Cheers/Headscratchers

• If Sam is a recovering alcoholic, how can he work in a bar without serious risk of falling off the wagon? This alcoholic Troper was 2 years sober before she could walk down the wine aisle in the grocery without getting weepy and doubts she would ever be safe working behind a bar.
  • He bought the bar while he was still wealthy and a drunk. He owns the bar because a) he has no other income, and b) it's a constant reminder of just how far he's come.
  • I have indeed met a bar owner/operator who was a recovering alcoholic.
  • People are different. To some extent it seems like the constant temptation actually helps Sam in some ways, like he's built up an immunity through exposure. It's usually only when he's under extreme stress or doesn't have certain focuses that he can use that he has problems.
• What happened to Lillian Huxley, the English waitress Sam hired to replace Diane in the 3rd season episode "The Bartender's Tale"? She isn't seen or mentioned in the next three episodes, and after that Diane returns to her old job, which apparently was vacant. Where did Lillian go?
• The staff of Cheers apparently consists of only four people: two bartenders (including Sam, the owner) and two waitresses. Yet in many episodes one or two of these people just leave the bar in the middle of their shift for a long time, sometimes for the rest of the day, and the remaining staff doesn't seem to have any problems running the bar. Why did Sam hire three other people to work there in the first place, since clearly they aren't all needed? Or why not have the two waitresses and the two bartenders work in alternate shifts?
  • Convenience. The bar doesn't really need more than two or three members of staff at any one time, but having more staff than he needs allows Sam the flexibility to come and go as he pleases - which could be important if he spots a hot girl he likes. He extends the same benefit to his employees.

---

Back to Cheers