A yearly tradition...
For several years I've been talking about the "Lost" CHEERS scene. David and I wrote it for the 1983 Super Bowl Pre-game show to promote our fledgling series. They ran it just before game time and it was seen by 80,000,000 people. Nothing we've ever written before or since has been seen by that many eyeballs at one time. But the scene was never repeated. It never appeared on any DVD's. It just disappeared.
Until a couple of years ago.
Sportswriter supreme, Joe Resnick has taped every Super Bowl including that one. And since the scene aired so close to the game, it was on the tape. Thanks to friend of the blog, Howard Hoffman, he was able to digitize it and post it on YouTube. Here's the text of the scene.
So here it is. The Super Bowl is next.
10 comments :
I wonder why Cliff is wearing his mail uniform on a Sunday?
Good job, considering NBC Sports wanted to be a large part of the ad. Interesting that you so underwrote Sam in the scene. You used very little of his character, while defining the others so well.
I wonder how much Super Bowl 30-second ad spots (the opportunity costs) cost back then - then multiply by 5. Wow.
Anyone know the longest promo a network would run today during the Super Bowl?
I can only imagine the fun Cheers would have had with Deflategate!
I'm not into the NFL but I hope the ad spots for this summer's movies turn out to be good, especially Terminator Genisys. Stop laughing, it's got to be at least better than Terminator Salvation, which just stank up the place.
There is possibly another "lost" Cheers episode. This is one that I'm guessing the Cheers cast had done for the United States Postal Service.
I believe this one had Kirstie in it not Shelley Long. In it Cliff explained the mail system to everyone. I remember members of our department had to attend a meeting on how to properly send department mail and they ran the Cheers scene. I don't think it was something just taken from a Cheers episode but a scene made specially for the U.S. Postal Service.
Tomorrow, February 2nd, is the 24 anniversary of Pete Axthelm's death. Great writer.
I was researching for another page, and learned a couple of interesting facts:
The first show to be debuted after the Super Bowl was, in fact, a short-lived ANIMAL HOUSE knockoff called BROTHERS AND SISTERS, which NBC ran after Super Bowl XIII in January 1979.
The first series to get a special post-game showing was CHiPs, with an episode NBC broadcast after Super Bowl XV in January 1981 (it was airing Saturdays)
The funniest line ever written: Carla: "Yeah, it started with the Super Bowl Mass....."
Thank you, Ken and/or David.
Where's Coach?
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