From the first episode of Cheers to the very last, a decade later, George Wendt’s teddy bear barfly Norm Peterson was a fully formed sitcom dream. Like Howard Borden before him and Cosmo Kramer after him, his entrance alone was a highlight in every episode – and Wendt, who has died aged 76, appeared in all 275 episodes of Cheers, a feat matched by only Ted Danson and Rhea Perlman.
Every single time he opened the door, perpetually sweaty and tie always askew, the bar gave a huge cheer – “NOOOORM!” – as he trudged to his favourite stool for that first beer. Every weary walk to his seat came with a zinger. (The very first: “Norm! Whattya know?” “Not enough.”)
Though Norm was in every episode of Cheers, it is hard to identify a singular moment that made him a great sitcom character. Instead, the affection we felt was accumulative: for his world-weariness, his insistence on awful food, the loathing and love he felt for his unseen wife Vera – and of course, the simple pleasure he took in having a cold one with friends. (Which led to a bar tab so big by the final episode that Sam threatened to send it to Nasa to calculate.)
While we got to see only a little of Norm beyond the bar, so many of his best lines conveyed the great and ordinary tragedy that was his life: the unseen bad days at work, the unseen bad nights at home. “How’s life treating you Norm?” would be greeted with: “Like it caught me in bed with its wife”, “Like I just ran over its dog” or “Like a baby treats a diaper.” Once, when asked how he’s feeling, he responded: “I’m on top of the world … it’s a dismal spot in Greenland somewhere.”
“I have a hard time talking about Norm,” Wendt said in a 1989 interview. “It’s like he’s too close to me, but I don’t think he’s changed over the years. They moved him from being an accountant to [a] painter and decorator, but that was basically for some storylines. He’s still the same Norm. I think he’s the toughest to write for because he’s not really anything. He’s just funny.” But no man ever walked into a bar quite like Wendt.
Five of the best Norm one-liners:
Snow Job (season two, episode 18)
Coach: “What’s shakin’, Norm?”
Norm: “All four cheeks and a couple of chins.”
The Belles of St Cletes (season three, episode 24)
Sam: “Norm! What brings you in at this time of day?”
Norm: “Same thing that always does.”
Sam: “A bit early for a beer, isn’t it?
Norm: “So, float a cornflake in it.”
The Peterson Principle (season four, episode 18)
Sam: “What’s happening, Norm?”
Norm: “It’s a dog-eat-dog world, Sammy, and I’m wearing Milk-Bone underwear.”
Norm’s First Hurrah (season five, episode 23)
Woody: “Hey Mr Peterson, what do you say to a cold one?”
Norm: “‘See you later Vera, I’ll be at Cheers.’”
Bar Wars III: The Return of Tecumseh (season eight, episode 21)
Sam: “What are you up to, Norm?”
Norm: “My ideal weight if I were 11 feet tall.
