests.
• Hidden Depths: Cliff knows how to sew. Esther Clavin insisted on it.
• Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Apparently Esther instilled in Cliff a fear of gangrene when he was a kid, to the extent just jabbing himself with a needle sends him into a breakdown.
• Horrifying the Horror: Mr. Gaines' trained attack dogs, Attila and Hitler, spend the episode attacking anyone who dares step outside the kitchen, until the end, when something sends them running and whimpering. It's a beyond pissed off Carla.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Apparently the minute Mr. Gaines caught sight of the Boyd brood, he had the bar opened early.
• Insatiable Newlyweds: Which is a little problem given they aren't actually married yet.
• I Should Write a Book About This: Turns out Lilith's been writing a book on borderline psychosis, which cites examples from Cheers (mainly Cliff) to a large extent, all of which will be tax deductible.
• The Load: Rebecca gets the ball rolling on the wedding day disaster by idiotically antagonizing the catering staff, despite repeated warnings, eventually driving them to quit by thoughtlessly eating the little groom figurine. She's not much help afterward.
• Mistaken for Gay: How Sam ultimately wards off death by jealous husband: he and Frasier convince the man Sam is gay. Sam fails to understand why the guy is laughing and yelling "poofter".
  Sam: What does he mean?
  Frasier: Well, it means you'll never have to worry about the German draft board.
• Nobody Touches the Hair: Sam insists on wearing a shower cap when he goes into the Cheers basement. There's spiders down there.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Yet another weird Hanover tale when Woody mentions an uncle of his checking into a hotel with a milking machine.
  • Carla agrees with Rebecca that a dead body at a wedding is a bad idea, citing two incidents where it happened with her family. Likewise, while stashing the body, she just mutters "if I had a nickel..."
  • Frasier insists that the minister is dead. "Believe me, he's dead. You don't make that mistake twice." (Although it seems that Frasier does.)
• Real Time: Most of the episode, specifically everything after the scene shifts to the Gaines kitchen, is in real time. The gang has a very, very busy half-hour.
• Running Gag: Carla getting repeatedly dropped into the basement in the dumbwaiter, and people getting stuck outside on the grounds and having to evade the dogs.
• Saying Too Much: Defending Sam's shower cap, Cliff starts talking about spiders, and lets slip he wears one in bed for such a reason.
• Suddenly Shouting: Frasier, trying to appeal to Roger, tells him they're both in the business of helping people, then breaks out with "don't make me hit you!"
• Tempting Fate:
  • After nearly getting savaged by the attack dogs, Woody murmurs that he's safe. Then Mr. Gaines re-enters the room, forcing Sam to shove Woody back outside.
  • At the end, "Here Comes the Bride" plays and everybody leaves. Carla and Rebecca are the last out, and as they leave Rebecca says to Carla that they made it, that after all the narrow escapes and near disasters, Woody and Kelly are getting married and everything will be fine. That's followed by the end, where the justice of the peace, who it turns out wasn't quite dead yet, staggers out of the wine closet and face-plants onto the wedding cake.
• Translation by Volume: Rebecca's idea of speaking German is just yelling slowly and loudly about how she wanted to learn German in high-school.
• Twerp Sweating: Mr. Gaines has never liked Woody, but has always at least respected that he's been a gentleman towards Kelly, but if he thought that wasn't true, he'd kill him.
  Mr. Gaines: Now Woody, this may sound like a meddling father, but it's not. It's a threat.
• Verbal Irony: As Sam is deliberately shouting in order to warn Woody of Mr. Gaines's presence, Mr. Gaines says "You're yelling loud enough to wake the dead!" Sam ruefully answers "Yeah, if only I could." The corpse of the minister is resting in the wine cellar.
• Wedding Episode: Woody and Kelly are having a big fancy black-tie wedding, and Cheers is serving all the drinks.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Sam won't hit a woman, especially when that woman is Carla, who Sam knows from experience can easily beat him up.