Editing Sam Malone (section)

==Role==
At the time the series debuted in 1982, Sam has been the bartender and owner of Cheers for five years.<ref group=e name=ring>"[[Give Me a Ring Sometime]]." ''Cheers: Season 1: The Complete First Season on DVD''. Paramount, 2003. DVD.</ref><ref group=e name=eleven>"Sam at Eleven." 1982. ''Cheers: Season 1: The Complete First Season on DVD''. Writ. [[Glen Charles]] and [[Les Charles]]. Paramount, 2003. DVD.</ref> Chronologically within the series, Sam, who is [[Irish Catholic]],{{sfn|Bjorklund|2014|page=141}} dropped out of high school in his senior year to play professional baseball.<ref group=e name="Teacher's Pet">"Teacher's Pet". 1985. ''Cheers: Season 3: The Complete Third Season on DVD''. Paramount, 2004. DVD.</ref>  He has one older brother, Derek, who seems to be a [[polymath]] and is a highly successful international lawyer.  Derek and Sam are not close, and Sam is also not close to his parents (who it is implied, always favored Derek.)

Sam began his career in the minor leagues, where he met [[Coach Ernie Pantusso]] ([[Nicholas Colasanto]]). He eventually became a relief pitcher for the [[Boston Red Sox]], wearing number 16. His major league career lasted approximately five years; he specifically mentions having pitched in 1973, and was a member of the 1975 AL champion Red Sox team. As well, Martin Crane saw him pitch at the [[Kingdome]], which opened in 1977 – also the year that he became the owner of Cheers. Although his baseball career is not highly detailed throughout the series, Sam was at times a good-to-very-good pitcher (stories of him retiring star batters occur during the series), and was the team's bullpen ace for a while. Sam's baseball career declined when he became an [[alcoholic]], and there are also numerous stories of him pitching poorly and giving up tape-measure home runs. Over time, Sam's role as a bartender turns him into the "resident ringleader for an assortment of poor souls and wanna-be's".<ref>Davis, Walter T., Jr., et al. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=hUzT6EIkNZ0C&dq=cheers%20sam&pg=PA16 Watching What We Watch: Prime-Time Television Through the Lens of Faith]''. Louisville, KY: [[Westminster John Knox]] Press, 2001. Web. February 11, 2012. {{ISBN|0-664-22696-5}}.</ref>

Throughout the series, Sam has had casual female partners, usually one-dimensional or sexually very available, and sometimes takes them along in his red [[Chevrolet Corvette]]. However, in "Sam Turns the Other Cheek" (episode 49, 1984), Sam reveals that he avoids "married, underage, and comatose" women, so he does have some ethical standards. In "Teacher's Pet" (season 3, 1985), Sam earns his high school diploma despite an overall bad grade from the high school geography teacher, with whom he had a brief affair while he was her student. The episode "Sam's Women" (episode 2, 1982) reveals that Sam was married to his somewhat more sophisticated ex-wife, Debra ([[Donna McKechnie]]). (In some syndicated prints, Sam's past marriage is omitted, although it is mentioned again in the 5th-season episode, "Young Dr. Weinstein".) Notably, he has an [[Sam and Diane|on-and-off relationship]] with "a bright, attractive graduate student", Diane Chambers (Shelley Long).<ref>Carter, Bill. [https://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/29/arts/television-the-tonic-that-keeps-cheers-bubbling-along.html "TELEVISION; The Tonic That Keeps 'Cheers' Bubbling Along"]. ''[[The New York Times]]'' April 29, 1990. Web. January 4, 2012.</ref><ref>Brooks, Tim, and Earle Marsh. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=BbOsChMSlpoC&pg=PA243 The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows: 1946 – present]''. Paperback ed. New York: Ballantine-Random House, 2007. ''Google News''. Web. January 31, 2012.</ref> One time after Sam and Diane ended their on-and-off relationship, in "Rebound, Part One" (episode 45, 1984), Sam relapses into alcoholism and excessively womanizes. Diane finds this out from Coach, and involves her new love interest [[Frasier Crane]] ([[Kelsey Grammer]]) in helping Sam slowly regain his sobriety in the following episode, "Rebound, Part Two". In the three-part episode "Strange Bedfellows" (episodes 93–95, 1986), Sam dates an intelligent, attractive politician Janet Eldridge ([[Kate Mulgrew]]), who eventually ends the relationship because of Sam's visible feelings for Diane. Throughout the [[Cheers (season 5)|fifth season]] (1986–87), Sam cyclically proposes to Diane, but she rejects every proposal until, in "Chambers vs. Malone" (episode 108, 1987), Diane finally accepts his latest proposal. In "[[I Do, Adieu]]" (episode 121, 1987), Sam and Diane try to marry but call off the wedding to let her start a supposedly promising writing career.

