Gosh, kinda sad ... But considering that at the time NBC's biggest sitcoms were GIMME A BREAK, FACTS OF LIFE, and DIFF'RENT STROKES and that it was coming off a season or two of attempts like LEWIS & CLARK, ONE OF THE BOYS, HARPER VALLEY PTA, and (best of all) THE BRADY BRIDES, ya almost can't blame the network for the "Look over here!" spot ... Seems doubly silly tho not to at least have used Long or Perlman rather than someone who appears to be fresh from shoot for Arrid Extra Dry ... (Hi, Ken, hope you've been well!)
You probably thought the first promo for your show was going to be about the character dynamics, setting or actors. Well this promo is going to be about NBC. That's right, NBC.
In my recollection, the Cheers! promo was delivered by a male announcer - one of those "Hi, I'm from Nowhere!" types with a big phony smile.
The text was identical - and personally, I found the snotty tone of the message kind of offensive.
Most of NBC's fall promos that season carried a similar tone - less about the shows themselves, more about insulting the competition (particularly ABC, which was having its biggest success at that time).
This was the season that Taxi was crowded off the ABC schedule, and NBC picked it up for fall. You may recall that Danny DeVito and some of the other Taxi did promos with the tagline: "Same time - better station!"
Nearly every other NBC fall promo took the same attitude.
NBC had the Emmys that September; that male announcer I mentioned above appeared during the station breaks to crow about how NBC was " … sweeping the Emmys!"; he was counting several Taxi wins, even though that show was still on ABC.
That fall, most of NBC's shows started slowly (including Cheers!). The guy who was in charge of the promos - his name, as I recall, was Steve Sohmer - who maintained that same snotty tone for the next few seasons.
Let me get this straight. Someone was paid to write this promo. Then a network executive O.K.'d it. Then they hired a crew and an actress. Then they shot it. I wonder how many takes she needed? (As per yesterday's blog, I'd love to see the stage directions on this.) And if it was shot on film, they had to process and edit it. All for that?! I've seen more interesting stuff shot with an iPhone. No wonder CHEERS took so long to catch on. M.B.
"You probably think that everything on NBC is televised sewage. Why are you even watching us? ABC has way better shows. Hell, even CBS is better than we are! Maybe your channel changer is broken?
"Still, if you MUST watch our parade of brain-dead stinkbombs? We've got one this year called 'Cheers' you should check out. It's actually not completely embarrassing! I mean, I'm not going to SHOW it to you or anything. Just take my word for it ... it probably won't want to make you shoot your television with a howitzer.
"That's right. We're NBC. We're crap, and everyone knows it. But somehow, this 'Cheers' thing isn't the utter moronic dreck you've come to expect from us!
I always wonder how the attractive women in spots like these look now. The last time I thought that was when TCM ran a promotion for The Producers, and there were all those Nazi Rockettes doing the high-kick. They could probably still do it if you spotted them a walker.
I have always had a special fascination for the "we don't suck anymore" school of advertising. I remember years ago when the burger chain Hardees (Carl's Jr. to those of us in California) had a campaign that featured an actor talking about how he avoided the restaurants because they had terrible food and an odd smell. Recently, though, he had really needed to grab a bite on the road and there was nothing else around so he ducked in and found the food was good and the odor was gone.
I'm still trying to decide whether the campaign was stupid or brilliant.
Already developing my persona as a curmudgeon in 1982, I hated these commercials (like someone else said, I believe there were others with a man delivering the same lines) so much I didn't watch Cheers until late in its first season. That was only in one of those "there's nothing on, might as well" moments too.
Okay then....that reminds me of the promos CBS had for Person of Interest. They carried the theme of the show but Michael Emerson's character seemed menacing and arrogant...the show was actually much better than the promos led to believe.
There are many examples of "Yes, we know we suck, and now we're changing" advertising campaigns. Probably the best-known recently was Domino's Pizza, which like NBC, turned out very well when combined with actual improvement in the product. It seems corny, but it produces results. This type of ad was combined with Steve Sohmer's "Just Watch Us Now" campaign, one of the most desperate-sounding mottos in network history. But it helped produce a turnaround, and led to the much ballsier "Be There" attitude the following year.
