List of recurring characters in Cheers
This is a list of recurring characters in the sitcom Cheers, which originally ran from 1982 to 1993.
Recurring barflies
A number of recurring characters were "barflies", i.e. they hung out at the bar nearly as much as Norm and Cliff. Generally speaking, the barflies only received a line or two in any given appearance, and did not figure in the plots—although there are exceptions to this rule, notably with the characters of Paul Krapence and Tom Babson. The character of Cliff was originally a recurring "barfly" character, but was quickly developed into a featured character.In the order in which they joined the cast, barflies who were seen in more than three episodes were:
Main
- Tom appears in seasons 1-6. He is an aspiring lawyer who has failed the bar exam more than once. He finally passes the bar after his 11th try in season 5, and played a major role in the episode "Chambers Vs. Malone". In this episode, the character gives his full name as "Thomas Babson". Previously, the credits had listed the character's name as "Barney", "Tom Sherry" or "Tom Ballard",. Tom referred to himself as Thomas Babson, Esquire during the courtroom scene in "Chambers vs. Malone".
- Harry The Hat, known as Harry The Hat for his signature fedora, is a con artist and frequent jailbird. An occasional visitor to Cheers, Harry often attempts to swindle its customers and employees with various short cons. Sam has standing orders to have Harry thrown out of the bar on sight, but Harry will help out the gang at Cheers upon occasion—partly out of sentiment, and partly to protect the Cheers gang from operators even more unscrupulous than himself. As Harry notes, "I don't like the idea of someone else plucking my pigeons." Harry appeared four times in the series’ first and second seasons, after which he disappeared until season six's "A Kiss is Still a Kiss". This was actually due to the fact that the actor-magician had achieved fame in his own right by starring in his own series Night Court, which followed Cheers on NBC's Thursday night "Must See TV" line up. Harry casually explained his long absence—when asked how long it had been since his last visit to Cheers, he replied it had been "two to ten, with time off for good behavior". After another long layoff, his final appearance was in the eleventh and final season, during which he swindles Gary out of his bar as an act of revenge for making the central characters perform naked. The character's last name was never spoken by any character, although he is referred to as "Harry Gittes" in the closing credits of one episode. He was referred to by Sam as Harry the Hat in the opening of "A Kiss is Still a Kiss".
- Paul appeared during the first two seasons. He is a loud-voiced character with a distinct New England accent who particularly enjoys getting on Cliff's case. Not to be confused with recurring barfly Paul Krapence, a completely different character.
- Tim is seen throughout the series run. He works as a janitor in a science lab. In several early appearances the character is referred to in the credits as first "Chuck", then "Greg", but he is only referred to as "Chuck" twice on the show, and he was always called "Tim" on-screen otherwise.
- Paul Krapence was seen throughout the series run, although only very sporadically in the early years of the show. He made a total of seven appearances during seasons 1-6, then returned for seasons 9-11 as a frequent bar patron, appearing in close to 50 late-running Cheers episodes. He would generally hang around with Norm and Cliff in the hopes of being included in their activities. Paul was frequently not included with the rest of the group, something that upset him deeply. He was often treated as if he didn't matter, had no friends, and was generally used and mistreated by the rest of the series characters. He did, however, have a certain amount of success with women, and was seen on dates in a few episodes. In the final season, it was suggested in the episode "Is There a Doctor in the Howe?" that Paul may be gay, but in the episode "It's Lonely on the Top" he has a passionate one night stand with Carla. The character was first called Paul in season four. In his first appearance, in season 1, Coach calls Willson's character "Glenn", and in another early appearance, Willson is credited as "Tom", although this name is not spoken aloud in the episode. In the season 10 episode "The Norm Who Came to Dinner", Norm explains that Paul had been an athlete who had been brought into the bar to try to get him and Cliff into shape, implying that Paul instead conformed to become the frumpy, smoking bar patron we see throughout the show's run. It was later revealed that Paul works as a toll booth operator. Paul is mentioned in the Frasier episode "The Show Where Sam Shows Up". It is revealed that he had slept with Sam's then-fiancée, which did not bother Sam as much as learning that Cliff had also slept with her. This caused Sam to call off the engagement. He later features in the episode "Cheerful Goodbyes" with several other Cheers regulars.
