title: Cheers

text: Notable guest appearances of actresses portraying Sam's sexual conquests or potential sexual conquests include: Kate Mulgrew in the three-episode finale of season four, portraying Boston councilwoman Janet Eldridge; Donna McKechnie as Debra, Sam's ex-wife (with whom he is on good terms), who pretends to be an intellectual in front of Diane; Barbara Babcock as Lana Marshall, a talent agent who specializes in representing male athletes, her clients with whom she routinely sleeps on demand; Julia Duffy as Rebecca Prout, a depressed intellectual friend of Diane's; Alison LaPlaca as magazine reporter Paula Nelson; Carol Kane as Amanda, who Sam eventually learns was a fellow patient at the sanitarium with Diane; Barbara Feldon as Lauren Hudson, Sam's annual Valentine's Day fling (in an homage to "Same Time, Next Year"); Sandahl Bergman as Judy Marlowe, a longtime casual sex partner and whose now grown daughter, Laurie Marlowe (Chelsea Noble), who has always considered Sam a pseudo-father figure, Sam falls for; Madolyn Smith-Osborne as Dr. Sheila Rydell, a colleague of Frasier and Lilith; Valerie Mahaffey as Valerie Hill, John Allen Hill's daughter who Sam pursues if only to gain an upper hand in his business relationship with Hill; and Alexis Smith as Alice Anne Volkman, Rebecca's much older ex-professor. In season 9, episode 17, "I'm Getting My Act Together and Sticking It in Your Face", Sam, believing Rebecca wants a more serious relationship, pretends to be gay, his lover being a casual friend named Leon (Jeff McCarthy)—the plan ultimately leads to a kiss between Sam and Leon.


title: Cheers

text: Near the end of production of the third season, the writers of "Cheers" had to deal with the death of one of the main actors. During the third season, Nicholas Colasanto's heart condition (which had been diagnosed in the mid-1970s) had worsened. He had lost weight and was having trouble breathing during filming. Shortly before third season filming wrapped, Colasanto was hospitalized due to fluid in his lungs. Though he recovered, he was not cleared to return to work. While he was visiting the set in January 1985 to watch the filming of several episodes, co-star Shelley Long commented, "I think we were all in denial. We were all glad he was there, but he lost a lot of weight." Co-star Rhea Perlman added, "[He] wanted to be there so badly. He didn't want to be sick. He couldn't breathe well. It was hard. He was laboring all the time." Colasanto ultimately died of a heart attack at his home on February 12, 1985.


title: Cheers

text: The third-season episodes of "Cheers" were filmed out of order, partly to accommodate Shelley Long's pregnancy. As a result, they had already completed filming the season finale at the time of his death, which had scenes with Colasanto in it. In the third-season episodes that had not been filmed at this point, Coach is said to be "away" for various reasons.


title: Cheers

text: The "Cheers" writing staff assembled in June 1985, at the start of the production of the fourth season, to discuss how to deal with the absence of Coach. They quickly discarded the idea that he might have moved away, as they felt he would never abandon his friends. In addition, as most viewers were aware of Colasanto's death, the writing staff decided to handle the situation more openly. The season four opener, "Birth, Death, Love and Rice", dealt with Coach's death and introduced Woody Harrelson, Colasanto's replacement.


title: Cheers

text: Nearly all of "Cheers" took place in the front room of the bar, but the characters often went into the rear pool room or the bar's office. "Cheers" did not show any action outside the bar until the first episode of the second season, which took place in Diane's apartment.


title: Cheers

text: The show's main theme in its early seasons was the romance between intellectual waitress Diane Chambers and the bar's owner Sam Malone, a former Major League Baseball pitcher for the Boston Red Sox and recovering alcoholic. After Shelley Long (Diane) left the show, the focus shifted to Sam's new relationship with Rebecca Howe, a neurotic corporate-ladder climber.


title: Cheers

text: Many "Cheers" scripts centered or touched upon a variety of social issues, albeit humorously. As "Toasting Cheers" puts it, "The script was further strengthened by the writers' boldness in successfully tackling controversial issues such as alcoholism, homosexuality, and adultery."


title: Cheers

text: Social class was a subtext of the show. The "upper class" —represented by characters like Diane Chambers, Frasier Crane and Lilith Sternin— rubbed shoulders with middle- and working-class characters —Sam Malone, Carla Tortelli, Norm Peterson and Cliff Clavin. An extreme example of this was the relationship between Woody Boyd and a millionaire's daughter, Kelly Gaines. Many viewers enjoyed "Cheers" in part because of this focus on character development in addition to plot development.


title: Cheers

text: Feminism and the role of women were also recurring themes throughout the show, with some critics seeing each of the major female characters portraying an aspect as a flawed feminist in her own way. Diane was a vocal feminist, and Sam was the epitome of everything she hated: promiscuity and chauvinism. (See "Sam and Diane".)


title: Cheers

text: Homosexuality was dealt with from the first season, which was rare in the early 1980s on American television. In the first-season episode "The Boys in the Bar" (the title being a reference to the play and subsequent movie "The Boys in the Band"), a friend and former teammate of Sam's comes out in his autobiography. Some of the male regulars pressure Sam to take action to ensure that Cheers does not become a gay bar. The episode won a GLAAD Media Award, and the script's writers, Ken Levine and David Isaacs, were nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award.


title: Cheers

text: Addiction also plays a role in "Cheers", almost exclusively through Sam. He is a recovering alcoholic who had bought a bar during his drinking days. Frasier has a notable bout of drinking in the fourth-season episode "The Triangle", while Woody develops a gambling problem in the seventh season's "Call Me Irresponsible". Carla and other characters drink beer while pregnant, but nobody seems to mind.


title: Cheers

text: Cheers had several owners before Sam, as the bar was opened in 1889. The "Est. 1895" on the bar's sign is a made-up date chosen by Carla for numerology purposes, revealed in season 8, episode 6, "The Stork Brings a Crane", which also revealed the bar's address as 112 Beacon Street and that it originated under the name Mom's. In the series' second episode, "Sam's Women", Coach tells a customer looking for Gus, the owner of Cheers, that Gus was dead. In a later episode, Gus O'Mally comes back from Arizona for one night and helps run the bar.


title: Cheers

text: The biggest storyline surrounding the ownership of Cheers begins in the fifth-season finale, "I Do, Adieu", when Sam and Diane part ways, due to Shelley Long's departure from the series. In addition, Sam leaves on a trip to circumnavigate the globe. Before he leaves, Sam sells Cheers to the Lillian Corporation. He returns in the sixth-season premiere, "Home is the Sailor", having sunk his boat, to find the bar under the new management of Rebecca Howe. He begs for his job back and is hired by Rebecca as a bartender. In the seventh-season premiere, "How to Recede in Business", Rebecca is fired and Sam is promoted to manager. Rebecca is allowed to keep a job at Lillian vaguely similar to what she had before, but only after Sam had Rebecca (in absentia) "agree" to a long list of demands that the corporation had for her.


title: Cheers

text: From there, Sam occasionally attempted to buy the bar back with schemes that usually involved the wealthy executive Robin Colcord. Sam acquired Cheers again in the eighth-season finale, when it was sold back to him for 85¢ by the Lillian Corporation, after he alerted the company to Colcord's insider trading. Fired by the corporation because of her silence on the issue, Rebecca is hired by Sam as a hostess/office manager. For the rest of the episode, to celebrate Sam's reclaiming the bar, a huge banner hung from the staircase, reading "Under OLD Management"!


title: Cheers

text: Sam had two main battles, one with Gary's Olde Towne Tavern, trying to beat them at some activity or another but always failing, except for one episode when Diane helped Cheers win the bowling trophy, and extending to the practical jokes they played on each other. The second was with Melville's owner John Allen Hill who kept annoying Sam with his pettiness and ego. Hill had an ongoing relationship with Carla.


title: Cheers

text: Some believe that the show is a rehashing of Boston's ABC affiliate WCVB's locally produced 1979 sitcom "Park Street Under" featuring Steve Sweeney and American Repertory Theater founder Karen MacDonald. Three men developed and created the "Cheers" television series: Glen and Les Charles ("Glen and Les") and James Burrows, who identified themselves as "two Mormons and a Jew." They aimed at "creating a show around a Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn-type relationship" between their two main characters, Sam and Diane. Malone represents the average man, while Chambers represents class and sophistication. The show revolves around characters in a bar under "humorous adult themes" and "situations."


title: Cheers

text: The original idea was a group of workers who interacted like a family, the goal being a concept similar to "The Mary Tyler Moore Show". The creators considered making an American version of the British "Fawlty Towers," set in a hotel or an inn. When the creators settled on a bar as their setting, the show began to resemble the radio program "Duffy's Tavern," originally written and co-created by James Burrows' father Abe Burrows. They liked the idea of a tavern, as it provided a continuous stream of new people, for a variety of characters. An early concept revolved around a woman becoming the new owner of the bar and the animosity created between her and the regulars, an idea which was used later in Season 6 when the character of Rebecca Howe was introduced.


title: Cheers

text: Early discussions about the location of the show centered on Barstow, California, then Kansas City, Missouri. They eventually turned to the East Coast and finally Boston. The Bull & Finch Pub in Boston, which was the model for Cheers, was chosen from a phone book. When Glen Charles asked the bar's owner, Tom Kershaw, to shoot exterior and interior photos, he agreed, charging $1. Kershaw has since gone on to make millions of dollars, licensing the pub's image and selling a variety of "Cheers" memorabilia. The Bull & Finch became the 42nd-busiest outlet in the American food and beverage industry in 1997. During initial casting, Shelley Long, who was in Boston at the time filming "A Small Circle of Friends", remarked that the bar in the script resembled a bar she had come upon in the city, which turned out to be the Bull & Finch.


title: Cheers

text: The crew of "Cheers" numbered in the hundreds. The three creators—James Burrows and Glen and Les Charles—kept offices on Paramount's lot for the duration of the "Cheers" run. The Charles Brothers remained in overall charge throughout the show's run, frequently writing major episodes, though starting with the third season they began delegating the day-to-day running of the writing staff to various showrunners. Ken Estin and Sam Simon were appointed as showrunners for the third season, and succeeded by David Angell, Peter Casey and David Lee the following year. Angell, Casey and Lee would remain as showrunners until the end of the seventh season when they left to develop their own sitcom, "Wings", and were replaced by Bill and Cheri Steinkellner and Phoef Sutton for the eighth through tenth seasons. For the final season, Tom Anderson and Dan O'Shannon acted as the showrunners.


