List of Cheers characters


This is a list of characters from the American television sitcom, Cheers.

Original main characters

Before the Cheers pilot, "Give Me a Ring Sometime", was finalized and then aired in 1982, the series originally consisted of four employees of Cheers, the bar, in the original script. There was neither Norm Peterson nor Cliff Clavin, regular customers of Cheers; later revisions added them as part of the series.

Sam Malone

Samuel "Mayday" Malone — a bartender and owner of Cheers. Sam is also a. Before the series began, he was a relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox when he became a friend of Coach, but then he became alcoholic, which took a toll on his baseball career. He has had on-again, off-again relationships with Diane Chambers, his opposite, in the first five seasons. During the breaks in their relationship Sam has flings with many not-so-bright "sexy women", but generally doesn't pursue relationships and fails to seduce some intellectual women.
After Diane leaves Boston, he pursues Rebecca Howe, largely unsuccessfully. In the end, he is still unmarried, recovering from sexual addiction with help from Dr. Robert Sutton's group meetings, advised by Frasier, in the penultimate episode "The Guy Can't Help It". Sam Malone was originally written as a former football player, but the casting of Ted Danson led writers to change Sam into an ex-baseball player.

Diane Chambers

Diane Chambers — a highly academic, sophisticated college student. In the pilot, Diane is abandoned by her fiancé Sumner Sloan, for whom she'd worked as an assistant, as he returns to his ex-wife. Without a job, money, or man, she reluctantly becomes a cocktail waitress. Over time, she becomes a close friend of Coach. She has an on-and-off relationship with bartender Sam Malone. When not involved with Sam, Diane dates men who fit her upper-class ideals, such as Frasier Crane. Later in the fifth season, she leaves Boston behind for a writing career and in the eleventh and final season lives in Los Angeles.

Coach

Ernie "Coach" Pantusso — a "senile" co-bartender, widower, and retired baseball coach. Coach was also a friend of Sam and a close friend of Diane. He had a daughter, Lisa. Coach was often easily tricked, particularly into situations that put the bar at stake. Nevertheless, he listened to people's problems and then helped to them with advice and analyses. In the fourth season, Coach died without explicit explanation while the actor Colasanto himself died of a heart attack in February 1985.

Carla Tortelli

Carla Maria Victoria Angelina Teresa Apollonia Lozupone — a "wisecracking, cynical" cocktail waitress, who abuses customers. At the series premiere, she was the mother of four children and divorced from Nick Tortelli. She flirts with men, including ones who are not interested in her, and believes in superstitions, but secretly carries the torch for Sam. She is both highly fertile and matrimonially inept.
Carla's last husband, Eddie LeBec, a washed-up ice hockey goalie whom she married during the run of the show, eventually died in an ice show accident involving a Zamboni. Carla later discovered that [|Eddie] had cheated on her, committing bigamy with another woman whom he had gotten pregnant. Carla's sleazy first husband, [|Nick] Tortelli, also made appearances, variously challenging Carla with a custody battle or a legal scam stemming from their divorce. Carla's eight children, four of whom were born during the show's run, were notoriously ill-behaved, except for Ludlow, whose father was a prominent academician. Perlman's real-life pregnancies were written into the series as Carla's pregnancies.

Norm Peterson

Hilary Norman Peterson — a bar regular and semi-unemployed accountant, whose common name "Norm" is often shouted whenever he enters the bar. Outside the bar, he frequently changes jobs and has a troubled marriage with Vera, an unseen character. Later in the series, he becomes a house painter, especially for Rebecca's bar office.
Originally, there was no Norm Peterson. Wendt auditioned for a minor role George for the pilot episode, who was Diane Chambers' first customer and had only one word in one line: "Beer!" After he was cast as George, Wendt's role was rewritten into Norm.

Cliff Clavin

Clifford C. Clavin, Jr. — a know-it-all bar regular and postman. He mostly lives with his mother, [|Esther Clavin], in the family house and then in a condo, although he first purchases the condo as a bachelor pad for himself. He is ridiculed by friends and enemies alike, including Norm and Carla, for his know-it-all attitude. Cliff is mostly hopeless with women. His longest relationship is with fellow postal worker Margaret O'Keefe, which begins during Cheers' seventh season. When Margaret becomes pregnant with another man's child in 1993's "Do Not Forsake Me O My Postman", Cliff stays by her side as the baby's stepfather before Margaret returns to the child's biological father.
In "The Barstoolie" Cliff meets his father, Cliff Clavin Sr., who left Cliff and his mother years earlier when Cliff was still a child. Cliff later realizes that his father is a fraudster and a fugitive from justice, and will run off again. Cliff does not want to turn his father in; Cliff Sr. disappears, leaving his son devastated.
Ratzenberger auditioned for the Norm Peterson role but, sensing he would not get the role, Ratzenberger pitched the idea of a bar "know-it-all". The producers loved the idea so the security guard Cliff Clavin was added for the pilot. However, the producers changed his occupation into a postal worker because they perceived postal workers as more knowledgeable than security guards.

Subsequent main characters

replaced Coach, who died off-screen in the fourth season. Frasier Crane began as a recurring guest role and became a permanent character. Rebecca Howe replaced Diane Chambers, who left Boston for a writing career in 1987. Lilith Sternin started as a one-time character in the Season 4 episode, "Second Time Around", and became a recurring character in Season 5, and a regular character for Season 10 and the episodes that she appears in for Season 11.

