Sam Malone

For other people named Sam Malone, see Sam Malone (disambiguation).

Sam Malone
Cheers character
First appearance	"Give Me a Ring Sometime" (episode 1.01)
Last appearance	"The Show Where Sam Shows Up" (Frasier episode 2.16)
Portrayed by	Ted Danson
Information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Owner/Bartender
Spouse(s)	Deborah (divorced)
Significant other(s)	Diane Chambers, Rebecca Howe
Nationality	American

Sam "Mayday" Malone is a fictional character on the American television show Cheers, portrayed by Ted Danson. The central character of the series, Sam is a former relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox Major League Baseball team and an owner and a bartender of Cheers. He is a recovering alcoholic and notorious lothario. Although his celebrity status was short-lived, Sam retains that standing within the confines of Cheers, where he is beloved by the regular patrons. Notoriously, he has an on- and off-relationship with Diane Chambers (Shelley Long) in 1982–1987 and the series finale in 1993, "One for the Road."

Sam appeared in all 275 episodes of Cheers between 1982–1993. He also made a guest appearance in the Frasier episode "The Show Where Sam Shows Up".

Character

Casting and development

Before the series began in September 1982, Ted Danson was one of three actors who auditioned for the role of Sam Malone; the other two actors were William Devane and Fred Dryer. Sam Malone was originally supposed "to be a former wide receiver for the New England Patriots;" he became written instead as a former relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox.

I had no idea how unintelligent [Sam] was. At first I thought he was making these - because Sam would come out with these things that were funny, and I thought, well, maybe he's being ironic. You know, maybe he's smart enough to know that he's saying stupid things in the beginning. I think it took me about a year and a half before, maybe a season and a half before I had an inkling on how to play Sam Malone, because he was a relief pitcher, which comes with a certain amount of arrogance.

You know, you only get called in when you're in trouble and you're there to save the day, and that takes a special kind of arrogance, I think. And Sam Malone had that arrogance. And I, Ted Danson, did not. I was nervous, scared, excited about, you know, grateful about my new job.

— Ted Danson, NPR, September 17, 2009

Ted Danson earned $450,000 per episode as Sam Malone within the last few years of Cheers before "One for the Road" was aired on May 20, 1993.

According to the 1993 interview at the Paramount Studios, Danson wanted to stop portraying Sam Malone, which contributed to the end of Cheers. When the interviewer asked Danson about changes of Sam, Danson responded, "He got older, you know," and then, "They tried to make him Sammy again. But he's 45 now. I'm 45. It's OK to be chasing around when you're 37. But when you're 45, it's kind of sad to be chasing around that way."

Before Cheers

Sam has one older brother, Derek, who was an excellent student. A poor student himself, Sam has a contentious relationship with his father, who always pushed him to get better grades.^{[citation needed]} Sam dropped out of high school in order to accept an offer to play minor league baseball.

He was a relief pitcher in minor league baseball, where he met friend and Cheers employee Coach Ernie Pantusso (Nicholas Colasanto). He spent his entire six-year career with the Major League Baseball team, Boston Red Sox. His baseball career took a nosedive when he developed an alcohol problem. He has then retired from baseball, avoided alcohol, bought Cheers circa 1977, and been the owner of Cheers for five years when Cheers premiered in 1982.

Romance

See also: Sam and Diane

Sam is "athletically handsome." However, he is a "narcissist" and "shallow and vain." As a lothario, Sam dates and flings many women in his life, even before Cheers began in 1982. Nevertheless, he fails every potential relationship in his life. He was once married to a woman named Deborah, but his marriage did not last. Notoriously, he has on- and off-relationships with Diane Chambers (Shelley Long) in 1982-1987 and the 1993 series finale, "One for the Road," but their last on-screen romance in the finale is short-lived, and they part ways again.