title: Cheers

text: James Burrows is regarded as being a factor in the show's longevity, directing 243 of the 270 episodes and supervising the show's production. Among the show's other directors were Andy Ackerman, Thomas Lofaro, Tim Berry, Tom Moore, Rick Beren, as well as cast members John Ratzenberger and George Wendt.


title: Cheers

text: Craig Safan provided the series' original music for its entire run except the theme song. His extensive compositions for the show led to his winning numerous ASCAP Top TV Series awards for his music.


title: Cheers

text: The character of Sam Malone was originally intended to be a retired football player and was slated to be played by Fred Dryer, but Danson was chosen in part because he was younger and had more acting experience than Dryer. After casting Ted Danson, it was decided that a former baseball player (Sam "Mayday" Malone) would be more believable than a retired football player. Dryer, however, would go on to play sportscaster Dave Richards, an old friend of Sam, in three episodes. Bill Cosby was also considered early in the casting process for the role of Sam, after being recommended by the network.


title: Cheers

text: Shelley Long was recommended by various sources to the producers for the role of Diane Chambers, but Long wished to be offered the part straight out and had to be coaxed into giving an audition. When she did read for the part, according to Glen Charles, "that was it, we knew that we wanted her." Before the final decision was made, three pairs of actors were tested in front of the producers and network executives for Sam and Diane: Danson and Long, Fred Dryer and Julia Duffy, William Devane and Lisa Eichhorn. The chemistry was so apparent between Long and Danson that it secured them the roles. Ted Danson was sent to bartending school to prepare him for the part and, according to Burrows, had to learn "how to pretend that he knew a lot about sports" since Danson was not a sports fan in real life and had never been to a baseball game.


title: Cheers

text: The character of Cliff Clavin was created for John Ratzenberger after he auditioned for the role of Norm Peterson, which eventually went to George Wendt. While chatting with producers afterward, he asked if they were going to include a "bar know-it-all", the part which he eventually played. Alley joined the cast when Shelley Long left, and Woody Harrelson joined when Nicholas Colasanto died. Danson, Perlman and Wendt were the only actors to appear in every episode of the series; Ratzenberger appears in all but one (and his name wasn't part of the opening credit montage during the first season).


title: Cheers

text: Most "Cheers" episodes were, as a voiceover stated at the start of each, "filmed before a live studio audience" on Paramount Stage 25 in Hollywood, generally on Tuesday nights. Scripts for a new episode were issued the Wednesday before for a read-through, Friday was rehearsal day, and final scripts were issued on Monday. Burrows, who directed most episodes, insisted on using film stock rather than videotape. He was also noted for using motion in his directorial style, trying to constantly keep characters moving rather than standing still. Burrows and the Charles brothers emphasized to the cast to "never assume that you're not being watched" because the camera would be focused on the actors at all times, so they had to always be reacting and "always be funny". During the first season when ratings were poor Paramount and NBC asked that the show use videotape to save money, but a poor test taping ended the experiment and "Cheers" continued to use film.


title: Cheers

text: Due to a decision by Glen and Les Charles, the cold open was often not connected to the rest of the episode, with the lowest-ranked writers assigned to create the jokes for them. Some cold opens were taken from episodes that ran too long.


title: Cheers

text: The first year of the show took place entirely within the confines of the bar, the first location outside the bar being Diane's apartment in the second year. When the series became a hit, the characters started venturing further afield, first to other sets and eventually to an occasional exterior location. The exterior location shots of the bar were of the Bull & Finch Pub, located directly north of the Boston Public Garden. The pub has become a tourist attraction because of its association with the series, and draws nearly one million visitors annually. It has since been renamed Cheers Beacon Hill; its interior is different from the TV bar. The pub itself is at 84 Beacon Street (on the corner of Brimmer Street). In August 2001, there was a replica made of the bar in Faneuil Hall to capitalize on the popularity of the show.


title: Cheers

text: After the show ended, the 1,000 square foot bar set from "Cheers" was offered to the Smithsonian, which turned it down because it was too large. It was displayed for a short time at the defunct Hollywood Entertainment Museum, but later returned to storage, where it remained for many years. In 2014, CBS donated the set to the Museum of Television after a years-long campaign by James Burrows and his office on behalf of the museum's founder, James Comisar. At the time of the donation, Comisar initiated a planned $100,000 restoration of the set using former conservators from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, although a site for the 10,000 item collection of the Museum had not been decided upon.


title: Cheers

text: Before "Where Everybody Knows Your Name", written by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo, became the show's theme song, "Cheers" producers rejected two of Portnoy's and Hart Angelo's songs. The songwriters had collaborated to provide music for "Preppies", an unsuccessful Broadway musical. When told they could not appropriate "People Like Us", "Preppies" opening song, the pair wrote another song "My Kind of People", which resembled "People Like Us" and intended to satirize "the lifestyle of old decadent old-money WASPs," but, to meet producers' demands, they rewrote the lyrics to be about "likeable losers" in a Boston bar. The show's producers rejected this song, as well. After they read the script of the series pilot, they created another song "Another Day". When Portnoy and Hart Angelo heard that NBC had commissioned thirteen episodes, they created an official theme song "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" and rewrote the lyrics. On syndicated airings of "Cheers", the theme song was shortened to make room for additional commercials.


title: Cheers

text: "Cheers" was critically acclaimed in its first season, though it landed a disappointing 74th out of 77 shows in that year's ratings. This critical support, the early success at the Primetime Emmy Awards, and the support of the president of NBC's entertainment division Brandon Tartikoff, are thought to be the main reasons for the show's survival and eventual success. Tartikoff stated in 1983 that "Cheers" was a sophisticated adult comedy and that NBC executives "never for a second doubted" that the show would be renewed. Writer Levine believes that the most important reason was that the network recognized that it did not have other hit shows to help promote "Cheers"; as he later wrote, "[NBC] had nothing else better to replace it with."


title: Cheers

text: In 2013, "GQ" magazine held an online competition to find the best TV comedy. "Cheers" was voted the greatest comedy show of all time. In 2017, James Charisma of ""Paste"" magazine ranked the show's opening sequence No. 5 on a list of "The 75 Best TV Title Sequences of All Time". In 2022, "Rolling Stone" ranked "Cheers" as the eighth-greatest TV show of all time.


title: Cheers

text: Ratings improved for the summer reruns after the first season. The cast went on various talk shows to try to further promote the series after its first season. By the second season "Cheers" was competitive with CBS's top-rated show "Simon & Simon". With the growing popularity of "Family Ties", which ran in the slot ahead of "Cheers" from January 1984 until "Family Ties" was moved to Sundays in 1987, and the placement of "The Cosby Show" in front of both at the start of their third season (1984), the line-up became a runaway ratings success that NBC eventually dubbed "Must See Thursday". The next season, "Cheers" ratings increased dramatically after Woody Boyd became a regular character as well. The fifth season earned the series the highest rating for the year that it would ever achieve. Although ratings mostly declined each year after that, the show retained a competitive advantage and rose to rank number one for the year for its first and only time in the ninth season. Although ratings and ranking both lost ground in the last two seasons, it still performed well, as it was the only show on NBC during those seasons to be in the top 10. By the end of its final season, the show had a run of eight consecutive seasons in the top ten of the Nielsen ratings; seven of them were in the top five.


title: Cheers

text: NBC dedicated a whole night to the final episode of "Cheers", following the one-hour season finale of "Seinfeld" (which was its lead-in). The show began with a "pregame" show hosted by Bob Costas, followed by the final 98-minute episode itself. NBC affiliates then aired tributes to "Cheers" during their local newscasts, and the night concluded with a special "Tonight Show" broadcast live from the Bull & Finch Pub. Although the episode fell short of its hyped ratings predictions to become the most-watched television episode, it was the most watched show that year, bringing in 93 million viewers (64 percent of all viewers that night), almost 40% of the US population at the time, and ranked 11th all time in entertainment programming. The 1993 final broadcast of "Cheers" also emerged as the highest rated broadcast of NBC to date, as well as the most watched single episode from any television series throughout the decade 1990s on U.S. television.


title: Cheers

text: The episode originally aired in the usual "Cheers" spot of Thursday night, and was then rebroadcast on Sunday. While the original broadcast did not outperform the "M*A*S*H" finale, the combined non-repeating audiences for the Thursday and Sunday showings did. Television had greatly changed between the two finales, leaving "Cheers" with a broader array of competition for ratings.


title: Cheers

text: Although not the first sitcom to do it, "Cheers" employed the use of end-of-season cliffhangers and, starting with the third season, the show's storylines became more serialized. The show's success helped make such multi-episode story arcs popular on sitcoms, which Les Charles regrets.


title: Cheers

text: [W]e may have been partly responsible for what's going on now, where if you miss the first episode or two, you are lost. You have to wait until you can get the whole thing on DVD and catch up with it. If that blood is on our hands, I feel kind of badly about it. It can be very frustrating."


title: Cheers

text: "Cheers" began with a limited five-character ensemble consisting of Ted Danson, Shelley Long, Rhea Perlman, Nicholas Colasanto and George Wendt. "Cheers" was able to gradually phase in characters such as Cliff, Frasier, Lilith, Rebecca, and Woody. By the time season 10 began, the show had eight front characters in its roster.


title: Cheers

text: Over its eleven-season run, the "Cheers" cast and crew earned many awards. The show garnered a record 111 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, with a total of 28 wins. In addition, "Cheers" earned 31 Golden Globe nominations, with a total of six wins. Danson, Long, Alley, Perlman, Wendt, Ratzenberger, Harrelson, Grammer, Neuwirth, and Colasanto all received Emmy nominations for their roles. "Cheers" won the Golden Globe Award for "Best TV-Series – Comedy/Musical" in 1991 and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 1983, 1984, 1989, and 1991. The series was presented with the "Legend Award" at the 2006 TV Land Awards, with many of the surviving cast members attending the event.


title: Cheers

text: "Cheers" grew in popularity as it aired on American television and entered off-network syndication in 1987, initially distributed by Paramount Domestic Television. When the show went off the air in 1993, "Cheers" was syndicated in 38 countries, with 179 American television markets and 83 million viewers. When the quality of some earlier footage of "Cheers" began to deteriorate, it underwent a careful restoration in 2001. The series aired on Nick at Nite from 2001 to 2004 and on TV Land from 2004 to 2008, with Nick at Nite airing week-long "Cheers" "Everybody Knows Your Name" marathons. The show was removed from the lineup in 2004.