"Do you like TV? Do you like to laugh? Are you not a complete dumbshit? Can you spell N, B, C? Then you're in for a treat! Come see us this Thursday at 9 p.m. You know 9 p.m., that's when the big hand is on the 12 and the little hand is on the 9. You'll thank us later."
I also remember this promo with the guy. I thought it was kinda refreshing. "Yeah, I know most of what we've done lately is crap, but there's a new sheriff in town and you need to know this." And they were right.
This also reminds me of when Connie Chung became the first female co-anchor of an early evening newscast (on CBS). The next night, David Brinkley, on NBC, opened the show with, "Good evening, and welcome back." Put me on the floor.
Yikes. It's like N....B.....C..... had no idea what to actually say about the show, but they had to say something...anything. On a different scale, it reminds me of the original promotional posters for Citizen Kane, where the studio obviously had zero idea what the movie was about or how to sell it. The tagline: "It's terrific!" https://www.google.com/search?q=original+citizen+kane+poster&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS747US747&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjPp_Sv_cvbAhVr64MKHennAzMQ_AUICigB&biw=1536&bih=735#imgdii=yHATOkZkAfud1M:&imgrc=F8DTJ6XuJ25HZM:
At least this approach didn't spoil the entire episode like NBC became fond of doing in the 90s. No middle ground with them - you either give away nothing or give away everything!
I did not watch Cheers at all when it started just because of that promo. I found it condescending. When I finally picked up on it, I was resentful of that promo for chasing me away.
"I was a teenager growing up in the 80's, and I literally hated those shows. I still can't comprehend how even one of those became popular"
I'll gladly take any of those over the horror show that was Joanie Loves Chachi. Seriously, ABC dumped Taxi (and in doing so enabled the even worse eight-year hopefully-never-to-be-rebooted train wreck that was Who's The Boss?) for that?
But as for the promo, what's with the exclamation point? That was never actually on the show.
I hate it when sitcoms pull the smarter-than-thou act. It's even more annoying to me than very special episodes or taking any kind of stance on a real-world issue. It conveys a sense of unearned smugness combined with insecurity. Truly great shows speak for themselves. Granted, Cheers earned its accolades, but not because of this promo, which feels to me like it's saying that throwing the approval of the 1% in your face is the most important aspect of a TV show. In all fairness, the promo people had their work cut out for them with all the turds they'd had to polish over the past few years along with a few mid-level hits to keep them from going under completely. That seems to be a characteristic of a lot of NBC promo campaigns of the era: they reflected a misguided mentality that people will watch an NBC show just because it's on NBC. But they sure wrote some catchy songs to try and sell some really crappy shows. Now they had a great one and they produced a promo that says nothing about the show and everything about the network that airs it. Condescending doesn't begin to describe it. It's basically a way of judging your moral and intellectual worth as a person by what you watch on TV. It would have made about half of the characters on Cheers itself turn it off in disgust. How would Norm and Cliff have reacted to it? Or Carla? Or Coach?
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Huh indeed!
ReplyDeleteDid she get paid per blink?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI love it. Thanks for posting that Ken.
ReplyDeleteI seem to recall another one that just showed a gift box, and the announcer stating something along the lines of "NBC has a gift for you .... Cheers".
ReplyDeleteI feel like it's more of an ad for NBC than Cheers itself.
ReplyDelete"Watch NBC! Watch NBC! We have a new show! So, watch NBC!"
Earl B writes:
ReplyDeleteNow let's see if anyone can dig up the first MASH promo (where Alan Alda breaks it down: "That's M star A star S star H").
Wasn't there a similar promo with Shelley Long holding gift box?
ReplyDeleteGosh, kinda sad ... But considering that at the time NBC's biggest sitcoms were GIMME A BREAK, FACTS OF LIFE, and DIFF'RENT STROKES and that it was coming off a season or two of attempts like LEWIS & CLARK, ONE OF THE BOYS, HARPER VALLEY PTA, and (best of all) THE BRADY BRIDES, ya almost can't blame the network for the "Look over here!" spot ... Seems doubly silly tho not to at least have used Long or Perlman rather than someone who appears to be fresh from shoot for Arrid Extra Dry ... (Hi, Ken, hope you've been well!)
ReplyDeleteJim McKairnes
You probably thought the first promo for your show was going to be about the character dynamics, setting or actors. Well this promo is going to be about NBC. That's right, NBC.
