Sounds and Explanations from TV Versions of the Opening Theme

If you visited the “Special Versions of the Theme” page, you may have noticed that there weren’t any “Theme 1’s” on the page (besides the Prost Helmut theme).  That’s because Theme 1’s are themes actually used in the show, as the opening theme, and that’s what this page is all about, including being able to download them!

This page is also the “Sounds and Info” or “Sounds and Explanations” page, mentioned on other pages.

Main Info

“Where Everybody Knows Your Name”
Song and Lyrics by Judy Hart Angelo and Gary Portnoy

Sung for the show by Gary Portnoy

·      Keywords:

Ø Lyrics Guide

Ø Keywords

Ø Sounds Table

·      Theme 1.1–Based Sounds

·      Theme 1.2–Based Sounds

·      Theme 1.42–Based Sounds

·      Other

 

Did you know that for the actual TV themes (actually used as opening themes on the show), there were only 3 different recordings?  And while there are 14 different themes here (on this page), they all stem from one of those 3 original recordings?  Before I start listing them and stuff, and throwing all kinds of terms at you, here are some words you might need to know:

 

Lyric Guide

ORIGINAL VERSE 1:

Singing the blues when the home teams lose

It’s a crisis in your life

On the run ‘cause all your girlfriends

Wanna be your wife

Wouldn’t you like to get away?

 

VERSE 1:

Making your way in the world today

Takes everything you've got;

Taking a break from all your worries

Sure would help a lot.

Wouldn't you like to get away?

 

VERSE 2:

All those night when you've got no lights,

The check is in the mail;

And your little angel

Hung the cat up by it's tail;

And your third fiance didn't show;

 

REFRAIN 1:

Sometimes you want to go

Where everybody knows your name,

And they're always glad you came;

You want to be where you can see,

Our troubles are all the same;

You want to be where everybody knows your name.

 

VERSE 3:

Climbing the walls when no one calls;

You've lost at love again.

And the more you're down and out,

The more you need a friend.

When you long to hear a kind hello.

 

VERSE 4:

Roll out of bed, Mr. Coffee's dead;

The morning's looking bright;

And your shrink ran off to Europe,

And didn't even write;

And your husband wants to be a girl;

 

REFRAIN 2:

Be glad there's one place in the world

Where everybody knows your name,

And they're always glad you came;

You want to go where people know,

People are all the same;

You want to go where everybody knows your name.

 

OUTRO REFRAIN:

Where everybody knows your name,

And they're always glad you came;

Where everybody knows your name,

And they're always glad you came…<REPEATS AND FADES>

 

REGULAR REFRAIN:
Sometimes you want to go

Where everybody knows your name,

And they're always glad you came;

You want to be where you can see,

Our troubles are all the same;

You want to be where everybody knows your name.

You want to go where people know,

People are all the same;

You want to go where everybody knows your name.

SHORT REFRAIN:

Sometimes you want to go

Where everybody knows your name,

And they're always glad you came;

You want to be where you can see,

Our troubles are all the same;

You want to go where everybody knows your name.

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Keywords

REGULAR THEME:

A theme that used Verse 1 and the Regular Refrain

 

SHORT THEME:

A theme that used the Short Refrain

 

SINGLE VOCAL TRACK:

During the words “Sometimes you want to go” and “You want to be where you can see…”, you can only hear one vocal track (sounds like only one person singing)

 

DOUBLE VOCAL TRACK:

During the words “Sometimes you want to go” and “You want to be where you can see…”, you can hear two vocal tracks (sounds like two people singing)

 

MONO:

Monaural sound; sound is heard through only one audio channel, making it usually have a flatter sound

 

STEREO:

Stereo sound; sound is heard through 2 audio channels (left and right), making it sound more realistic and ‘fuller’; now, there is multi-channel sound (more than 2), but it is for high-end stuff only (a.k.a. not TV)

 

THE MELODY:

The main vocals ALWAYS sung by Gary Portnoy, usually around the same range of notes

 

THE HARMONY:

The vocals sung ABOVE the melody, sometimes sung by Gary Portnoy, sometimes not; different notes, and only during the words “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” (ALL times it is sung) and “And they’re always glad you came” (in the beginning of the refrain); Note that the “Ah-ah’s” sung in the 2^nd part of the refrain were NEVER sung by Gary

 

REMASTERED:

There seems to be a lot of confusion on this subject, so I decided to clear it up here; In August 2001, Paramount went through every original Cheers tape and ‘digitally remastered’ them, meaning they made the picture AND sound crisper and clearer.  This is what N@N is currently airing.  The reason they did this (and the reason the originals had such bad quality) is because the tapes they had recorded  the show on originally were stored in bad conditions, and the tape themselves were of bad quality.  Also, seasons 1-3 (and possibly a few later episodes?) , which were in MONO, were converted to STEREO.