Frasier Crane and Lilith Sternin

Frasier W. Crane and Lilith Sternin — married psychiatrists and bar regulars, although Lilith rarely orders drinks. Frasier starts out as Diane Chambers's love interest. When she jilts him at the wedding altar in Europe, he ends up frequently going to Cheers pub for drinks and becomes everybody's bar friend. His first date with Lilith in "Second Time Around", Lilith's only episode of the fourth season, does not go well because they constantly argue. In the fifth season, Frasier and Lilith meet again when they are scheduled for a psychological talk show. With help from Diane, Frasier becomes aroused by Lilith's makeover, especially with her hair down, for the talk show. Frasier and Lilith flirt with each other on the talk show. Although they later feel guilty, Frasier and Lilith overcome their guilt with more help from Diane and begin their relationship.
They move in together, get married, and in the seventh season conceive a son Frederick, who is born in the following eighth season. Their marriage is strained when Lilith has an affair with Dr. Louis Pascal. In the Cheers spin-off Frasier, Frasier divorces her, gives custody of Frederick to Lilith, and moves from Boston to Seattle. Lilith appears in the spin-off recurringly.

Woody Boyd

Woodrow Tiberius Boyd — a co-bartender, commonly called "Woody". When he arrived from his Midwest hometown to Boston, Woody wanted to meet his pen pal Coach. However, he finds out that Coach already died, and is hired to work at the bar. Later, he dates [|Kelly] Gaines and then marries her. At the end, they have a son and daughter as revealed in Frasier.

Rebecca Howe

Rebecca Howe — a "voluptuously beautiful" manager and occasional waitress. Initially, she starts out a strong independent woman, but after several romantic failures with rich men, she becomes "more neurotic, insecure, and sexually frustrated". At the start, Sam attempts to seduce Rebecca without success, but, when her persona changes, he loses interest in her. In the series finale, she marries the plumber Don Santry. In Frasier, according to Sam, she divorces Don and then ends up visiting the bar without working there again.

Recurring characters

Each of the following characters of Cheers may or may not be particularly significant to the story of the series; each was introduced in one season and would appear in subsequent seasons — unless introduced in season 11, which was the last season. However, even when a character appeared earlier, information is arranged based on a character's first appearance rather than an actor's, especially when a same actor portrays different characters. Moreover, uncredited appearances are disregarded.

Introduced in season 1

Sumner Sloan

Sumner Sloan is a college English literature professor for whom Diane Chambers worked as a teaching assistant. Divorced, Sumner became engaged to Diane, whom he left to return to his ex-wife, Barbara, flying to Barbados on the flight Diane had booked for them both. Sumner tried secretly to win Diane back while she was seriously dating Sam Malone, that attempt which ultimately failed. Diane ultimately states that it wasn't because Sam read War and Peace, but that he read it for her.
In "I Do, Adieu", where he last appears, Sumner returns after he heard the news about Sam and Diane's engagement. Sumner tells Diane that he sent one of her unfinished manuscripts to one of his colleagues, who later praises it. He warns her that writing both a novel and being a housewife to Sam simultaneously is impossible. Moreover, he warns her that choosing one would put an end to the other, either her marriage or her writing talents. Diane orders Sumner to leave the bar right away, but after talking with Sam, she decides to invest six months of her time into the endeavour of finishing the book, and they ultimately do not marry.

[|Harry the Hat]

Harry "the Hat" Gittes is a con artist who first appeared in "Sam at Eleven". More often, Harry has been kicked out by Sam for his confidence tricks, while Harry tricks bar customers into giving him money. In "Pick a Con... Any Con", Sam Malone bails Harry out of jail because Sam and Coach want him to spite a hustler, George Wheeler, who has been taking away $8,000 worth of bar assets from Coach at card games of gin rummy. Then Harry suggests poker, which he assumes that George may not be good at conning, and prices Sam's requests for $5,000. Later, Harry ends up "losing" to George at poker games.
However, as discovered, Harry's hand was four of a kind, which would have beaten George's straight hand. As they later admit, Harry and George have been cheating players, including Sam, at poker to take away their money. Therefore, they play a serious but final game. When Coach scratches his nose, George indicates a gesture that his three Queens would beat Harry's hand. This time, however, Harry's four 3s in his hand beats George's hand, so Harry takes all the money and then leaves the bar. Nevertheless, as it turns out, the whole events are Harry and Coach's doings to spite George, so Harry comes back after George leaves and then gives everyone back $8,000.
In "Bar Wars VII: The Naked Prey", Harry "refuses" to help out the Cheers gang spite [|Gary], who has been taunting the Cheers gang with superiority, pranks, and competitions. He tells the gang that they are naturally "losers" and that topping Gary is impossible. He cons Gary by pretending to be a contractor with a fake name. Gary has his own pub, Gary's Olde Towne Tavern, demolished under Harry's "contract" for millions, but then Gary realizes that he was conned and that the money does not exist. Harry hides while Gary angrily exits the bar to chase after him. At the end, as discovered, Harry takes a stash of money from Cheers's cash register for the gang's requests on Gary.

Dave Richards

Dave Richards is a sports commentator, friend of former baseball player Sam Malone, and also divorced. In "Sam at Eleven", Dave wants to interview Sam only because, unbeknownst to Sam, none of high-profile celebrities at Dave's priorities were available. However, when one of the high-profile sports celebrities is finally available, Dave halts his interview with Sam, which puts an end to Sam's second chance of fame.
In "Old Flames", Dave realizes that Sam and Diane are together and bets that their relationship will end in 24 hours, so he and Sam will do with women. Then Dave sets Sam up with another woman to put his relationship with Diane Chambers at stake. However, Sam cannot fling with that woman because he still thinks about Diane. After time expires, Dave fails to break them up because Sam and Diane are still together. In "Love Thy Neighbor", Dave is heard on the radio, where he interviews Sam about Diane. In "'I' on Sports", Dave offers Sam a job as Dave's substitute for covering sports on television, which Sam accepts.
Fred Dryer originally auditioned for Sam Malone, a supposedly football player. Because he was a football player, Dryer was considered for that role. However, the role was already given to Ted Danson.

