Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Cheers: Season 9

 

The 26-episode 9th season of Cheers aired during the 1990/1991 TV season. All of the main cast returned for the ninth season, as did some of the major recurring cast, led by Bebe Neuwirth, who reprised her role as Lilith, and included Jackie Swanson as Woody's girlfriend, Kelly, and Roger Rees as Robin Colcord. The celebrity guest stars/cameos this season included former Boston Celtic Kevin McHale, Arsenio Hall, Bobby Hatfield, former Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, and John McLaughlin. McLaughlin hosted the 200th episode anniversary special, which included a cold open, but then was essentially a panel discussion with the cast and showrunners. The panel did include Shelly Long, but at least as it was presented on the DVD, she did not say anything; they just had a couple of reaction shots of her. Otherwise, the show continued to mainly be a story-of-the-week procedural with some serial arcs included. The most prominent serial arcs were the tease of whether Sam and Rebecca would get together, and Frasier and Lilith becoming parents. 

The Blu-ray set is a three-disc set, and as of this writing, it remains available only on Blu-ray in the complete series release. The individual season is only available on DVD (which is a five-disc set). The A/V quality of the episodes is good, but not outstanding. There are times when the video looks closer to DVD quality than what you would expect from Blu-Rays. There are no bonus features, although the 200th episode is more akin to a bonus feature than a regular episode. The episodes can be played with English captions. 

The series continues to be good, but the storylines absolutely became repetitive by the 9th season. The writers did a good job of balancing the storylines to give all the cast members good material to work with, and Bebe Neuwirth continued to steal nearly every scene she was in. Some of the jokes are still outdated and cringeworthy, but not as much as those in the early seasons. Ultimately, if you liked the prior seasons, you will probably enjoy this one (unless you really only liked Long's character, Diane).