title: Cheers

text: The series began airing on Hallmark Channel in the United States in October 2008, and WGN America in 2009. In January 2011, Reelz Channel began airing the series in hour-long blocks. MeTV began airing "Cheers" weeknights in 2010. USA Network has aired the series on Sunday early mornings and weekday mornings to allow it to show extended-length films of hours and maintain symmetric schedules.


title: Cheers

text: "Cheers" began airing on Eleven (a digital channel of Network Ten) in Australia on January 11, 2011. NCRV in the Netherlands aired all 275 episodes in sequence, once per night, repeating the series a total of three times.


title: Cheers

text: "Cheers" was first screened in the UK on Channel 4, and was one of the then-fledgling network's first imports. As of 2012, "Cheers" has been repeated on UK satellite channel CBS Drama. It has also been shown on the UK free-to-air channel ITV4, with two episodes every weeknight. On March 16, 2015, the series began airing on UK subscription channel Gold on weekdays at 9:30 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. "Cheers" aired again daily in 2019 on Channel 4.


title: Cheers

text: A high-definition transfer of "Cheers" began running on HDNet in the United States in August 2010. The program was originally shot on film (but transferred to and edited on videotape) and broadcast in a 4:3 aspect ratio, but the newly transferred versions are in 16:9. However, in the United Kingdom, the HD repeats on ITV4 HD, and later Channel 4 HD, are shown in the original 4:3 aspect ratio.


title: Cheers

text: Paramount Home Entertainment and (from 2006 onward) CBS Home Entertainment have released all 11 seasons of "Cheers" on DVD in Region 1, Region 2 and Region 4. In the US, some episodes from the final three seasons appear on the DVDs with music substitutions. For example, in the episode "Grease", "I Fought the Law" was replaced even though its removal affects the comedic value of the scenes in which it was originally heard. The finale episode (73 minutes long without commercials) is presented in its three-part syndicated cut.


title: Cheers

text: On March 6, 2012, CBS released "Fan Favorites: The Best of Cheers". Based on the 2012 Facebook poll, the selected episodes are:


title: Cheers

text: The complete 11 seasons of "Cheers" are available through the iTunes Store, Amazon Prime Video, Peacock and Hulu. In Canada, all seasons are available on streaming service Crave.


title: Cheers

text: The series lent itself naturally to the development of "Cheers" bar-related merchandise, culminating in the development of a chain of "Cheers" themed pubs. Paramount's licensing group, led by Tom McGrath, developed the "Cheers" pub concept initially in partnership with Host Marriott, which placed "Cheers" themed pubs in over 15 airports around the world. Boston boasts the original "Cheers" bar, historically known to Boston insiders as the Bull and Finch, as well as a Cheers restaurant in the Faneuil Hall marketplace, and Sam's Place, a spin-off sports bar concept also located at Faneuil Hall. In 1997 Europe's first officially licensed "Cheers" bar opened in London's Regent's Street W1. Like Cheers Faneuil Hall, Cheers London is a replica of the set. The gala opening was attended by James Burrows and cast members George Wendt and John Ratzenberger. The "Cheers" bar in London closed on December 31, 2008. The actual bar set had been on display at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum until the museum's closing in early 2006.


title: Cheers

text: The theme song to the show was eventually licensed to a Canadian restaurant, Kelsey's Neighbourhood Bar & Grill.


title: Cheers

text: CBS currently holds the rights to the "Cheers" franchise as a result of the 2006 Viacom split which saw Paramount transfer its entire television studio to CBS.


title: Cheers

text: Some of the actors and actresses from "Cheers" brought their characters into other television shows, either in a guest appearance or in a new spin-off series. The most successful "Cheers" spin-off was "Frasier", which featured Frasier Crane following his relocation back to Seattle, Washington. Sam, Diane, and Woody all individually appeared in "Frasier" episodes, with Lilith appearing as a guest on multiple episodes. In the season nine episode "Cheerful Goodbyes", Frasier returns to Boston and meets up with the Cheers gang, later attending Cliff's retirement party.


title: Cheers

text: Although "Frasier" was more successful, "The Tortellis" was the first series to spin off from "Cheers", premiering in 1987. The show featured Carla's ex-husband Nick Tortelli and his wife Loretta, but was canceled after 13 episodes and drew protests for its stereotypical depictions of Italian Americans.


title: Cheers

text: In addition to direct spin-offs, several "Cheers" characters had guest appearance crossovers with other shows, including "Wings" and "St. Elsewhere" (episode "Cheers"). "Cheers" has also been spoofed or referenced in other media, including "The Simpsons" (spoofing the title sequence and theme song in "Flaming Moe's"; actually visiting the place with vocal role reprises of the majority of the principal cast in "Fear of Flying"), "Scrubs" (episode "My Life in Four Cameras"), "Adventure Time" (episode "Simon & Marcy"), the 2012 comedy film "Ted", and the 2011 video game "Dragon Age II".


title: Cheers

text: In Australia, "Cheers" is remembered for its role in the infamous cancellation of the 1992 Nine Network special "Australia's Naughtiest Home Videos". Due to the then-owner of Nine Network Kerry Packer's objections to its content, "Australia's Naughtiest Home Videos" was pulled off the air during its first and only broadcast; viewers saw the network abruptly begin airing a rerun of "Cheers" midway through the special, either after a scheduled commercial break or a Nine Network bumper claiming a technical problem. Nine Network's affiliate in Perth didn't air the special at all and filled its timeslot with two episodes of "Cheers". When the program was re-aired in its entirety in 2008, it abruptly cut away to the opening of "Cheers" midway through in a reenactment of the incident before resuming the second half that didn't get aired.


title: Cheers

text: In the Cheers episode "Woody For Hire, Norman Meets the Apes" Woody shows and tells everyone how he was an extra on Boston based drama "". In the season 4 episode of "Seinfeld" titled "The Pitch", Jerry and George are presenting their idea for a sitcom to NBC executives. George is unhappy with their offer and feels that he deserves the same salary as Ted Danson which he claims was $800,000 per episode, being that "Cheers" is also an NBC show. Danson's reported salary was actually $250,000 per episode. At this point Cheers was in its 10th season and Ted Danson had won an Emmy and a Golden Globe the year before.


title: Cheers

text: In the seventh episode of the second season of "How I Met Your Mother", a coffee shop barista mistakenly hears Barney's name as "Swarley" and writes it on his cup. This leads to a running gag in which everyone mercilessly refers to Barney as "Swarley" despite his protests, which culminates in everyone in McClaren's bar shouting "Swarley" when he enters and playing the Cheers theme song. The credits are then shown in the "Cheers" style. In the season seven episode, In Tailgate, Ted and Barney are outraged with the price to get into MacLaren's on New Year's eve, so they offer for everyone to come upstairs. In the apartment, there is a puzzles sign that is designed to parody Cheers. Ted and Barney employ Kevin as their bartender, and they invent a theme song which also parodies the Cheers theme song.


title: Cheers

text: In the 2015 video game "Fallout 4", set in Boston, there is a bar named 'Prost Bar' near Boston Common which, when entered, is an almost exact replica of the bar used in the series. It includes two dead bodies sat at the end of the bar, with one of them wearing a mail carrier's uniform, a direct reference to regular barfly Cliff Clavin.


title: Cheers

text: The eighth anniversary special of "Late Night with David Letterman", airing in 1990, began with a scene at Cheers, in which the bar's TV gets stuck on NBC, and all of the bar patrons decide to go home instead of staying to watch David Letterman. The scene was re-used to open Letterman's final episode in 1993. A similar scene aired in the Super Bowl XVII Pregame Show on NBC, in which the characters briefly discuss the upcoming game.


title: Cheers

text: In the season 2 finale of the NBC sitcom "The Good Place", Ted Danson's character Michael appears as a bartender while wearing a blue plaid button-down, in a clear homage to Danson's character in "Cheers".


title: Cheers

text: In 2019 members of the "Cheers" cast, Rhea Perlman, George Wendt, John Ratzenberger and Kirstie Alley reprised their characters in an episode of "The Goldbergs" where they play customers of Geoff's short-lived food delivery business.


title: Cheers

text: In September 2011, Plural Entertainment debuted a remake of the series on Spanish television, also titled "Cheers". Set at an Irish pub, it starred Alberto San Juan as Nicolás "Nico" Arnedo, the equivalent of Sam Malone in the original series. It also used the original theme song, rerecorded in Spanish by Dani Martín, under the title "Donde la gente se divierte."


title: Cheers

text: In December 2012, The Irish Film and Television Network announced that casting was underway on an Irish-language version of "Cheers" produced by production company Sideline. The new show, tentatively titled "Teach Seán", would air on Ireland's TG4 and features a main character who, like Sam Malone, is a bar owner, a retired athlete and a recovering alcoholic. However, because of being set in Ireland, the barman is a "former hurling star" rather than an ex-baseball player. As of August 2019, the Irish remake has not occurred.


title: Cheers

text: On September 9, 2016, a stage adaptation called "Cheers: Live on Stage" opened at the Shubert Theatre in Boston. Comprising pieces of the original TV series, the play was adapted by Erik Forrest Jackson. It was produced by Troika/Stageworks. The director was Matt Lenz. It starred Grayson Powell as Sam Malone, Jillian Louis as Diane Chambers, Barry Pearl as Ernie 'Coach' Pantusso, Sarah Sirotta as Carla Tortelli, Paul Vogt as Norm Peterson, and Buzz Roddy as Cliff Clavin. The production was scheduled to tour through 2017, but was cancelled in 2016.


title: Jerry West

text: Jerome Alan West (born May 28, 1938) is an American basketball executive and former player. He played professionally for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). His nicknames included "Mr. Clutch", for his ability to make a big play in a clutch situation, such as his famous buzzer-beating 60-foot shot that tied Game 3 of the 1970 NBA Finals against the New York Knicks; "the Logo", in reference to his silhouette being incorporated into the NBA logo; "Mr. Outside", in reference to his perimeter play with the Los Angeles Lakers; and "Zeke from Cabin Creek", for the creek near his birthplace of Chelyan, West Virginia. West played the small forward position early in his career, and he was a standout at East Bank High School and at West Virginia University, where he led the Mountaineers to the 1959 NCAA championship game. He earned the NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player honor despite the loss. He then embarked on a 14-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, and was the co-captain of the 1960 U.S. Olympic gold medal team, a squad that was inducted as a unit into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.