Paul

Paul was bar customer who appears recurringly until "Manager Coach", an episode of the second season. He spends most of his time antagonising Cliff Clavin. He is not to be confused with [|Paul Krapence].

Alan

Alan was a bar patron who appears recurringly through the show's entire run. In his first appearance "Let Me Count the Ways", Alan informs waitress Diane Chambers that she has given him a wrong drink. Immediately, she breaks into tears, so Alan tries to cheer her up without avail by "accepting" and then drinking the wrong order. In "The Heart Is the Lonely Snipe Hunter", he is one of the boys who purposely abandon Frasier Crane at the fabricated snipe hunting game. In "Those Lips, Those Ice", when Carla Tortelli assumes that her then-husband Eddie is cheating on her with another woman, Alan advises Carla to tell Eddie how she feels inside by expressing not only her heart but also her soul, so they both "give unto" each other. Norm Peterson reacts by calling him a "clown".

Andy Schroeder

Andy Schroeder is an ex-convict. Andy first appears in "Diane's Perfect Date" as Diane Chambers's blind date, paid by Sam Malone, who calls him "Andy-Andy" because he does not know and has not asked his surname, for $20. As discovered, he killed the waitress in an Italian restaurant, Via Milano, and was imprisoned. He rides a motorcycle. During the date, Diane and Sam find [|Andy's] comments murderous.
Andy later reappears in "Homicidal Ham" and then holds people hostage to commit robbery with a gun. Fortunately, Carla Tortelli catches him after he drops the gun. As learned, Andy has no job because of his past; nevertheless, Andy learned acting in high school. Diane convinces Sam not to send him to the police and, instead, gives him a chance to do performance in Shakespearean play Othello. Andy then falls in love with Diane, but he becomes jealous and then murderous when he see Sam and Diane kissing. At the play, performed in the bar, Andy chokes Diane to near death until Sam rescues her, and Norm Peterson and Cliff Clavin grab hold of Andy.
Later, he is sometimes called "Andy-Andy" by characters and real-life sources alike. In "Diane's Nightmare", Andy marries Cynthia, but the whole thing turns out to be Diane's dream. In "Do Not Forsake Me, O' My Postman", Andy returns to the bar with bomb detonator around his body and wants to see Diane. Woody Boyd tells him that Diane no longer works as a waitress anymore, so Andy leaves.

Boggs

Boggs is a chauffeur to Helen Chambers, mother of Diane. In "Someone Single, Someone Blue", Boggs repeatedly asks Diane to be his wife to help her mother Helen keep her inheritance under the late Spencer Chambers's will. When the time expires and Diane is still single, Helen loses all the wealth. Fortunately, as he admits, Boggs embezzled a healthy proportion of the Chambers's money in the past and has money still remaining. He proposes to be Helen's husband, and Helen accepts. In "Rebound, Part One", after Diane's huge breakup from Sam Malone, Boggs takes Diane back from psychiatric hospital to her apartment. He notifies her that Helen felt uncomfortable contacting Diane while Diane was in the ward.

Justice Harrison Fiedler

Justice Harrison Fiedler is a justice of the peace. In his first episode, "Someone Single, Someone Blue", he performs Sam and Diane's wedding, which is halted by Diane's mother Helen, who is appalled by their bickering toward each other. In his second and last episode, "Bar Bet", her performs a faux wedding of Sam and Jacqueline Bisset, whom Sam obtained to avoid losing his bar to his friend Eddie Gordon.

Introduced in season 2

Tom

Tom, an aspiring lawyer who studies law and attempts to pass the bar exam. He is primarily involved in main stories that involve legality, like financial will and parental custody. Sometimes, his credited surname is either Sherry or Babson. In "Chambers vs. Malone", he is a defense attorney for Sam Malone's court case of "assaulting" Diane Chambers. Although Sam testifies that there was no assault, Tom requests that Sam propose to Diane in front of the court, which Sam reluctantly does. Actor Babson appeared previously as an unnamed customer in "The Tortelli Tort" and Barney in "The Boys in the Bar". His last episode is "Airport V".

Nick and [|Loretta] Tortelli

Nick and Loretta Tortelli are married couple currently living in Las Vegas. In previous season, Nick was referenced, mostly by his ex-wife Carla ; as discovered, he was a deadbeat father and disloyal husband when he cheated on Carla with another woman. In their first episode "Battle of the Exes", after Nick and Loretta's wedding, Nick comes into the bar and then begs Carla to be together with him, despite that he is married to Loretta. However, Carla turns him down in "favor" of Sam Malone , and then Nick and Loretta leave.
In "An American Family", Loretta discovered that she will never be able to produce children. Therefore, Nick and Loretta attempt to retrieve custody of one of Carla's children - eldest son [|Anthony] - without avail. In "If Ever I Would Leave You", Loretta kicks Nick out for not supporting her decision to join the singing group, so he goes to Cheers to work as a janitor to prove himself as a better man to Carla. Three weeks later, Loretta comes to the bar and then begs him to be still her husband. At first he refuses, but he realizes his mistake, prompting him to dump Carla again.
In "Save the Last Dance for Me", Nick and Loretta enter the dance competition against Sam and Carla, but both are disqualified during the contest. Nick and Carla dance for one time, and subsequently win the competition. At the bar, Nick begs Carla to be together with him again behind Loretta's back, but Carla, in retaliation, cracks an egg on his forehead.
Nick and Loretta appear in their own short-lived spin-off The Tortellis, which lasted from January to May 1987. In "Spellbound", Loretta leaves Nick because she figures that Nick is not faithful to her. She then goes to Cheers to seek help from Carla and Diane Chambers for independence, such as becoming a singer. Nick arrives at the bar to woo Diane, Loretta, and then Carla with violinist and dinner without success. Diane advises Nick to improve his marriage with Loretta, so he leaves the bar trying to go after Loretta.
In "Loathe and Marriage", Nick and Loretta come to his daughter Sarafina's wedding with a retired police officer, located at the bar. Carla tries to throw him out, but [|Sarafina] convinces her to let Nick stay. At the wedding reception, Loretta sings.