ReplyDeleteWhat should have been additionally embarrassing to NBC was the idea of "Hey, guess what? We've decided to not broadcast crap."
ReplyDeleteThe one that sold me was the two beer mugs smashing into each other.
ReplyDeleteWell if that doesn't make you want to tune in, I don't know what would.
ReplyDeleteWow, I wonder why this approach didn't catch on?
ReplyDeleteIn my recollection, the Cheers! promo was delivered by a male announcer - one of those "Hi, I'm from Nowhere!" types with a big phony smile.
ReplyDeleteThe text was identical - and personally, I found the snotty tone of the message kind of offensive.
Most of NBC's fall promos that season carried a similar tone - less about the shows themselves, more about insulting the competition (particularly ABC, which was having its biggest success at that time).
This was the season that Taxi was crowded off the ABC schedule, and NBC picked it up for fall.
You may recall that Danny DeVito and some of the other Taxi did promos with the tagline: "Same time - better station!"
Nearly every other NBC fall promo took the same attitude.
NBC had the Emmys that September; that male announcer I mentioned above appeared during the station breaks to crow about how NBC was " … sweeping the Emmys!"; he was counting several Taxi wins, even though that show was still on ABC.
That fall, most of NBC's shows started slowly (including Cheers!).
The guy who was in charge of the promos - his name, as I recall, was Steve Sohmer - who maintained that same snotty tone for the next few seasons.
I'd like to see the network notes on that script.
ReplyDeleteAnyone know who the cute lady is?
ReplyDeleteLet me get this straight. Someone was paid to write this promo. Then a network executive O.K.'d it. Then they hired a crew and an actress. Then they shot it. I wonder how many takes she needed? (As per yesterday's blog, I'd love to see the stage directions on this.) And if it was shot on film, they had to process and edit it. All for that?! I've seen more interesting stuff shot with an iPhone. No wonder CHEERS took so long to catch on.
ReplyDeleteM.B.
But, she was right.
ReplyDelete"You probably think that everything on NBC is televised sewage. Why are you even watching us? ABC has way better shows. Hell, even CBS is better than we are! Maybe your channel changer is broken?
ReplyDelete"Still, if you MUST watch our parade of brain-dead stinkbombs? We've got one this year called 'Cheers' you should check out. It's actually not completely embarrassing! I mean, I'm not going to SHOW it to you or anything. Just take my word for it ... it probably won't want to make you shoot your television with a howitzer.
"That's right. We're NBC. We're crap, and everyone knows it. But somehow, this 'Cheers' thing isn't the utter moronic dreck you've come to expect from us!
So who was the girl?
ReplyDeleteJoe
It sure would make me want to watch.
ReplyDeleteI always wonder how the attractive women in spots like these look now. The last time I thought that was when TCM ran a promotion for The Producers, and there were all those Nazi Rockettes doing the high-kick. They could probably still do it if you spotted them a walker.
ReplyDeleteShe's so smug, she probably made contrarians like me think, "OK, I am never watching CHEERS." If they remembered the name of the show at all.
ReplyDeleteI have always had a special fascination for the "we don't suck anymore" school of advertising. I remember years ago when the burger chain Hardees (Carl's Jr. to those of us in California) had a campaign that featured an actor talking about how he avoided the restaurants because they had terrible food and an odd smell. Recently, though, he had really needed to grab a bite on the road and there was nothing else around so he ducked in and found the food was good and the odor was gone.
ReplyDeleteI'm still trying to decide whether the campaign was stupid or brilliant.
See current Wells Fargo campaign. "Established 1852. Re-established 2018."
DeleteAlready developing my persona as a curmudgeon in 1982, I hated these commercials (like someone else said, I believe there were others with a man delivering the same lines) so much I didn't watch Cheers until late in its first season. That was only in one of those "there's nothing on, might as well" moments too.
ReplyDeleteOkay then....that reminds me of the promos CBS had for Person of Interest. They carried the theme of the show but Michael Emerson's character seemed menacing and arrogant...the show was actually much better than the promos led to believe.
