Customer Reviews

Cheers: The Complete Second Season

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I was unsure of how the video transfer to DVD would be for a 20 year old TV show. I was surprised to find that it has only a slight amount of graininess and little or no detectable video noise! Some episodes are better than others, but I found the video quality to be quite good. Certainly the picture is much better than what I see on my cable signal. The audio, Dolby Digital 2.0, is acceptable for a sit-com. The voices are understandable with only occasional distortion. The audio sounded a little flat at times.

"The Guys Behind the Bar" discusses Season 2 in general. I didn't find it to be very interesting and I probably won't watch it again. "Cliff's Notes", "Carla The Comeback Queen", "Di Another Day" do not contain new footage. Instead, they showed clips from several episodes that show off the named actor/actress. They were nicely done. The bloopers segment was laugh out loud funny, although it was short. The extras are not a reason to buy the DVD set, in my opinion.

I like Shelley Long and Season 2 has several episodes about the on-off relationship between her and Ted Danson. Many episodes are very funny. I liked the episode "Just Three Friends". Markie Post plays Diane's friend who is attracted to Ted Danson! "Cheers" does a good job of portraying everyday conflicts, and the fact that it is set in a bar becomes unimportant.

Here are the episodes, with a tiny description:

1. Power Play (Diane & Sam together? You gotta be kidding!)
2. Little Sister Don't Cha (Carla plays her own sister)
3. Personal Business (Can Diane get another job?)
4. Homicidal Ham (Diane's blind date)
5. Sumner's Return (The return of Diane's former fiance)
6. Affairs of the Heart (A man is interested in Carla)
7. Old Flames (Can he break up Diane & Sam?) This episode won 2 Emmys.
8. Manager Coach (Coach coaches a Little League team)
9. They Called Me Mayday (Writing Sam's autobiography)
10. How Do I Love Thee, Let Me Call You Back (Sam says "I love you")
11. Just Three Friends (Markie Post likes Sam)
12. Where There's a Will (A dying man tends bar)
13. Battle of the Exes (Carla's ex shows up)
14. No Help Wanted (Sam could get a BIG income tax refund)
15. And Coachie Makes Three (Diane and Sam want to be alone)
16. Cliff's Rocky Moment (Cliff gets into it with another patron)
17. Fortune and Men's Weight (A fortune-telling scale)
18. Snow Job (Sam lies to Diane)
19. Coach Buries a Grudge (I have to say nice things about WHO?")
20. Norman's Conquest (Norman's romantic interest)
21. & 22 I'll Be Seeing You (Part 1 & Part 2) (An artist paints Diane)

When I watch this DVD I think of how impressive Cheers was in that it had heart - genuine affection and incredible rapport between characters - but was also irreverent in its humor and unshy of the racy and the less than wholly tasteful. Danson and Long in particular deserve credit for their outstanding performances and at least partial credit for their great chemistry (as there's always a component of that kind of spark between actors that seems entirely left to hance, I think) but the writing team was also formiddable in that it consistently avoided veering into the saccharine excess that has marked so many romantic plotlines in the sit. comedy genre, particularly of Cheers' day. There are too many worthwile episodes to justify my listing them here, but this DVD constitutes what is undoutedly among my top 3 favorites of the show's 11 seasons.

Though it was remarkably consistent for laughs throughout its run, I personally prefer Cheers in the pre-Kirstie Alley days. It's not that seasons 6-11, or Alley even, were bad, per se. But it was a different show once Shelley Long left. She really deserves all the lauds she received for her portrayal of the neurotic but well-inteded elitist Diane Chambers. Along with the writers she created one of TV's truly memorable, suprisingly multi-dimensional characters in this season and the one preceding it.

The entire cast is stellar, their interaction so natural (also evident in the short but very amusing blooper reel) and the writing unusually (for its genre) and mercifully restrained in its laugh grabs. In the post-Seinfeld era, few sitcoms have seamlessly combined irreverence and warmth the way Cheers did. I miss(ed) it (until I got the DVDs, that is :-).

I was counting the days until the second season of "Cheers" was released, and I was not disappointed. Not by the DVD itself, anyway. I noticed that Amazon raised their price by a few dollars between pre-order and release date. In the end, I bought the set for much less at Target. Just a word to the wise.

On to the DVD itself..."Cheers" really hits its stride in the second season, with the beginning of the Sam & Diane relationship we all watched with amusement, interest, and amazement back in the day. The extras are slightly more substantial this time, too; while they all feature scenes from only the second season, we have "Diane Chambers from A to Z," "Carla's Insults for Every Occasion," "Cliff's Notes of Wisdom," and "Strictly Top Shelf: The Guys Behind the Bar," which includes both new and 1983 interviews with Jim Burrows, Ted Danson, George Wendt, and Rhea Perlman. I was a little disappointed no one even mentioned the late Nicholas Colasanto (Coach) and what it was like to work with him.

I'm hoping future "Cheers" DVD releases have a big, meaty documentary about the show, along the lines of the "E! True Hollywood Story." Don't get me wrong, I love the episodes themselves, but part of the fun of a DVD is the potential for lots of behind the scenes goodness.

Outstanding. As was the 1st season. Watched all episodes in one sitting. Always was, and always will be, one of the greatest shows to ever air on TV. Highly recommend purchasing this.

