Gay / Straight Flashback: Cheers' Boys in the Bar

Gay Guy,

Here's the last few minutes of a Cheers episode, way back from the first season.

One of Sam's old pro-baseball teammates has written a book and comes out of the closet. The regulars worry that the publicity will cause Cheers to be known as a gay bar. They've already tagged a few new customers as suspicious, and are taking matters into their own hands. But is their gaydar up to snuff?

Dated? Ahead of it's time? Somehow, both?

Here are links to the first two parts (1, 2), and a blog post from Ken Levine, the writer of the episode who'd still like to tweak that last joke. Must have been a tough episode to sell to the network in the early 80s.

--Straight Guy

UPDATE: They won an Emmy and a GLAAD award for the episode.