Lewis

Lewis, an African-American "large, athletic male" postal worker. In the episode "Cliff's Rocky Moment", Cliff Clavin attempts to have Lewis brawl with Victor without avail. In fact, both Lewis and Victor cannot stand Cliff because of his know-it-all behavior, and Lewis leaves, resolving not to help Cliff. In his second and final episode "I Call Your Name", Lewis is fired from his job for stealing fragrant samples from people's mail. Lewis wants to find out the identity of the person who reported him to physically attack him, but ultimately he decides not to do so, having already found another job.
In the book The Sitcom Reader, Robert S. Brown called him a stereotype of African Americans.

Steve

Steve, a bar patron. His first episode is "Norman's Conquest" ; his final is "One for the Road", the series finale. Actor Gianelli previously appeared as unnamed customer in "No Help Wanted".

Al

Al was an elderly male bar patron. Over the series until the actor's death in 1990, Al may be involved in dialogues, especially cold openings. He has a distinct, gravelly voice and often unexpectedly interjected with a comedic one-liner relevant to what the characters are discussing, often leaving them speechless momentarily. In his first credited episode "Fortune and Men's Weight", when Carla Tortelli asks men who the all-time "bigwig" is, Al declares "Sinatra" as an answer, bemusing patrons. In "Cheers: The Motion Picture", Al gives Woody Boyd's father a philosophical phrase that convinces him to let Woody stay in Boston rather than take him back to his hometown. In "Bar Wars", he attends Gary's Olde Towne Tavern, the bar that is Cheers' rival. His last credited episode is "The Improbable Dream: Part 2". In the Frasier episode "Cheerful Goodbyes", Cliff mistakenly refers Phil as Al; Phil corrects him by saying that Al died "fourteen years" earlier, i.e. 1988, contradicting Al Rosen's death in 1990 and last credited appearance.

Introduced in season 3

Larry

Larry is a bar patron. Larry's first episode is "Diane Meets Mom" ; his last is "One Last Fling". Actor Harpel previously appeared in the season premiere "Rebound" as an unnamed customer.

Tim

Tim is a bar patron. He is one of boys in "The Heart Is the Lonely Snipe Hunter" who abandon Frasier Crane, who has been playing a snipe hunting game in the woods. Actor Tim Cunningham previously appeared as Chuck in the first season and Greg in the second. Chuck works at a lab that creates mutated viruses. Whenever he visits and then exits the bar, people in the bar sanitizes everything to eliminate viruses, including ones that Chuck touches.

Walt Twitchell

Walter Q. "Walt" Twitchell is a postal carrier and rival of Cliff Clavin. In his first episode "Executive's Executioner Hines", Walt attempts to mail Cliff Clavin's letter that contains insults to Cliff's noisy neighbors, but Cliff retrieves it and rips it to shreds. In "A Diminished Rebecca with a Suspended Cliff", he and his brother, posing as a postal inspector named Henderson, trick Cliff into believing that all postal employees must wear a new uniform.

Introduced in season 4

[|Beth Curtis]

Beth Curtis is an old-time girlfriend of Woody Boyd's from Indiana. In "Woody Goes Belly Up", Beth and Woody are reunited. During high school, both Woody and Beth were overweight, a problem which seemed to become resolved once they were separated; however, after their reunion, they end up overeating and people unsuccessfully attempt to help them overcome it. Fortunately, Frasier Crane tells Beth that she and Woody substitute overeating for premarital sex due to religious backgrounds. Although Sam Malone and Diane Chambers take the couple to dinner to help them control their eating habits, Woody and Beth end up taking Frasier's psychological advice seriously and make plans to have sex.
In her second and last episode "The Book of Samuel", Beth ends up engaged to her fiancé Leonard Twilley, much to Woody's disappointment. Beth confesses that she and Woody are two different people who are not meant for each other: Woody is adventurous, while she settles down into commitment.

Anthony and Annie Tortelli

Anthony Tortelli is the eldest son of Nick and Carla Tortelli, and Annie is his wife. In "The Groom Wore Clearasil", teenagers Anthony and Annie want to be married with his mother Carla's permission, but Carla refuses and tries to keep them apart without avail because she assumes that Anthony resembles his deadbeat father Nick. Suddenly, Annie's cousin Gabrielle walks into the bar, and Anthony becomes attracted to her, much to Annie's dismay. Anthony and Annie also appear as regular characters in the short-lived spin-off The Tortellis and live with Nick and his wife Loretta.
After the spin-off ended, in two-part episode "Little Carla, Happy at Last", married Anthony and Annie were kicked out by Nick and then decide to live with Carla. At the bar, they meet pregnant Carla's new husband Eddie LeBec and then openly disdain him for getting Carla pregnant. In "Tale of Two Cuties", Annie finds her husband Anthony lazy because he has no job. Therefore, she works as a temporary waitress and then tries to flirt with the bartender Sam Malone repeatedly without avail. To try and win her back, Anthony finds a job at a burger joint. At the end, he walks in the bar with his work uniform to prove himself to Annie, who becomes flattered and praises him.
In "Slumber Party Massacred", Anthony impregnated Annie and then announces it to Carla at dinner. Outraged and horrified that the Annie is pregnant at such a young age, Carla kicks them out and neither are heard from ever again, destroying the couple's plans to live with Carla and Eddie after their baby arrived. Neither Anthony or Annie appeared in season eleven for Anthony's sister Serafina's wedding, but in Season 10's "Unplanned Parenthood", [|Gino] mentions that Anthony is in prison.

