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| Cheers (Season 2) DVD Review |
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Order this DVD from Amazon.com
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Cheers
The Complete Second Season
(Paramount Home Entertainment)
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| DVD Release Date:
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January 6, 2004
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| Length:
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539 mins.
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| Rated:
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NR
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| Format:
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Full Screen (1.33:1)
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| Audio:
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English
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| Subtitles:
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Closed Captioned
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| Extras:
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Strictly Top Shelf: The Guys Behind The Bar Featurette, Cliff's Notes: The Wisdom of Cliff Clavin, Carla The Comeback Queen: Insults for Every Occasion, Di Another Day: Dianne Chambers From A-Z, Gag Reel
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In Cheers Season 2, the lovable gang from the lovable bar return for another season of thrills, chills and spills. Sam (Ted Danson) and Diane (Shelley Long) finally consummate their relationship and manage to stay together for 21 1/2 of the 22 episodes, Carla (Rhea Perlman) has a baby and continues to spit her poisonous venom at anyone and everyone who gets in her way, Norm (George Wendt) is jobless, wifeless and full of beer, Cliff (John Ratzenberger) delivers the mail and a plethora of useless information and Coach, Ernie Pantusso (Nicholas Colasanto) gets more confused with each beer he serves and each glass he drops. The season also features the introduction of Carla's ex-husband Nick Tortelli (Dan Hedaya) and guest appearances by the likes of Dick Cavett, Fred Dryer, Christopher Lloyd and Night Court stars Harry Anderson and Markie Post.
Although Season 1 of Cheers was a pleasure to watch, you can see the writers, directors, actors and anyone else involved with the show took it to another level in Season 2. There isn't a single episode during the entire season that will not make you laugh out loud at least a handful of times. It took me a few days to watch all twenty-two episodes and I found myself laughing out loud on more than one occasion and I don't even really have that great of a sense of humour. I have to say that although the entire cast is outstanding, Ted Danson's Sam "Mayday" Malone was the key to the success of this season. He was smooth, funny, charismatic and he set the standard for leading characters in a sitcom for years to follow. Whether it was Bill Cosby, Jerry Seinfeld, Ray Romano or any of the other great lead characters, they were always compared to the great Sam Malone. If you watch Season 2 of Cheers, you will understand why.
Along with the twenty-two episodes that are featured on this four-disc box set, the final DVD includes some special features. The first feature is titled "Strictly Top Shelf: The Guys Behind The Bar". This is a 9 1/2 minute long feature that includes 1983 interviews with Ted Danson, Shelley Long and some of the creators of the show and some current day interviews with George Wendt, Ted Danson and Rhea Pearlman. Each talks about what it was like being a part of Cheers in 1983. It is an okay feature but nothing too in-depth or mind-blowing.
Next is "Cliff's Notes: The Wisdom of Cliff Clavin", which is a 4 minute long feature on postman Cliff Clavin that includes words from George Wendt.
"Carla The Comeback Queen: Insults for Every Occasion" is a 3 1/2 minute long feature on the waitress that includes the thoughts of Ted Danson.
"Di Another Day: Diane Chambers from A-Z" is 3 1/2 minutes on the blabber-mouthed waitress with a few words from Ted Danson.
Finally there is a Gag Reel, with four minutes of bloopers from Season
2.
There are no episode commentaries, which could have been interesting to watch, at least a few of them. The extras on this DVD are nothing special (besides seeing how much older George Wendt has become ) and really add nothing to the magic of Season
2.
Overall, I would say that Cheers Season 2 is a must for people who are fans of the show and that includes pretty much anyone who was alive during the 1980's. Watching this show will bring back memories of a time when there were only one or two shows on television that you would watch and it will bring back memories of Thursday nights in front of the tube watching Cheers. Here is a show where it was okay to be a drunk, it was funny to be unemployed, you were encouraged to cheat on your wife and lie to your girlfriend and it did all this with great humour. The final episode was one of the great moments on television during that season, with the much anticipated break-up of Sam and Diane (although I must say, I did not agree with Sam slapping Diane in the final episode, that really bothered me). I certainly had a wonderful time watching Cheers and I know that with the introduction Frasier Crane, Lilith, Woody and Rebecca Howe yet to come, we still have not seen the best that Cheers has to offer.
| The Movie: |
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8.5/10 |
| The Extras: |
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4/10 |
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