In the following episode "[[Home Is the Sailor (Cheers)|Home Is the Sailor]]" (episode 122, 1987), Sam sells Cheers to the Lillian Corporation six months before the episode and later returns to the bar to work under employment of the "voluptuously beautiful"<ref name="Masculinities 15"/> new manager, [[Rebecca Howe]]. Within this period, Sam constantly flirts with and attempts to seduce Rebecca, but she rejects all of his advances.<ref name="Masculinities 15"/> In "Cry Harder" (episode 194, 1990), Sam is able to buy back the bar from the Lillian Corporation after Sam has saved the corporation from financial victimization by [[Robin Colcord]] ([[Roger Rees]]), Rebecca's lover. At the last minute, Sam and Rebecca embrace and kiss. However, in the following episode "Love Is a Really, Really, Perfectly Okay Thing" (episode 195, 1990), Sam devastatingly tells Rebecca that he has no feelings for her. In "The Days of Wine and Neuroses" (1990), Sam rejects Rebecca's advances one night while she is drunk over her doubts when now-impoverished Robin proposed to her. In the tenth season (1991–92), they try to conceive a child, but by then, they have decided to stay friends. In "The Guy Can't Help It" (1993), Sam plays with the idea of marrying Rebecca (as a safety net "in case no one better comes along"), but several bar patrons and even Carla tell Sam his womanizing is getting him nowhere, prompting him to join Dr. Robert Sutton's ([[Gilbert Lewis (actor)|Gilbert Lewis]]) group meetings for sex addicts, a referral made by Frasier. In the series finale, "[[One for the Road (Cheers)|One for the Road]]" (1993), Sam reunites with Diane after six years of separation. They try to rekindle their relationship, but just before they fly off together to California, Sam and Diane begin to have doubts about their future together, and they re-separate. Sam returns to the bar, where his friends celebrate his return. Then, when Norm and Sam remain while everyone else leaves, Norm reassures Sam that Sam would return and never leave his one "true love"{{mdash}}which the ''[[TV Guide]]'' implies is the Cheers bar.<ref name=tvguidefinale>[http://www.tvguide.com/special/finale-preview/PhotoGallery/TVs-Best-Finales-1004611/1004625 "TV's Best Finales Ever"]. ''[[TV Guide]]'', 2010. Web. 1 June 2012.</ref><ref name=geronimo>{{cite news|title=TV's favorite bar turns off the tap|author=Liner, Elaine|page=A1|date=May 21–22, 1993|newspaper=[[Corpus Christi Caller-Times]]|location=Texas}} Record no at ''[[NewsBank]]'': 113001A60C3FB35B {{registration required}}.</ref>

In a ''Frasier'' episode, "[[The Show Where Sam Shows Up]]" (1995), Sam is engaged to Sheila ([[Téa Leoni]]), a fellow sex addict whom he met during group therapy, but he breaks off the engagement after she admits that she slept with two regular Cheers customers{{mdash}}Paul Krapence and [[Cliff Clavin]]{{mdash}}during their engagement. Unbeknownst to Sam, she slept with Frasier, which she does not reveal to Sam.

===Skit appearances===
Ted Danson reprised the role of Sam Malone in pre-game segments of the [[Super Bowl XVII|1983 Super Bowl]]<ref name=1983superbowl>{{cite news|title=Cast of ''Cheers'' with special material about the Super Bowl|at=Part VI (Calendar), page 7|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=February 2, 1983}} Microfilm.</ref> and of one of the baseball games of the [[1986 World Series]],<ref name=1986worldseries>{{cite news|at=Section D (Sports), page 12|title=TV-Radio - NBC could use some more of 'the rat stuff' in Series coverage|newspaper=[[The Atlanta Journal-Constitution]]|date=October 25, 1986|author=Rosen, Karen}} At ''[[NewsBank]]'': {{registration required}}. At official website: {{subscription required}}. Record no. 861005579.</ref> ''[[The Magical World of Disney]]'' episode "[[Mickey's 60th Birthday]]",<ref name=60mickey>{{cite news|title=Mickey approaching 60th birthday|author=Apikian, Nevart|page=D13|publisher=[[The Herald Company]]|date=November 11, 1988|newspaper=[[The Post-Standard]]|location=Syracuse, New York}} ''[[NewsBank]]'': {{registration required}}. Syracuse.com: {{subscription required}}. Record no. 8811110139.</ref> and ''[[The Simpsons]]'' episode "[[Fear of Flying (The Simpsons)|Fear of Flying]]".<ref group=o name=Simpsons>{{Cite episode|title=Fear of Flying|episode-link=Fear of Flying (The Simpsons)|series=The Simpsons|network=Fox Broadcasting Company|station=KTTV|date=1994}}</ref> In the Super Bowl pregame skit, Sam and his customers at the bar chide Diane for not knowing and ridiculing football. They meet [[Pete Axthelm]], an NBC sportscaster who visits the bar.<ref group=o>''Super Bowl XVII Pregame''. NBC. January 30, 1983. Television.</ref> In the pregame skit of the 1986 World Series game, [[Bob Costas]] interviews Sam at the bar.<ref name=1986worldseries/> In "Mickey's 60th Birthday", Sam forgets Rebecca's birthday and begs [[Mickey Mouse]] to sing "[[Happy Birthday to You]]" as her birthday present. Rebecca chooses Mickey over Sam, who still wants to seduce her.<ref group=o>"Mickey's 60th Birthday". ''[[The Magical World of Disney]]''. NBC. November 13, 1988. Television.</ref> In ''The Simpsons'', Sam is dating twins while trying to marry Diane without Rebecca knowing.<ref group=o name=Simpsons/>