Episode no. Season 8
Episode 14 Production code 182 | Directed by Andy Ackerman | |
Written by Dan O'Shannon
Tom Anderson Original air date January 18, 1990 (U.S.) ← Previous
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"Finally! Part 1" | ||
"What Is... Cliff Clavin?" is an eighth season episode of the American television series Cheers. It was directed by Andy Ackerman rather than James Burrows—who directed 243 out of 273 episodes of the show—and originally aired on January 18, 1990. In this episode, Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger) appears on the game show Jeopardy! and game show host Alex Trebek guest stars as himself. Cliff racks up US$22,000 during the game but loses it all in the final round, and he unsuccessfully demands that his answer be accepted. Back at Cheers, Trebek encounters Cliff and announces his resignation from the game show, prompting Cliff to reconsider. Unbeknownst to Cliff, Trebek did that mainly to avoid him. Meanwhile, Sam retrieves his address book from a teenage boy Timmy, who repeatedly calls Sam's past dates, and ironically encourages Timmy to stick to girls around his age. The episode received praise from critics for its concept and its guest star.
Contents
Plot
Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger) competes on the television game show Jeopardy!, which has temporarily moved taping to Boston for a special occasion, and amasses $22,000 by the end of the Double Jeopardy! round, more than twice the score of the second place contestant, theoretically ensuring a win. For the Final Jeopardy! clue of "Archibald Leach, Bernard Schwartz and Lucille LeSueur" in the category of "Movies", Cliff responds incorrectly with "Who are 3 people who've never been in my kitchen?" Having wagered his entire score, Cliff loses all of his winnings. Cliff objects and argues, demanding that his answer be accepted. The show's host, Alex Trebek, later arrives at Cheers, tells Cliff that his response should have been accepted earlier, and announces his resignation as the host of Jeopardy!. However, Cliff convinces Trebek to remain as host by telling him how much the show and Trebek mean to him. After Cliff shares the news with others, Norm Peterson (George Wendt) praises Trebek for doing this just to make Cliff feel better. However, Trebek says that he did not realize that Cliff was at the bar and that meeting him had been a coincidence. Trebek says that Cliff scares him and that the story about quitting the show was a fabrication to placate him.
Meanwhile, Sam Malone (Ted Danson) receives telephone calls from women whom he previously dated; they are angry with him for making dates and not arriving. He eventually discovers that his "little black book" has been stolen and enrolls the help of bar patrons to find it. Through their detective work, Sam discovers that the thief has called Sam's women alphabetically and that Rebecca Howe (Kirstie Alley) is the next recipient on the list. The thief turns out to be a teenage boy named Timmy (Greg E. Davis), who wants to become a "babe hound" like Sam. To let Timmy go, Sam tells him to start as a "babe pup" and to call girls who are around his age, and gives him $25 for a haircut and a tip for a shampoo girl.
Reception
General Norman Schwarzkopf said this was the funniest episode of Cheers. Don Leighton from Superior Telegram called this episode the greatest and said the Final Jeopardy! moment was hilarious. Jeffrey Robinson from DVD Talk said the category topics – specifically "Civil Servants", "Stamps from Around the World", "Mothers and Sons", "Beer", "Bar Trivia", and "Celibacy" from the first round of Jeopardy! – and the concept of the episode were a riot. Hot Springs Village Voice called Cliff's Final Jeopardy! moment a classic example of his mishaps caused by his own "know-it-all nature". Andrew Razeghi, in his book Hope, called this episode "one of the most memorable episodes" of Cheers, found Cliff's response to the Final Jeopardy! clue neither right nor wrong and an example of divergent thinking, and called Cliff a poster child of Joy Paul Guilford. Former Jeopardy! contestant Ken Jennings, in his book Brainiac, considered this episode of all Jeopardy!-related episodes essential as other episodes that focus on characters who either are trapped in an elevator or have two dates on the same night.
In popular culture
On the first episode of Jeopardy! season 31, which aired on September 15, 2014, Jeopardy! champion Elizabeth Williams echoed Cliff Clavin's answer in her response to the Final Jeopardy clue. Williams's $600 wager combined with her opponents' incorrect responses allowed Williams to triumph that day, nonetheless.