- Alan appears in seasons 1-8 and 11. The character of Alan is known to be single, and lives in a room with a Murphy bed. In an early appearance the character is referred to in the credits as "Mike", but this name is never spoken aloud, and he is always called "Alan" on-screen.
- Al appears in seasons 1–8. He is an elderly man, always seen in a fedora and sports jacket. Despite his disheveled appearance, Al often implied he was a real ladies' man. Al had a distinct, gravelly voice and often unexpectedly interjected with a comedic one-liner relevant to what the characters were discussing, often leaving them speechless momentarily. It is mentioned by Phil in the Frasier episode "Cheerful Goodbyes" that Al had died 14 years earlier. Rosen's last credited Cheers appearance was in season 8 episode 2, which aired in September 1989. In season 6 episode 11, Woody refers to Al as Michael. Al appeared in seventy-four episodes, more appearances than any other regular barfly.
- Steve appears in seasons 2–8 and 11. He is usually wearing a T-shirt and goading bar regulars or staff.
- Larry appears in seasons 3–5. He often asked Norm personal questions.
- Phil is an older gentleman with large glasses who would make the occasional acerbic comment. He is seen as an extra as early as season 4, though he did not receive a line until season 6. He later appeared in the Frasier episode "Cheerful Goodbyes". Philip Perlman is the father of Cheers regular Rhea Perlman.
- Pete, appears in seasons 5–11. He usually sits beside Cliff. He loans Sam surveillance equipment in "Indoor Fun with Sammy and Robby."
- Hugh, appears in seasons 5–7. He is a balding man who usually wears a sports jacket.
- Barry appears in season 8. He is an effeminate, openly gay character who occasionally chimed in with a catty remark. Barry Zajac, who portrays the character, was a long-time producer on the show.
Others
- Jack, played by Jack Knight.
- Jackie, played by Jacqueline Cassel.
- Mark, played by Mark Arnott.
- Joe, played by Michael Holden.
- Tony, played by Tony Di Benedetto.
Father Barry
Boggs
Boggs is the chauffeur to Diane's mother, Helen Chambers. In "Someone Single, Someone Blue", Boggs repeatedly asks Diane to be his wife to help Helen keep her inheritance under Diane's father Spencer Chambers's will. When the time expires and Diane is still single, Helen loses all the wealth. Fortunately, as he admits, Boggs embezzled a substantial amount of the Chambers fortune in the past and has money still remaining. Then he proposes to be Helen's husband, and Helen accepts. In season two, after Diane's huge breakup from Sam, Boggs takes Diane back from psychiatric hospital to her apartment. He notifies her that Helen felt uncomfortable contacting Diane while Diane was in the ward.Kelly Boyd
Kelly Susan Gaines Boyd is Woody Boyd’s love interest from the seventh season. She appeared in twenty-four episodes.Kelly and Woody first meet in the thirteenth episode of the seventh season. Woody and Sam are bartending at a private party to celebrate Kelly’s return from Europe. Kelly is a rich and sheltered girl, but Woody is able to open her eyes to new experiences, the first being a monster truck pull. Again in Kelly’s third appearance in the nineteenth episode of the seventh season, Woody teaches her a lesson from his world. Instead of buying her an expensive gift for her birthday, he writes her a memorable song.
Kelly and Woody marry in the tenth season’s finale episode. The marriage, at the Gaines' mansion, was a fiasco: The minister died; Kelly's flirtatious cousin Monika teased Sam until her fanatically-jealous husband brandished a sword; Rebecca's petulance caused the French chef to quit, leaving her in charge of the food; Carla kept getting pushed down the shaft in the dumbwaiter; Woody could not keep his hands off Kelly before the ceremony; and two attack dogs menaced everyone who dared exit the kitchen to the patio, until the super-infuriated Carla chased them inside, at which time they whimpered like puppies and scampered away. To top it off, the dead body of the minister tipped over and toppled the wedding cake to the floor.
Kelly and Woody were expecting their first child when Cheers ended.
