Before Frasier, Cheers Had A Spin-Off That Only Lasted One Season

At “Cheers,” everybody knows your name. But can you name the classic comedy’s first spinoff?

If you said “Frasier,” think again. While Kelsey Grammer’s Emmy-winning sitcom got underway in 1993, the first offshoot of “Cheers” debuted six years prior and centered on one of the bar’s memorable (if seldom-seen) characters: Carla’s (Rhea Perlman) ex-husband, Nick Tortelli (played by Dan Hedaya). “The Tortellis” followed Nick, his air-headed trophy wife, Loretta (Jean Kasem), their teenage son, Anthony (Timothy Williams), and Anthony’s young wife, Annie (Mandy Ingber), as they moved to Las Vegas and attempted to rebuild after Loretta initially left Nick behind.

“The Tortellis” premiered in January 1987, just as its parent show was hitting the halfway point of its fifth season. But as “Cheers” grew in popularity as it stayed longer on the air, its first direct spin-off garnered some pretty disappointing ratings and even worse reviews.

At the beginning of “The Tortellis,” we find Nick on the verge of divorce after Loretta packs up and leaves for Las Vegas, where she moves in with her divorced sister Charlotte (Carlene Watkins) and nephew Mark (Aaron Moffat). Charlotte is a much more level-headed character than both her sister and Nick, who soon arrives in Vegas to reconcile with his missus. Anthony and Annie also come along, and the three move in alongside Loretta, Charlotte, and Mark. A house full of six mismatched characters provides the “sit” for this particular “com,” which finds Nick trying but struggling to reinvent himself from a sleazy slob to a new man in an effort to win back his wife.

The Tortelli patriarch soon starts a TV repair business in Sin City, and much of the show’s comedy comes from his failed attempts to stay on the straight and narrow. Storylines from the first and only season include Nick being challenged to fix a TV in a day or face his punishment of eating a bug, and Nick pretending to be a successful business magnate in order to spend a night in a swanky hotel. Mitchell Laurance also appeared in a recurring role as Charlotte’s less-than-faithful boyfriend, Pete Bruno, and there are even visits from “Cheers” favorites: Rhea Perlman has a cameo as Carla in a dream sequence from the pilot, while Episode 3 sees George Wendt and John Ratzenberger guest-star as barflies Norm Peterson and Cliff Clavin, respectively. 

Despite bringing in some “Cheers” heavy hitters, “The Tortellis” only aired 13 episodes before NBC cancelled it, with the final installment airing on May 12, 1987.

“The Tortellis” debuted the same year as Fox’s “Married… With Children,” which would help put the fledgling network on the map prior to “The Simpsons” cementing its standing as a subversive force amid the network TV landscape. In many ways, “The Tortellis” seemed like NBC’s attempt to subvert the family sitcom. But rather than providing a fresh take on the format by showcasing a humorously dysfunctional family, “The Tortellis” was just sort of dysfunctional as a show, and caused some reviewers to call out what they viewed as an offensively stereotypical take on Italian-American family dynamics.

As The Washington Post’s Tom Shales wrote, “The thought of a weekly visitation remains unappetizing. To know the Tortellis is to realize one is better off not knowing them.” These sorts of appraisals, alongside dismal ratings, ensured “The Tortellis” didn’t last beyond its 13th episode and went down as one of TV’s worst ever spin-offs. 

Still, that wasn’t the end of the road for the Tortelli family. Years after NBC canned their show, the Tortellis briefly returned to “Cheers.” With Nick’s TV repair business in Las Vegas having gone bust, the characters were still said to be living in Vegas, though neither Loretta’s sister Charlotte nor her son, Mark, were referenced again. Nick and Loretta’s final appearance came with the Season 11 episode, “Loathe and Marriage,” which aired in 1993.