Carla Tortelli

Last updated

Carla Tortelli
Cheers character
Carla Tortelli in "The Tortelli Tort".png
in "The Tortelli Tort" (episode 3, 1982)
First appearance"Give Me a Ring Sometime" (episode 1.01)
Last appearance"Cheerful Goodbyes" ( Frasier episode 9.21)
Portrayed by Rhea Perlman
In-universe information
Alias
  • Carla Maria Victoria Angelina Teresa Apollonia Lozupone Tortelli LeBec
  • Carla LeBec
  • Carla Lozupone
GenderFemale
OccupationWaitress
Family
  • Benito Lozupone (father)
  • Mrs. Lozupone, née Mussolini (mother)
  • Annette Lozupone (sister)
  • Angelique (sister)
  • Sal Lozupone (brother)
  • Unnamed brother
Spouse Nick Tortelli (divorced)
Eddie LeBec (widowed)
Significant other
Children
RelativesFrankie (nephew)
Annie Tortelli (daughter-in-law)
Pat McDougall (son-in-law)
Antonio Lozupone (grandfather)
Paolo (uncle)
Santo Cabone (cousin)
Amerigo (great-uncle)
Sophia (great-aunt)
Unnamed grandchild
Nationality Italian-American

Carla Maria Victoria Angelina Teresa Apollonia Lozupone Tortelli LeBec, commonly known as Carla Tortelli, is a fictional character in the American television show Cheers , portrayed by Rhea Perlman. Outwardly, at least, Carla is a sarcastic woman who often mocks and makes jabs at others. She had five children with her then-husband Nick when the series started and eight children with three different men when it ended.

Contents

Carla appeared in all 275 episodes of Cheers in 1982–1993 and guest-starred in "Cheerful Goodbyes", an episode of the spin-off Frasier . She has also appeared in "Cheers", an episode of St. Elsewhere ; "Fear of Flying", an episode of The Simpsons , [1] and the pilot episode of the short-lived spinoff The Tortellis . Along with Sam Malone and Norm Peterson, she is one of only three characters to appear in every episode of Cheers.

Casting

Perlman at the 1988 Primetime Emmy Awards Rhea Perlman (1988) - cropped.jpg
Perlman at the 1988 Primetime Emmy Awards

According to an interview with Ted Danson, Perlman was the first person of all actors to be hired as part of a cast ensemble [2] and then was cast as Carla Tortelli, "a wisecracking, cynical waitress". [3] Before she starred as Carla, she worked once as a waitress in a New York City restaurant, serving meals like spaghetti and fish. [4] Also, she was trained in the Bull & Finch Pub (now called Cheers Beacon Hill) by a waitress to prepare her character. [5] [6] Perlman previously appeared as Louie DePalma's (Danny DeVito) sweet and kind girlfriend, in contrast to tomboy Carla, on Taxi . [7]

I think Carla's a lot of things I'd like to be. I'm not like her, but she's a person who's always got a wisecrack. I always think of something two hours later. But we're both earthy and practical. We're survivors. The character is well-written, but you always put a lot of yourself into it. [4]

— Rhea Perlman, The Associated Press, April 1983

Development

When the show premiered in 1982, "feisty", [8] "worldly-wise", [9] Catholic and highly superstitious waitress Carla Tortelli has four children to support, fathered by her ex-husband Nick Tortelli (Dan Hedaya): Anthony (Timothy Williams), Serafina (Leah Remini), Gino (Josh Lozoff), and Anne Marie (Risa Littman). During their marriage, he was a deadbeat father and disloyal, unfaithful husband to Carla by cheating on her with other women. Over time, she gives birth to four more children: Lucinda (Sabrina Wiener) fathered by Nick; [p 1] Ludlow, nicknamed Lud (Jarrett Lennon), by Frasier's mentor Dr. Bennett Ludlow (James Karen); [p 2] and twins Elvis (Danny Kramer) and Jesse (Thomas Tulak) by Eddie Lebec (Jay Thomas), a then-ice hockey player who later becomes an ice show performer. All children but one turn out to be unruly, rotten, and spoiled. They defy whoever is substituting for their mother Carla, including babysitters.

Carla has siblings, including two sisters (younger Annette (also played by Perlman) [p 3] and Angeline) and two brothers (including Sal). [p 4] Six of her siblings are older. [p 5] In "The Cranemakers" (1989), according to Whitney Norris (James R. Winker), representative of the estate of Carla's late grandfather, Antonio Lozuponi, Antonio deserted his wife in 1921, moved to Los Angeles with just his "lucky quarter", and made fortune selling peach and oil products. Feeling bad about leaving his family behind, he gave his surviving legitimate family a will of $20 million, suppressed by his illegitimate son, Paolo, who "squandered the entire fortune on fast horses and loose women." The will was not discovered until Paolo's death in the previous month. Norris delivers just Antonio's "lucky quarter" to Carla, devastating her. [p 6] She also has a nephew Frankie, to whom Lilith and Rebecca are attracted while he works as a temporary bartender for one time. [p 7]

As a waitress, she is more experienced than her nemesis Diane Chambers (Shelley Long), who has a nice personality and upper-class traits, contrary to Carla, who treats regular customers with disdain and mostly negative sarcasm, including Cliff Clavin, a know-it-all bar patron. A devoted and often-disappointed Boston Red Sox fan, [p 8] she became friends with Sam Malone (Ted Danson) and Coach Ernie Pantusso (Nicholas Colasanto) during Sam's baseball days at least five years before the show started [p 9] and came to work for him at Cheers when Sam retired from baseball and bought the bar.

Carla notably idolizes Elvis Presley, opting to take annual trips to Graceland, naming one of her later kids after him, and even eventually trying to make contact with him in "Don't Shoot... I'm Only the Psychiatrist" (1992).