In the sixteenth episode of the second season of Frasier, Sam visits and it is revealed that Kelly and Woody's first child was a baby boy. In the thirteenth episode of the sixth season, Woody visits Seattle and reveals that he and Kelly have had another child, a girl.
Robin Colcord
Robin Colcord was an English multi-millionaire industrialist, who spent most of his time on Cheers as a love interest for the gold-digging Rebecca Howe. This led to his developing something of a rivalry with Sam Malone because of Sam's own romantic interest in Rebecca.In season 8, Rebecca and Sam discovered that Robin was plotting a hostile takeover of the company for which Rebecca worked, and to aid him, had been secretly and illegally using Rebecca's access to the company's confidential information. Rebecca chose to conceal Robin's activities for the sake of their relationship. However, Sam discovered that the company suspected Rebecca of being a willing corporate spy. To protect her, Sam revealed Robin's crimes.
Amidst the ensuing scandal, Robin was arrested and briefly sent to prison as well as losing his business positions and money. He and Rebecca planned to marry on his release, despite his new humble status. She chose not to go through with this. He then revealed that he still had some of his fortune in a secret stash, but that he would go away if she still had not changed her mind. Believing this to be a bluff, she refused yet again, and watched as he walked out of her life carrying a moneybelt which he had concealed in her desk. He appeared a final time in the last season, claiming to be a broke but humble vagabond and petty fugitive, asking to reunite with Rebecca. The episode ended with him and Rebecca attempting to hitchhike out of town, Rebecca convinced that this was a second test and that he was still wealthy.
Corinne
Corinne is a waitress who worked at The Hungry Heifer, a restaurant frequented by Norm Peterson, who would then turn up at Cheers and bemoan about the indigestion he received from the meals there. Woody Boyd hired Corinne as a cover waitress in season four when Diane called in sick one day, although Sam was originally adverse to her as she looked more like a waitress from a truck stop than a cocktail waitress. She was later hired as a cover waitress in season five and appeared on a film in the same season. Corinne told Norm that all the waitresses at The Hungry Heifer had a nickname for him: "The Guy Who Comes Back". While covering for Diane, Corinne manages to catch the eye of barfly Al. As well as appearing in the show, Doris Grau was script supervisor for five episodes.Esther Clavin
Esther Clavin is Cliff's overprotective mother. She is first mentioned in the second season episode "Just Three Friends", when Cliff and Norm Peterson make a prank call to her. It is first mentioned in the third season that Cliff lives with his mother, for which the other barflies often mocked him. In the episode "Coach in Love Part 2", Cliff's mother is first heard in a voice-over at Cliff's house. When she asked if she could stop by and meet the gang, Cliff whispered under his breath "When hell freezes over". Regardless, Esther showed up at the bar in season five, when Cliff tries to set her up with wealthy Cheers patron Duncan Fitzgerald. She appeared numerous times afterward through to the final season.In season six, it was revealed that Cliff, contrary to his usual know-it-all personality at the bar, is actually quiet at home and his mother is actually "the real yapper in the family". Cliff, after listening to his mother drone on and on, shares his mother's knowledge with the gang at the bar. This gives the gang the source of all Cliff's "knowledge" and the font from which it came. This gives them valuable insight into Cliff's infamous know-it-all personality.
After meeting Cliff's mother, Frasier Crane remarks that he's beginning to see that Cliff is actually almost heroically well-adjusted.
Frederick Crane
Frederick Gaylord Crane is the son of Frasier and Lilith Sternin. "Freddy" made his first appearance as a baby on Cheers, while his parents were still married; he appears in several episodes throughout the show's run. Frederick was born during eighth season episode The Stork Brings a Crane. He was delivered in a taxicab while Lilith was on her way home from the hospital after an episode of false labour. Lilith tolerated the pain by biting down on one of the cab driver's fuzzy dice.Beth Curtis
Beth Curtis is Woody's old-time girlfriend from Indiana. In season 4, Beth is reunited with her old-time friend Woody. During high school, both Woody and Beth were overweight. In the intervening years, both had slimmed down. After their reunion, they end up overeating, and people unsuccessfully attempt to help them overcome it. Frasier tells Woody that he and Beth are substituting overeating for premarital sex due to their religious backgrounds. Although Sam and Diane take the couple to dinner to help them control their eating habits, Woody and Beth end up taking Frasier's psychological advice and plan to have sex.In her second and last episode, Beth becomes engaged to her fiancé Leonard Twilley, much to Woody's disappointment. Beth confesses that she and Woody are two different people who are not meant for each other; Woody is adventurous, while she settles down into commitment.