Gary

Gary is a bartender and an owner of his own pub Gary's Olde Town Tavern. Often he challenges Sam Malone and other Cheers patrons in contests and then wins them in his appearances. Nevertheless, in his first episode "From Beer to Eternity", Diane Chambers's strike in bowling helps the Cheers team win the game. In his final episode "Bar Wars VII: The Naked Prey", Gary has his bar demolished by Harry the Hat, who uses fake name, for millions of dollars. However, Gary realizes that Harry is a fake when Harry's check bounced, leaving Gary without money and the bar.

Paul Krapence

Paul Krapence is a bar patron. His first episode is "Fools and Their Money", and his last is the series finale "One for the Road". More often he is excluded from the Cheers gang's activities except some, which "he insisted". In "It's Lonely on the Top", Paul had sex with drunk Carla Tortelli offscreen, which she regrets, while he becomes proud. However, Sam Malone orders him not to tell anyone about this for everyone's sake. Actor Paul Willson appeared previously in Cheers as Glen in "Someone Single, Single Blue" and as Tom in "Little Sister, Don't Cha".
As discovered in "The Show Where Sam Shows Up", an episode of the spin-off Frasier, Paul slept with Sam's fiancée Sheila. However, Sam becomes angrier when he finds out about her and Cliff Clavin, which ends Sam's relationship with her. Paul's only Frasier episode that he appears in is "Cheerful Goodbyes".

139th Street Quartet

139th Street Quartet is a barbershop quartet consisting of the 1st Tenor, the Bass, and the Baritone, and a fourth member. The fourth member is 2nd Tenor in "Dark Imaginings" and a replacement portrayed by John Sherburn in "The Stork Brings a Crane". In the cold open of "Dark Imaginings", the Bass quits after one of quartet members chides him for costing them their chance to win a championship. Norm tries out the quartet to fulfill his lifelong dream only to then abandon it immediately. In "The Stork Brings a Crane", the quartet performs all day on Cheers's centennial anniversary party, much to bar patrons' annoyance, until Sam chokes one of them off-screen.

Phil

Phil is a regular bar patron who appears throughout the series beginning in the fourth season. Perlman was the father of Cheers cast member Rhea Perlman.

Corinne

Corinne, an elderly waitress, hired by Woody Boyd in her first episode "Diane Chambers Day". As discovered, she also works as a waitress at Norm Peterson's favorite restaurant, The Hungry Heifer. Her last episode is "Cheers: The Motion Picture". Portrayer Doris Grau was also a script supervisor of Cheers.

Introduced in season 5

Esther Clavin

Esther "Ma" Clavin is the mother of Cliff Clavin.
Before her physical appearances, a lot is learnt about her, mainly through her son. As learned in "Sam Turns the Other Cheek", her husband Cliff Sr left her and their son behind. In the episode "Just Three Friends", when Cliff and Norm Peterson make a prank call to her. It is first mentioned in the third season that Cliff lives with his her, for which the other barflies mocked him. In the episode "Coach in Love Part 2", Cliff's mother is heard in a voice-over. When she asked if she could stop by and meet the gang, Cliff whispered under his breath "When Hell freezes over".
Regardless, Esther first appears in, "Money Dearest", and becomes engaged to a wealthy man Duncan Fitzgerald upon Cliff's urging. Cliff tries to persuade Esther to break off the engagement when Esther makes Duncan donate half his fortune to charity, but Duncan dies hours later, leaving her heartbroken. Esther's appearances at the bar gives an insight into Cliff's know-it-all personality, as Esther spouts even more useless facts than Cliff; Frasier Crane remarks that, after meeting Esther, he sees Cliff as "almost heroically" well-adjusted.
One of Esther's pastimes is making pretzels in unintentionally unusual shapes, which Cliff brings them into the bar in "Second Time Around". Patrons find them awful to taste, but is unable to tell him without hurting Esther's feelings. Therefore, Cliff brings them again in other episodes. In "The Last Angry Mailman", Esther sells their house only to have it bulldozed and then replaced by a convenience store. Since then, they live in an apartment together, which first appears in "My Fair Clavin". In "Look Before You Sleep", witnessed by Sam Malone, Cliff and Esther argue over their lives together, including how dateless Cliff is, but then apologize, which stuns Sam.
In her "Rebecca Gaines, Rebecca Loses", Cliff sends Esther to a senior center but then regrets it, despite her obvious pleasure about living there. Cliff eventually takes her back into the apartment, feeling guilty for dumping Esther in a home.

