Recap / Cheers S 11 E 22

Episode: Season 11, Episode 22
Title: It's Lonely at the Top
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Heide Perlman
Air Date: April 29, 1993
Previous: Woody Gets an Election
Next: Rebecca Gaines, Rebecca Loses
Guest Starring: Jackie Swanson, Paul Willson

"It's Lonely at the Top" is the 22nd episode of the eleventh season of Cheers.

With Woody about to take up his post on the Boston City Council, Sam feels the need to hire a new bartender, although Woody says he can still tend bar part-time. Carla insists that she can tend bar, and Sam agrees to promote her to bartender and hire a waitress instead,^note We never see a new waitress even though Carla has a habit of mixing too-strong drinks.

Carla shows why Sam was hesitant when she celebrates her promotion by making the rest of the gang a cocktail called "I Know My Redeemer Liveth". Everyone except Sam, who doesn't drink, comes into the bar the next day reeling from hangovers. Everyone is wondering what they did last night, including Carla, who thinks she had sex with one of the gang, but can't remember who.

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Tropes:

• The Alcoholic: Although Sam Malone is the only identified alcoholic in the group the correct answer is probably "all of them", considering that they seem to spend their every free moment in a bar. Frasier admits this.
  Frasier: Let's review. Last night I got knee-walking drunk, and now I am back in this bar, a mere 7 1/2 hours later, hung over. Well, it's official. I have a problem.
• And Show It to You: Carla manages to "persuade" Rebecca to let her be the new bartender via the argument that if Rebecca does not, Carla will rip out her heart and show it to her.
• Artistic License – Law: Tattoo parlors were illegal in Massachusetts at this time and would be until 2000. Maybe Norm and Cliff drove to Rhode Island or Connecticut.
• Creator Cameo: Brandon Tartikoff was president of programming at NBC from 1981 to 1991, a time period during which he took NBC from a distant third to first in the ratings. One of the decisions he made to help bring that about was refusing to cancel Cheers when it was dead last in the ratings in its first season. He's a background customer in the bar in this episode.
• Embarrassing Tattoo: After Cliff finds a receipt from a tattoo parlor in his pocket, he and Norm go into the men's room to see what they got. It turns out that Cliff got a tattoo that says "I Love Vera" while Norm got a tattoo saying "God Bless the U.S. Post Office".
• Gargle Blaster: Carla makes the gang a drink called "I Know My Redeemer Liveth." They all go on drunken sprees before coming to the bar severely hung over the next day.
• Hangover Sensitivity: Everyone is coming into the bar suffering severely from hangovers after drinking Carla's Gargle Blaster. Norm winces with pain when he gets his "NORM!" greeting.
• Inadvertent Entrance Cue: Having interviewed each guy in the bar, Carla triumphantly declares she's covered everyone. Then Paul swaggers in.
• Insistent Terminology: Sam's hair replacement system is not a "rug". It is a hair replacement system.
• Loony Fan: A Continuity Nod to the restraining order that Councilman Kevin Fogerty had against Cliff in the previous episode. Woody wonders what the life of a city councilman is like, and Cliff answers that question by showing an unnervingly thorough knowledge of the life of Kevin Fogerty, right down to the names and ages of his children and where they go to school.
• Moral Myopia: Cliff regards it as his right to know exactly what Kevin Fogerty and his family do, right to privacy be damned, and sees the restraining order as "Big Brother".
  Frasier: Years from now, they'll ask me why I didn't see the signs...
• Nobody Touches the Hair: Sam's obsession with and pride in his hair, a Running Gag throughout the Rebecca years, reaches its climax when he reveals to a shocked Carla that he is losing his hair and he wears a rug...no, a piece...no, a hair replacement system.
• Noodle Incident: Apparently the last time Carla served one of her Gargle Blasters, there was a naked conga line going all the way out of the bar, and Phil nearly joined the Flying Wallendas.
• No-Sell: Subverted when after everyone else comes back to the bar hammered or regretful, Woody steps in fresh as a daisy. Turns out he has a simple hangover cure; make himself vomit until he bleeds.
• The Reveal: Sam Malone is bald! The reveal comes out of nowhere when Carla is freaking out about having sex with Paul, and Sam comforts her by showing her that he has an even worse secret.
• Rewatch Bonus: All those Nobody Touches the Hair gags through Seasons 8-11 of Cheers take on a different tone if you know that on August 12, 1989, Sam Malone started losing his hair.
• The Scream: Carla starts screaming after finding out that Paul is the one she had sex with. The scream continues, echoing off a shot of the Boston skyline, and keeps continuing until Sam picks Carla up and drags her into the office.
• That Man Is Dead: After Sam greets a hung-over Frasier, Frasier says "I'm sorry, Sam. Your friend Frasier is dead. What you are looking at is his undead corpse."
• What Did I Do Last Night?: Played for laughs in the case of Norm and Cliff, who eventually figure out that they got butt tattoos. Played for laughs and then played for drama with Carla. She is horrified to find out that she had sex with Paul, but in the end she's deeply upset by the fact that she drank so much that she had sex with somebody and can't remember it. As Carla says to Sam, for all her slutty ways in the past, she always knew who she was with, and she "always had control".
• What, Exactly, Is His Job?: When Sam tells Woody that working at Cheers is a full-time job, Rebecca says "It is, Sam?"