Captain Dobbins
Captain Dobbins is a fire marshal who was often the victim of pranks at Cheers. He appeared in several "Bar Wars" episodes, in which the Cheers gang thought he was from Gary's Olde Town Tavern, only to be proved wrong. He also appeared in the final season, when the Cheers gang suspected Robin Colcord of hiding money belts at Cheers. They suspected Captain Dobbins of stealing the money belts, only to be proved wrong yet again. He appeared in four episodes.Evan Drake
Evan Gregory Drake, portrayed by Tom Skerritt, appearing as Rebecca Howe's boss when she was first introduced in 1987, it was revealed she had an unrequited crush on him for two years, so extreme that she had stopped dating. She wanted desperately to impress him enough that he would notice her on a romantic level.Rebecca became increasingly neurotic around Mr. Drake, and she found herself having to explain herself out of ridiculous situations. For example, Drake made her hire a young woman as a waitress, and Rebecca assumed she was his mistress. After confronting her and hitting her across the face, it was revealed that the woman was Drake's daughter, not his lover. She explained away the punch with a phony "nerve disorder" diagnosis. Another time, when Norm was hired to paint Drake's bedroom, Rebecca came along to see "where he sleeps," in a vain effort to be closer to him. When Drake came back unexpectedly from a business trip, Rebecca was forced to stay in the closet while he slept. When trying to escape, she only got as far as his bed, where she had to roll under and stay captive again. She was finally freed after she climbed out a window when Norm persuaded a delirious Drake to "let carry a rich man across the lawn in his pajamas."
Rebecca never got to tell Drake how she felt, as he left for a job in Japan with his new lover. She did, however, drive his limousine to the airport and crash into a 7-Eleven when she was blinded with jealousy.
Walter Gaines
Walter Gaines is Kelly Gaines's divorced father. Mr. Gaines usually acted very high-class and snobbish, and would tend to look down upon lower-class people, like Woody and Sam. He appears in eight episodes. Mr. Gaines is revealed to be having an affair with his brother's wife in the episode "Ill-Gotten Gaines" and due to a misunderstanding, mistakenly believes Woody had found out and is attempting to blackmail him. He later learns that Woody knew nothing of the affair and that Woody would never stoop to blackmail, however Mr. Gaines' butler Hives overhears the entire conversation and proceeds to blackmail him.Mr. Gaines's ex-wife and Kelly's mother, Roxanne Gaines, appears only in the episode "Woody or Won't He". Unlike her ex-husband, she does not even come to Kelly and Woody's wedding. She is a very attractive high-society lady and a sexy, flirtatious upper-class cougar. Although she is also a bit snobbish, she tries to seduce Woody. Later Kelly tells Woody that her mother flirted with all her boyfriends, "just for fun, and because it keeps her young." In this episode, we also learn that Kelly has a sister, but her name and the name of actress who plays her are not mentioned.
Gary
Gary was the owner of Gary's Old Towne Tavern, Cheers' prominent rival business. After the rivalry was established in season four, beginning in season six one episode per year — generally called "Bar Wars" – featured a contest between the two drinking holes for customers. The Cheers gang almost invariably lost to Gary, with the exception of season four's bowling competition, season seven's Bloody Mary contest, season nine's basketball competition, and season eleven's Bar Wars finale, in which Harry tricked Gary into demolishing Gary's Olde Towne Tavern.Gary was played alternately by both Joel Polis and .
