Quick followup to yesterday’s “Cheers” post.
In his book Directed by James Burrows, the author tells how Cliff Clavin’s character originated on “Cheers.”
In casting for Cheers, James Ratzenberger auditioned for the role of Norm but was not selected. As he completed his conversation with Burrows and the other Cheers’ honchos, Ratzenberger asked them if they had a blowhard. When they asked him what he meant he replied: “In New England where I am from, every bar has a horse’s-ass know-it-all, someone who pretends to have all the knowledge of mankind between his ears and is not shy about sharing it.”
Hence, Burrows and company wrote Cliff Clavin into the show and he became a Cheers’ regular. Borrows then explained that because they wanted to add an air of authority around Cliff, they decided to make him a mailman and have him appear in his uniform.
In the Cheers’ history of great shows, Cliff is probably most famous for his ill fated appearance on Jeopardy.
There was also this funny followup episode/scene featuring Trebek coming into Cheers and trying to console Cliff on his loss:
As I have noted previously, (click here for example) I have a couple, maybe even several Cliffy-type characters patronizing Buzzy’s on a regular basis. However, when it gets too deep in the Store, I do the Buzzy thing and crank up the music:
Great tune here from the Netflix series Loudermilk: