A man walked into a bar – and every Cheers episode, George Wendt’s Norm made it funny | Television

From the primary episode of Cheers to the final, a decade later, George Wendt’s teddy bear barfly Norm Peterson was a completely shaped sitcom dream. Like Howard Borden earlier than him and Cosmo Kramer after him, his entrance alone was a spotlight in each episode – and Wendt, who has died aged 76, appeared in all 275 episodes of Cheers, a feat matched by solely Ted Danson and Rhea Perlman.

Each single time he opened the door, perpetually sweaty and tie all the time askew, the bar gave an enormous cheer – “NOOOORM!” – as he trudged to his favorite stool for that first beer. Each weary stroll to his seat got here with a zinger. (The very first: “Norm! Whattya know?” “Not enough.”)

Although Norm was in each episode of Cheers, it’s onerous to determine a singular second that made him a fantastic sitcom character. As a substitute, the love we felt was accumulative: for his world-weariness, his insistence on terrible meals, the loathing and love he felt for his unseen spouse Vera – and naturally, the easy pleasure he took in having a chilly one with buddies. (Which led to a bar tab so massive by the ultimate episode that Sam threatened to ship it to Nasa to calculate.)

Whereas we received to see solely a bit of Norm past the bar, so lots of his greatest traces conveyed the good and odd tragedy that was his life: the unseen dangerous days at work, the unseen dangerous nights at residence. “How’s life treating you Norm?” can be greeted with: “Like it caught me in bed with its wife”, “Like I just ran over its dog” or “Like a baby treats a diaper.” As soon as, when requested how he’s feeling, he responded: “I’m on top of the world … it’s a dismal spot in Greenland somewhere.”

“I have a hard time talking about Norm,” Wendt mentioned in a 1989 interview. “It’s like he’s too close to me, but I don’t think he’s changed over the years. They moved him from being an accountant to [a] painter and decorator, but that was basically for some storylines. He’s still the same Norm. I think he’s the toughest to write for because he’s not really anything. He’s just funny.” However no man ever walked right into a bar fairly like Wendt.

5 of the most effective Norm one-liners:

Snow Job (season two, episode 18)

Coach: “What’s shakin’, Norm?”

Norm: “All four cheeks and a couple of chins.”

The Belles of St Cletes (season three, episode 24)

Sam: “Norm! What brings you in at this time of day?”

Norm: “Same thing that always does.”

Sam: “A bit early for a beer, isn’t it?

Norm: “So, float a cornflake in it.”

The Peterson Precept (season 4, episode 18)

Sam: “What’s happening, Norm?”

Norm: “It’s a dog-eat-dog world, Sammy, and I’m wearing Milk-Bone underwear.”

Norm’s First Hurrah (season 5, episode 23)

Woody: “Hey Mr Peterson, what do you say to a cold one?”

Norm: “‘See you later Vera, I’ll be at Cheers.’”

Bar Wars III: The Return of Tecumseh (season eight, episode 21)

Sam: “What are you up to, Norm?”

Norm: “My very best weight if I have been 11 ft tall.