title: Jerry West

text: West's NBA career was highly successful. Playing the guard position, he was voted 12 times into the All-NBA First and Second Teams, was elected into the NBA All-Star Team 14 times, and was chosen as the All-Star MVP in 1972, the same year that he won the only title of his career. West holds the NBA record for the highest points per game average in a playoff series with 46.3. He was also a member of the first five NBA All-Defensive Teams (one second, followed by four firsts), which were introduced when he was 32 years old. Having played in nine NBA Finals, he is also the only player in NBA history to be named Finals MVP despite being on the losing team (1969). In 1980, West was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and named to the NBA 35th Anniversary Team. West was named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA history in 1996, and to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021.


title: Jerry West

text: After his playing career ended, West took over as head coach of the Lakers for three years. He led Los Angeles into the playoffs each year and earned a Western Conference Finals berth once. Working as a player-scout for three years, West was named general manager of the Lakers before the 1982–83 NBA season. Under his reign, Los Angeles won six championship rings. In 2002, West became general manager of the Memphis Grizzlies and helped the franchise win their first-ever playoff berths. For his contributions, West won the NBA Executive of the Year Award twice, once as a Lakers manager (1995) and then as a Grizzlies manager (2004). West's son, Jonnie, also played college basketball for West Virginia.


title: Jerry West

text: West was born into a poor household in Chelyan, West Virginia. He was the fifth of six children of Cecil Sue West, a housewife, and Howard Stewart West, a coal mine electrician. West's father physically abused him, and West has stated that for a time he slept with a loaded shotgun under his bed out of fear that he might have to kill his father in self-defense.


title: Jerry West

text: West was an outgoing and aggressive child in his youth. However, in 1951 his older brother, David, was killed in action in the Korean War, and the trauma turned West into a shy and introverted boy. He was so small, frail, and weak that he needed many vitamin injections from his doctor and was kept apart from children's sports, to prevent him from getting seriously injured. Growing up, West spent his days hunting and fishing, but his main activity was shooting at a basketball hoop that a neighbor had nailed to his storage shed. West spent days shooting baskets from every possible angle, ignoring mud and snow in the backyard, as well as his mother's whippings when he came home hours late for dinner.


title: Jerry West

text: West attended East Bank High School in East Bank, West Virginia from 1952 to 1956. During his first year, he was benched by his coach Duke Shaver due to his lack of height. Shaver emphasized the importance of conditioning and defense, which were lessons that the teenager appreciated. West soon became the captain of the freshman team, and during the summer of 1953 he grew to . West eventually became the team's starting small forward, and he quickly established himself as one of the finest West Virginia high school players of his generation. He was named All-State from 1953 to 1956, then All-American in 1956 when he was West Virginia Player of the Year, becoming the state's first high-school player to score more than 900 points in a season, with an average of 32.2 points per game. West's mid-range jump shot became his trademark and he often used it to score while under pressure from opposing defenses. West led East Bank to a state championship on March 24 that year, prompting East Bank High School to change its name to "West Bank High School" every year on March 24 in honor of their basketball prodigy. This practice remained in effect until the school closed in 1999.


title: Jerry West

text: West graduated from East Bank High School in 1956, and more than 60 universities showed interest in him. He eventually chose to stay in his home state and attend West Virginia University (WVU), located in Morgantown. In his freshman year (1956–57), West was a member of the WVU freshman squad that achieved a perfect record of 17 wins without a loss over the course of the season; other team members included Jay Jacobs and Willie Akers. In his first varsity year under head coach Fred Schaus, West scored 17.8 points per game and averaged 11.1 rebounds; he also started in all 28 games while shooting 49.6% from the field and 73.2% from the free throw line. These performances earned him a multitude of honors, among them an All-American Third Team call-up, First Team All-Southern Conference, Southern Conference Tournament Most Valuable Player Award and First Team honors, Chuck Taylor–Converse Second-team All-American honors, and Associated Press and United Press International Third-team All-American honors. The Mountaineers went 26–2 that year, ending the season with a loss to Manhattan College in postseason tournament play.


title: Jerry West

text: During his junior year (1958–59), West scored 26.6  points per game and grabbed 12.3  rebounds per game. He tied the NCAA five-game tournament record of 160 points (32.0 points per game) and led all scorers and rebounders in every West Virginia game, including getting 28 points and 11 rebounds in a 71–70 loss to California in the final. West was named Most Outstanding Player of that year's Final Four. Further awards were All-American, Southern Conference Tournament MVP and Southern Conference Player of the Year and Athlete of the Year. He was also named to be a member of the U.S. Pan American Games basketball team that won the gold medal. West demonstrated his tenacity for the game in a match against the Kentucky Wildcats. He broke his nose during an incident in the game, but he continued to play despite intense pain and having to breathe through his mouth. He scored 19 points in the second half, leading WVU to an upset victory.


title: Jerry West

text: In his final collegiate season (1959–60) West enjoyed several career highs, such as scoring 29.3 points per game, a 134 season-assists, 16.5 rebounds per game, and a shooting average of 50.4% from the field, 76.6% from the free throw line. He was honored again with several awards: a call-up to the All-American selection, and being voted Southern Conference MVP. West's best performance was a game against Virginia, in which he grabbed 16 rebounds and scored 40 points. Moreover, during that final year, he had 30 double-doubles and fifteen 30-point games. In his collegiate career, West totaled 2,309 points and 1,240 rebounds. He averaged 24.8 points per game and 13.3 rebounds. As of 2011, West holds 12 WVU all-time records. West and Oscar Robertson co-captained the U.S. men's basketball team that won the gold medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics.


title: Jerry West

text: West made himself available for the 1960 NBA draft, and he was drafted with the second overall pick by the Minneapolis Lakers, shortly before the team relocated to Los Angeles. West became the first draft pick ever of the relocated franchise. His college coach was also hired to coach the Lakers. He played West as a guard, in contrast to West's college days as a forward. The Lakers were captained by Hall-of-Fame forward Elgin Baylor, who was complemented by centers Jim Krebs and Ray Felix; forwards Rudy LaRusso and Tom Hawkins; and guards Rod Hundley (from West Virginia, like West), Frank Selvy, and Bobby Leonard. This team perennially had strong forwards and guards, but was constantly weak at center, giving them a disadvantage against the Boston Celtics with their Hall-of-Fame center, Bill Russell.


title: Jerry West

text: Initially, West felt odd in his new environment. He was a loner. His high-pitched voice earned him the nickname "Tweety Bird", and he spoke with such a thick Appalachian accent that his teammates also referred to him as "Zeke from Cabin Creek" (his nickname acknowledged his country roots, and his accent was so thick that he squeaked his nickname sheepishly – "Zeek from Cab'n Creek"). However, West soon impressed his colleagues with his defensive hustle, with his vertical jump—he could reach up 16  inches above the rim when he went up—and with his work ethic, spending countless extra hours working on his game. On the floor, West scored 17.6 points, grabbed 7.7 rebounds and gave 4.2 assists per game. West won Schaus's trust and, alternating with Hundley, Selvy, and Leonard, played 35 minutes per game and established himself as the Lakers' second scoring option. The NBA commented that the Lakers now had a potent one-two-punch—with "Mr. Inside" (the low-post scorer, Baylor) and "Mr. Outside" (the long-distance shooter, West). These performances soon earned West his first of fourteen NBA All-Star Game call-ups.


title: Jerry West

text: West helped the Lakers improve from their previous 25-win season to 36 wins as they reached the 1961 NBA Playoffs. They needed all five games to put away the Detroit Pistons but then lost to the St. Louis Hawks in seven games, losing the final game 105–103.


title: Jerry West

text: In West's second NBA season, the Lakers could only make limited use of Baylor, who was called up by the U.S. Army Reserves and could play only 48 games. However, West seamlessly took over the role of team leader and established himself as the main Lakers scorer, averaging 30.8  points, 7.9  rebounds and 5.4  assists per game, winning All-NBA First Team honors. On January 17, 1962, West scored a career-high 63 points in a 129–121 win over the New York Knicks. West became known especially for hitting important late-game shots, and Lakers' announcer Chick Hearn named him "Mr. Clutch" a handle which stuck with West for his entire career.


title: Jerry West

text: The Lakers won 54 regular-season games and secured a first-round bye in the 1962 NBA Playoffs. They beat the Pistons four games to two to advance to the 1962 NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics. The teams split the first two games, and at the end of Game 3 in Los Angeles, West tied the game at 115. The Celtics' Sam Jones inbounded the ball at half-court with three seconds left. West stole the ball, raced upcourt, and converted a running layup as the buzzer sounded. The Celtics tied the series in Game 6 at three games apiece, and the teams headed to Boston for Game 7. For most of the game, the Lakers trailed, but West and Frank Selvy hit several clutch baskets and tied the game at 100. Selvy then missed an open 8-foot shot which would have won the Lakers their first title. Baylor's tip-in attempt was thwarted by Sam Jones. In overtime, Jones scored several clutch baskets to ensure a 110–107 win for the Celtics. The 1962 NBA finals would serve as the beginning of the greatest rivalry in NBA history


title: Jerry West

text: In the 1962–63 NBA season, Baylor was back full-time. West averaged 27.8  points, 7.0  rebounds and 5.6  assists and was again NBA All-Star and All-NBA First-Team; however, he played in only 55 regular-season games, missing the last seven weeks due to a hamstring injury. Again, the Lakers reached the finals, and again, they battled the Celtics. With West not yet in shape, Baylor and the Lakers fell back 3–2; then they succumbed in Game 6 in front of their home crowd with a 112–109 loss. As the game ended, veteran Celtics playmaker Bob Cousy threw the ball high into the rafters of the L.A. Sports Arena.


title: Jerry West

text: In the following 1963–64 NBA season, West became the Lakers' scoring leader for the first time. His 28.7  points per game eclipsed the 25.4 by Baylor, who stated that he suffered from knee problems. The Lakers struggled during the entire season, winning only 42 games, and were beaten by the Hawks in five games during the first round of the 1964 NBA Playoffs.


