Popular Culture Review Vol. 3, No. 2, August 1992 | Page 82

78 ^TlwPo£uIaijO|^^ Sam can buy "Cheers" back for one dollar as a reward for revealing the criminal access of the manager's boyfriend to the corporation's computer network. But soon Sam runs into difficulties with the new owner of the restaurant that is located above "Cheers." These ups and downs in Sam's life point to his vitality and attest to the comic principle that a decline will always lead to a new rise. Sam is therefore the life-affirming character par excellence, the illustration of comedy's optimism. One could speculate that the choice of the Biblical name Sam, or Samuel, hints at the life story of this character with its constantly changing fortune as one that is eternally true and constantly recurring. Sam's last name, "Malone," sounds Irish and is thus in line with the stereotype of the Irish as heavy drinkers. If one twists the name "Malone" slightly, one gets "melon," something round, i.e., something female. This is Sam's essence: he is the modem, attractive Don Juan, who drives a Corvette and who seems incessantly concerned with the look of his hair and the smell of his cologne, necessary ingredients in what he calls "Sammy's magic." Women seem to be the only thing on Sam's mind. When Carla tells him she has had twins, Sam becomes lost in nostalgia and says, "I've had twins myself." His romantic conquests are applauded by the bar's regulars and provide ample ntaterial for conversation and bets. Sam is considered a hero by his entourage not because of his baseball career or because of his managerial skills but because of his almost never failing success with women. One time Sam is talked into playing a softball game against a team of Playboy playmates and does not let his opponents score a single run. When the playmates decide not to attend the post-game celebration at "Cheers," Sam has to realize in view of the unanimous hostility directed at him that his veneration is not based on his skills as a ball player but instead on his skills as a "ball player." His admirers are cult worshippers. When Diane is still Sam's girlfriend, she asks him, as a sign of his undivided devotion to her, to discard THE BOOK, Sammy's collection of the phone numbers of the most desirable women in Boston and in any other city where he has ever played ball (in the double sense of the term). As Diane hands THE BCX)K to Cliff, Cliff walks away in trance, saying, "I have seen the light" and Norm immediately touches Cliff in order to share THE BOOK'S karma.