{"id":6053,"date":"2023-04-30T21:09:15","date_gmt":"2023-05-01T02:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/?p=6053"},"modified":"2023-05-03T10:47:31","modified_gmt":"2023-05-03T15:47:31","slug":"where-everybody-knows-your-name-updike-on-cheers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/2023\/04\/30\/where-everybody-knows-your-name-updike-on-cheers\/","title":{"rendered":"Where everybody knows your name: Updike on Cheers?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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John Updike never made a personal appearance on the long-running CBS-TV series Cheers<\/em>, but the two-time Pulitzer Prizewinner was referenced several times in a Season One episode. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cheers: The Complete Series<\/em> Blu-ray<\/a> was released on April 25, 2023, and as fans re-watched one of TV’s smartest sitcoms they heard Updike’s name mentioned several times in Episode 12: “The Spy Who Came in for a Cold One,” which aired Dec. 16, 1982. Earlier that year, in April, Updike had been announced as winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, honored for Rabbit Is Rich<\/em>. In this episode, an eccentric (guest star Ellis Rabb, pictured below) visiting Cheers first pretends to be a spy, and then a writer. Thinking the man a literary prodigy, intellectual (read: snobbish) waitress Diane rushes to the phone to call someone in the publishing industry that she knows, and we get the following one-sided phone conversation<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Yes. May I speak to him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is Diane Chambers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He’s chatting with John Updike?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, interrupt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, I’m not kidding. I have something that makes Updike seem like small pommes de terre<\/em>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cheers<\/em> was set in a bar near Boston Common that was run by former Red Sox pitcher Sam Malone (Ted Danson), whose baseball career had been derailed by alcoholism. With a great ensemble first-season cast that featured Shelley Long, Nicholas Colasanto, George Wendt, and John Ratzenberger, Cheers<\/em> quickly grew on fans. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Cheers<\/em> was created by James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles. Directed by Burrows, it was written mostly by the trio\u2014though this particular episode was penned by David Lloyd. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even with turnover in key roles, Cheers<\/em> won 28 Primetime Emmys over its 11-year run and finished as a Top-10 TV show for eight of those years. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Updike never made a personal appearance on the long-running CBS-TV series Cheers, but the two-time Pulitzer Prizewinner was referenced several times in a Season One episode. Cheers: The Complete Series Blu-ray was released on April 25, 2023, and as … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":818,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-updike-in-pop-culture"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/818"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6053"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6065,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6053\/revisions\/6065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}