#cheers sitcom

Anyway. I never thought this comedy that I watched out of impulsive curiosity will generate a lot of thought! I'm so impressed! One major thing though that clarified everything for me is the ending and why Sam and Diane can never be together (it breaks my heart to say this because I ship them so hard).

Cheers is a place of consistency. It welcomes the everyday people who always stick to the same schedule day after day for the rest of their lives. In Norman's words, the benchwarmers. Norman kept losing and having a new job every now and then. Cliff, although a supervisor now, still lives with his mother and never has a girlfriend. Woody, although a Councilman, still works in the bar. Carla, the waitress, is always pregnant and angry. They are the "regulars" and "tenants" of the bar. Notice how also these words interplay and allude to the kind of lives they live.

Cheers (the bar itself and the show) don't criticize these people. It accepts and tolerates them. It doesn't even give them the pressure to be "something" other than what they already are and being on a stool with a glass at the end of the day. Cheers is the status quo and it rejects anyone who isn't a part of it.

Diane on the other hand was the figurative and literal "outsider". She has loftier dreams, is overly educated, and everything the regulars are not. It was her who had to adjust and blend with their ways, never the other way around. For 5 years these people have been with her, they have never developed any form of fondness or kinship with her. When she left, nobody was sad except for Sam. When she came back, nobody was thrilled either. Diane tried to influence them with her art and manners but to no avail. Because this is Cheers! And Diane who's always looking around the riverbed can never belong to that place. She is never meant to stay in Cheers. Isn't it symbolic that she left in a plane, "taking flight"? And she described her character so well in the Finale:

"...lift from the ground, leaving far beneath us the tedium of ordinary life to soar into the bright, unlimited future."

The tedium of ordinary life is Cheers. And that's where Same belongs. It's his true love. But it cannot be the ground Diane Chambers will grow. Her kind will only be stifled there. She at least owes it to herself to take flight.

but also that they are always upset that you came.