Vera Peterson

Vera Peterson is the wife of Norm Peterson
Most of Vera's appearances were uncredited voiceovers, although her body is seen in the fifth season episode "Thanksgiving Orphans"; her face is covered by filling from a pie Diane Chambers threw at Norm. In the ninth season episode "It's A Wonderful Wife" her legs can be seen through the bar's front window as she sits crying on the steps after being fired from her job at Melville's as a hat-check girl. Birkett's only credited appearance is in Season 11's "Look Before You Sleep".
Vera's background is briefly mentioned throughout the series: she and Norm were high school sweethearts, Vera was a cheerleader, and they married soon after graduating. In "Truce or Consequences", the two celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary, which means they married at some point in 1972.
Vera's family, who also remain unseen, frequently descend upon the Peterson household. Vera's younger sister, Donna, is the most frequent visitor, and usually stays for extended periods of time. Norm claims to dread these visits because, while he considers her more attractive than Vera, she relentlessly hits on him; he claims to have once walked in on Donna while she was naked and she tried to cover herself up with an emery board. In "One Hugs, The Other Doesn't", Norm mentions that Vera has nieces and nephews, which means Vera must have at least one brother or another sister. While generally tolerating Donna and Vera's other relatives, Norm shows a dislike to her parents: when Vera's mother stays with them, Norm was assigned to take her to visit Bunker Hill, but he instead locked her in the car and went to the bar like normal. A conversation at the bar revealed that Norm doesn't know if Vera's father is alive or not; when he calls her and asks, she refuses to speak to him for several days.
Despite being the frequent butt of Norm's jokes, he professes a deep love for Vera. When they separate following Norm's inability to hold down a job, Norm slumps without her. When he learns that Vera is being wooed by former high school wrestling rival Wally Bodell in "They Called Me Mayday", Norm challenged Wally to a wrestling match in order to win her back; when Vera learns of this, it leads to her reconciling with Norm. In "Love Thy Neighbour", Phyllis Henshaw visits the bar, voicing her suspicions that her husband Ron is having an affair with Vera. Norm is subsequently distraught at the thought of Vera cheating on him and the prospect of him leaving her; despite that, he refuses to have an affair with Phyllis out of spite, still feeling a certain loyalty to Vera. In "Feeble Attraction", Norm's secretary Doris reveals that she has developed feelings for Norm, which flusters him, although he is soon rid of the problem when he has to close the business down. In "Norm's Big Audit", when IRS agent Dot Carroll offers to overlook Norm's tax evasion in exchange for sexual favours, Norm refuses to betray Vera.
In "The Two Faces of Norm", Norm scares his employee Rudi by using an alternate personality, harsh-hearted Anton Kreitzer, to scare them into shape. When asked by Frasier where he came up with the name Kreitzer, Norm reveals that it was Vera's maiden name.

Hugh

Hugh is a tall, balding bar patron wearing usually a beige or brown sport jacket and tie. His first episode is "Chambers vs. Malone", and his last is "Jumping Jerks". In the cold opening of "Chambers vs. Malone", Hugh sits with Pete and Mark at one table, forgetting who is the "designated driver" while intoxicated. Sam calls a taxicab company to take them home.

Pete

Pete is a friendly blonde man seen usually in casual clothing. His first episode is "Chambers vs. Malone", and his last is "One for the Road". In the cold opening of "Chambers vs. Malone", Pete sits with Hugh and Mark at one table, forgetting who is the "designated driver" while intoxicated. Sam calls a taxicab company to take them home.

Mark

Mark is a man with a black hair wearing usually a suit. His first episode is "Chambers vs. Malone", and his last is "Indoor Fun with Sam and Robby". In the cold opening of "Chambers vs. Malone", Mark sits with Hugh and Pete at one table. Seeing them forget who is the "designated driver" while intoxicated, Hugh agrees with Sam calling them a taxicab ride home.

Eddie LeBec

In two-part episode "Never Love a Goalie", Carla Tortelli meets the Boston Bruins ice hockey player, Guy "Eddie" LeBec, who has an endless winning streak and a French Canadian background, and then begins to date him. However, because of their relationship, Eddie's streak unfortunately comes to an end. Since both are superstitious, they end their relationship in order to avoid ruining Eddie's ability to play. They nevertheless reconcile shortly thereafter and promise to break up repeatedly before every game to avoid the "curse". In "Home Is the Sailor", Carla is revealed to be several months pregnant with Eddie's twins. In the two-part episode "Little Carla, Happy at Last", Carla and Eddie wed. She almost quits her waitressing job because Eddie said that he would take care of her financially. However, the Bruins released him from his contract due to his age and declining athletic performance, and he could not find another team. In "Airport V", Eddie ends up as a penguin mascot for a traveling ice show in another state. Later in the 1987–88 season, Carla gives birth to their twin boys, named Elvis and Jesse, after Carla's idol Elvis Presley and his stillborn twin brother.
In "Death Takes a Holiday on Ice", Eddie is killed by an ice resurfacer when he saves the life of another member of the ice show. At the funeral, it was revealed that he had bigamously married another woman, Gloria, and had twins with her as well. Carla changes her surname back to Tortelli to avoid being confused with the other "Mrs. LeBec".
The demise of Jay Thomas's character Eddie LeBec has been claimed to stem from Thomas's comments "about" Perlman in a radio show. However, Thomas denied this and declared that he was referring only to the Carla character. Despite Ken Levine's praise of Thomas's acting and pairing of Eddie and Carla, Eddie was written out of the show because Perlman thought that the pairing would make her "not part of the people in the bar."

Introduced in season 6

Joanne

Joanne is a local newscaster. In "'I' on Sports", her short-time co-newsanchor Sam Malone flirts with her, but she resists and turns him down. In "Christmas Cheers", she reports a raging lunatic throwing canned foods at the airplane. In her last episode "Where Nobody Knows Your Name", she reports that imprisoned millionaire [|Robin Colcord] cheated on Rebecca Howe with another woman.

Introduced in season 7

Father Barry

Father Barry, a priest, who usually gives advice about sexuality and spirituality. His first episode is "Swear to God", and his last is "Achilles Hill". In "Death Takes a Holiday on Ice", he officiates at [|Eddie LeBec's] funeral, where Eddie's bigamy is revealed when Eddie's second wife appears, shocking the invited guests, including Eddie's widow Carla and Father Barry.

