One for the Road (Cheers) to remain single, and 12 % had no opinion on this matter. Woody Boyd was voted a favorite by 18 % and had 12 % chance of a spin-off, and Norm Peterson was voted by 14 % and had 10 % chance of a spin-off. Newspapers counted down to the "Cheers" finale in different ways. "The Washington Post" covered the show's background. The "Star Tribune" published stories related to "Cheers", including one about local residents playing trivia games that paid tribute to the show and characters such as Cliff and Norm; the future of the fictional Sam Malone was addressed.
Home Is the Sailor (Cheers) promises nothing of the sort will occur again and is provisionally re-hired on the understanding that this is his last chance as Rebecca uses a seductive baseball metaphor-pun about having two outs, two strikes and "no balls". The producers intended "Cheers" to be a comedy about a comedy itself set in the Boston bar, but, as Burrows claimed, the "Sam and Diane" story arc predominated the show for five years and, as he hypothesized, would have made the bar more of a minor role and more irrelevant if Shelley Long had not left the show as Diane Chambers in 1987.