Title: 2 Good 2 Be 4 Real
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Peter Casey and David Lee
Air Date: November 14, 1985
Previous: I'll Gladly Pay You Tuesday
Next: Love Thy Neighbor
Guest Starring: Don Lewis, Michael Alaimo
"2 Good 2 Be 4 Real" is the seventh episode of the fourth season of Cheers.
Carla is down in the dumps because no one has answered her looking-for-love ad in the Personals section of the newspaper. The guys urge her to be less honest—say she's a little bit taller than five foot zero, don't say she has six kids—but Carla objects on the quite reasonable grounds that if she says she's five foot nine with "ta-tas 'til Tuesday", whatever man she meets will be disappointed. So Sam, Norm, Cliff, and Woody elect to invent a fake boyfriend to answer Carla's ad and cheer her up. This works, but when Diane figures out the truth behind Carla's pen pal boyfriend, she warns the others that their scheme will backfire.
In the B-plot, Diane, being Diane, has started taking a mime class. Sam hates mimes, but that doesn't stop Diane from badgering him into letting her mime instructor, Sotto (Don Lewis), perform at the bar.
Tropes:
- Bait-and-Switch: Carla's reaction when the gang wonders why she gave the Cheers address for her personal ad.Carla: You think I want some sex-starved creep hanging out on my doorstep? One of my neighbors might get him first!
- Everyone Hates Mimes: Sam Malone strongly believes this, and the mime that comes into the bar is in fact super-annoying.Diane: Everyone loves a mime.
Sam: No, everyone loves a clown. Everybody hates a mime. - Forged Message: The gang invents a fake boyfriend for Carla, complete with a job (airline pilot) that keeps him away and unable to meet her in person. This works great, but backfires when a real person (Michael Alaimo) comes to the bar in response to Carla's ad.
- Letters 2 Numbers: The episode title, although there's no obvious reason why.
- Love Letter: The gang writes love letters to Carla. Sam says he came up with the romantic parts.
- The Picture Came with the Frame: The picture that the gang sends to Carla is a stock photo from Norm's wallet. This nearly backfires when another bar patron recognizes the photo as one that was in his picture frame. Naturally, Carla reacts by saying "He's a model too!"
- Pretentious Pronunciation: If going to mime class wasn't pretentious and annoying enough, Diane has to pronouce it "meem".
