Title: I'll Gladly Pay You Tuesday
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Cheri Eichen and Bill Steinkellner
Air Date: November 7, 1985
Previous: Diane's Nightmare
Next: 2 Good 2 Be 4 Real
Guest Starring: William Lanteau
"I'll Gladly Pay You Tuesday" is the sixth episode of the fourth season of Cheers.
Diane comes into the bar needing to find $500. It turns out that there's a signed first edition of The Sun Also Rises at the used bookstore Diane frequents, and she is desperate to buy it. When she asks Sam he loans her the money without hesitation, without even asking why. Sam explains that he's had experiences with ruptured friendships in the past over lending money, so he resolved to loan money whenever asked and then just assume he won't be getting it back.
After two weeks pass, however, Sam is not as phlegmatic about loaning out money as he pretends. Carla's needling (she makes sure to point out the cashmere sweater Diane bought, and the expensive lobster sandwich Diane's eating) provokes a confrontation. To calm Sam down, Diane tells him why she borrowed the money and gives him the book as collateral—an action that has disastrous consequences.
In the B-plot, Cliff is trying to get into the Guinness World Records book, first with the rest of the bar when they all cram themselves into the men's room to set a "bathroom stuffing" record, then by himself when he attempts to set the record for walking backwards.
Tropes:
- Continuity Nod: Another reference to Norm's favorite restaurant, the awful Hungry Heifer. Norm comes into the bar asking for antacid tablets as the Hungry Heifer is giving him heartburn.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: What Sam says after accidentally dropping Diane's rare book in the bath, causing it to expand:Sam: She told me not to touch it, I touched it, and now it's fat.
- For the Evulz: Carla, evil as always, provokes a confrontation between Sam and Diane about the $500, for the laughs.
- Guinness Episode: Cliff the weirdo is trying to set a world record for the longest amount of time walking backwards.
- Hidden Depths: Sam Malone, resident Book Dumb lunkhead, finds himself fascinated by The Sun Also Rises—which turns out to be a bad thing.
- Hypocritical Humor: Diane's chatter about her collector's item book gets a bar patron interested in buying it.Diane: I couldn't possibly place a monetary value on something so personal to me.
Bar patron: I'd give you $1000 for it.
Diane: Make the check out to "Diane Chambers". - Never Lend to a Friend: Sam says that he's lost friendships in the past over lending money. Sure enough, his loaning money to Diane, coupled with her lack of urgency in repaying it, provokes a fight.
- Scout-Out: Sam finally reaches his breaking point when Diane buys some cookies off a girl scout that comes into the bar.
- Series Continuity Error: In Season Two's "Little Sister, Don't Cha", Diane says she was born late. In this episode she says she was born prematurely at eight months.
- Share the Male Pain: The reason the copy of The Sun Also Rises gets destroyed. Sam decided to read it in the tub, and got to the part with the Groin Attack, which startled him. Norm winces when Sam recounts this.
- Shout-Out:
- Diane very badly wants to buy a signed first-edition volume of Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises.
- The episode title is a shout-out to the character Wimpy's signature line in the Popeye comic strip.
