‘Cheers’ Fans Cry in Their Beers as Sitcom Ends Long Run

It didn’t look like a “Cheers” bar.

There was no square-shaped bar, the waitresses did not look like Carla, and the din of almost 40 television sets tuned to the hockey and basketball playoff games would have drowned out Sam’s seduction of his latest guest.

After all, this is Buena Park, not Boston, for heaven’s sake.

But “Cheers,” one was told, is a state of mind.

The venerable sitcom ended its 10-year run Thursday on NBC.

And in a back room of the National Sports Bar and Grill, reality meshed with make-believe as the faithful sat in front of a six-foot screen Thursday, hoisting a few cold ones in a farewell toast to their TV friends.

They gasped, they laughed and, after two hours, they were sad.

Who would have thought that Norm would leave his beloved bar stool and take a regular job?

Who would have expected Rebecca to marry a plumber?

Who would have believed that Diane would become a success?

And who would have thought that, after 11 entertaining seasons, Sam would end an episode with, “Sorry, we’re closed”?

Yes, closed.

“That’s it?” Carl Krawitt asked as the final credits rolled on the screen.

“I can’t believe this is it,” Kristine Shepard, 26, of Fullerton shouted from another table.

“I wanted to see Lilith one more time,” Eddie Fields, 27, said afterward.

“I wanted to see Lilith (try to seduce) Sam one more time,” his friend, Chrissy Beuck, 26, quickly chimed in.

But for Rich Loy, it was a night that he hoped would never come.

“I hate endings,” the 35-year-old Buena Park resident said. “It’s sad. Things like that . . . you just think they just go on and on forever.”

At another table, Krawitt sat alone, watching the final episode. The television show meant something to him.

First, the Newport Beach resident is a native of Boston. Second, he is a liquor salesman. Third, he claims to have seen every episode, including the one in which Norm briefly held a job as a beer taster.

“This is what I do best,” the 25-year-old un-Norm-like salesman said as he cradled a beer in his hands. “I sit in a bar every night. I can relate to ‘Cheers.’ I come in here and everybody knows me.”

Actually, every bar is a “Cheers” bar, employee Eric Dudley said.

“You have the similar type situation in every bar. You have the regular faces that come on a regular basis, and they have a relationship with the bar staff,” Dudley said.

So of course, he said, he hated to see “Cheers” close, just like he regretted that “M.A.S.H.” and “All in the Family” also had to end.

But just like those shows, there will always be re-runs.