In "Teacher's Pet" (1985), Sam flings with his female teacher in an adult education to earn himself a good grade for the high school diploma. Not satisfied with a grade and flings with the teacher, Sam ends a relationship with his teacher, has his exams redone, and earns himself a high school diploma without another fling with the teacher again. In the three-part Season 4 finale, "Strange Bedfellows" (1986), Sam has a relationship with a politician (Kate Mulgrew) that does not last.

In "The Guy Can't Help It" (1993), Sam realizes that he is a sex addict and begins to seek professional counseling. In "The Show Where Sam Shows Up," the 1995 episode of Frasier, the Cheers spin-off, Sam is engaged to a fellow sex addict (Téa Leoni) whom he met during group therapy, but he breaks off the engagement after he finds out that she slept with both Cliff Clavin and Paul Krapence (another Cheers regular) during their engagement.

Other activities

Sam has done other activities after his baseball career. In "Now Pitching, Sam Malone" (1983), Sam has appeared in a few beer commercials. In "King of the Hill" (1985), Sam plays and wins against softball with Playboy models. In "Take My Shirt...Please?" (1986), Sam sells old baseball shirt to the public television auction, but no one buys it. In "`I' on Sports" (1987), Sam has been a sportscaster for a few days. In "The Sam in the Gray Flannel Suit" (1988), Sam has been a businessman, which earns him a baseball playout. In "Take Me Out of the Ball Game" (1992), Sam enters a Major League Baseball team whose players are younger than he.

Unpublished

Sam's attempts to publish his life after baseball fame has failed and been short-lived. In "Sam at Eleven" (1982), Sam's interview is left abandoned, unfinished, and unaired. In "They Called Me Mayday" (1983), a proposed autobiography of Sam Malone is rejected and then abandoned.

Friendship

Besides Coach, he has other friends: Carla (Rhea Perlman), Norm (George Wendt), Cliff (John Ratzenberger), Woody (Woody Harrelson), Rebecca Howe (Kirstie Alley), and Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer). In "Battle of the Exes" (1984), Sam and Carla date together once, but then they decide to be friends.

Within months until the two-part Season 3 premiere in 1984, "Rebound," spurred by the collapse of his one-year relationship with Diane, Sam relapses into alcoholism. With the help of Diane and Dr. Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer), Sam regains his sobriety. In Season 3 (1984-1985), Frasier is dating with Diane and initially a rival to Sam. Thereafter, Sam and Frasier become close friends.

In Season 4 (1985-1986), Coach has passed away within months prior to season premiere, "Birth, Death, Love, and Rice" (1985), and Woody is introduced and hired as a bartender. In 1987-1993, Sam attempts many times to seduce a "voluptuously beautiful" Rebecca, but she rejects his advances.

As owner of Cheers

Sam has run the bar, Cheers, for five years when the series Cheers began in 1982 after his baseball career was over. In 1985, Cheers is almost sold to the man (Michael Richards) on the bet, but the bet is forfeited and results Sam winning at default. In 1987, Sam sells Cheers to the corporation and travels with his yacht. He soon returns to the bar to work there under employment of a new manager, Rebecca Howe. In Season 8 (1989–1990), Cheers falls victim into a con artist (Roger Rees) under Rebecca's management. Sam later then succeeds in his quest to reclaim ownership of the bar. After failed relationships with women throughout the show, in the series finale, "One for the Road (1993), Sam realizes his real true love: Cheers.

Reception

According to the April 1–4, 1993, telephone survey of 1,011 people by the Times Mirror Center for the People and the Press (now Pew Research Center), Sam Malone was voted a favorite of 26%. For a question of to whom he should marry, 21% voted Diane Chambers, 19% voted Rebecca Howe, 48% voted Sam to stay single, and 12% had "no opinion" on this matter.

Sam Malone has been a subject to academic researches. An MIT author, in his 1991 journal article, thanked Sam Malone as part of his acknowledgements for "bringing [him] laughter" along with other cast of Cheers. In the 1994 journal article of Totem, Sam's "lucky bottle cap" from the episode, "Endless Slumper" (1982), is an example of fetishes used by baseball players for "good fortune."