Henri
Henri was Kelly Gaines's French friend, who would often mock Woody with the phrase, "I'm going to steal your girlfriend!". Kelly repeatedly tried to convince Woody that Henri was merely joking, but it was later revealed that he wasn't joking, and that he did indeed intend to steal Kelly away.Henri first appeared in the ninth series when Kelly got back from France and brought Henri along with her. Henri later mocks Lilith's French pronunciation — he affects not understanding her poor pronunciation and corrects her « très bien » with a better accent. Henri and Sam were good friends until the final season, when Henri challenged Sam to a contest; whoever got the most phone numbers of women by midnight would be "acknowledged as the world's greatest ladies' man". Henri ended up winning by just one point, only to have Sam walk out with three more women.
John Allen Hill
John Allen Hill is the owner of Melville's, the seafood restaurant located directly above Cheers. Though Melville's was mentioned a lot throughout the series, Hill did not first appear until season nine, during which he bought the restaurant and first became its owner.Hill is a pompous man who has a disdain for the Cheers gang, and considers them to be low-class. In the season nine, Sam dated Hill's daughter Valerie as a way to get back at Hill for his evil attitude towards the Cheers bar. He and Carla have a complicated love-hate relationship; they frequently insult and curse at each other even during their frequent bouts of sex.
Joanne
Joanne is a local newscaster, appearing only when someone, usually Norm Peterson, is watching the bar's television. In her first episode "'I' on Sports", her short-time co-newsanchor Sam Malone flirts with her, but she resists and turns him down. In "Christmas Cheers", she reports a raging lunatic throwing canned foods at the airplane. In her last episode "Where Nobody Knows Your Name", she informs the bar that an imprisoned Robin Colcord cheated on Rebecca Howe with another woman.Eddie LeBec
Guy Edouard "Eddie" LeBec is a Boston Bruins ice hockey player who has an endless winning streak and a French Canadian background. He meets Carla when he walks into Cheers one day and the two begin dating. However, Eddie's streak soon comes to an end. Since both are superstitious, they conclude that Carla is a "jinx." They end their relationship in order to avoid ruining Eddie's ability to play. Nevertheless, they reconcile shortly thereafter and promise to break up repeatedly before every game to avoid the "curse". In "Home Is the Sailor", Carla is revealed to be several months pregnant with Eddie's twins. In two-part episode "Little Carla, Happy at Last", Carla and Eddie wed. She almost quits her waitressing job because Eddie said that he would take care of her financially. However, the Bruins released him from his contract due to his age and declining athletic performance, and he could not find another team. In "Airport V", Eddie ends up as a penguin mascot for a traveling ice show in another state. Later in the 1987–88, Carla gives birth to their twin boys, named Elvis and Jesse.In "Death Takes a Holiday on Ice", Eddie was killed by a Zamboni when he saved the life of another member of the ice show. At the funeral, it was revealed that he had concurrently married another wife Gloria, when he got her pregnant while the ice show was visiting Kenosha. Carla changes her surname back to Tortelli to avoid being confused with the other "Mrs. LeBec".
In Little Carla, Happy at Last, the vicar conducting Carla and Eddie's wedding refers to Eddie as Edward Raymond LeBec.
The demise of Jay Thomas's character Eddie LeBec has been claimed to stem from Thomas' comments "about" Perlman on a radio show. However, Thomas denied this and declared that he was referring only to the Carla character. Despite Ken Levine's praise on Thomas's acting and pairing of Eddie and Carla, Eddie was written out of the show because Perlman thought that the pairing would make her "not part of the people in the bar."
