Coach (from Cheers) - The best written character in sitcom history.

Sumner enters Cheers and sits at the bar in front of Coach.

Sumner : "I can't tell you how ashamed I am to show my face here."
Coach : "That's all right. We get a lot of funny faces around here."

Sumner : "At a dinner I attended, a mutual friend of ours told me Diane Chambers works here. Is that correct?"
Coach : "I don't know. I wasn't at the dinner."

Coach's lines are always my favorite. Anybody else just love that character?

 

Yes he was great I really didn't like Woody..

 

His dialogue is straight out of the Gracie Allen playbook, and his delivery is a joy.

 

Don't know about the best, but he's definitely right up there; one of my all-time favorite characters.

Coach: It's the damnedest thing. I've been shivering all the way over here.
Diane: Well, Coach, you don't have a coat on. It's 30 degrees outside.
Coach: Oh, thank God. I thought I had malaria.

 

Coach: I’m feeling inspired, I might finish my book tonight
Diane: oh you’re writing a book?
Coach: no, reading one.

 

Loved him..

 

Amen. That actor played him perfectly.

I liked Woody but it was a different kind of delivery. More done with a wink whereas the character of coach was delivered with a bit more sincerity, kind of like Leslie Nielsen in the Naked Gun and Airplane movies.

I remember reading one critic who stated that a lot of warmth went out the window with the passing of Coach. Woody was as good a replacement as could be expected and frankly, Woody did nail it, but it was obviously a completely different flavor and delivery.

No idea if this is getting mixed up with another episode, the one where Diane's rich snobby mother comes to visit where the following exchange occurs (going by memory) ;

Mother : "Why did they call you Coach?"
Coach : "I was a coach for pitchers in the big leagues. But they used to call me red."
Mother : "Oh, because your hair was red?"
Coach : "No, because I read a book."

 

I always liked the episode with his daughter where she was upset because she thinks she's not attractive. Coach says to her that she looks just like her mother (who apparantly was not attractive either) and he looks at her and says something along the lines of "I never realized how much you looked like your mother". His delivery was perfect. He looks like he's going to choke up as he's saying it at the same time as remembering his wife. Probably my favourite scene with him.

Chokes me up every time!

 

According to Ken Levine who produced and wrote for the show, that episode and scene in particular was a huge head-scratcher. The actress playing the daughter isn't very attractive by traditional standards so when Coach says “You are beautiful. You look just like your mother”, the audience roared with laughter. They thought it was a joke on how ugly the mother was and therefore the daughter.

Thinking maybe something spontaneously happened that one time that caused that reaction, they redid it. Same reaction from the crowd. In the end, I forget what happened between either filming it without an audience or doing it and muting the crowd's laughter. I'd say the former is more likely because there's zero pause where the laughter would otherwise be.

Found it!

By Ken Levine: The biggest laugh you never saw on CHEERS

When he says "That's what made her more beautiful. Your mother grew more beautiful every day of her life", that's what acting is about. Just heartfelt delivery.

 

Yep. A very good character. Along similar lines Gordon Jump as the “Big Guy” Arthur Carlson from WKRP.

 

I don't think that Coach was "the best written character in sitcom history" -- if anything, I'd say he was poorly written. But Nicholas Colasanto had impeccable comic timing, and he turned even the flattest lines into comic gold.

 

that's very interesting, thanks for sharing!

 

best character ever in the history of tv comedy? Um, no

Funny as hell? yeah

 

Really? Merely curious. Do you have any examples of poorly written lines he was given? Maybe seeing them in writing, I'd see what you're talking about. Perhaps only the performance is in my head and not the actual plain lines.

 

♩♫ Albania, Albania, you border on - the - Adriatic, your land is mostly mountainous, and your chief export is chrome ♫♩

 

Many of Coach's one-liners were just corny jokes designed to get a cheap laugh:

Coach: I’m feeling inspired, I might finish my book tonight
Diane: oh you’re writing a book?
Coach: no, reading one.

That's the kind of cheap setup/punchline that you would have expected on a 1950s variety show. Give that line to most actors, and it gets groans or pity chuckles from the audience. But give it to Nick Colasanto, and the audience is in stitches.

Here's another one:

Coach: [answers the ringing telephone] Cheers... Yeah, just a sec.
Coach: [to everyone in the bar] Is there an Ernie Pantusso here?
Sam: That's you, Coach.
Coach: [to the person on the phone] Speaking.

On paper, it's not very funny. But on screen, it's hilarious:

 

I see what you mean. They're probably fun to write, though. I do see a lot of parallels between that style of wit and what was written in Airplane and Naked Gun. Playing with the words and how the recipient of the question might interpret it and answer literally.

Maybe I'm an easy audience but I like that style of comedy. Of course, as you pointed out, you need a Nick Colasanto or Leslie Nielsen to make it work, though.

 

I would also argue that Betty White's role as Rose on Golden Girls was very similar and she had just as good delivery of lines.

 

I've always liked Cheers, especially the early years, but Coach is an example of the stock dumb sitcom character that they can always use for an easy laugh if they don't have a decent joke, just like Chrissy or Joey or Ted Baxter.

An example of someone I would consider one of the best-written characters in sitcom history is Jack Donaghy on 30 Rock.

 

Depends. I find the writing on 30 Rock and most single-camera sitcoms nowdays to be rather boring. Fun to read perhaps but it doesn't translate into genuine laughs for me. I think the writing is witty and clever but not hilarious. Easy to see why people like that but there's zero emotional bonding with these types of shows. Just my opinion.

Cheers has a laidback style as if we're spying on a bunch of people just shooting the breeze. Shows like 30 Rock are furiously trying to deliver tons of clever one-liners in a "LOOK! This is funny!" kind of way. The difference between the two styles is stark. I prefer the slower and more natural pace and dialogue of something like Cheers than something like It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, for instance. They couldn't be more different if they tried.