Cheers is a well-known American TV sitcom that aired from 1982 to 1993. The show is set in a bar named Cheers in Boston, where a group of locals meet to drink, relax, and socialize. The primary focus of Cheers is on the relationships and comedic interactions among the staff and the regular customers.
The “4th wall,” this is a concept in performance arts such as theater, film, and television. The 4th wall is an imaginary wall that separates the performers from the audience. Breaking the 4th wall occurs when the performers acknowledge the audience’s existence, speak directly to them, or make it obvious they are aware they’re in a performance. In traditional theatre, this wall is the backdrop or the invisible “wall” at the front of the stage, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play.
Cheers occasionally played with the concept of the 4th wall, particularly through its use of sharp, self-aware humor. However, it wasn’t known for regularly breaking the 4th wall in the way some other shows or films might. The humor and narrative of Cheers were more centered around the dynamics and relationships within the bar.
In television and film production, the “4th wall” is also a term used to describe the camera side of a set, which is typically open to allow for filming. Most TV shows are filmed in a three-walled set: the left wall, the right wall, and the back wall. The “4th wall” is where the camera and crew are, and it’s usually not seen on camera.
In the case of Cheers, the set was designed to look like the inside of a bar, and the show was filmed with this open fourth wall, where the audience and cameras were located. However, in a rare instance, the show did indeed show the usually unseen fourth wall. This happened in the final episode of the series. In the last scene, after closing the bar, Sam Malone, played by Ted Danson, walks over to a part of the bar that viewers hadn’t seen before, effectively revealing the ‘4th wall’ of the set. This was a unique and poignant moment in the show, as it broke from the usual staging and provided a different perspective of the iconic set.
In Season 6, Episode 1 of Cheers, titled “Home Is the Sailor,” there indeed is a scene where the usually unseen fourth wall of the bar is shown. This happens during the sequence where the characters are drinking the Screaming Viking cocktails, a humorous part of the episode. Rebecca, played by Kirstie Alley, looks out from her office door at the bar patrons to ensure they’re actually drinking the concoction.
This is a rare moment in the series where the audience gets a glimpse of the part of the set that’s typically reserved for the camera and crew, essentially where the imaginary “fourth wall” would be in a traditional stage setup. It’s a notable instance in the series, as Cheers generally maintained the illusion of a fully enclosed bar setting, as that is a provisional wall for that scene, while usually it’s open set and a curtain is there that you can see on other episodes.
Here is Cheers bar 4th wall, rarely, if not, only time ever seen.
