“Cheers” is a show that’s been with me for a long time. Back in the early nineties before we were wired with cable, “Cheers” repeats played late night on network TV before “The Honeymooners,” so I always caught the end credits before it aired. I also fondly remember the celebration that followed the series finale. In either case, “Cheers” has become a favorite of mine for the last five years along with its spin off “Frasier.” Both series are so funny, and engaging, and I could watch them all in one sitting. As a fan of “Cheers,” these are five of my favorite episodes from its run.

5. Cliff’s Rocky Moment
It’s interesting to see how Cliff’s mouth gets him in to trouble for once. Throughout the course of the series, Cliff constantly gets in to trouble, but this is the first time he really comes face to face with someone who openly despises him. After jabbering at the bar for hours on end, Cliff comes across an annoyed bar patron who begs him to shut up. Cliff’s cockiness gets him in deeper and soon enough the man challenges him to a fist fight. This is really one of my favorite episodes as it showed that Cliff’s endless yammering can bring out the worst in people. The ending is pitch perfect with a hilarious final scene I still get a kick out of.

4. Endless Slumper
The back story behind Sam Malone is that he threw his career and life savings away after becoming an alcoholic. Here Sam meets an old friend who, while traveling with the White Sox, begs Sam for his good luck charm which is incidentally the cap for the last bottle of beer he ever drank. Despite promising to return it, Sam finds his luck fading with the charm out of his grasp. The episode ends on a great dramatic note, as it’s one of the times we find Sam teetering on the edge of alcoholism again. Addiction is a hard demon to beat, and we’re reminded Sam is battling every day.

3. The Days of Wine and Neuroses
I enjoy this episode mainly because it’s so much fun, and has so much going on all at once. Despite Sam’s anger, Rebecca decides to marry crooked millionaire Robin Colcorde, Lilith is insistent on getting sole credit for her bridal party, and the bar gets a karaoke machine to replace their jukebox. This causes Cliff and Norm to become obsessed with it, singing “Lollipop” almost non-stop, and then turning Frasier in to an annoying crooner. This is a great and hysterical episode, and one I love re-watching.

2. Thanksgiving Orphans
With nowhere to go for Thanksgiving, everyone ends up at Carla’s house, preparing to have a Thanksgiving pot luck. Things go from funny to funnier when Diane crashes the party, allowing for a series of hysterical moments. Everyone here is at their best, with even Frasier mixing in to the group seamlessly, for once. To top everything off, when everyone finally sits down to dinner after waiting the entire day for a slow cooking turkey, the group finally unleash their frustrations in a very funny and hysterical food fight. This is where you can see the cast having a really great time, as John Ratzenberger holds Woody Harrelson in a headlock smashing food in his face, and as the scene fades out you can see Ted Danson struggling not to fall down from the slippery floor. It’s everything that makes holiday episodes so special.

1. An Old Fashioned Wedding Parts 1, and 2
This is really the “Cheers” gang at their best, demonstrating all the most entertaining elements of every character on the show from Lilith, right down to Kelly Gaines, Woody’s inevitable bride. After Woody and Kelly decide to get married, superstitious Carla warns that there is going to be nothing but bad luck if they don’t reschedule. Dismissing her, the wedding goes on anyway and nothing but bad luck falls on the ceremony. The priest dies of a heart attack, his replacement is a drunken buffoon, Rebecca ticks off the caterers to where they storm out of the kitchens, and Sam falls under attack by a jealous German husband after coming on to his wife. There are ton of great bits of dialogue and running gags, including Cliff’s ancient camera with his blinding flash, the attack dogs lurking outside the house, and Sam dropping Carla down the dumb waiter repeatedly. This is a wonderful two part episode with the second part supplying laughs almost every single minute.

Also, come on, you have to love that we never see the actual wedding. Especially during a decade where wedding episodes were used as ratings grabbers.