 

UNREMASTERED:

The original way the show looked and sounded; the picture was a lot grainier and darker and just looked bad (lol), especially for seasons 1-3

 

NBC AIRINGS:

The show’s original run from 1982 to 1993 on NBC; they are unremastered

 

ORIGINAL SYNDICATED AIRINGS:
The show’s reruns (NOT on NBC) that are still airing today, though sparsely, and are unremastered; The episodes themselves are the same as NBC’s, as well as being mono or stereo, however, not all stations, when they got the eps., recorded them in stereo (they recorded them in mono), so if a season 4-11 stereo episode, they use the LEFT (FIRST) CHANNEL, as if on NBC (More on this on the VIDEOS page)

 

PARAMOUNT HOME VIDEOS:

The episodes from the 11 volumes of video tapes Paramount released with two episodes per tape; ALL videos are unremastered, and ALL are in Hi-Fi MONO (NOT stereo); That also means the one sound track they use is the LEFT (FIRST) CHANNEL from NBC, if the episode is in stereo:
Actually, of the 21 episodes in this set, there are only 3 episodes from season 4 and later(meaning in stereo), “Birth, Death, Love and Rice,” “I Do, Adieu,” and “Home is the Sailor.”  The first and third take the left channel from NBC, but “I Do, Adieu” was different for some reason; it merges both NBC’s right and left channels together into one.  There’s no reason why.  Again, the other 17 episodes were in MONO on NBC, so the MONO tapes didn’t matter.  This is repeated below a couple of times in the sounds descriptions, BTW.

One more thing (lol)…there are actually 2 ‘releases’ of these videos, the First 7 Volumes, and the Last 4 Volumes.  The first 7 were released first (1993), are all from seasons 1-2 (Maybe this is why they made the tapes MONO in the first place?), have the Paramount/A Paramount Communications Company logo on them, and DO NOT have the Master Sharp (tape clarifier) on them.  The last 4 were released later (1995), are from seasons 3-6 (How did they choose any of these episodes? lol), have the Paramount/A Viacom Company logo on them, and HAVE the Master Sharp on them.  When played, the first 7 show a “Feature Presentation” screen, a disclaimer, and a Paramount logo, then go right into the episodes.  The last 4 show a “Coming Attractions” screen, have a trailer for the “new” (1995) Paramount video releases of TV shows, then show the disclaimer and a Paramount logo, but before the episode starts, a black screen w/ the Cheers logo and the episode name appears for a brief moment.

 

COLOMBIA HOUSE VIDEOS:

Tapes released by Colombia House, with 3(?) episodes per tape, and (?) volumes

 

U.K. PARMOUNT VIDEOS:

Tapes released by Paramount, but in the U.K.; 3(?) episodes per tape, and (?) volumes

 

U.K. PARAMOUNT COMEDY CLASSICS VIDEOS:

Newer Paramount releases of Cheers (1998), with 4 episodes per tape, and 6 volumes

 

N@N AIRINGS:

The show’s current run on Nick at Nite.  Note that they DO NOT have exclusive rights to the show, so some syndicated channels are still airing it from time to time; episodes are the ‘new’ remastered episodes

 

NEW SYNDICATED AIRINGS:
These are the same syndicated cuts as the ‘originals,’ but are remastered

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Like I mentioned before, there were really only 3 recordings of the Cheers theme for TV(for actual opening themes of the show).  This table has the 3 original recordings at the top, then all of it’s descendents below:

 

All themes from the 1^st column (all themes based on Theme 1.1) were all REGULAR THEMES.  They all had a harmony NOT sung by Gary Portnoy.  There is a strange instrument played in these versions, starting with the line “Wouldn’t you like to get away?...” and plays through to the end of the song.

 

All themes from the 2^nd column (all themes based on Theme 1.2) were also all REGULAR THEMES.  They were all in STEREO.  The harmony was ALWAYS sung by Gary Portnoy, and is heard either equally or more so compared to the melody.  There is NO strange instrument.

 

All themes from the 3^rd column (all themes based on Theme 1.42) were all SHORT THEMES.  The harmony was ALWAYS sung by Gary Portnoy, and is, again, heard either equally or more so compared to the melody.  There is NO strange instrument.  They were essentially shortened versions of themes from the 2^nd column (all themes based on Theme 1.2).

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These versions are ALL really “Theme 1.1”, converted or changed at some point for some reason (except for Theme 1.1 itself).  Also, there is NO more Theme 1.10 anywhere.  It was being confused with Theme 1.1, since numerically, they are the same.

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These versions are ALL really “Theme 1.2”, converted or changed at some point for some reason (except for Theme 1.2 itself).

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These versions are ALL really “Theme 1.42”, converted or changed at some point for some reason (except for Theme 1.42 itself).  Also, it is unknown what themes are used in the new, remastered syndication, but I am guessing Theme 1.91.

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German Theme 1.2

If you read the part of the “Special Versions” page about “Prost Helmut,” you might know that Germany now gets Cheers on a channel called RTL.  Currently, the theme that airs on it (for all seasons??) is just like Theme 1.2, but in the lower tone of Themes 1.3/1.9!  This also has a degraded sound quality, only because I did not get it directly from a German channel (I got it from someone else).

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