Recap / Cheers S 10 E 6

Episode: Season 10, Episode 6
Title: Unplanned Parenthood
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Dan Staley and Rob Long
Air Date: October 24, 1991
Previous: Ma's Little Maggie
Next: Bar Wars V: The Final Judgment
Guest Starring: Leah Remini, Jarrett Lennon

"Unplanned Parenthood" is the sixth episode of the tenth season of Cheers.

Sam and Rebecca are still trying to conceive a child. Basically no one at the bar thinks this is a good idea. To prove their friends wrong and demonstrate that they can be good parents, Sam and Rebecca decide to babysit someone else's child for a while. Unfortunately, with Frederick Crane unavailable, they are left with babysitting Carla's hellspawn children.

In the B-plot, Cliff offers to film a video of Woody and Kelly that Woody will use to introduce Kelly to his family back in Indiana.

A pre-King of Queens Leah Remini makes the first of two appearances as Carla's oldest daughter Serafina.

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Tropes:

• Accidental Misnaming: When defending himself to the rest of the barflies, Sam calls Rebecca “Rachel”, which goes unmentioned.
• Babysitting Episode: Sam and Rebecca spend a terrifying evening babysitting the Tortelli children.
• Because I Said So: While looking after the Tortelli kids, Sam has an apron that says "because I'm the mom, THAT'S why", evidently Carla's.
• The Bus Came Back: Ludlow Tortelli makes a return.
• Broken Tears: By the time the Tortelli kids have put a dead rat in her hot dog bun, Rebecca has been reduced to this.
• Continuity Nod: Carla's eldest son Anthony and his wife Annie were recurring characters in Seasons 4-6 before they were never seen again. Chuck Cunningham Syndrome is averted, as we at least get an explanation in this episode for why Anthony isn't around.
  Sam: What's Anthony doing?
  Gino: Time.
• Footsie Under the Table: Averted. Rebecca thinks Sam is doing this, but it's actually Ludlow's eight-foot python.
• Here We Go Again!: After many, many hours of having to deal with Cliff being overbearing, Frasier takes over for Woody and Kelly... and immediately reduces poor Kelly to tears after the first take isn't good enough.
• Idiot Ball: Rebecca deciding to babysit the Tortelli brood, even for her post-Flanderization intelligence, is pretty damn stupid. As Sam tells her, looking after Carla's kids doesn't prove you can look after children, it just means you can survive in the wild. And Rebecca can't look after Carla's kids.
• Letting the Air out of the Band: The cold open has Carla, opening the bar, dancing and lip-singing to "I Got the Sun in the Mornin' (and the Moon at Night)", a very peppy song from Annie Get Your Gun. When she hears the others coming she pulls the plug on the jukebox, and the record coasts to a stop while Carla gets an angry face on for Sam and the gang.
• Noodle Incident: Why Anthony, previously the most well-behaved of Carla's kids, is doing time goes unsaid.
• Prima Donna Director: Cliff goes through 57 takes of what's supposed to be a simple home movie.
• Shout-Out:
  • Rebecca tries re-enacting The Sound of Music with the Tortellis. It doesn't work.
  • When the lights go out at the end, Carla's kids tease Sam and Rebecca with "Be afraid. Be very afraid."
• A Threesome Is Hot: Carla is going to use the evening away from her kids to get some "R & R" at a hotel. Roy and Ralph.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Teenaged Serafina is dating "a retired cop".
• Would Rather Suffer: At the end of the night, the lights in the Tortelli house suddenly cut out. Sam speculates it's either the family messing with them further, or a home invasion. A now distraught Rebecca hopes it's the later.