Cliff Clavin
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| Cheers character | |
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| Cliff Clavin | |
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| Gender | Male |
| Hair color | Gray |
| Eye color | Brown |
| Role in Cheers | Customer |
| Portrayed by | John Ratzenberger |
Clifford C. Clavin, Jr. was a character on the American television show Cheers, portrayed by John Ratzenberger. Cliff was a postal worker and Norm Peterson's best friend. He lived with his mother, Esther Clavin (Frances Sternhagen) in a two-story house, where Cliff spent his childhood. It was bulldozed after Esther sold her property and moved with her newfound nest egg to Florida. Cliff then moved into a small apartment of his own, in which the couch doubled as a bed.
A chatter-box by nature, Cliff was well known as a storehouse of useless trivia, often of dubious veracity and bearing little relation to the conversation going on at the bar. Carla did not like Cliff and often insulted him or his opinions (Carla's hatred ran so deep that in the Frasier episode Cheerful Goodbyes Carla has to be dragged out of Cliff's retirement party after she finds out he isn't leaving, and has to have a diver's spear gun wrestled from her hands). Cliff took great pride in his job as a postal worker and often became agitated when people insulted his job or the U.S. Postal Service. He sometimes talked about his job as if he was in the police force. Cliff's father made a brief appearance on Cheers before fleeing the country to Australia to avoid prison for fraud.
Socially awkward and generally ignored by women, Cliff didn't have any real relationship (or, for that matter, any sexual experience) until meeting fellow oddball postal worker Margaret O'Keefe (Annie Golden) in the seventh season. When she was reprimanded for using a postal vehicle to drive to a secret tryst, Margaret decided she shamed the postal service so much that she resigned her post and went to work in Canada. She returned in the eighth season and wanted Cliff to commit to her, which he did, although he had a fit of "hysterical blindness" before feeling fully comfortable with the arrangement.
[edit] Background
The character was created for Ratzenberger, who had earlier auditioned for the Norm Peterson role. The producers let him know that he had impressed them, but that he didn't really click as Norm. Ratzenberger responded by pointing out that what the ensemble didn't have was a "bar know-it-all". They asked Ratzenberger for an example, he improvised some dialogue for the know-it-all, and he was invited to play the role for a two-show tryout; of course, he remained a regular throughout the show's 11-year run.[1] He was also featured in an episode of Frasier, when he decided to leave Boston for Florida only to change his mind, much to the annoyance of Carla. Ratzenberger also appeared as Cliff in a series of New Zealand Post advertisements in the 1990s, each featuring a different service of the postal administration.
The Loren & Wally Show of WROR occasionally impersonates him, calling him simply "Cliffy The Mailman."
Ratzenberger appeared on the cover of some of the books in the series The Complete Idiot's Guide to..., presumably as Cliff, the self-styled expert on everything.
[edit] Jeopardy
Cliff was a contestant on Jeopardy! in the Cheers episode "What is… Cliff Clavin?", but lost after betting all his money on his Final Jeopardy question of "Who are three people who have never been in my kitchen?" Cliff was actually winning by enough that had he made a small wager he would have been guaranteed a win. Alex Trebek has jokingly referred to this situation (making a risky Final Jeopardy bet with a dominating lead) several times in the actual show as "pull[ing] a Cliff Clavin." This episode has been voted one of the top ten favorite episodes of TV.com members.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ Newport Under the Stars (2005)(2006). John Ratzenberger's Newport Under the Stars
- ^ (as of March 2006) TV.com list of user voted favorite episodes
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