In the 2009 NPR interview, Terry Gross called Sam "the opposite of intellectual" and "shallow and vain."

Impact

Sam Malone is a subject of and a satire of masculinity. In the 1990 and 1997 journal articles, he is one of "new macho [heroes]" of the 1980s, "the target of humor," and not a "likely [candidate] to lead the post-feminist counter revolution." Like Sam, a `new' macho hero of the 1980s is an opposite of an `old' pre-1980s macho hero that "constituted an antifeminist backlash."

In the 1993 journal, he is considered a parody of "traditional male values" and of a negative stereotype of masculinity. To the journal's analysis, his "attempts" to define and exemplify "his version of masculinity" are satirized in the show Cheers "to explore gender identity" without threatening a viewer's own definition of one's own gender.

In The Complete Idiot's Guide 2008 book, Sam Malone "[brings] magic to establishment" and is praised for "successfully running [Cheers]."

Ben Shapiro, an American conservative writer, in his 2011 book Primetime Propaganda, calls Sam "a dog, a feminist caricature of men," and a cultural representation of "lower-class conservative." Glen Charles, a creator of Cheers, considers Sam "a spokesman for a large group of people who thought that [the women's movement] was a bunch of bull and look with disdain upon people who don't think it was."

Popular culture

In 1994, Sam Malone and bar patrons of Cheers appeared in "Fear of Flying", the episode of the animated series The Simpsons.

Bibliography

• Craig, Steve. "Selling Masculinities, Selling Femininities: Multiple Genders and the Economics of Television." The Mid-Atlantic Almanack 2 (1993): 15-27. Internet Archive Wayback Machine. 1-21. Web. 14 Jan. 2011. <http://web.archive.org/web/20070625104942/http://www.rtvf.unt.edu/html/craig/pdfs/gender.PDF>.
• Shapiro, Ben. Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV. New York: Broadside–HarperCollins, 2011. Google Books. Web. 15 Jan. 2012. <http://books.google.com/books?id=ymAWgveoxW8C>.
• Tankel, J. D., and B. J. Banks. "The Boys of Prime Time: An Analysis of `New' Male Roles in Television." Communication and Culture: Language, Performance, Technology, and Media 4 (1990): 285-95. Print.

Further reading

• Andrews, Bart. Cheers: The Official Scrapbook. New York: Signet, 1987. Print.
• Bjorklund, Dennis A. Toasting Cheers: An Episode Guide, 1982–1993. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1997. Print. ISBN 978-0899509624.
• Fallows, Randall. "The Enneagram of Cheers: Where Everybody Knows Your Number." The Journal of Popular Culture 34.2 (2000): 169-179. Print. (subscription required) doi:10.1111/j.0022-3840.2000.3402_169.x
• Heilbronn, Lisa M. "What Does Alcohol Mean? Alcohol's Use as a Symbolic Code." Contemporary Drug Problems 15.2 (1988): 229-248. Web. <https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/abstractdb/AbstractDBDetails.aspx?id=115089>. (subscription required)
• Hundley, Heather L. "The Naturalization of Beer in Cheers." Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 39.3 (1995): 350-359. Web. 09 Jan 2012. (subscription required) doi:10.1080/08838159509364311.
• Jennings, Marianne M. "Moral Disengagement and Lawyers: Codes, Ethics, Conscience, and Some Great Movies." Duquesne Law Review 37.4 (1999): 573-602. Print. (subscription required) An official website of Marianne M. Jennings said that the issue number is 2, not 4.
• Phibbs, Bob. The Retail Doctor's Guide to Growing Your Business: A Step-by-Step Approach to Quickly Diagnose, Treat, and Cure. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2010. xv-xvii. Google Books. Web. 14 Jan. 2012.

External links

• Sam Malone at the Internet Movie Database