ReplyDeleteThere are many examples of "Yes, we know we suck, and now we're changing" advertising campaigns. Probably the best-known recently was Domino's Pizza, which like NBC, turned out very well when combined with actual improvement in the product. It seems corny, but it produces results. This type of ad was combined with Steve Sohmer's "Just Watch Us Now" campaign, one of the most desperate-sounding mottos in network history. But it helped produce a turnaround, and led to the much ballsier "Be There" attitude the following year.
ReplyDeleteY. Knott, that's pretty good. Here's another one:
ReplyDelete"Do you like TV?
Do you like to laugh?
Are you not a complete dumbshit?
Can you spell N, B, C?
Then you're in for a treat!
Come see us this Thursday at 9 p.m. You know 9 p.m., that's when the big hand is on the 12 and the little hand is on the 9.
You'll thank us later."
I also remember this promo with the guy. I thought it was kinda refreshing. "Yeah, I know most of what we've done lately is crap, but there's a new sheriff in town and you need to know this." And they were right.
ReplyDeleteThis also reminds me of when Connie Chung became the first female co-anchor of an early evening newscast (on CBS). The next night, David Brinkley, on NBC, opened the show with, "Good evening, and welcome back." Put me on the floor.
I missed CHEERS back in 1982 as I was working nights back then. Luckily I found it later on and loved the show.
ReplyDelete@J.P. "But considering that at the time NBC's biggest sitcoms were GIMME A BREAK, FACTS OF LIFE, and DIFF'RENT STROKES"
ReplyDeleteI was a teenager growing up in the 80's, and I literally hated those shows. I still can't comprehend how even one of those became popular.
Yikes. It's like N....B.....C..... had no idea what to actually say about the show, but they had to say something...anything. On a different scale, it reminds me of the original promotional posters for Citizen Kane, where the studio obviously had zero idea what the movie was about or how to sell it. The tagline: "It's terrific!"
ReplyDeletehttps://www.google.com/search?q=original+citizen+kane+poster&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS747US747&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjPp_Sv_cvbAhVr64MKHennAzMQ_AUICigB&biw=1536&bih=735#imgdii=yHATOkZkAfud1M:&imgrc=F8DTJ6XuJ25HZM:
"But considering that at the time NBC's biggest sitcoms were GIMME A BREAK, FACTS OF LIFE, and DIFF'RENT STROKES"
ReplyDeleteI was a teenager growing up in the 80's, and I literally hated those shows. I still can't comprehend how even one of those became popular
Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Andrew?
This may have been a promo for potential sponsors. Please give us money!
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of the SNL spoof WE'RE LOUD!Instead of We're Proud.
At least this approach didn't spoil the entire episode like NBC became fond of doing in the 90s. No middle ground with them - you either give away nothing or give away everything!
ReplyDeleteI did not watch Cheers at all when it started just because of that promo. I found it condescending. When I finally picked up on it, I was resentful of that promo for chasing me away.
ReplyDelete"I was a teenager growing up in the 80's, and I literally hated those shows. I still can't comprehend how even one of those became popular"
ReplyDeleteI'll gladly take any of those over the horror show that was Joanie Loves Chachi. Seriously, ABC dumped Taxi (and in doing so enabled the even worse eight-year hopefully-never-to-be-rebooted train wreck that was Who's The Boss?) for that?
But as for the promo, what's with the exclamation point? That was never actually on the show.
I hate it when sitcoms pull the smarter-than-thou act. It's even more annoying to me than very special episodes or taking any kind of stance on a real-world issue. It conveys a sense of unearned smugness combined with insecurity. Truly great shows speak for themselves. Granted, Cheers earned its accolades, but not because of this promo, which feels to me like it's saying that throwing the approval of the 1% in your face is the most important aspect of a TV show. In all fairness, the promo people had their work cut out for them with all the turds they'd had to polish over the past few years along with a few mid-level hits to keep them from going under completely. That seems to be a characteristic of a lot of NBC promo campaigns of the era: they reflected a misguided mentality that people will watch an NBC show just because it's on NBC. But they sure wrote some catchy songs to try and sell some really crappy shows. Now they had a great one and they produced a promo that says nothing about the show and everything about the network that airs it. Condescending doesn't begin to describe it. It's basically a way of judging your moral and intellectual worth as a person by what you watch on TV. It would have made about half of the characters on Cheers itself turn it off in disgust. How would Norm and Cliff have reacted to it? Or Carla? Or Coach?