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Television

Best Moments of Cheers: 14, 13

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14. Cliff’s Shock Therapy

Episode: How to Win Friends and Electrocute People (7×07)

Cliff has an appendectomy and lets his friends know at the bar that he’s a bit scared that something will go wrong. The surgery turns out fine, but nobody comes to visit Cliff. Believing his obnoxious behavior has alienated his friends, he decides to hire a guy to give him an electric shock every time he behaves inappropriately at the bar. Hilarity ensues. Ratzenberger is great here.

13. Sam and Robin Can’t Stop Competing

Episode: Indoor Fun with Sammy and Robby (8×19)

Rebecca is supposed to have a full day with Robin, who has finally taken a day off. However, he engages Sam in some friendly competition. leaving Rebecca to spend her dream date with Robin, with Woody. Sam beats Robin at bar games until Robin proposes a game of chess, winner gets their opponent’s yearly salary. Sam, knowing nothing about chess, finds a way to cheat and win. Robin concedes, and then…yeah, just watch it.

Television

Best Moments of Cheers: 16, 15

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16. Sam Proposes to…Somebody

Episode: Strange Bedfellows, Part 3 (4×26)

The only time Cheers had a three-part episode (other than their feature length final episode), Sam winds up dating a well-liked politician (Kate Mulgrew) running for Mayor of Boston. At first she dates him just for the PR points for being seen with a good-looking celebrity, but she eventually falls for him. Meanwhile, Diane tries to sabotage their relationship. The politician eventually tells him he has to make a choice between her and Diane. So he does, though we don’t find out who until the end of the summer.

15. Food Fight

Episode: Thanksgiving Orphans (5×09)

The gang is all without their families, so they have Thanksgiving dinner together. Like any good situational comedy, nothing goes right, including our one opportunity to see Norm’s wife Vera. I bet the cast had a blast with this,

Television

Best Moments of Cheers: 18, 17

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18. Diane Gets Hired

Episode: Give Me a Ring Sometime (1×01)

Cheers was dead last in the ratings after its first season. It’s crazy that nobody tuned in considering how great the first season is, and it’s crazy that the show wasn’t cancelled anyway. You can’t even blame the poor ratings on the first episode, as it does a really solid job of introducing the characters while giving up a few good laughs. It’s not perfect.  Norm tries a Boston accent, which he thankfully dropped, and also is way more misogynistic than his character becomes.

For a quick recap, Diane and her fiancee wind up at Cheers to have some champagne before they fly off to get married. He winds up going back to his ex-wife and Diane is stuck with no fiancee, no money, and no job prospects. She then asks Sam what she should do:

17. Diane Leaves the Show

Episode: I Do and Adieu (5×26)

As everyone who watches the show knows, Cheers was filmed in front of a live studio audience. In this episode, Sam and Diane are finally getting married. The live studio audience was treated to an actual marriage. Imagine their surprise when they watched the aired version, where during the wedding, Diane gets notice that a book she wrote years ago is being published. She decides to take the advance money to finish the book and promises Sam she’ll be back in six months.

Sam Malone’s character is awesome because he rarely devolves into caricature unless he’s doing so on purpose to impress the guys. Ted Danson does a masterful job in making us believe his character during the emotionally poignant moments, and this is no exception.

Bonus Clip: Is There An Ernie Pantuso Here?

Episode: Give Me a Ring Sometime (1×01)

This is such a stupid moment from the first episode, but I still laugh every single time I see it. I love Colasanto’s delivery.

Television

Best Moments of Cheers: 20, 19

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20. Woody Doesn’t Tell Kelly He’s in a Play

Episode: Two Girls for Every Boyd (8×09)

Woody’s girlfriend Kelly was a one-joke pony, basically being there as a set-up for other people’s jokes. She didn’t really grow as a character, and was even more comically naive than the impossibly naive Woody. In this episode, Woody has landed a role in a local play, Our Town. He’s having trouble showing intimacy with his co-actress, played by Lisa Kudrow, because he feels like doing so would upset Kelly and because he feels guilty over not telling Kelly he’s in the play. She then catches him with her, and delivers her best line of the show’s run.

19. 555-6792

Episode: One Hugs, The Other Doesn’t (10×16)

Frasier and Lilith take their boy Frederick to see a Nanny Gee concert. Frasier soon realizes this is the same person as his first wife, whom he neglected to mention to Lilith (or the entire audience prior to his moment). Nanny Gee spends the entire episode pining for Frasier, much to Lilith’s chagrin. The last few minutes of the episode are gold, and I’ve never forgotten the above phone number.

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Top 20 Moments of Cheers

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Cheers was my show growing up. I didn’t begin watching it until it was in its sixth or seventh season (it started when I was just a year old), but I instantly fell in love. I watched it with the family, and when it was on syndication, I was allowed to stay up until 11 pm on school nights so I could watch it.

When I was young, I loved the show for its simplistic humor. Norm’s quips, Carla’s jabs, Cliff’s speeches. Watching the show as an adult, most of those cheap jokes don’t do it for me anymore. Thankfully, the show had way more going for it, mostly superb performances by Ted Danson, Nicholas Colasanto, Kelsey Grammar, and Bebe Neuwirth. I won’t be giving much away that my favorite moments from the show heavily highlight those four actors.

They also heavily favor the Diane and Coach years. While Diane’s character had run its course, both from a romantic standpoint and a why-is-she-still-at-the-bar standpoint, the humor while she was there favored style and wit versus the farce and slapstick often present with Rebecca and Woody around. Still, I enjoyed the show from beginning to end and there are moments from the first episode all the way to the last.

