Cheers (season 1) the pub, but on the Stage 25 lot of Paramount Studios with the set decoration of "Cheers". The Bull & Finch Pub was later renamed Cheers Beacon Hill. The entire season is set exclusively in the bar, its office, and the billiard room; no locations outside the bar were used until Diane Chambers' apartment is seen in the second season. In the pilot episode's original script, there were only four principal characters: Sam Malone, Diane Chambers, Carla Tortelli, and Ernie "Coach" Pantusso. Norm Peterson and Cliff Clavin were absent from the original script. George Wendt and John Ratzenberger had auditioned
Norm Peterson beer taster, capable of spotting a bad vat in a factory by drinking a single bottle. Even when unemployed, Norm is the bar's best customer. A running gag throughout the series are the numerous jokes made about the enormous size of Norm's tab at "Cheers" (e.g., several large binders are shown as being just a portion of it – in the episode "Home Malone" (season 9, episode 25), when Woody's rich, naïve girlfriend Kelly waitresses at Cheers to gain "real-life experience," Norm convinces her that the tab is a record of the beers for which he has already paid, and