Title: Cheers: The Motion Picture
Directed by: Tim Berry
Written by: Phoef Sutton
Air Date: April 2, 1987
Previous: Norm's First Hurrah
Next: A House Is Not a Home
Guest Starring: Doris Grau, Al Rosen
"Cheers: The Motion Picture" is the 23rd episode of the fifth season of Cheers.
It seems that Woody's uncle came from Indiana to visit him, and in a relatively short stay was mugged twice. The uncle's extremely negative impression of Boston led his father to demand that Woody come back home. Woody likes living in the big city and doesn't particularly want to come home, but, being a good and dutiful son, feels that he has to.
So the gang decides that they have to change Woody's dad's mind. They hit upon an idea: make a home movie to send back to Indiana to show Woody's dad that he's doing fine in Boston. Diane gets carried away and has plans to make an absurd art film called "Manchild in Beantown". The gang loses patience and Sam winds up doing the bulk of the camerawork for their home movie. However, Diane, not to be denied, re-cuts Sam's footage into her absurd art film after all.
The third episode of Cheers not to be directed by James Burrows, coming one episode after the second. While Burrows would continue to direct most of the episodes, others would direct about three dozen episodes in total during the Rebecca years.
Tropes:
- Amateur Film-Making Plot: The Cheers gang makes a movie of Woody's life in Boston.
- Bad "Bad Acting": The stiff, unnatural acting of the Cheers gang as they recite Diane's hokey dialogue.
- Comically Missing the Point: Diane is the only one who thinks her movie is any good, and never gets that it helped fuel Mr. Boyd's decision to make Woody go home.
- Continuity Nod:
- The episode where Carla bought her house established that it was on a flight path from Logan Airport. This episode has a plane roaring overhead as Carla hosts a barbecue in her yard.
- This episode is the first time we see the Hungry Heifer, the cholesterol-laden steakhouse that Norm talks about a lot.
- Contrast Montage: Overused in Diane's cut of Manchild in Beantown. The scene at the Hungry Heifer is accompanied by shots of elephants and hippos as a commentary on its customers; and when Cliff talks about "the men in uniform" (meaning mail carriers), the scene cuts to goose-stepping Stormtroopers from Triumph of the Will.
- Epic Fail: Cliff's "contribution" to the film is entirely about praising the postal service, but since Sam left the camera running, we see after he completes his rounds, everyone in the building he delivers to has to swap their mail.
- Funny Background Event: Frasier is urging Woody's parents to trust him, when, in the background, a suicide falls past his office window. Frasier mutters that his colleague needs to keep the window closed when having his depression groups.
- Gilligan Cut:
- Diane rather rashly sent off her movie to Woody's family.
Diane: After Woody's father sees this...there is no way he will be able to order Woody to leave here against his will.
[Wipe]
Woody: Well, I guess this is goodbye, then.- When asked what she's going to do with Sam's movie, Diane says "Oh, a snip here, a snip there, nothing much." Cue "Ride of the Valkyries" as Diane's ridiculous art film begins to play.
- Hidden Depths: It's Al the barfly who manages to persuade the Boyds to let Woody stay in Boston.
- I'll Take Two Beers Too: At the Hungry Heifer Norm orders the "Feeding Frenzy special for two", then clarifies that he was ordering for himself.
- In a World…: "In a world gone mad, where can a young man go? Where? Where? Tell me where?" That's how Diane's narration of "Manchild in Beantown" starts.
- It Kind of Looks Like a Face: Another instance of the Running Gag where Cliff brings in a vegetable that looks like a person. In this episode he's bothering somebody with a melon that looks like George Shultz (then Secretary of State).
- Large Ham: Diane is hugely hammy in her over-the-top narration of the home movie.
- Le Film Artistique: Diane's final product, "Manchild in Beantown Redux", chops up the home movie into a truly ridiculous art film that presents Sam's footage in Anachronic Order, as well as shoehorning in faux-dramatic Stock Footage from films like Triumph of the Will and The Battleship Potemkin.
- Parenthetical Swearing: Diane asks if her pretentious film is a work of art. Carla, naturally, responds with "it's a piece of something."
- Prima Donna Director: Diane behind a camera. She storms off after everyone else gets fed up of her dialogue.
- Re-Cut: In-Universe, Diane recuts a fairly ordinary home movie into "Manchild in Beantown Redux".
- Shout-Out: There were occasional hints that Woody's parents were not farm yokels, and one was in this episode where Woody says his father thought Diane's film was "too derivative of Godard."
- Standard Snippet: Being a hack who fancies herself an artist, naturally Diane uses "Ride of the Valkyries" when making her art film.