While there might be a couple of spoilers here and there, it’s a comedy, so I wouldn’t worry about this list ruining anything if you plan on watching the show in the future. Besides, many people could reasonably have an entirely different Top 20 for the show and have it be valid.

Television

Best Moments of Lost: 2, 1

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2: Showdown at the Beach

Episode: Through the Looking Glass, Part 2 (3×23)

The final episode of season three was my favorite of the series. I actually was nervous for a good deal of it. Masterful pacing and storytelling. While the final few seasons tried to tell a really complex story, I don’t think they were ever able to quite capture the magic they had right here.

From the tension where Sayid, Bernard, and Jin all try to blow up the dynamite, all the way to Sawyer killing Tom Friendly, the whole scene kills. I was able to track down one clip which takes us from Hurley coming to the rescue, to Sayid delivering the craziest of the show’s executions.

1. Not Penny’s Boat

Episode: Through the Looking Glass, Part 2 (3×23)

Penny and Desmond make it into two of the top three scenes. I wasn’t crazy about either character individually, but I really loved watching them together. Unlike the pangs of lust that came between a lot of the castaways, everything between Penny and Desmond felt genuine, a sort of touchstone to reality off the island.

I was pretty sure Charlie was going to die, and I wasn’t looking forward to it. I did want his character to be gone, but if you looked at the other character deaths (Boone, Shannon, Ana Lucia, Libby, Mr. Eko), they were all sudden and in vain. While not all deaths should mean something, I did not want Charlie to die pathetically. This was the absolute perfect way for him to go. One of my favorite reveals of the show. Combine it with the raw power of the entire episode, and it’s easily my favorite moment. I also like to pretend the episode ended there and not with the flash forward of Kate and Jack being whiny bitches.

What other moments are among your favorites?

Television

Best Moments of Lost: 4, 3

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4. Book Club

Episode: A Tale of Two Cities (3×01)

Season two kind of ended on a whimper. A lot of big things happened.  The hatch blew up.  The gang went searching for The Others camp. Michael and his son got away. We saw the four-toed statue. It was fine, but I was getting really tired of the show constantly adding more mysteries while treading water with everything else.

Then this:

3. Desmond Calls Penny

Episode: The Constant (4×05)

Probably my second favorite episode. While the show dealt with time travel quite a bit, this hour of television dove right in and told a complete and fascinating story around it. The Constant has it all: action, suspense, mind-blowing sci-fi, and a huge emotional payoff.

Television

Best Moments of Lost: 6, 5

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6. Mr. Eko Saves His Brother

Episode: The 23rd Psalm (2×10)

Of the new characters introduced from the tail section, Mr. Eko was easily the best. We first saw him chasing Jin back to the beach on a rampage. We then learn that he’s a quiet, introspective man who has the most compassion amongst Ana Lucia’s crew. We know he’s capable of great love and also great violence. But it’s not until this episode we find out why.

Ugh.

5. Waaaaalllllltttt!!!

Episode: Exodus, Part 2 (1×24)

I watched Lost well after all six seasons had aired. I knew virtually nothing about it other than how long it went on. But that was enough for me to know that there was no way in hell that the raft was ever going to reach rescuers. My prediction was that they’d wind up back on the beach, despite never changing direction, due to some bizarre forces that separate the island from the rest of the Earth. I did not expect The Others, assuming they were stranded on the island just like everyone else, to have a boat.

Michael had slowly become a sympathetic character by the end of season one, and his strengthening relationship with Walt was a joy to see. And then Tom Friendly kills it.

“Only the thing is, we gonna have to take the boy.”

Television

Best Moments of Lost: 8, 7

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8. Locke’s Fall

Episode: The Man From Tallahassee (3×13)

The show had teased for a long time with the when and how of Locke getting paralyzed us. Getting hit by a car in the parking lot was a lame “ah, gotcha” moment where he turned out to be fine. I had a pretty good feeling his father was going to be responsible somehow, but when it happened, I was still taken by surprise.

7. Charlie’s Greatest Hit

Episode: Greatest Hits (3×22)

Oh, Charlie. He was mildly interesting in the first season, but after 36 flashbacks about him being a heroin addict (yeah, we get it) and his bizarre, short-lived turn into Evil Charlie (via attacking Sun and stealing Aaron), I was tired of him. But once Desmond pegged him as walking dead, he finally got the treatment he deserved. In this episode, the flashbacks detail the highlights from Charlie’s life. They’re bittersweet, and a bit sentimental, but I got a little choked up at the end. Either way, his greatest hit is way better than “You Are Everybody.”

Television

Best Moments of Lost: 10, 9

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10. Michael Shoots Ana Lucia and Libby

Episode: Two For the Road (2×20)

When Boone and Shannon were killed off, I wasn’t surprised that they began adding characters to replace them. One would have thought that of the four people from the tail section that came back to camp, a few of them would either become regulars or at least survive. Ha.

Ana Lucia was not well liked, but she got her own flashbacks, so you figure she’s going to stick around a while. I was completely unprepared for Michael shooting her, but got over it in about 1.2 seconds. Libby was the gut-punch. While we didn’t know much about her, she was giving Hurley the time of his life, and the sickening feeling came from knowing he just lost her.

Then MIchael turns the gun on himself. Damn this show mastered the cliffhanger.

9. Don’t Ever Tell Me What I Can’t Do!

Episode: Walkabout (1×04)

This was the episode that made just about everyone fall in love with Locke. In fact, without him, the show would lose about half of its emotional weight. On many television shows it takes characters about a season or so to really get to know their character and ease into it. Terry O’Quinn masters Locke already. The entire episode is a brilliant hour of television, but the last few minutes seals the deal.