title: Jerry West

text: In the following 1964–65 NBA season, West averaged 31.0  points (at the time, a career-high), only surpassed by perennial scoring champion Wilt Chamberlain. After ending the regular season with 49 wins, L.A. played the Baltimore Bullets in the first round of the 1965 NBA Playoffs, but then team captain Baylor suffered a career-threatening knee injury. West spectacularly took over Baylor's leading role, as he scored 49  points and willed the shocked Lakers to the win. In Game 2, Baltimore was unable to stop the Lakers guard, who scored 52  points, nearly half of L.A.'s  total, in the 118–115 win. The Bullets took their two home games, despite West scoring 44 and 48  points respectively, but in the decisive Game 5 in L.A., the guard helped beat the Bullets with 42  points in a close 117–115 win. West averaged 46.3  points per game, a figure that is still an NBA record. However, in the 1965 NBA Finals, the Celtics easily beat the short-handed Lakers, 4–1. In Game 1, which Boston easily won, defensive Celtics guard K. C. Jones kept West to the only 26  points, and in Game 2, West scored 45  points, but Boston still won 129–123. In Game 3, West scored 49 points, and L.A. finally won a game, but in Games 4 and 5, the Lakers were beaten by double digits; in the last quarter of Game 5, West missed 14 of 15 shots and could not prevent yet another Celtics win. Still, the Lakers guard finished the playoffs with 40.6 points per game.


title: Jerry West

text: In the 1965–66 NBA season, West averaged a career-best 31.3 points, along with 7.1 rebounds and 6.1 assists per game. He made an NBA record 840 free throws, and earned yet another pair of All-Star Team and All-NBA First Team nominations. Winning 45 games, the Lakers beat the St. Louis Hawks in a close seven-game series, and yet again met the Boston Celtics in the 1966 NBA Finals. West was assisted by Baylor, who was a self-estimated "75 percent" of his pre-injury self, The two long-standing rivals split the first six games, with West's usual scoring dominance countered by Celtics forward John Havlicek, whose size and speed created serious mismatch problems for the Lakers. In Game 7, West and Baylor shot a combined three of 18 in the first half, and the Lakers fell far behind; L.A. willed themselves back to a close 95–93 with four seconds left, but the Celtics ran the clock out and the Lakers were denied yet again.


title: Jerry West

text: The 1966–67 NBA season saw West playing only 66 regular-season games due to injury; his averages fell slightly to 28.0 points, 5.9 rebounds and 6.8 assists per game. The Lakers had a disappointing season, winning only 36 games and getting swept by the San Francisco Warriors in the first round of the 1967 NBA Playoffs. Veteran coach Fred Schaus retired, and Butch Van Breda Kolff took over; under his reign, the Lakers won 52 games in the 1967–68 NBA season in their first season in The Forum. The 52 wins were accumulated despite West playing only 51 regular season games due to injury and scoring 26.3  points, the lowest average since his rookie year: after being a First-Teamer for six times en bloc, he only made the All-NBA Second Team.


title: Jerry West

text: In the 1968 NBA Playoffs, the Lakers beat the Chicago Bulls and the Warriors to set up yet another Lakers-Celtics NBA Finals; it was considered a match of size versus speed, as the Lakers had nobody to guard Celtics coach/center Bill Russell or forward John Havlicek close to the basket, but the Celtics in return had difficulties guarding prolific L.A. outside shooters Baylor, West and fellow guard Gail Goodrich. In Game 1, West only hit seven of 24 shots, and the Lakers lost 107–101, but L.A. evened out the series at two games each. But West, who had scored 38  points in a Game 4 win, had sprained his ankle and did not play at full strength the rest of the series. In Game 5, an injured West scored 35 points, but Boston won by three points. In Game 6, Havlicek shredded the Lakers with 40  points, and after yet another Finals loss to Boston, West commented that the Lakers lost two games they should have won: "We gave them the first game, and we gave them the fifth. But I take nothing from them... They're all that way on the Celtics, and you can't teach it."


title: Jerry West

text: On July 9, 1968, the Lakers made a trade that brought reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia 76ers to Los Angeles at the beginning of the 1968–69 NBA season. To get the center, the Lakers traded West's backcourt partner Archie Clark, starting center Darrall Imhoff and backup forward Jerry Chambers to Philadelphia. Coach Van Breda Kolff was concerned about the drain at the guard positions after losing Clark, and especially after losing Goodrich in the expansion draft to the Phoenix Suns. He only had diminutive, defensively weak Johnny Egan left next to West. While West himself got on well with the recruit, Chamberlain often argued with team captain Elgin Baylor and had a poor relationship with Van Breda Kolff. Van Breda Kolff pejoratively called Chamberlain "The Load", and later complained that Chamberlain was egotistical, never respected him, too often slacked off in practice and focused too much on his statistics. In return, the center blasted Van Breda Kolff as "the dumbest and worst coach ever". There was an altercation in which Chamberlain was about to punch Van Breda Kolff before Baylor had intervened. West was disturbed by locker room tension; used to playing on teams with good chemistry, his quality of play became erratic, and his scoring average of 25.9 points was his lowest since his rookie season. However, he made the Second Team of the inaugural All-Defensive Team.


title: Jerry West

text: In the 1969 NBA Playoffs, the 55-win Lakers defeated the Atlanta Hawks and the San Francisco Warriors, setting up the sixth finals series versus Boston in eight years. Before Game 1, West privately complained to Bill Russell of exhaustion, but then the Lakers guard scored 53  points on Boston in a close two-point win. L.A. also took Game 2, with West scoring 41  points. In Game 3, Russell opted to double-team West, and the guard's exhaustion began to show: West twice asked to be subbed for longer periods, and both times the Lakers fell back by double digits and finally lost by six points. Game 4 saw Celtics guard Sam Jones hit an off-balance buzzer beater to tie the series, but in Game 5, the Lakers struck back and won by 13 points; however, they suffered a major blow when West – who scored 39 points and by far led all players in scoring during the entire series – lunged for a meaningless late-game ball and seriously pulled his hamstring: it was immediately visible that the injury would not heal until the end of the series. A limping West scored 26  points in Game 6, but the Celtics won 99–90 with a strong Bill Russell, who held Chamberlain to only eight  points in the entire game. In Game 7, Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke had put up thousands of balloons in the rafters of the Forum in Los Angeles. This display of arrogance motivated the Celtics and angered West. The Lakers trailed the entire game and were behind 91-76 after 3 quarters, but powered by a limping West, the Lakers closed the gap to 103–102 with two minutes to go and had the ball. But West committed costly turnovers and L.A. lost the game 108–106 despite a triple-double of 42  points, 13  rebounds and 12  assists from West, who became the only recipient of the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award from the losing team. After the loss West was seen as the ultimate tragic hero: after the game, Bill Russell held his hand, and John Havlicek said: "I love you, Jerry".


title: Jerry West

text: In the 1969–70 NBA season under new coach Joe Mullaney, the Lakers' season began with a shock when Wilt Chamberlain seriously injured his knee and missed practically the whole regular season. As after Baylor's injury years before, West stepped into the void, leading the NBA in scoring average with 31.2  points per game, and averaging 4.6  rebounds and 7.5  assists per game, earning him his first of four All-Defensive First Team votes and another All-NBA First Team berth after two Second Team years. The Lakers won 46 games, and in the 1970 NBA Playoffs, they narrowly beat the Phoenix Suns in seven games and swept the Hawks in four, setting up the first NBA Finals between the Lakers and the rugged New York Knicks, led by Hall-of-Famers, such as Willis Reed, Dave DeBusschere, Bill Bradley, and Walt Frazier. L.A. and N.Y. split the first two games, with both games respectively decided by centers Reed and the still-hobbling Chamberlain. In Game 3, DeBusschere hit a mid-range jump shot with three seconds left to put the Knicks ahead 102–100, and the Lakers had no time-outs left. Chamberlain inbounded the ball to West, who raced past Walt Frazier and threw up a 60-foot shot. Frazier later commented: "The man's crazy. He looks determined. He thinks it's going in!" West incredibly connected, and this basket was later called one of the greatest moments ever by the NBA. As the three-point line had not been introduced yet, the shot just tied the game. In overtime, West, however, sprained his left hand and missed all five of his shots, and the Knicks won 111–108. In Game 4, the guard scored 37  points and 18  assists, and the Lakers won. However, more frustration awaited West in Game 5, when Reed pulled his thigh muscle and seemed out for the series; instead of capitalizing on a double-digit lead and reeling off an easy win, the Lakers committed 19 second-half turnovers, and the two main scorers Chamberlain and West shot the ball only three and two times, respectively, in the entire second half and lost 107–100 in what was called one of the greatest comebacks in NBA Finals history. After Chamberlain scored 45 points and West 31 points plus 13 assists in a series-equalising 135-113 Lakers win, the Lakers seemed favorites prior to Game 7. However, West had also injured his right hand and received several manual injections, and Reed famously hobbled up court before Game 7: the Knicks center scored the first four  points, and inspired his team to one of the most famous playoff upsets of all time. With his injured hands, West still hit nine of his 19 shots, but was outplayed by Walt Frazier, who scored 36 points and 19 assists and was credited with several crucial steals on Lakers guard Dick Garrett.


title: Jerry West

text: In the 1970–71 NBA season, the Lakers reacquired Gail Goodrich, who came back from the Phoenix Suns after playing for L.A. until 1968. At age 32, West averaged 26.9 points, 4.6 rebounds and 9.5 assists, and helped the Lakers win 46 games and make the 1971 NBA Playoffs. After losing Elgin Baylor to an Achilles tendon rupture that effectively ended his career, West himself injured his knee and was out for the season; the short-handed Lakers lost the Western Conference Finals in five games to the championship-bound Milwaukee Bucks, who were led by freshly-crowned Most Valuable Player Lew Alcindor (later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and veteran Hall-of-Fame guard Oscar Robertson.


title: Jerry West

text: Before the 1971–72 NBA season, West was smarting from his frequent injuries and losses and considered retirement. The Lakers hired former Celtics star guard and future Hall-of-Fame coach Bill Sharman as head coach. Although injured captain Elgin Baylor ended his career, the Lakers had a season for the ages. The team was powered by Sharman's emphasis on tough defense and fast break offense, and L.A. embarked on an unprecedented 33 game win streak, en route to a then-record 69 wins in the regular season. West himself contributed with 25.8 points and led the league with a career-high 9.7 assists per game. He was named All-Star, All-NBA and All-Defense First Teamer and voted 1972 All-Star Game MVP.


