Entertainment
This Forgotten ‘Cheers’ Spin-Off That Became Television History’s Worst Came Before ‘Frasier’
Cheers stands as one of the most iconic sitcoms of the 1980s. The series, led by Ted Danson as Sam Malone, centered around the staff and regulars of the titular bar in Boston as they took time away from their day-to-day life to go “where everybody knows your name.” The characters are among television’s most beloved: Danson’s Malone, the bar owner and former Red Sox relief pitcher; Diane (Shelley Long), the academic barmaid and love interest; Carla (Rhea Perlman), the cynical, wise-cracking and irritable waitress; Norm (George Wendt), a popular bar regular greeted with a resounding “Norm!” whenever he showed up (which was often); and Cliff (John Ratzenberger), another bar regular, a mail carrier, and know-it-all.
As the series progressed, Woody (Woody Harrelson) replaced Coach (Nicholas Colasanto) as bartender following Colasanto’s passing, while Long departing the show opened the door for Kirstie Alley‘s Rebecca, all without the series missing a beat. A spin-off was inevitable, and while any of the characters would have been effective, the call went to Kelsey Grammer‘s Frasier Crane, and Frasier (which premiered in 1993, the same year Cheers ended) would prove to be just as popular as its parent series. But the first spin-off didn’t feature any of the characters mentioned above. Preceding Frasier by six years, The Tortellis centered around characters that only ever made a handful of appearances… and unsurprisingly, it bombed.
Carla’s Ne’er-Do-Well Ex-Husband Lands ‘Cheers’ First Spin-Off With ‘The Tortellis’
In the first season of Cheers, all we knew about Carla’s ex-husband Nick was what she shared caustically. He’s a deadbeat father to five of her children, making few attempts to contact them, and no attempt to support them financially. He also cheated on Carla with another woman, Loretta. We don’t actually meet him or Loretta until Season 2’s “Battle of the Exes,” and, well, he lives up to his reputation. Nick (Dan Hedaya) is loud, boorish, and scruffy, with nary a hint of sophistication. Loretta (Jean Kasem) is a tall, blonde, and “ditzy” woman, a trophy wife who marries Nick in the same episode. And yet, after the wedding, he beelines to Cheers and begs Carla to come back to him. It’s not the last time he attempts to woo Carla back either, and it often even comes close to happening — with Nick still proving to be irresistible to her.
The Tortellis sees Loretta leave Nick and move to Las Vegas, where she hopes to make it as a performer. She moves in with her sister Charlotte (Carlene Watkins), who seemingly took her share of the smarts, and her son Mark (Aaron Moffat). Nick follows her to Las Vegas in an attempt to reconcile with her, promising to change his ways. She takes him back, tentatively, and Nick sets up a TV repair shop, and, true to his word, changes his ways. (Kind of. Not really.) Then Nick and Carla’s teenage son, Anthony (Timothy Williams), and his petulant wife Annie (Mandy Ingber) also move to Las Vegas, joining Nick and Loretta in Charlotte and Mark’s home. Six wacky stereotypical characters under one roof? Cue the hilarity.
‘The Tortellis’ Is Mercifully Cancelled After 13 Episodes
The decision to center a spin-off around characters who’ve had a handful of appearances is questionable at best, but to make it about such a despicable character and his bubble-headed wife is downright baffling. Storylines like a customer holding Nick accountable for his advertised claim of fixing a TV in a day or he’ll “eat a bug,” or Loretta confronting Charo after Nick takes longer than expected to fix a TV in her dressing room are so far apart from the savvy, well-written episodes of Cheers that it’s criminal. And speaking of criminal, Nick’s criminal past, rooted in offensive stereotypes of Italian Americans, didn’t help either, with the South Florida SunSentinel saying, “The Italian-American Anti-Defamation League should be about as enchanted with Nick Tortelli as it was with The Untouchables.” Coupled with poor ratings, The Tortellis was cancelled after only 13 episodes.
Frasier worked because people knew the character and were willing to follow him to Seattle. The series didn’t sacrifice those things that made Frasier who he was, bringing characters into the series with him that worked to both complement him and challenge him. The writing, too, was up to the same level of quality as its predecessor. Joey, the infamous spin-off of Friends, failed partially because the series changed those things that made Joey who he was, expecting fans to follow a different version of Joey to Los Angeles. The Tortellis didn’t sacrifice the characters at all, and maybe they should have. To add insult to injury, Wings, a sitcom that exists in the same world as Cheers and Frasier, had a healthy 8-season run, with characters that never showed up in Cheers at all.
