Recap / Cheers S 7 E 5

Episode: Season 7, Episode 5
Title: Those Lips, Those Ice
Directed by: James Burrows
Written by: Peter Casey and David Lee
Air Date: November 24, 1988
Previous: One Happy Chappy in a Snappy Serape
Next: Norm, Is That You?
Guest Starring: Jay Thomas, Isa Andersen

"Those Lips, Those Ice" is the 5th episode of the seventh season of Cheers.

Eddie's still working with the ice show, and is frequently on the road. However, the ice show is now back in Boston. Also with the ice show is sexy East German ice skater Franzi Schrempf (this episode aired just two years before German reunification). Franzi, it seems, is notorious for sleeping with her co-stars. Cliff, who senses a rare opportunity to get the best of Carla, starts reading salacious scandal mag articles about Franzi's love life.

It doesn't help that when the cast of the ice show visits Cheers, Franzi is hanging all over Eddie. Carla seethes with jealousy, until she finally snaps.

In the B-plot, Frasier brags about his "portable cellular telephone", which he carries around in a briefcase. In the C-plot, Rebecca gives Woody some tickets to the Patriots game.

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Tropes:

• …And That Little Girl Was Me: In order to reassure Carla that he didn't sleep with Franzi, Eddie recounts how she brutally tore into a guy at the ice show. That guy was him.
• Blunt "Yes": The whole exchange where Cliff tries to get football tickets from Rebecca.
  Cliff: Say, Rebecca. Was it a big hassle getting those company tickets for Woody?
  Rebecca: [bored] No.
  Cliff: Can you get some for me?
  Rebecca: No.
  Cliff: Ah, I get it, employees only, huh?
  Rebecca: No.
  Cliff: Gotcha. Can't go to the well too often.
  Rebecca: No.
  Cliff: Then you just don't want to get 'em for me?
  Rebecca: Yes.
  Cliff: Well, no harm in asking.
• Casanova Wannabe: Despite assuming Franzi will be an easy target, Sam strikes out with her repeatedly.
• Chickification: After Sam suggests that just maybe the reason Eddie's eye might wander is that Carla is mean as hell as well as physically abusive, Carla conducts Chickification on herself. Not only does she let Eddie have a poker party at his house, she puts on a frilly pink dress and serves snacks to the gang. Naturally, this leads to Carla finding out that Eddie didn't cheat on her after all, which sends her into a rage.
• Domestic Abuse: Carla, the worst wife in the world, is out of control in this episode. She punches Eddie so hard that he loses a tooth, she apparently once shoved his face into the refrigerator in a fit of rage, and she mixes in emotional abuse by humiliating Eddie in front of his friends at the poker party.
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: All of Carla's pretty horrible abuse of Eddie, like punching him so hard he loses a tooth and shoving his face in a refrigerator, is played for laughs.
• Expy: Franzi the smoking hot East German figure skater is an obvious stand-in for Katarina Witt, the smoking hot East German figure skater who won gold at both the 1984 and 1988 Olympics.
• Food Slap: When a blind item in the gossip column seems to confirm that Eddie and Franzi are an item, Cliff smugly says "Don't say I didn't warn you." Carla throws a beer in his face.
  Frasier: You gotta give her credit, she didn't say it.
• Foreign Fanservice: Franzi, the gorgeous German figure skater. All the men at the bar goggle at her and Sam desperately tries to get into her pants.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Carla is wild with jealousy in this episode, suspecting Eddie of having an affair with Franzi the figure skater.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Carla, acting nice. Eddie admits afterwards it was scaring him (and he was convinced she might've been pregnant again).
• The Paranoiac: Thanks to Nick Tortelli, Carla is completely, utterly, intractably convinced Eddie is cheating on her, and is determined to prove it, regardless of how much Insane Troll Logic it takes.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Another example of Carla's terrifying fury, as she launches into Eddie and knocks him down.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Norm wins the race he, Cliff, and Frasier used to tell who got to go to the game with Woody, but being as out of shape as he is he passes out and ends up not being able to follow Woody when he leaves.
• Rewatch Bonus: All Carla's stressing about Eddie's possible infidelity, and Eddie's protestations of innocence, certainly play differently for anyone who's watched Season 8 episode "Death Takes a Holiday on Ice".
• Right Through the Wall: When Eddie shows up at the bar after a long time on the road, Carla takes him out to the front door. Then the gang has to uncomfortably listen to a lot of orgasmic moaning from the other side of the door.
• Smoking Is Glamorous: Franzi makes a big show of asking Eddie for a light and then puffing on the cigarette.