title: Jerry West

text: In the postseason, the Lakers defeated the Chicago Bulls in a four-game sweep, then went on to face the Milwaukee Bucks, and defeated them in six games. In the 1972 NBA Finals, the Lakers again met the New York Knicks. Although West suffered a terrible shooting slump during Games 1 and 2, the Lakers tied the series at one win each, and in Game 3, he scored 21 points and helped L.A. win Game 3. In this game, he now had scored 4,002 playoff points, which set an all-time NBA record. After winning Game 4 due to a superb outing from Wilt Chamberlain, West scored 23  points and dished out 9 assists in Game 5, helping the Lakers to win the game and the NBA championship. The championship was West's first-ever NBA title. West conceded that he had played a terrible series, and credited the team for the success. Years later he said "I played terrible basketball in the Finals, and we won... It was particularly frustrating because I was playing so poorly that the team overcame me. Maybe that's what a team is all about."


title: Jerry West

text: Having vanquished this long-time bane, West entered his 13th NBA year. In the 1972–73 NBA season, the main scoring role was taken by Goodrich, and West was now a playmaker instead of a scorer. However, West averaged 22.8 points, but also averaged 8.8 assists per game, and again was a First Teamer in the All-Star, All-NBA, and All-Defense Teams. The Lakers won 60 games and reached the 1973 NBA Finals against the New York Knicks. In-Game 1 West scored 24  points before fouling out with three minutes left and L.A. won Game 1 115–112. However, the Knicks took Games 2 and 3, and West strained both of his hamstrings: in Game 4, the shorthanded Lakers were no match for New York, and in Game 5, the valiant, but injured West and Hairston had miserable games, and despite Chamberlain scoring 23 points and grabbing 21 rebounds, the Lakers lost 102–93 and the series.


title: Jerry West

text: The 1973–74 NBA season was to be West's last as a player. Now 36 years old, the veteran guard averaged 20.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 6.6 assists per game. In two newly introduced statistics, steals and blocks, he was credited with 2.6 steals and 0.7 blocks per game. Despite playing only 31 games due to a strained groin, West was still regarded as an elite guard, earning another call-up into his final All-Star Game. Without Chamberlain, who had ended his NBA career, the Lakers won 47 games and lost in five games to the Milwaukee Bucks. After this loss, West retired due to contract disagreements with Cooke, and filed a suit for unpaid back wages. West wanted to re-negotiate his contract and keep playing, however, he said Cooke "basically told my agent to go to hell. I felt I was deceived. When you feel that you're deceived you don't want any part of the organization that deceived you. I could've played another very good year. Every athlete says that. But I could've, and I knew I could've. But I could never have played for the Lakers again, and I wasn't going to play for anybody else." At the time of his departure, West had scored more points than any other Laker in franchise history.


title: Jerry West

text: Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke was known for a keen eye identifying leadership and teaching qualities (he also gave Hall of Famers Sparky Anderson and Joe Gibbs their first managerial/head coaching positions), and asked West to coach and participate in player personnel decisions. In the 1976–77 season, West became coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. In three years, he led the Lakers and star center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to a 145–101 record, making the playoffs all three seasons and reaching the Western Conference Finals in 1977.


title: Jerry West

text: After his coaching stint, West worked as a scout for three years before becoming general manager of the Lakers before the 1982–83 seasons. West helped to build the great 1980s Lakers dynasty, also known as Showtime, which brought five championship rings (1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, and 1988) to Los Angeles.


title: Jerry West

text: Those championship-winning Lakers were coached by Pat Riley, and featured superstar players Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy. After a slump in the early 1990s, West rebuilt the team of coach Del Harris around center Vlade Divac, forward Cedric Ceballos, and guard Nick Van Exel, which won 48 games, and went to the Western Conference Semifinals. In 1995, West received his first Executive of the Year Award for his role in turning the Lakers around.


title: Jerry West

text: West continued to propel the Lakers to championship contender status by trading Divac for the draft rights to Kobe Bryant (1996), by signing free agent center Shaquille O'Neal (also 1996), and by signing six-time NBA champion Phil Jackson as a coach (1999). West departed from the Lakers at the end of the 1999-2000 season. However, he laid down the foundation of the Lakers three-peat, which saw L.A. win three NBA titles from 2000-2002.


title: Jerry West

text: In 2002, West became the general manager of the Memphis Grizzlies. He explained his decision with the desire for exploring something new: "After being a part of the Laker's success for so many years, I have always wondered how it would be to build a winning franchise that has not experienced much success. I want to help make a difference." West's Memphis stint was not as spectacular as his Los Angeles stint, but he turned a franchise which was about to be sold into a reliable playoffs team, making few trades but getting the maximum from the players he had available (such as Pau Gasol, James Posey and Jason Williams) and signing coach Hubie Brown, who became Coach of the Year in 2004. West himself won his second NBA Executive of the Year Award in the same year. At age 69, West retired as a Grizzlies general manager in 2007 and turned over managing duties to Chris Wallace.


title: Jerry West

text: On May 19, 2011, West joined the Golden State Warriors as an executive board member, reporting directly to new owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber. This role also came with an undisclosed minority ownership stake in the team. In 2015, the Warriors won their first championship in 40 years; the championship was the seventh earned by West while serving as a team executive. He earned his eighth in the 2016–17 season.


title: Jerry West

text: On June 14, 2017, West announced that he would go to the Los Angeles Clippers as an executive board member.


title: Jerry West

text: On December 17, 2020, it was reported that West and the LA Clippers were under investigation by the NBA following a lawsuit filed by John Wilkes against the LA Clippers over the recruitment of Kawhi Leonard to the team.


title: Jerry West

text: West was an all-around combo guard who could take the playmaking roles of a point guard and score like a shooting guard, while being equally strong on offense and defense. He had a jump shot with a release the NBA lauded as "lightning quick", and was known for making baskets late in the game, earning him the nickname "Mr. Clutch". Having played forward early in his career, West was also a capable rebounder, and gifted with long arms, quick hands, and strong defensive instincts, West was also once described as one of the best ballhawks, man-to-man defenders and shot blockers among NBA guards: when the All-Defensive Teams were introduced in 1969, West made every one of them until his career ended in 1974. "He stole more than anybody, although they didn't keep records on it then", said Sharman. However, contemporaries were most impressed by West's work ethic, obsessively practicing and shooting and rarely being satisfied with himself.


title: Jerry West

text: West's all-round game and attitude is maybe best expressed in his statistically most spectacular game: he once was credited with 44 points (16 of 17 shots from the field, 12 of 12 free throw attempts) with 12 rebounds, 12  assists, and (unofficially counted) 10 blocked shots, thus scoring a non-official ultra-rare quadruple double. Instead of being proud, West merely commented: "Defensively, from a team standpoint, I didn't feel I played very well. Very rarely was I satisfied with how I played."


title: Jerry West

text: West ended his playing career with 14 All-Star, 12 All-NBA Team and five All-Defensive Team selections, and scored 25,192 points, 6,238 assists and 5,366 rebounds in 932 games, translating to an average of 27.0 points, 6.7 assists and 5.8 rebounds per game. Among retired players, only Michael Jordan, Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain surpass his 27.0 points per game average. He led the Lakers in scoring in seven seasons, and only Jordan had a higher career scoring average in the playoffs (33.5 versus 29.1). In 1979, West was elected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and the Lakers retired his No. 44 jersey in 1983. In March 2008, ESPN voted West the third greatest shooting guard of all time. As a coach, West led the Lakers into three consecutive playoff campaigns, and then went on to win seven NBA championships as a general manager, building the 1980s Lakers dynasty under coach Pat Riley and players Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and James Worthy and the 2000s under coach Phil Jackson and players Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant.


title: Jerry West

text: In the summer of 2000, the city of Morgantown, West Virginia, and West Virginia Governor Cecil Underwood, dedicated the road outside of the West Virginia University Coliseum, "Jerry West Boulevard". The same road is shared on the south end of Morgantown with Don Knotts Boulevard, in honor of another WVU alumnus. Also, on November 26, 2005, his number 44 became the first basketball number to be retired by West Virginia University and on February 17, 2007, a bronze statue created by sculptor Jamie Lester was installed outside of the WVU Coliseum. On February 17, 2011, a statue of West was unveiled outside Staples Center at the Star Plaza in Los Angeles, California. Finally, the NBA logo itself is modeled after West's silhouette. On June 1, 2019, President Donald Trump announced West would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.


title: Jerry West

text: West married his college sweetheart Martha Jane Kane in April 1960 in Morgantown; they divorced in 1976. They have three sons, David, Mark and Michael.


title: Jerry West

text: Jerry married his current wife, Kristine "Karen" Bua, in 1978. They have two sons, Ryan and Jonnie. Jonnie played guard for West's college team, the West Virginia Mountaineers and married professional golfer Michelle Wie in 2019.


title: Jerry West

text: As a person, West was often described as an introverted and nervous character, but who also drew the highest praise for his uncompromising work ethic. Regarding his shyness, WVU roommate Jody Gardner testified that West never dated in his entire freshman year, and Lakers coach Fred Schaus once recalled two weeks when his guard never said a word. Apart from being shy, West was always restless: Schaus described him as a "bundle of nerves", Celtics contemporary Bob Cousy as "always on the move", and fellow Laker and Mountaineer Rod Hundley testified that during bar visits, West would quickly squirm and demand to go elsewhere before everybody else had settled. His first wife Martha Kane recalled that her husband often had difficulties opening up to her. After a big loss, the Wests would drive home and she would try to console him, but West would say "get out" at the home porch and drive away—an experience that "killed" her as a wife.


title: Jerry West

text: Early in his career, West's West Virginian roots made him a target for some mild jeering. He spoke with a high pitched voice that became even shriller when he became excited so that Lakers captain Elgin Baylor dubbed West "Tweety Bird". His Appalachian accent was so thick that one coach interrupted him and asked him to speak English. Baylor once commented: "Rumors are safe with you, Tweety Bird. You pass them on, but nobody can understand you."