Lewis
Lewis, an African-American "large, athletic male" postal worker. In his very first episode "Cliff's Rocky Moment", Cliff attempts to have Lewis brawl with Victor without avail. In fact, both Lewis and Victor cannot stand Cliff because of his know-it-all behavior, and Lewis finally exits the bar. In his second and final episode "I Call Your Name", Lewis is fired from his job for stealing fragrant samples from people's mail. Lewis wants to find out an identity of the claimant to physically spite him, but then he decides not to do so. Therefore, he chooses to seek other jobs. In the book The Sitcom Reader, Robert S. Brown called him a stereotype to African Americans.Maggie O'Keefe
Margaret Catherine "Maggie" O'Keefe was Cliff's love interest from the seventh season onward. Maggie first appeared in season seven as a rookie postal carrier who was to be trained by Cliff. Maggie asked Cliff out, and he accepted. However, Maggie was later caught taking a postal vehicle to a motel, and was fired from the post office. She then left Cliff to go to Canada, to join the Canadian post office. She made regular appearances from then on, which led to her and Cliff's on-again off-again relationship.Maggie reappeared in season eleven and informed Cliff that she was pregnant with Cliff's child. This forced Cliff to admit that he and Maggie never had sex, causing the other barflies to mock him. Cliff agrees to marry Maggie but before they depart she decides to call her child's real father so he won't worry anymore. She then tells Norm that the father is upset someone else will be raising his child and that he wants to marry her and Cliff is off the hook. However, as she leaves she tells Cliff they did have sex, twice, though he was apparently inebriated and didn't remember.
Vera Peterson
Vera Peterson, the wife of Norm Peterson, is never fully seen onscreen, despite a few fleeting appearances and vocal cameos. Her body is seen in the fifth season episode "Thanksgiving Orphans," but her face is covered by pie filling. In the ninth season episode "It's A Wonderful Wife" her legs can be seen through the Cheers front window as she sits crying on the steps after being fired from her job as Melville's hat check girl. Although she is often the butt of Norm's jokes when he visits Cheers, he professes a deep love for her. When setting up his own decorating business, Norm scares his employee Rudi by using an alternate personality, harsh-hearted Anton Kreitzer, to scare them into shape. When asked by Frasier where he came up with the name Kreitzer, Norm reveals that it was Vera's maiden name.Vera has a sister, Donna Kreitzer, who occasionally stays with Norm and Vera. Norm claims to dread these visits because, while he considers her younger and more attractive than Vera, Donna relentlessly hits on Norm, much to his dismay, and he says that he once walked in on Donna while she was naked and she tried to cover herself up with an emery board. Whether any of this is true is unclear as none of it takes place on screen. In "One Hugs, The Other Doesn't", Norm mentions that Vera has nieces and nephews, which means she must have at least one brother, another sister, or that Donna has children.
Vera is played by Bernadette Birkett, the real-life wife of George Wendt, who played Norm. Birkett's only credited Vera appearance is in Season 11's Look Before You Sleep.
Dave Richards
Dave Richards was an old teammate of Sam's and sports reporter on television. He appeared in the first season, in which he offered to interview Sam for his "Where are They Now?" show. Carla later learned that he only chose Sam to interview because no other famous athletes were available. He reappeared in the second season, hoping to chase women with Sam. But after learning that Sam was dating Diane, he tried to break them up, to no avail. He was briefly heard in the third season on the radio, and finally reappeared in the sixth season, offering Sam a temporary job on his sports report show.Andy Schroeder
Andrew Schroeder, better known at the bar as Andy Andy, is a psychopathic ex-con that murdered a cocktail waitress at Via Milano, an Italian restaurant. Sam hired Andy to date Diane without knowing his past. He appeared in two more episodes through the show's first four seasons. He returned again during the final season in an opening tease strapped with dynamite. Overall, McGrath appeared as Andy in four episodes.Professor Sumner Sloan
Sumner Sloan is a college English literature professor for whom Diane Chambers worked as a teaching assistant. Divorced, Sumner was engaged to Diane, whom he left to return to his ex-wife, Barbara. Sumner tried secretly to win Diane back while she was seriously dating Sam, that attempt which ultimately failed, Diane stating not because Sam read War and Peace, but that he read it for her. Sumner eventually reconnects with Diane professionally as he thought one of her unfinished manuscripts was publishable if she would invest six months of her time into the endeavor of finishing the book. Sumner is an intellectual snob.Anthony and Annie Tortelli
Anthony Tortelli is the eldest son of Nick and Carla Tortelli and his wife is Annie. The two first appeared in season four when they wanted to be married at 16, but Carla refused and tried to keep the two apart. However, Annie's cousin Gabrielle walks into the bar, and Anthony becomes attracted to her, much to Annie's dismay.Anthony and Annie reappeared in season six after being kicked out by Nick and then decide to live with Carla. At the bar, they meet pregnant Carla's new husband Eddie LeBec and then openly disdain him for getting Carla pregnant. Later in the series, Annie finds her husband Anthony lazy because he has no job. Therefore, she works as a temporary waitress and then tries to flirt with the bartender Sam Malone repeatedly without avail. Then, finally, Anthony finds a job and works at a burger joint. At the end, he walks in the bar with his work uniform to prove himself to Annie, who becomes flattered and then praises him for that.
