The final scene of Cheers — whose series finale aired 32 years ago tonight — is a master class in how to end a beloved, long-running show properly. It’s just Sam Malone and the rest of the gang hanging out, smoking cigars, swapping stories, and reminding the audience why this fictional Boston sports bar had become such a cherished place to virtually hang out for the last decade. They trade jokes and offer different suggestions for what the meaning of life is. Then the bar phone rings, and everyone realizes they have somewhere else they should be.
Everyone files out except for Sam’s favorite barfly, Norm Peterson — played by George Wendt, who died today at 76 — who says that the meaning of life is love. “You know what I love?” he asks Sam. “Beer, Norm?” Sam replies. Norm considers this for a moment, then says, “Yeah, I’ll have a quick one.”
It is one more perfectly-timed rejoinder from the character, and actor, who may have been better at it than anyone else in the long and storied history of TV comedy.
In a career that spanned from being part of Chicago’s famed Second City theater in the Seventies to a 2023 appearance in a moose costume on The Masked Singer, Wendt worked an awful lot. He had memorable supporting roles in films like Fletch. He had a classic recurring character on Saturday Night Live in Chicago sports superfan Bob Swerski(*), who led his pals in chants of “Daaaaaaa Bears!” and “Daaaaaaa Bulls!” (In hindsight, the fact that Wendt was in poor health might explain why there was no Superfans sketch in recent weeks to commemorate a Chicago native become the new pope.)
(*) To borrow a bit from Norm’s know-it-all best friend Cliff Clavin, it’s a little-known fact that Wendt isn’t in the first Superfans sketch, where the main character was Bill Swerski, played by fellow Chicago native Joe Mantegna. After that, Wendt took over as Bill’s brother, though Mantegna returned once or twice over the years.
But Cheers — and the Cheers writers who gave him zinger after zinger, week after week, for a staggering 271 episodes over 11 seasons — made him immortal.
Norm is not the main character on Cheers. Though there are episodes built around him, his primary function was to act as a kind of Greek chorus, commenting on whatever ridiculous thing Sam, Diane, or Rebecca were up to. And the show’s most frequent and popular running gag was built around him. Norm would enter the bar early in any given episode. He would declare, “Afternoon, everybody,” and be greeted in return by everyone else calling out, “NORM!” (Except in the early seasons for Diane, who would insist on saying a friendly “Norman” just to remind everybody how much fancier she was than them.) Then he would saunter on down to his favorite stool and swap a clever bit of repartee with one of the bartenders along the way.
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The material was wonderful — ”It’s a dog-eat-dog world, and I’m wearin’ Milk Bone underwear” is a brilliant turn of comic phrasing — but Wendt’s dry, weary delivery always took it to another level.
Wendt was a few weeks away from turning 34 when Cheers debuted. He looked a lot older — but then, so did most of the cast. Actors, and people in general, just aged differently in those days. But there was a palpably lived-in quality to his performance as Norm. He just felt like a guy with a lot of heart who had been miserable in his job, his marriage, and his entire life outside the bar, for a really long time. And on those rare occasions when he was allowed to do more than spike the perfect comedic setup, he made Norm seem very real, and at times even startlingly wise.
It’s fitting that Norm is the last person to interact with Sam, and the last of the barflies to offer their own take on what life is all about. Though Sam owned, and loved, Cheers, Norm was Cheers, and vice versa. His identity was inextricably wrapped up in that place, and in his trademark stool. Who else could possibly make Sam understand what the bar means to both of them?
Rest in peace, George. When you pass through the pearly gates, may St. Peter and all of heaven’s barflies loudly call out your name.
From Rolling Stone US
