Title: King of the Hill
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Elliot Shoenman
Air Date: January 24, 1985
Previous: The Heart Is a Lonely Snipe Hunter
Next: Teacher's Pet
Guest Starring: John Hancock, David Paymer, Jeana Tomasina, Ola Ray, Heidi Sorensen
"King of the Hill" is the 15th episode of the third season of Cheers.
Sam has been approached to play in a charity softball game. Both Coach and Diane are skeptical that Sam will participate in an event like that, Sam being someone with too much pride, but Lenny from the city council reveals that Sam has already agreed to pitch. It soon becomes clear why Sam has agreed to pitch in a charity softball game: he will be facing a team of Playboy playmates. Diane, naturally, is disgusted.
Sam comes back from the softball game in a state of gleeful triumph—but, oddly, none of the Playboy babes have come back with him. Soon the reason why is revealed. It seems that Sam's competitive juices got the better of him, and instead of flirting with the Playmates, he struck out 18 of them, didn't let any get past first base, and threw a knockdown pitch at one Playmate's head. Diane diagnoses Sam's problem: a fatal streak of over-competitiveness.
In the B-plot, Coach has bought some weird device that converts the pool table into a ping pong table or an air hockey table or all sorts of other games. In the C-plot, Norm is unhappy because his mother-in-law is paying a visit.
David Paymer plays a photographer. Five Playboy playmates appear, but apparently not as themselves as they have different names. One, Ola Ray, is best remembered as Michael Jackson's girlfriend in the "Thriller" video.
Tropes:
- Call-Back: Coach has bought some goofy contraption that converts the pool table into a bunch of different uses. This is a gag for The Teaser, but it's also plot-relevant as converting the pool table into a ping-pong table allows Sam and Diane to play the climactic ping-pong match.
- Competition Freak: Sam is so obsessed with competition and winning that he strikes out a bunch of Playboy playmates and deprives himself of the chance for sex with any of the babes.
- Continuity Nod: Cliff is still, still talking about that vacation to Florida he took between Seasons 2 and 3.
- Fanservice Extra: Marcy Hanson and Susie Scott, the two Playmates who don't have any lines.
- Hypocritical Humor: Diane gets on her high horse about Sam's competitive streak, which Sam undercuts by noting that she is every bit as competitive as he is. He's proved correct when they spend hours playing ping-pong in the back.
- I Surrender, Suckers: Sam and Diane's hyper-competitive natures leads them to play a long ping-pong match. Finally, Diane says that they're both being stupid and they have to come to their senses and stop playing. Sam agrees and puts down his paddle, whereupon Diane slams the ping-pong ball past him for the winning point. Sam is not amused.
- Noodle Incident: Surely the world would like to know what Cliff was talking about when, in a transition between scenes, he says "Since that time, Norm, I've never feared death."
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Sam reveals that his competitive spirit is in large part due to his father, who never thought Sam was good enough and was the type of person to complain when 6-year-old Sam brought him breakfast in bed.