Absolutely the best show of all time. Phenominal cast, and terrific writing. Ted Danson is the best actor in TV history, and he deserved more than 2 Emmy's."Just Three Friends", and "Cliffs' Rocky Moment" are two of the funniest episodes of all time. Absolutely hysterical. "CHEERS" season 2 is excellent, just as good as the first season, if not just a tad better.My only problem , I agree with Don H, is the terrible cover. Sam is much taller than Diane , not the same size, and the smile they put on Sam is oviously(sorry wrong spelling)not his. Anybody can see it is digitally added. Plus I've seen the real picture , and he is not smiling. But I digress, it is a terrific set , and everybody should own it. Cliff is the best.

One of the greatest television comedies in history, Cheers is an absolute "must see" for anyone who's ever had a regular hangout "where everybody knows your name". The shows centers itself around the friendly neighborhood Boston bar named Cheers. The bar is owned by former Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Sam Malone (Ted Danson). Sam has three employees - bartender Ernie "Coach" Pantusso (Nicholas Colasanto) and waitresses Carla Tortelli (Rhea Pearlman) and Diane Chambers (Shelley Long). Regular barflies Norm Peterson (George Wendt) and Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger) round out a strong supporting cast.

The Cheers (Season 2) DVD offers a number of hilarious episodes and ignites Sam and Diane's long-lasting, on-again/off-again romance. This is also the first season in which Cliff Clavin is an "opening-credits" member of the cast (even though he appeared in most of season one's episodes). Guest appearances by Fred Dryer (of Hunter fame), Dick Cavett, Harry Anderson (of Night Court fame), and Christopher Lloyd (of Taxi and Back To The Future fame) make for some memorable comic sequences. The season ends with Sam and Diane's romance on shaky ground...

Below is a list of episodes included on the Cheers (Season 2) DVD:

Episode 23 (Power Play)
Episode 24 (Little Sister Don't Cha)
Episode 25 (Personal Business)
Episode 26 (Homicidal Ham)
Episode 27 (Sumner's Return)
Episode 28 (Affairs of the Heart)
Episode 29 (Old Flames)
Episode 30 (Manager Coach)
Episode 31 (They Called Me Mayday)
Episode 32 (How Do I Love Thee, Let Me Call You Back)
Episode 33 (Just Three Friends)
Episode 34 (Where There's A Will)
Episode 35 (Battle of the Exes)
Episode 36 (No Help Wanted)
Episode 37 (And Coachie Makes Three)
Episode 38 (Cliff's Rocky Moment)
Episode 39 (Fortune and Men's Weight)
Episode 40 (Snow Job)
Episode 41 (Coach Buries a Grudge)
Episode 42 (Norman's Conquest)
Episode 43 (I'll Be Seeing You: Part 1)
Episode 44 (I'll Be Seeing You: Part 2)

The DVD Report

A wonderful classic show. It's hard to believe that the second season first aired on television over 20 years ago! God, are we really getting that old?

The condition of the episodes on these DVDs is amazing. The film transfer is sharp and the colors are vibrant. Last week I was channel surfing and came across an episode from the first season. The colors looked horrible, so I decided to pull out the DVD and play it at the same time so I could switch back and forth to compare. What an amazing difference! Like night and day. It's great to have this show immortalized on DVD in such fantastic condition. The second season's film quality is just as good.

Hopefully, with the continuing success of these DVD sets, we'll get some cast/crew commentaries for future seasons.

My only gripe about the second season set is the horrible box cover art. As a magazine art director, I am amazed that the creative team at Paramount signed off on the fuzzy, murky images that grace the box cover. Very unprofessional looking.

As one other reviewer mentioned, there must be a defective batch of these Cheers season 2 DVDs. The copy I got also had no sound. I've trying playing them on three different DVD players, and the result was the same on all of them - perfect picture, but no sound.

It got even odder when I tried to play them on computer DVD drives - my home computer wouldn't play the DVDs at all, while my computer at work played them fine with both picture and sound.

Please note that my 1 star rating is not a comment on the quality of the show - Cheers is one of my all-time favorite TV shows and I'm really looking forward to watching season two. But the frustration of dealing with this sound issue is what prompted the one star review.

Update: After returning the set TWICE, I finally got a copy that would play on my Go Video DVD player with sound (plus it also worked in my XBox). But when I tried to play it on the Samsung player (my main player, since it's hooked up to my home theater system), there was still no sound.

As a last ditch thing to try, I got Paramount's snail mail address from their web site and wrote them a (polite) letter about how frustrated I was with the whole situation. To my amazement, a little over a week later a package arrived in the mail from Paramount. No letter, no explanation, just another copy of the Cheers Season 2 set. But this one plays absolutely fine (both audio and video) on every DVD player that I've tried. And they didn't even ask me to send the defective copy back.

So if you're having the no-audio problem, try writing to Paramount.

Greatest show ever bar none. No pun intended. A classic, and a phenominal sitcom, for any decade. Its still hilarious after all these years. Sam and Cliff are my two favorite characters, but I love them all. I love Cheers. My favorite show of all time. So join the cast where everybody knows your name. You'll be glad you came.

The second season is probably the most gut-wrenching of all the Cheers seasons. Norm's marriage falls apart and his wife leaves him, while Sam and Diane's relationship rises but sputters and falls apart -- the final episode is absolutely sad, and the last line by Sam is magnificent -- "Wow", looking at the painting by Semenko. The second season, though, is a setup for the best season of Cheers - the third season, when we're introduced to Frasier Crane, Diane's new paramour (the only time in the series when Frasier and Coach appear together - a delightful combination.)