In their final appearance, Anthony and Annie reveal that they were expecting a baby. Outraged and horrified that Annie was pregnant at such a young age, Carla kicked them out and neither were heard from ever again, destroying the couples plans to live with Carla and Eddie after their baby arrived. Neither Anthony or Annie appeared in season eleven for Anthony's sister Serafina's wedding, but in Season 10's "Unplanned Parenthood", Gino mentions that Anthony is in prison. Nobody mentions Annie.
Anthony and Annie also appear as regular characters in the short-lived spin-off The Tortellis and live with Nick and his wife Loretta.
Nick and Loretta Tortelli
Nick Tortelli is Carla's first husband, and Loretta is his bimbo second wife. They occasionally stop by Cheers. He has made no attempt to support his children financially and barely has any contact with them. Nick is loud, unkempt, and extremely unsophisticated; despite these tremendous flaws, he has at times exercised an inexplicable romantic power over Carla. Nick married Loretta in the season two episode "Battle of the Exes", and Carla becomes friends with Loretta as she begins to notice Nick's horrible characteristics. Before marrying Nick, Loretta had dreamed of becoming a singer; she once described herself as a "taller, blonder, less Mormon Marie Osmond". Although she lacked talent, she performed with two groups: "The Grinning Americans", and The Lemon Sisters. Loretta was also featured in Nick's short-lived spin-off series, The Tortellis. Loretta briefly left Nick when she joined "The Grinning Americans", resulting in Nick appearing at Cheers and taking on job as the general dogsbody, referring to the waitresses as "Miss Carla" and "Miss Diane". He does briefly rekindle his flame with Carla and visits his children, but runs back to Loretta when she tells Nick that she loves him.Carla's kids
- Serafina McDougall – Carla's eldest daughter. She is made pregnant by a retired police officer who she later marries and has the reception at Cheers, but is worried about her parents arguing with each other.
- Gino Tortelli – To keep the family peace between Carla and her mother, he agrees to keep the family tradition alive and change his name to Benito Mussolini, but Carla refuses. In the first season, Carla tells a drunk Diane Chambers that Gino was the result of a one-night stand between Carla and Sam Malone. Diane is horrified at the thought, but this later turns out to be a malicious lie told by Carla to annoy Diane. In Season 10, he wanted to become a priest, but changed his mind and became a male model.
- Anne Marie Tortelli - Originally the youngest Tortelli child, Anne Marie was kept behind in the same year at school for so long that Carla described her class photograph as akin to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. On one occasion, Carla summons one of Anne-Marie's potential boyfriends, Vito Ragazoni, to the bar and takes mugshots of him and takes a glass Vito used to be DNA tested - all Vito wanted to do was to take Anne-Marie to see One Hundred and One Dalmatians. Later on in the series, Anne-Marie gets braces that give her a severe lisp causing her siblings to mock her.
- Lucinda Tortelli - The youngest child of Nick and Carla, conceived during one night of passion before her parents' divorce.
- Bennett "Lud" Ludlow, Jr. - Carla's son with Dr. Bennett Ludlow, Frasier Crane's mentor; Carla does not accept Ludlow's marriage proposal, although Ludlow vowed that he would financially support the child. Later on in the series, Frasier and his wife Lilith decide to try and forge a connection with Lud, who is lacking in physical prowess and excels in studies. Frasier cuts all bonds with him after Lud acts up in a posh restaurant, setting fire to Frasier's trousers and hiding under the table.
- Elvis and Jesse Lebec - Carla's twin sons with Eddie Lebec, using the Christian names of Carla's idol, Elvis Presley, and his stillborn twin.
Walt Twitchell