Mr. Sheridan

Mr. Sheridan is corporate vice president for the Lilian Corporation, of which Rebecca Howe is a minor executive. In "Adventures in Housesitting", he assigns her to babysit his doberman Sir Broundwin the Gallant, also called Buster, while he leaves for a business trip. During Rebecca's care, Buster runs away from Mr. Sheridan's manor, so Woody brings in another doberman Satan, a wrecking yard's dog resembling Buster, to conceal this negligence. Then Mr. Sheridan returns from the trip and pets Satan, fully unaware of the situation. Then Sam brings Buster, retrieved by a neighbor, through the backdoor to switch the dogs in the kitchen. To prevent Mr. Sheridan from entering the kitchen where the ruckus occurs, Rebecca distracts Mr. Sheridan by discussing a trophy-looking urn, which he reveals contains his late wife's ashes. Later at the Cheers bar, the bar regulars are unsure whether the dogs were successfully switched; Cliff says "Geronimo" as one of the Indian names that provokes the dog to attack him, confirming the dog to be Satan.
In "For Real Men Only", Mr. Sheridan assigns Rebecca to manage a retirement party at the bar for an employee, Larry, also his brother-in-law. The party turns out depressing mainly because Larry is very dull to entertain. After failed efforts to enliven up the party, Rebecca jadedly allows newborn Frederick Crane's bris to take place at the same time. Consequently, the retirement party livens up, and Larry plans to marry a woman, pleasing Mr. Sheridan, who wants Larry out of the house.

Maggie O'Keefe

Margaret Catherine "Maggie" O'Keefe is a recurring love interest for Cliff Clavin from the seventh season onward. Maggie first appears in "Please Mr. Postman" as a rookie postal carrier who is to be trained by Cliff. Maggie asks Cliff out, and he accepts. However, Maggie is later caught taking a postal vehicle to a motel and is fired. She then leaves Cliff to go to Canada to join the Canadian post office. She makes regular appearances thereafter, leading to her and Cliff's on-again, off-again relationship.
Maggie reappears in season eleven episode "Do Not Forsake Me, O' My Postman", informing Cliff that she is pregnant with Cliff's child. This forced Cliff to admit that he and Maggie never had sex, causing the other barflies to mock him. Cliff agrees to marry Maggie. Before they depart, she decides to call her child's real father, so Cliff would not worry anymore. She then tells Norm that the father is upset someone else will be raising his child and that he wants to marry her and Cliff is off the hook. However, as she leaves she tells Cliff they did have sex, twice, though Cliff was apparently inebriated and did not remember.

Kelly Gaines

Kelly Susan Boyd is a love interest for Woody Boyd from the seventh season. She appeared in twenty-four episodes.
Kelly and Woody first meet in the thirteenth episode of the seventh season. Woody and Sam Malone are bartending at a private party to celebrate Kelly's return from Europe. Kelly is a rich and sheltered girl, but Woody is able to open her eyes to new experiences, the first being a monster truck pull. Again in Kelly's third appearance in the nineteenth episode of the seventh season, Woody teaches her a lesson from his world. Instead of buying her an expensive gift for her birthday, he writes her a memorable song.
Kelly and Woody marry in the tenth season's finale episode. The marriage, at the Gaines' mansion, is a fiasco: The minister dies; Kelly's flirtatious cousin Monika teases Sam until her fanatically-jealous husband brandishes a sword; Rebecca Howe's petulance causes the French chef to quit, leaving her in charge of the food; Carla Tortelli keeps getting pushed down the shaft in the dumbwaiter; Woody cannot keep his hands off Kelly before the ceremony; and two attack dogs menace everyone who dared exit the kitchen to the patio, until an infuriated Carla chases them inside, at which time they whimper like puppies and scamper away. To top it off, the dead body of the minister tips over and topples the wedding cake to the floor. Despite this, the wedding goes ahead.
Kelly and Woody were expecting their first child when Cheers ended.
In the sixteenth episode of the second season of Frasier, Sam visits and it is revealed that Kelly and Woody's first child was a baby boy. In the thirteenth episode of the sixth season, Woody visits Seattle and reveals that he and Kelly have had another child, a girl.

Walter Gaines

Walter Gaines is Kelly's father and one of Rebecca Howe's corporate executives. Since his first episode "Golden Boyd", Walter usually disapproves of Kelly and Woody being together. Eventually, he accepts the relationship when they become married in "An Old Fashioned Wedding". In "Ill-Gotten Gaines", he has a brief affair with his married sister-in-law Katherine. In "Rebecca Gaines, Rebecca Loses", Walter asks Rebecca for a date at the bar, even after she gets drunk and then humiliates him at the party in the house. However, Rebecca turns him down because she identifies herself as a golddigger. Walter is divorced from Roxanne, who appears in "Woody Or Won't He". Walter's mother accepts Woody as a husband for Kelly in the episode "No Rest for Woody".

Ludlow Tortelli

Ludlow Tortelli is Carla Tortelli's youngest son. Nicknamed "Lud" by Carla, he is named for his absentee father – the esteemed psychiatrist, Dr. Bennett Ludlow – and is conceived in "Whodunit?". He first appears in the Season 7 episode "I Kid You Not", when his coach drops him off at Cheers after his T-ball game. After Carla asks him how the game went, it becomes clear Lud is much better suited for intellectual activities than sports. Frasier and his wife Lilith take a shine to the bright and inquisitive youngster and offer to take him to an opera, to which Lud happily agrees. Excited at the opportunity to mentor Ludlow, the Cranes continue to invite him out to one high-minded activity after another, which eventually alienates Carla. Feeling bad for taking away her time with son, the Cranes invite her and Ludlow to dinner at a fancy restaurant. However, Ludlow dislikes the food and crawls under the table in protest. Frasier attempts to lure him out with psychology, but Ludlow responds by giving Frasier the "hot foot" treatment, effectively ending their mentorship. Carla lures Lud out from the table with the promise of taking him out for hamburgers but then orders him to apologize to Frasier for the incident, which Ludlow does.
He is also mentioned in season 6, episode 13 "Woody for Hire Meets Norman of the Apes" as Carla is describing the horrible things her kids did that day; apparently, Ludlow unplugged the freezer to see if frozen peas defrosted quicker than ice-cream.
Ludlow appears briefly in two more episodes: "Unplanned Parenthood" and "Rich Man, Wood Man", the latter in which he sells chocolate candy.

