The actual Cheers goes all the way back to 1969 with the founding of the Bull and Finch Bar on Beacon Hill. It had been established for thirteen years by the time that it was found by a couple from Hollywood looking to make the next big prime time sitcom. In the summer of 1981, Mary Ann and Glenn Charles walked into the Bull and Finch while looking for just the right bar to inspire them into what they wanted their sitcom to be based around. They fell in love with the comforting warmth and embrace of the bar, which was known very well in the Boston area for having such an enjoyable environment. They had even gone on to win “Best Neighborhood Bar in Boston” by the Boston Magazine. They took some pictures of the bar and brought them back to Hollywood to begin making the design and environment for Cheers, which began airing in 1982. From there, the show would last on prime time television for eleven years, 275 episodes, and become nominated for over 100 Emmys.
The bar from the show and the bar in real life are not completely similar, believe me. I ventured out to the original inspiration of the show with some of my roommates. While the show may have been a little before my time, I couldn’t sit there and say “Hey, this is what it looks like on TV”. There are still many similarities regardless. One of the main ones includes the island bar. When me and my roommates were there, we joked around at either end of the bar pretending to be Norman, Cliff, anybody whoever sat on the end of that bar. The best part is that not once were we heckled, judged, or told to stop by anyone. It went perfectly with the feeling of being welcome and right at home in the local watering hole.
The island bar was going to bring about an actual interpretation of the Bull and Finch, but it there is wasn’t exactly the first thing to come to mind. The directors figured it would be best to use an island bar when trying to shoot scenes with four camera angles on a live set. There is also the wooden Indian statue that greets everyone upon walking into the bar. However, the most important feature that does not always get recognized is the step down. In the show, whenever everyone entered the bar, they had to go down a set of stairs to get in and then go down another couple of stairs once they were inside. In the show, Norm would enter into the bar and stand there above everyone else as everyone greeted him in unison. It was cool to watch because it made Norm seem like somebody that mattered. It’s that sense of appreciation and acknowledgment that has always made it mean so much that everyone knew your name.
It is the same way in the actual Cheers bar, which helps in making the environment so welcoming. It was a warm and welcoming environment that, especially in the TV show, was a place where people would go to take a load off after a long and hard day. In those first few moments when you enter the bar and stand above the place as you’re greeted kindly by a server, it makes you feel a perfect sense of comfort and ease. The moment we walked in, we were greeted by a waitress who had that perfect amount of enthusiasm without coming off as bubbly and ditzy. She was so nice (and kind of cute to boot), which made the experience at Cheers feel so open and friendly right off the bat. This is a much overlooked, but crucially important aspect to the welcoming feeling of Cheers that has been incorporated into each setting.
A big difference between the set and the actual bar also involves the back. In the TV show, the back of the bar was a small room that had a pool table. At the actual bar, they had opted to turn this area into a place where people were able to eat by setting tables down. The pool table is nothing but a miniature decoration hanging from the ceiling that is out of the way of the hungry customer. There is also a room for merchandise and Cheers memorabilia. Like all other gift shops, this has the chance to jeopardize what customers think of the Cheers brand being used to make some more green. It’s like getting this great service from a waiter and being tended to perfectly until the very end when they remind you to tip. It can instantly change your perspective with the snap of your fingers.
“I mean, I can see how merchandising the name (Cheers) can make the whole experience feel cheaper. Know this kind of is a tourist attraction of sorts, but it really doesn’t feel like that until you see the shop.” One of my roommates said on the train back to Endicott. If you look on the website though, Cheers went about selling their merchandise in a comical way that focuses on supplying to the customer:
“This (gift shop) is because when it first became known that the Bull & Finch Pub was the inspiration for the TV show, Cheers, visitors came to the pub looking to take something home with them. They began by taking the ashtrays, the matches, the menus, and anything that wasn't tied down. There is still a barmaid missing. We decided that we had better do something about this. We started very simply by selling t-shirts and posters and now we provide a full array of souvenirs including other apparel items, glassware, and trinkets.”
I sat down in the back of the pub and helped myself to a burger. It was a good burger and fries, almost stereotypical to what you’d expect to get at a pub: thick cut fries with a burger whose ratio between juice and grease leans a slight bit towards the latter. It still seemed like a much better option than the Norman Burger. It caught my eye right off the bat because of the name (obviously), but then I found out what it actually was: two burgers with Muenster cheese, mushrooms, onion rings, lettuce and tomato on a toasted bun. Our group had debated if we wanted to do it, but we just couldn’t bring ourselves to partake in such a heavy burden. The burger was enormous! After seeing a picture of the feast on a plate, the Norman burger looked like my burger had engulfed another one!
"That burger was immense!" Another one of my roommates commented during my makeshift interview on a train, "I feel like I'd definitely have to go in starving to get it done. Even then I bet I'd be passing out with a 'food baby' for a couple of hours. It's definitely worth a shot."
The Norman burger served as a food challenge. If you could eat the burger and the fries, then you earned yourself bragging rights and a spot in the Norman Burger Hall of Fame, which is posted on the Cheers website. It's not the most challenging food competition, but to have your name cemented (or typed) into Cheers history made it seem very worth while...some other time.
After a nice afternoon in the heart of Boston, I had felt very in touch with the city just by stepping into this one little bar. They may not have been completely similar, but everything I felt from watching reruns of Cheers I could feel again by sitting up against a wall looking at all the decorum from wall to wall with the infamous island bar in between. However, I couldn’t help but reflect on the other Cheers.
Another Cheers had been established in Boston’s Faneuil Hall, but after a few trips there over the last couple of years, it just never seemed to match up with the one time I hung out in the back of the original Cheers. As a part of Faneuil Hall, it is not a typical bar and is much different than both the original Cheers and the TV show. While it does still maintain the island bar and wooden Indian statue, it resembles a greenhouse as the walls and ceiling are all made out of a slanted glass attached to the outside of the original Faneuil Hall. Because of this glass, the entire environment is also much brighter as if the environment itself had some sort of a divine nature. The other Cheers’ are in a slightly dark setting with a feeling of smoky tradition and nostalgia. The Faneuil Hall location is also only one level, which means that you aren’t able to get that great empowering feeling when you first stand above the bar. However, you are able to head downstairs in order to go to the gift shop and/or eat at the restaurant. I still enjoy going there and it’s definitely a place I’d recommend, but there’s just no way that the Cheers in Faneuil Hall serves as an appropriate location to capture the feeling of Cheers. It’s too nice, fancy and, most of all, you just don’t go walking in feeling that same warm feeling “where everybody knows your name”.
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