Episode: Season 3, Episode 10
Title: Diane's Allergy
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: David Lloyd
Air Date: December 6, 1984
Previous: An American Family
Next: Peterson Crusoe
Guest Starring: Kelsey Grammer
Title: Diane's Allergy
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: David Lloyd
Air Date: December 6, 1984
Previous: An American Family
Next: Peterson Crusoe
Guest Starring: Kelsey Grammer
"Diane's Allergy" is the 10th episode of the third season of Cheers.
Diane comes into the bar complaining of an itch in her ear. The itch develops into a persistent nasal congestion and sneeze. The sneeze is attributed to Diane being allergic to Frasier's dog, Pavlov—except that Frasier has had the dog for a while. It turns out that the real reason for Diane's allergy attack is that she has moved in to Frasier's apartment, and her anxiety at that level of commitment is manifesting itself in a psychosomatic allergy.
In the B-plot, it's Carla's birthday, and the gang at Cheers gets her a bunch of gag gifts, much to Carla's increasing irritation.
Tropes:
- Birthday Episode: It's Carla's birthday and the guys get her gag gifts, much to her irritation.
- Cassandra Truth: It's Sam who immediately suggests that Diane's allergy is psychosomatic due to the stress of moving in with Frasier. Naturally Diane dismisses him as a dolt who doesn't know what he's talking about.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Later episodes of Cheers would establish that Frasier is afraid of dogs, while his spin-off would drop the phobia but still have him dislike having his father's dog in his home. Considering both of these later developments, it's strange to see him willingly owning Pavlov and passionately demanding that Sam give her back to him.
- Gift-Giving Gaffe: After the parade of gag gifts leaves Carla depressed, the gang decides to get her a real birthday present. Cliff collects the money and gets Carla a nice sweater...which Cliff tells the others will reveal the message "I AM HORNY AS A HOOT OWL" when activated by Carla's body heat. He is thrown bodily out of the bar.
- Inopportune Voice Cracking: Diane's sneezing is later followed by her voice going up into an unnaturally high register, basically Helium Speech except it's not helium. This triggers the final argument between Diane and Frasier.
- Kick the Dog: Sam jokes (hopefully) about how, having re-named Pavlov "Diane", he can hit her if she misbehaves, taking malicious glee at the thought of hitting Diane.
- Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: At the end Frasier is angrily demanding the return of his little girl dog Pavlov, yelling at Sam that he has to give her up. Diane enters mid-conversation and assumes that "her" is a reference to herself, Diane. This instantly cures Diane's allergy.
- Not So Above It All: Frasier and Diane's gift to Carla is a nice set of crystal wine glasses. Carla graciously thanks them for getting her a nice, thoughtful gift and not a gag gift like everyone else. They turn out to be dribble glasses.
- Plot Allergy: Diane has a psychosomatic allergic reaction triggered by her anxiety over moving into Frasier's townhouse.
- Pun: Sam says "I had a puppy once. My ex-wife took her. Little bitch...about this high." [gestures]note
- Shout-Out: Frasier and Diane decide to go to an Akira Kurosawa movie and Frasier specifically mentions The Seven Samurai. But what they're really talking about is sex as Diane had previously mentioned how Frasier's intelligence turns her on.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Despite being the center of the episode's struggles, Pavlov is never mentioned again, either as living with Sam or Frasier, or indeed at all.