Introduced in season 8

Robin Colcord

Robin Colcord, was an English multi-millionaire industrialist, who spent most of his time on Cheers as a love interest for the gold-digging Rebecca Howe. This led to his developing something of a rivalry with Sam Malone, because of Sam's own romantic interest in Rebecca. In November 1989 Rees told a news agency Knight-Ridder Wire about the creation of the character:
They needed a fillip, to give them a boost, someone to drive Sam crazy. Robin's there to be dashing, sexy, irritating. He's not as charming and nice as he appears to be at first sight. He's sort of the villain of the piece. He's a megalomaniac millionaire. He's got an airline and a helicopter fleet. It's very much Donald Trump.

In January 1990, actor Rees said that he had not based "the character on anyone", despite "speculation that Colcord was a British version of Trump," wrote Phil Kloer of Cox News Service.
In season 8, Rebecca and Sam discovers that Robin was plotting a hostile takeover of the company for which Rebecca worked, the Lilian Corporation, and had been secretly and illegally using Rebecca's access to the company's confidential information. Rebecca chooses to conceal Robin's activities for the sake of their relationship. However, Sam discovers that the company suspected Rebecca of being a willing corporate spy. To protect her, Sam reveals Robin's crimes.
Amidst the ensuing scandal, Robin is arrested and briefly sent to prison as well as losing his business positions and money. In season 9, he and Rebecca plan to marry on his release, despite his new humble status. She chooses not to go through with this. He then reveals that he still had some of his fortune in a secret stash, but that he would go away if she still had not changed her mind. Believing this to be a bluff, she refuses yet again, and watches as he walks out of her life carrying a moneybelt which he had concealed in her desk. In his last appearance at "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad Bar", an episode of season 11, Robin claims to be a broke but humble vagabond and petty fugitive, asking to reunite with Rebecca. The episode ends with him and Rebecca attempting to hitchhike out of town, while Rebecca believes that this is a second test.

Introduced in season 9

Kevin McHale

Kevin McHale is a Boston Celtics player. In "Cheers Fouls Out", he plays for Cheers's basketball team against rival bar Gary's Olde Towne Tavern. McHale is told by Sam Malone that the game is a charity match; when he finds out that it is a lie, he tells Sam that he will play if they donate the winnings to charity. During one of the games, he is injured but quickly recovers.
In "Where Have All the Floorboards Gone?", McHale is brought by Sam as a birthday present to Norm Peterson. Bar patrons, mostly Cliff Clavin, feed McHale bar trivia including asking a question about the number of bolts in the floorboards in Boston Garden. McHale becomes obsessed with this question, and it severely affects his basketball performance. The gang try to undo the damage but to no avail; they break into a basketball stadium overnight and end up ruining the floor.

John Allen Hill

John Allen Hill is a restaurateur who becomes the owner of Melville's, the seafood restaurant above Cheers, in season 9. He informs Sam that the deed for Melville's includes Cheers' bathrooms and pool room, and after some resistance Sam eventually capitulates and begins paying monthly rent to him, until Sam and Rebecca team up to purchase the rooms. Sam despises him due to his condescending and disdainful manner. Hill and Carla have a combative relationship that frequently turns sexual.

Henrí

Henrí is a French photographer who becomes friends with Kelly Gaines during her time abroad in Paris. Woody finds his frequent "jokes" about stealing Kelly away from him tiresome, and he does on one occasion attempt to trick Kelly into a supposed green card marriage. He is a lothario who is familiar with Sam's playboy reputation among stewardesses.

Introduced in season 10

Sarafina Tortelli

Sarafina Tortelli is the eldest daughter of Nick and Carla Tortelli. She first appears, albeit briefly, in the episode "Unplanned Parenthood." Sam Malone and Rebecca Howe decide they should babysit Carla's kids in order to hone their parental skills. Arriving at Carla's house, Rebecca blows a whistle to line up all their kids. Sarafina promptly informs them she is spending the night with her boyfriend and knocks the whistle into Rebecca's mouth, causing her to choke on it. She ends up staying against her will through dinner but warns Sam and Rebecca they better let her go as her boyfriend is a retired cop.
Her second, and more prominent, appearance was in "Loathe and Marriage", where she weds her retired cop boyfriend, Pat McDougall. The ceremony is disrupted by the unexpected arrival of her deadbeat father Nick and his wife Loretta. Carla insists Nick leave but Sarafina objects, telling Carla she knows he's a terrible father but she still wants him there - she had always pictured her dad giving her away on her wedding day. Sarafina asks Carla how it made her feel that her own father missed her wedding. Carla admits it made her feel "pretty rotten" and, seeing Sarafina's point, relents and lets Nick stay.
She is previously mentioned in "Woody for Hire Meets Norman of the Apes", as Carla is describing the horrible things her kids did that day. Apparently, Sarafina took a pair of hedge clippers to the shag carpet.

Introduced in season 11

Characters appearing in only one season

Each of the following characters of Cheers or real-life people portraying themselves, notable or not, appears in only one season. Even if an actor portrays various characters in the series, a more significant character who appeared in only one season is listed below. However, a character is briefly listed usually without episode synopses.

Season 1

Recurring characters
One- or two-time characters
Recurring characters
portrays Evan Drake for only the sixth season.
', leading actor of ', portrays himself in "Woody for Hire Meets Norm of the Apes".
, a Boston Red Sox baseball player, portrays himself in "Bar Wars".
One-time characters

Season 10

Season 11