For the Cultural Toolbox this week, John and Shane looked back at a sitcom about a bar where everybody knows your name, and you're always glad you came.

Yep, you've guessed it - it's Cheers.

Running for 11 seasons between 1982 and 1993, and spawning a hugely successful spin-off in the form of Frasier (and the less successful The Tortellis), Cheers was without a doubt one of the most influential and enduring television comedies of its era.

"Cheers is in that great American TV lexicon," John observed. "It's such a great, jolly, well-written, well-filmed, well-directed TV show".

Set predominantly in a bar, John and Shane argued that it's "every bar in the world", with John calling them "life's losers... but funny losers".

Cheers was not actually an instant success, and was very slow to take off. "But the critics seemed to like it, and the Emmy people seemed to like it," John explained. "By around season three, that relationship between Ted Danson and Shelly Long... it was all people could talk about, the 'on-offness' of it. People adored it". 

John had plenty to say about what made the show so special. "It was so funny, so well written. There was a lot of heart to it as well - there was a lot of sadness in it because, you know, a lot of the people in it were pretty sad characters. [Ted Danson's character Sam] was probably the most lost of them all, and remained so until the very end".

He also suggested that it was a show of two halves, following the departure of Shelly Long at the end of season five and the arrivals of Kirstie Alley and Woody Harrelson. He also spent time highlighting the greatest moments of Norm, 'the ultimate barfly', who was one of the show's most popular characters.

The discussion also took a sociological turn when Shane suggested that ultimately Cheers could be seen as a study of class... 

You can listen back to the full podcast above.