Cheers season 2

During season one (1982–1983), the show's Nielsen ratings were very low, despite strong, positive reviews. Nonetheless, NBC renewed the show for another season, which was announced on March 13, 1983. In mid-1983, reruns improved the show's ratings, which rose into the top 20 for most episodes. Four days before the second season premiered, the show won five Emmy Awards out of thirteen nominations, including an Outstanding Comedy Series of 1982–83. Meanwhile, Taxi and Fame, two shows that were originally part of NBC's 1982–83 Thursday night lineup, struggled with low ratings. and Fame was moved into first-run syndication. As announced in May 1983, the Fall 1983 Thursday lineup consisted of, in order of time sequence starting at 8 pm (Eastern) / 7 pm (Central), Gimme a Break!, ''Mama's Family, We Got It Made, Cheers and Hill Street Blues. Buffalo Bill took over the 9:30 pm time slot, and Cheers'' was shown at 9 pm. ==Cast and characters==

• Sam Malone (Ted Danson)—a bartender, bar owner, recovering alcoholic, and ex-baseball player. • Diane Chambers (Shelley Long)—a college student and waitress. She is often pretentious, annoys customers with her lengthy speeches, and becomes the butt of their jokes. • Ernie "Coach" Pantusso (Nicholas Colasanto)—an aging bartender and retired baseball coach. Coach is vulnerable to other people's exploits, and is a father figureespecially to Sam and Diane. Although he lacks intelligence, he reveals a glimmer of deep wit. • Carla Tortelli (Rhea Perlman)—a brassy, divorced waitress. She gives birth to a baby girl and watches her disloyal ex-husband Nick (Dan Hedaya)unseen in the first seasonmarry Loretta, an unintelligent blonde. • Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger)—a mailman. During this season it is revealed that he is Norm's best friend. Cliff constantly makes misleading and trivial references, which others find annoying and excessive. In the first season, Ratzenberger was often credited as a guest star, but he appears in the opening credits of the main cast in this season and thereafter. • Norm Peterson (George Wendt)—semi-unemployed accountant who during this season separates from, then reconciles with, his wife, Vera. Sam and Diane finally pair up, but their relationship is dysfunctional and has problems. They have fulfilling casual sex but seem to have little else in common. They constantly compete with each other, argue, break up, and make up again until they end their on-again, off-again relationship at the end of the season. ==Episodes==

Original air dates of following episodes are not actual premiere dates for some television stations of the United States, like KTUU-TV from Anchorage, Alaska. In those areas, episodes may have been broadcast at later dates. == Ratings ==

The second season of Cheers was scheduled against CBS's Simon & Simon and various ABC programs, including the short-lived sitcom ''It's Not Easy The season scored an average rating of 17.6 and achieved a 27% audience share in its first seven weeks. At the end of the season, Cheers'' finished in 35th place in the Nielsen ratings, a considerable improvement over its debut season, which finished under top 70. == Reception ==

This season was reviewed at the time of its first broadcast on NBC. According to April 26, 1984, survey from The Philadelphia Inquirer (polled by almost 5,000 people) and an April 1984 survey from The Cincinnati Enquirer, Cheers was one of the top ten favorite programs. Ron Miller and Steve Sonsky from the same news agency gave the same praise. Fred Rothenberg from Associated Press said the program's second season "had some great shows, but dwelled incessantly on the conflict between Sam and Diane without developing the other characters . Twenty years after the series was first broadcast, reviews grew more positive. Adam Arseneau from DVD Verdict gave the series a rating of 90 percent on the story and 93 percent on acting. Shannon Nutt from DVD Talk rated it four stars out of five for content. Kyle Crawford from TheBoxSet.com called it "smartly written and well acted". Robert David Sullivan ranked the two-part season finale "I'll Be Seeing You" at number four in his list of top 100 favorite sitcom episodes, and wrote that trying to change each other and hurting each otherphysically or emotionallytook its toll on Sam and Diane's relationship. The A.V. Club graded "I'll Be Seeing You" A−. Meredith Blake of that website wrote that a fight scenewhich she described as a "[t]hree Stooges-esque nose-pinching, face-slapping farce"is "sublimely well-executed, but it also has a troubling subtext". Blake added, "[w]hen Diane expresses her shock over the violence, Sam fires back that he hadn't hit her as hard as he wanted to. It sounds less like a defense of his behavior than a confession to even darker emotions." TV Guide named "How Do I Love Thee... Let Me Call You Back" a "classic episode". ==Production==

In response to criticism on Diane and Sam's relationship, Cheers creators said that they still entertained viewers without diminishing the show's quality and going out of character. Director James Burrows said that pairing Diane and Sam was not a mistake and that keeping them apart for the whole season would have been worse. The cliffhanger after their breakup in the two-part season finale "I'll Be Seeing You" was intended so that "[t]he audience will have all summer to wonder whether Sam will ever see Diane again", said Charles. Meanwhile, writers planned to give Diane another love interest for the next season. Diane's apartment is the first place outside the bar to appear on screen since the season premiere "Power Play". John Ratzenberger, who appeared frequently as a guest star in the first season, was billed in the second season as a permanent character on the opening credits. In 1984, NBC renewed the show for its third season (1984–1985). == Accolades ==

Cheers received twelve Emmy Award nominations for the 1983–84 season and won four, including Outstanding Comedy Series. Rhea Perlman won Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, David Angell won Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for "Old Flames", and Andrew Chulack won Outstanding Film Editing for a Series. Cheers received three Golden Globe nominations for Best Musical/Comedy Series of 1983; Best Actor in a Musical/Comedy Series (Ted Danson), and Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy Series (Shelley Long); neither were won in 1984. Of the nominees for 1984, Shelley Long won a Golden Globe in 1985 as the Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy Series. == DVD and Blu-ray release ==

This season was released into Region 1 DVD on January 6, 2004, almost twenty years its first television broadcast. Adam Arseneau of DVD Verdict rated the video 91 percent. He rated audio 84 percent and found it "less spectacular". The second season did not receive its own separate release on Blu-ray. It was released as part of the Cheers: The Complete Series box set on April 25, 2023, with the DVD special features intact. == References ==