title: Jerry West

text: West was also regarded for his extreme mental toughness and his exemplary work ethic. The NBA described West as "obsessive perfectionism, unabashed confidence, and an uncompromising will to win... a level of intensity so high it could melt lead". Lakers broadcaster Chick Hearn once said: "He took a loss harder than any player I've ever known. He would sit by himself and stare into space. A loss just ripped his guts out." Even before his sole championship in 1972, the Lakers held a "Jerry West Night", and eleven-time NBA champion and perennial rival Bill Russell appeared and said: "Jerry, you are, in every sense of the word, truly a champion... If I could have one wish granted, it would be that you would always be happy."


title: Jerry West

text: In 2011, West and bestselling author Jonathan Coleman wrote a memoir entitled "West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life". The book has had tremendous critical acclaim and became an instant " New York Times" bestseller. During an interview on HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel", West revealed that as a child he was the victim of physical abuse from his father and has suffered from depression ever since.


title: Jerry West

text: West is portrayed in the 2022 HBO docudrama series "" as a temperamental, foul-mouthed executive prone to angry outbursts and mood swings. On April 19, 2022, West demanded a retraction from the network within two weeks for the "cruel" and "deliberately false" depiction, as played by actor Jason Clarke.


title: Costco

text: Costco Wholesale Corporation (doing business as Costco Wholesale and also known simply as Costco) is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only big-box retail stores (warehouse club). As of 2022, Costco is the fifth largest retailer in the world and is the world's largest retailer of choice and prime beef, organic foods, rotisserie chicken, and wine . In 2021, Costco was ranked #10 on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.


title: Costco

text: Costco's worldwide headquarters are in Issaquah, Washington, an eastern suburb of Seattle, although its Kirkland Signature house label bears the name of its former location in Kirkland. The company opened its first "warehouse" (the chain's term for its retail outlets) in Seattle Through mergers, however, Costco's corporate history dates back to 1976, when its former competitor Price Club was founded in San Diego, California. , Costco has 842 warehouses worldwide: 579 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 107 in Canada, 40 in Mexico, 31 in Japan, 29 in the United Kingdom, 18 in Korea, 14 in Taiwan, 13 in Australia, four in Spain, two each in France and China, and one each in Iceland, New Zealand and Sweden.


title: Costco

text: Costco's earliest predecessor, Price Club, opened its first store on July 12, 1976, on Morena Boulevard in San Diego, California. It was founded three months earlier by Sol Price and his son, Robert, following a dispute with the new owners of FedMart, Price's previous membership-only discount store. Price Club was among the first retail warehouse clubs, beginning with its Morena Boulevard store inside a series of old airplane hangars once owned by Howard Hughes. The store, known as Costco Warehouse #401, is still in operation today.


title: Costco

text: Price Club's sales model targeted small business owners, selling items in bulk for a discounted price at no-frills outlets that were accessible only with an annual membership fee. The company launched an initial public offering in 1980 and expanded to 24 locations in the Southwest and 1.1 million members by early 1986. Price Club expanded into Canada in 1986, opening a store in Montreal, followed by a Mexico City store in 1992 as part of a joint venture with hypermarket chain Controladora Comercial Mexicana. The company also announced plans to open stores in Spain and Portugal through their Canadian subsidiary.


title: Costco

text: Jim Sinegal and Jeffrey H. Brotman opened the first Costco warehouse in Seattle on September 15, 1983. Sinegal had started in wholesale distribution by working for Sol Price at FedMart; Brotman, an attorney from an old Seattle retailing family, had also been involved in retail distribution from an early age. During this time, small businesses were given an 8% or 9% discount on inventories. He began his retail involvement as a grocery bagger. A second store opened in Portland in October, and a third in Spokane in The company went public in 1985. The company was initially headquartered at its first warehouse in Seattle, but moved its headquarters to Kirkland in 1987.


title: Costco

text: In 1993, Costco and Price Club agreed to merge operations themselves after Price declined an offer from Walmart to merge Price Club with their warehouse store chain, Sam's Club. Costco's business model and size were similar to those of Price Club, which made the merger more natural for both companies. The combined company took the name PriceCostco, and memberships became universal, meaning that a Price Club member could use their membership to shop at Costco and vice versa. PriceCostco boasted 206 locations generating $16billion in annual sales. PriceCostco was initially led by executives from both companies, but in 1994, the Price brothers left the company to form PriceSmart, a warehouse club chain in Central America and the Caribbean unrelated to the current Costco.


title: Costco

text: In 1997, Costco changed its name to Costco Wholesale Corporation, and all remaining Price Club locations were rebranded


title: Costco

text: In 2005, Costco replaced its first Seattle warehouse with a new warehouse on an adjacent lot. The company was able to arrange to keep the same address for the new building.


title: Costco

text: In 2014, Costco was the third largest retailer in the United States. That year Costco announced plans to open an online store in China using Alibaba Group.


title: Costco

text: Costco announced the opening of 29 new locations in 2016, the most in one year since 2007. Span Construction, led by King Husein, has constructed almost all of Costco's buildings since 1989.


title: Costco

text: Costco opened its first warehouse in China on August 27, 2019, in Shanghai. The store's opening garnered much attention, which led to its opening day being cut short over safety concerns.


title: Costco

text: The first Costco in New Zealand was first opened at West Auckland in September 2022, delayed from mid-August due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Costco

text: In the United States, Costco's main competitors operating membership warehouses are Sam's Club (a subsidiary of Walmart) and BJ's Wholesale Club. Costco employs 304,000 full and part-time employees worldwide. In 2016, Costco had 86.7million members. This increased to 90.3million members in 2017. and 94.3million in 2018. In 2019, Costco had 98.5million members. In 2020, Costco had 105.5million members. In 2021, Costco had 111.6million members. , Costco has 118.9million members.


title: Costco

text: Costco was the first company to grow from zero to $3billion in sales in under six years. For the fiscal year ending on August 31, 2012, the company's sales totaled $97.062billion, with $1.709billion net profit. , Costco is ranked #14 on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. The ACSI (The American Customer Satisfaction Index) named Costco number one in the specialty retail store industry with a score of 84 in 2014.


title: Costco

text: From December 2013, Costco's board of directors was chaired by co-founder Jeffrey H. Brotman and included James Sinegal, co-founder and director, and two officers of the company: president/CEO W. Craig Jelinek and CFO Richard A. Galanti. On August 1, 2017, Jeffrey Brotman died. , James Sinegal and W. Craig Jelinek remained on the board. Jim Sinegal stepped down in 2018.


title: Costco

text: Warehouses outside the U.S. are similar to the company's domestic locations, featuring generally identical layout, signage, and even parking lot markings. Food court menus are tailored to international tastes, with meat pies on offer in Australia; poutine in Canada and France; seafood-topped pizza in Asian locations; pastor taco-topped pizzas in Mexico; clam chowder in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan; plokkfiskur in Iceland; and jacket potatoes in the UK. Additionally, Costco has led a strategic initiative to enhance the merchandise mix available at international warehouses by tailoring products to local tastes, offering a selection of both American and local products.


title: Costco

text: In Canada, it is a participant in the voluntary Scanner Price Accuracy Code managed by the Retail Council of Canada.


title: Costco

text: In 2005, the world's largest Costco by square feet was warehouse #692 in Hillsboro, Oregon. In 2015, Costco completed an expansion in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, making it the new largest Costco at . In 2019, Costco opened its biggest store in Canada, in St. John's; the store is .


title: Costco

text: In 2011, Costco's highest volume store was in Seoul, South Korea. In 2018, Taiwan's Taichung ranked at the top in the number of members and was second in the world in sales volume, behind South Korea's Yangjae store in Seoul. Of the 14 Costco operations in Taiwan, three – Taichung, Neihu, and Chungho – ranked in the top 10 in the world in sales volume.


title: Costco

text: Costco Business Centers are warehouses similar to regular Costco warehouses, and are open to all Costco members, regardless of membership type. Their merchandise caters predominantly to enterprises, with a focus on small businesses. Business Centers do not carry most consumer items like clothing, jewelry, media, and tires, while carrying larger quantities and more options for the business products they do carry. More than 70% of the items that can be acquired from a Costco Business Center cannot be found in a typical Costco store. Some locations do have a food court, a gas station, or both. Unlike regular warehouses, most Costco Business Centers have a Print & Copy Center which provides printing professional services. They have large parking spaces for trucks and are capable of delivering goods to businesses in bulk quantities, with a delivery charge of $25 for orders that are below $250. Costco Business Center operating hours are shorter than regular warehouses (usually opening at 7:00 am on Mondays to Saturdays and closed on Sundays), while discounts and coupons for Business Centers are issued separately from regular warehouses.


title: Costco

text: , there are 22 Costco Business Centers in the United States, located in Orlando, Florida; Stafford, Texas; Dallas, Texas; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Phoenix, Arizona; California (Commerce, Hawthorne, Hayward, North Hollywood, Sacramento, San Diego, South San Francisco, Ontario, Westminster, San Marcos, and San Jose); Denver, Colorado; Morrow, Georgia; Bedford Park, Illinois; Hackensack, New Jersey; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Washington (Lynnwood, and Fife). A Business Center in San Marcos, California opened in March 2022.


title: Costco

text: The first Costco Business Center outside the U.S. opened in Canada in Scarborough, Toronto in March 2017. In September 2020, the second Canadian Costco Business Centre opened in Saint-Hubert, Quebec, near Montreal. A third Canadian Business Centre opened in the Ottawa neighborhood of Gloucester in June 2022.


title: Costco

text: For the fiscal year 2022, Costco reported earnings of US$5.844billion, with an annual revenue of $226.954billion.


title: Costco

text: Costco is a membership-only warehouse which generates a majority of its revenue from retail sales and a small percentage from membership fees. Customers must buy memberships to access the warehouse and make purchases. This is executed through the direct sourcing and efficient inventory management techniques.


title: Costco

text: Costco divides its business into three segments: United States Operations, Canadian Operations, and Other International Operations. These three business segments are reported by revenue and operating income. Of the three, the United States Operations was the largest, followed by Canadian Operations.


title: Costco

text: The company's rule is that no regular item may be marked up more than 14% over cost, and no Kirkland Signature item may be marked up more than 15% over cost. The company runs very lean, with overhead costs at about 10% of revenue and profit margins at 2%. Costco's annual membership fees (US$60/year for Gold Star, US$120/year for Executive ) account for 80% of Costco's gross margin and 70% of its operating income.


