Just how many people actually worked at Cheers?

[Toom E. Guci]

Seriously!

I am watching Cheers on WGN Retro Night & it got me thinking this question. Look at the early season, ya had Coach, Sammy, Carla, & Diane. Later on, you had Carla, Sammy, Rebecca, & Woody.

4 people worked there pretty much the entire run of the series. And figure the bar has to be open like 10-12 hours a day. And weekends, a bar is open more. And unless Massachussets laws are different for Sunday's, they're open 7 days a week.


So you mean to tell me they worked a s***load of overtime? Did Sam, & then later on Rebecca, break every employee law there was?

I mean, you never did see any other femployees in the bar at all.

[saintturgeon]

Dec 6, 2009 23:50:52 GMT -5 Toom E. Guci said:

Seriously!

I am watching Cheers on WGN Retro Night & it got me thinking this question. Look at the early season, ya had Coach, Sammy, Carla, & Diane. Later on, you had Carla, Sammy, Rebecca, & Woody.

4 people worked there pretty much the entire run of the series. And figure the bar has to be open like 10-12 hours a day. And weekends, a bar is open more. And unless Massachussets laws are different for Sunday's, they're open 7 days a week.


So you mean to tell me they worked a s***load of overtime? Did Sam, & then later on Rebecca, break every employee law there was?

I mean, you never did see any other femployees in the bar at all.

It could be like it's always sunny. where the guests just serve themselves

[Beav]

I'm thinking they had overlapping shifts. Like Carla would work from 1-9 and Diane would work from 5-1 am. Same with the bartenders, Coach 1-9, Sam 5-1 or something like that. That way they'd always have at least four people covering the busy hours. Plus Sam could always work more because he owned the place (some of the time). And I would assume overtime would not be unheard of. Plus, Coach & Sam may have had some money stored away after their respective careers in baseball, so they could take a small pay cut to get the bar going. Also they had part timers. Like there was an episode where Norm worked part time at the bar.

[Vice honcho room temperature]

My brother was on a Cheers kick and he said they talked about some unseen fill in bartender that they mentioned.

[Sarsaparilla]

"You braindead HICK! I'll kill ya! I'll kill all of ya!"

[SHAKEMASTER TV9 is Don Knotts]

Sam was too busy dating the two twins while marrying Diana without Rebecca knowing. How could he serve anyone?

[The Line]

do we ever see the any/many scenes at the bar during the daytime? Who's to say that all the events of the show don't fit into the respective 40 hour work weeks of Carla, Woody/Coach, Sam, and Diane/Rebecca?

[H-Fist]

Dec 7, 2009 1:28:03 GMT -5 The Line said:

do we ever see the any/many scenes at the bar during the daytime? Who's to say that all the events of the show don't fit into the respective 40 hour work weeks of Carla, Woody/Coach, Sam, and Diane/Rebecca?

That's what I was thinking. You figure that Cliff shows up in his USPS uniform and Norm comes in wearing his suit from working at the bank, so generally the bar scenes aren't starting much earlier than 4:30pm. And also, you have to figure that the viewer isn't seeing every day, but just the ones that happen on the show.

[The Charismatic Enabeler]

In a bar where there isn't ever a single drunk person how many employees are really needed?

[Vice honcho room temperature]

Dec 7, 2009 1:44:41 GMT -5 The Charismatic Enabeler said:

In a bar where there isn't ever a single drunk person how many employees are really needed?

The regulars are such so that they built up such a tolerance.

[Dave at the Movies]

Dec 7, 2009 2:18:52 GMT -5 Vice honcho room temperature said:

Dec 7, 2009 1:44:41 GMT -5 The Charismatic Enabeler said:

In a bar where there isn't ever a single drunk person how many employees are really needed?

The regulars are such so that they built up such a tolerance.

Especially Norm. That guy could give Steve Austin a run for his money in a drinking contest.

[dsriggs]

How did that bar stay open for so long with so few customers??

[JDviant]

Dec 7, 2009 7:29:35 GMT -5 dsriggs said:

How did that bar stay open for so long with so few customers??

Cheers was actually pretty busy most of the episodes, while the focus was on the bar you had people in the backroom/pool table, the really big section of tables right of the entrance, and the smaller section just to the left.

[Toom E. Guci]

Dec 7, 2009 0:43:15 GMT -5 Beav said:

I'm thinking they had overlapping shifts. Like Carla would work from 1-9 and Diane would work from 5-1 am. Same with the bartenders, Coach 1-9, Sam 5-1 or something like that. That way they'd always have at least four people covering the busy hours. Plus Sam could always work more because he owned the place (some of the time). And I would assume overtime would not be unheard of. Plus, Coach & Sam may have had some money stored away after their respective careers in baseball, so they could take a small pay cut to get the bar going. Also they had part timers. Like there was an episode where Norm worked part time at the bar.

May be the case, but 7 days a week?

[AriadosMan]

The Mafia held them at gunpoint and forced them to do unpaid overtime.
THAT is why "everybody knows your name"

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Dec 7, 2009 14:54:30 GMT -5 Toom E. Guci said:

Dec 7, 2009 0:43:15 GMT -5 Beav said:

I'm thinking they had overlapping shifts. Like Carla would work from 1-9 and Diane would work from 5-1 am. Same with the bartenders, Coach 1-9, Sam 5-1 or something like that. That way they'd always have at least four people covering the busy hours. Plus Sam could always work more because he owned the place (some of the time). And I would assume overtime would not be unheard of. Plus, Coach & Sam may have had some money stored away after their respective careers in baseball, so they could take a small pay cut to get the bar going. Also they had part timers. Like there was an episode where Norm worked part time at the bar.

May be the case, but 7 days a week?

Your point might be valid, but look at Law & Order. The same two cops worked every murder case in their jurisdiction with the same two DA's for the past 20+ years. I mean, besides the cast changes, but the replacements worked with the replacements and so on.

Apparently times are either tough in New York for cops and lawyers or Law & Order just focuses on the cases they happen to work together.

[darthalexander]

What used to get me about the show is how they'd often all take off at a moment's notice or possible leave someone behind (sometimes just Carla, sometimes just Sam or Woody). Can you imagine if you had to work that bar alone and everyone takes off like that? You never see any of them calling for someone to come in.

It was also interesting to see most people never paid.

[Cry Me a Wiggle]

Well, the regulars always had a perennial tab that would be paid later. Norm never paid his, but you assumed Frasier made good.

It was weird how they never hired anyone to replace Diane. Carla was the only server for the six years after Diane left. Maybe they just didn't need one during the day hours, since what limited customers they'd have before happy hour would sit at the bar.

As far as relief bartenders go, they utilized them when Rebecca ran the bar. When Sam got a gig doing the local sportscast, she mentioned she was hiring them. Of course, we never saw any.

And there was an episode near the end where everyone got really, really drunk (and Carla suspects she slept with one of the regulars)