Title: Relief Bartender
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Miriam Trogdon
Air Date: March 27, 1986
Previous: Diane Chambers Day
Next: Strange Bedfellows, Part 1
Guest Starring: Kelsey Grammer, Tony Carreiro, Judith Barsi
"Relief Bartender" is the 23rd episode of the fourth season of "Cheers".
Sam Malone has a bright business idea. After reading in the paper that an old teammate who had a very brief tenure with the Red Sox has opened up his third club, Sam decides that he needs to come out from behind the bar and be a "manager/host", involving himself more in greeting guests, booking business, and other activities. His employees are skeptical and Norm, who does Sam's taxes, states flatly that Sam can't afford another employee, but Sam, who believes he'll increase business enough to afford that employee, goes ahead anyway.
So Sam hires a guy named Ken to be the new bartender. Unfortunately, his efforts to drum up new business are a disastrous failure. Sam finally admits that he has to fire Ken—only to find out that Ken has a wife and two small children with a third on the way. So instead Sam decides he has to fire Woody.
Tropes:
- Brick Joke: When the Caribou Lodge guys enter the bar, Frasier mocks them, and the very idea of joining a lodge. A little bit later, after Sam leaves his office, Frasier is joining the lodge.
- Continuity Nod:
- Diane, upset that Sam brings one of his babes into the bar, says "Last week, we were at passion's portal." That's the previous episode "Diane Chambers Day" in which they almost went to bed together after Sam took Diane to the opera. Diane changed her mind last week, however, which is why Sam's back to dating random babes.
- Frasier again mentions his mentor, Dr. Bennett Ludlow, seen in Season 3 episode "Whodunit?".
- Deus ex Machina: Sam has just made the difficult decision to fire Woody when, moments later, Ken comes back in and tells Sam that he just got an offer for a better job. This lets Sam off the hook—but he still has to get Woody back.
- Do You Want to Haggle?: Woody demands a $100/month raise for coming back to work. Sam is reluctant. They haggle. Finally, Sam agrees to pay Woody an extra...$30 per week. Sam thinks he came out on top but Woody's sly grin shows he knows the truth.
- Hidden Depths: Woody is both kind of dumb and excessively polite/deferential to everyone else at the bar. So it's surprising when Sam has to hire him back, and Woody drives a hard bargain, eventually getting Sam to agree to pay him an extra $30/week.
- Hypocritical Humor: Frasier mocks the lodge members for huddling together and having no original thoughts.Frasier: You know, as Dr. Bennett Ludlow once said, "I'll speak no thought but mine own."
- Low Count Gag: Sam actually manages to book some business: the Fraternal Order of the Caribou is coming over for a function. Sam puts out a lavish seafood spread for the lodge, only to have just three people show up. (They just got their charter.) It's after this that a despairing Sam admits that he'll have to go back behind the bar.