title: Costco

text: If Costco feels the wholesale price of any individual product is too high, they will refuse to stock the product. For example, in November 2009, Costco announced that it would stop selling Coca-Cola products, because the soft-drink maker refused to lower its wholesale prices. Costco resumed selling Coca-Cola products the following month.


title: Costco

text: Although the brand engages in visible efforts to reduce costs, the stores themselves are expensive. In 2013, Costco spent approximately $80million on each of the new stores it opened. The cost is partly driven by the cost of real estate, as each new store means that they need enough space to support a building of approximately in size, a large parking lot, and often a gas station.


title: Costco

text: Lighting costs are reduced on sunny days, as most Costco locations have several skylights. During the day, electronic light meters measure how much light is coming in the skylights and turn off an appropriate percentage of the interior lights. During an average sunny day, it is normal for the center section of the warehouse not to have interior lights in use. The company has no public relations department and buys no outside advertising. A typical Costco warehouse carries only 3,700 distinct products, while a typical Walmart Supercenter carries approximately 140,000 products.


title: Costco

text: Like many other retailers vertically integrating their food supply chains, Costco has brought in-house poultry production for their rotisserie chickens, which are a major driver of customer traffic and sales. This is to allow keeping their pricing intact while maintaining a consistent quality control of its chickens as a result of annual growth of per-capita chicken consumption in the United States.


title: Costco

text: Costco is known for its "exit greeters", who briefly compare receipts against shopping cart contents as customers exit. They are trained to quickly count cart contents and serve as a form of customer service to verify that customers were charged correctly, have redeemed any voucher-based items (e.g., tickets), and have not missed items placed in their cart's lower racks. Costco has used exit greeters since its first store in 1983.


title: Costco

text: Costco primarily focuses on getting members to come in to a warehouse for purchases, instead of ordering products online. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Costco's online sales increased dramatically, with more online sales growth in 2020 than the previous 5 years combined.


title: Costco

text: The company opened its online shopping site at "Costco.com" on April 17, 2001. Costco.com is for United States members; costco.ca is for Canadian members, and other countries, such as Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan and the UK, each have their own online Costco shopping website.


title: Costco

text: Instacart offers Costco delivery in a select number of states including Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia.


title: Costco

text: Similarly, in March 2017, Costco initiated a partnership with Shipt, an online grocery delivery service. Unlike Instacart, Shipt charges its own membership fee, $99 a year or $14 a month, in exchange for free delivery on orders over $35. , Shipt offers Costco delivery in select Florida markets.


title: Costco

text: Costco has a frequently changing inventory and is known for carrying products for a time, then discontinuing them or using them as seasonal products. Over the years, Costco has gradually expanded its range of products and services. Initially, it preferred to sell only boxed products that could be dispensed by simply tearing the stretch wrap off a pallet. It now sells many other products that are more difficult to handle, such as art, books, caskets, clothing, computer software, fine wine, furniture, home appliances, home electronics, hot tubs, jewelry, perishable items (such as dairy, fresh baked goods, flowers, fresh produce, meat, seafood), solar panels, tires, and vacuum cleaners. Many warehouses also have gas stations, pharmacies, hearing aid centers, optometrists, eye and sunglass centers, photo processors, and tire garages.


title: Costco

text: Some locations have liquor stores kept separate from the main warehouse in order to comply with liquor license restrictions, while in some states alcohol is sold in the warehouse with the rest of the merchandise. In some states (such as Texas), the liquor store must be owned and operated by a separate company with separate employees. In 2006, Costco lost a lawsuit against the state of Washington in which it was seeking to purchase wine directly from the producer, bypassing the state retail monopoly. In Australia, Costco has to comply with regulations set by each state they choose to trade in; their first store in the Australian state of Victoria benefits from liberal-oriented alcohol licensing laws in that country, with retailers permitted to sell alcohol on shelves within the store in a manner similar to most European countries. In New Zealand, the country's sole warehouse in West Auckland cannot sell alcohol due to The Trusts' monopoly on liquor stores in the area.


title: Costco

text: "Kirkland Signature" is Costco's private label brand, used for a variety of products sold at Costco's warehouses and website. Costco introduced Kirkland Signature in 1995, deriving the name from the location of Costco's then corporate headquarters, Kirkland, Washington. It accounts for almost a third of all Costco sales and is growing faster than Costco sales.


title: Costco

text: The idea for the private label was to provide the appearance of brand name quality products at discounted prices. To counteract the consumer confidence problem common in private labels, some of its products are co-branded with the name brands of their manufacturers, such as Chinet, Jelly Belly, Keurig Green Mountain, Ocean Spray, Stearns & Foster, and Starbucks. Some Kirkland Signature products still carry white-label brands but are otherwise manufactured by a partner, such as Duracell and Niagara Bottling.


title: Costco

text: "Costco Connection" is a magazine sent free to the Costco executive members; it can also be accessed online by anyone, free of charge. Until the end of 2018, the magazine was known as "The Costco Connection". But with the January/February 2019 issue, "the", the definite article was dropped from the name and now the magazine is known as just "Costco Connection".


title: Costco

text: The magazine was established in 1987 as a newsprint publication and converted to a magazine in 1997. It features articles which regularly tie into the corporation along with business, celebrity features, cooking, entertaining, health, home improvement, and social articles, as well as coupons and ads. MediaPost reports: "While about 90% of the magazine's advertising is co-op, increasingly national advertisers such as Procter & Gamble are buying space, notes Roeglin -- presumably because of the pub's gargantuan reach and the data it has on its subscribers (whose average household income is $156,000 a year). 'We see about 56% of our subscribers a month buy something at one of our stores based on something they've read in the magazine,' says Roeglin." The magazine is one of the largest-circulation print monthlies in the United States and presently is the third in circulation figures in the United States after "AARP The Magazine" and "AARP Bulletin".


title: Costco

text: Costco also publishes the "Costco Household Almanac", an annual edition started in 2007. The 200+ pages almanac carries a lot of helpful tips to Costco readers and carries ads from suppliers. Costco also publishes a cookbook series.


title: Costco

text: Costco offers a free "concierge" service to members who purchase electronics, to help answer questions regarding setup and use and avoid potential returns due to not understanding how to use the products.


title: Costco

text: Costco has an agreement with CONNECT, powered by American Family Insurance, for auto insurance, home insurance and umbrella insurance.


title: Costco

text: Costco Photo Center is a multi-functional photography printing service offering photo items through its website, costcophotocenter.com. The website provides free unlimited digital file storage with a current membership. Prior to February 14, 2021, in-store photo centers offered many services such as same day photo printing (on select sizes/material) and online order pickup. In-store service/pickup is no longer offered, as all in-store photo centers closed permanently on February 14, 2021.


title: Costco

text: Costco Optical ranks as the fifth-largest optical company in the US, . Optometrists working at Costco locations will see patients without Costco memberships, although a membership is required to fill a prescription at the optical department.


title: Costco

text: Costco Travel is a wholly owned subsidiary of Costco Wholesale and offers leisure travel to Costco members of the United States and Canada.


title: Costco

text: The program offers vacation packages to the Caribbean, Europe, Florida, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Mexico, and the South Pacific.


title: Costco

text: In 1985, Costco started to sell freshly prepared food through a hot dog cart at its original Seattle warehouse. Most Costco locations now have a food court. They can be indoors or outdoors, but the menu is essentially the same: hot dog with drink (one of the most popular items), pizza, frozen yogurt/ice cream, Pepsico beverages, baked items, and sandwiches. Costco offers a quarter-pound 100% beef hot dog and drink (with refills) for , the same price since 1985. Some US locations also offer Polish sausage or bratwurst in addition to hot dogs, at the same $1.50 price. In Australia and New Zealand, the hot dog is made of pork and is sold with a large soda for $1.99 (AUD/NZD). In Canada, the price for a hot dog and soda with refills is C$1.50. In Mexico, the hot dog is made of 100% beef and includes a drink (with refills) for MXN$35. In the UK, the hot dog is also made from beef and customers also get a drink (with refills) for £1.50. Costco sold more than 137million quarter-pound (113 g) hot dogs in its food courts in 2017. In Taiwan and Japan, the hot dog is made of pork as well. Japan's price for their 120-gram hot dog & refillable 600-ml drink is ¥180.


title: Costco

text: As of June 2022, cheese or pepperoni pizza (along with pre-ordering of full pizzas to take home), chicken bakes, ice cream (vanilla), ice cream sundae (vanilla, with very berry or chocolate sauce toppings), fruit smoothies, latte freeze (without chocolate), mocha freeze (with chocolate), and twisted churros (in select stores) are offered at all United States locations. Some food court items are only available in certain countries. For example, the bulgogi bake and mango boba tea are only available in Australia, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan; poutine is available in Canada and France. There are, however, temporary menu items available exclusively in several countries, like the pastor taco-topped pizzas in Mexico.


title: Costco

text: Due to slow sales, in 2009, the pretzel was replaced by the churro. In April 2013, Pepsi replaced all Coca-Cola fountain drinks at U.S. locations because Coke had raised its prices; this helped keep the hot dog combo with soda at its original price.


title: Costco

text: In select Costco food courts, Costco was selling cheeseburgers for a limited time to experiment sales. The cheeseburger was not successful, and never spread to more than a few locations.


title: Costco

text: On April 1, 2016, in US, Citigroup became the exclusive issuer of Costco's branded credit cards. Prior to that, Costco credit cards had been issued by American Express since 2001, and Costco accepted "only" American Express cards for credit transactions. After the switch of its co-branded cards to Citi, Costco ceased accepting AmEx and began exclusively accepting Visa. AmEx cited the reason for the split that Costco was asking for lower transaction fees than AmEx was willing to grant. In Canada, Costco ended its AmEx relationship in 2014, and starting in 2015, it partnered with Capital One Mastercard for branded credit cards. In 2020, Capital One announced it would be ending the partnership in late 2021. It was announced that beginning in March 2022, Costco will begin a partnership with CIBC Mastercard. Costco branded credit cards from both issuers also serve as alternate Costco membership cards, with a customized reverse side containing membership info.


title: Costco

text: In March 2021, Costco started selling audiobooks and launched a corresponding iOS and Android app to listen to purchases. The app is free, however the books are exclusive to Costco members. The retailer sells audiobooks in bundles grouped by genre or author, with prices ranging from $5 to $50. Audiobooks are currently only available at U.S. locations.