In two-part episode "Never Love a Goalie" (1987), Carla briefly dates the Boston Bruins ice hockey player, Guy "Eddie" LeBec, who has an endless winning streak and a French Canadian background. As a result, Eddie's winning streak ends abruptly. Since both are superstitious, they 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 (incorporated by another of Perlman's pregnancies [10] ), so she and Eddie wed in "Little Carla, Happy at Last: Part 2". Also, in the episode, the Bruins replaces him with a younger player, and he could not find another team. In "Airport V" (1988), Eddie becomes a penguin mascot for a traveling ice show in another state. In "Tale of Two Cuties", Carla gives birth to their twin boys, named Elvis and Jesse.

In "Death Takes a Holiday on Ice" (1989), Eddie was killed by an ice resurfacer when he saved the life of another member of the ice show. At the funeral, it was revealed that he had concurrently another wife Gloria with twins, as well. Carla changes her surname back to Tortelli to avoid being confused with the other "Mrs. LeBec". The demise of Jay Thomas's character Eddie LeBec has been claimed to stem from Thomas's comments "about" Perlman in a radio show. However, Thomas denied this and declared that he was referring only to the Carla character. [11] Despite Ken Levine's praise on Thomas's acting and pairing of Eddie and Carla, [12] Eddie was written out of the show because Perlman thought that the pairing would make her "not part of the people in the bar." [11]

In "Head Over Hill" (1991), Carla tries to pull a vengeance on John Allen Hill (Keene Curtis), Sam's upper-class rival, owner of the restaurant Melville's, and co-owner of Cheers, on Sam's behalf. However, she ironically ends up sleeping with him. Since then, she has on-and-off sexual encounters with John. In "Feelings... Whoa, Whoa, Whoa" (1992), she comes into terms of her feelings for John, but she and John find each other incompatible except in bed.

In her only episode of Frasier , "Cheerful Goodbyes" (2002), according to her, two of Carla's sons are imprisoned and her house is on the verge of foreclosing. She is relieved that Cliff will be retiring into Florida. However, in his retirement party, influenced by his friends' farewell comments - including a vicious tirade by Carla which he mistakes as a sarcastic tribute - Cliff decides to stay in Boston, much to her dismay. She attempts to attack him with a harpoon but is restrained by others.

Reception

Carla says something really crass and stupid here, and we move on before the audience hates her. [13]

— David Lloyd

Carla Tortelli was voted a favorite character by eight percent of 1,011 people, who were surveyed in 1993 by the Times Mirror Center for the People and the Press (now Pew Research Center). [14] She was ranked No. 66 out of Bravo's The 100 Greatest TV Characters of all-time. [15] Steve Craig of the University of North Texas noted that she "lacks the charm, warmth, and demureness of the feminine ideal" and is a ridicule of anti-feminism for her "un-ladylike" promiscuity. [16] Bill Simmons, previously of ESPN, praised her in episodes that do not mainly focus on her. [17]

Heather Hundley noted that the series sends a "double standards" message about men and women involved in promiscuity. She noted that the series portrays Sam Malone as heroic, who never suffers from negative consequences of his promiscuity, [18] while it portrays Carla as "nymphomaniac", [19] who regrets her own promiscuities for out-of-wedlock pregnancies and wrong lovers. [20] She finds the series's portrayal of premarital sex "negative and unhealthy", especially for omitting other dangers of promiscuity, like sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS. [20]

Rhea Perlman won Emmy Awards as an Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 1984, 1985, 1986, and 1989 for her portrayal of Carla. [21] She was honored as the Best Supporting Actress (Comedy) by Viewers for Quality Television in 1985 [22] and the "Funniest Supporting Actress" by the American Comedy Awards in 1989. [23] Simon Cocks from Television Addiction website called her "the show's weak link" and was "irritated [by] her [a]nd her constant insensitive and unfunny remarks[.]" [24]

Related Research Articles

<i>Cheers</i> American television sitcom (1982–1993)

Cheers is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from September 30, 1982, to May 20, 1993, for 11 seasons and 275 episodes. The show was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions in association with Paramount Television and was created by the team of James Burrows and Glen and Les Charles. The show is set in the titular bar in Boston, where a group of locals meet to drink, relax, socialize, and escape from their day to day issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frasier Crane</span> Fictional character in the television series Frasier and Cheers

Dr. Frasier Winslow Crane is a fictional character who is both a supporting character on the American television sitcom Cheers and the titular protagonist of its spin-off Frasier and the latter’s 2023 sequel. In all three series, he is portrayed by Kelsey Grammer. The character debuted in the Cheers third-season premiere, "Rebound " (1984), as Diane Chambers's love interest, part of the Sam and Diane story arc. Intended to appear for only a few episodes, Grammer's performance in the role was praised by producers, prompting them to expand his role and increase his prominence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norm Peterson</span> Fictional character in the series Cheers

Hilary Norman Peterson is a regular fictional character on the American television show Cheers. The character was portrayed by actor George Wendt and is named Hilary after his paternal grandfather.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cliff Clavin</span> Fictional character in the series Cheers

Clifford C. Clavin, Jr. is a fictional character on the American television show Cheers played by John Ratzenberger. A postal worker, he is the bar's resident know-it-all and was a contestant on the game show Jeopardy! Cliff was not originally scripted in the series' pilot episode, "Give Me a Ring Sometime", but the producers decided to add a know-it-all character and Ratzenberger helped flesh it out. The actor made guest appearances as Cliff on The Tortellis, St. Elsewhere, Wings, and Frasier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhea Perlman</span> American actress (born 1948)

Rhea Jo Perlman is an American actress. She is well-known for playing head waitress Carla Tortelli in the sitcom Cheers (1982–1993). Over the course of 11 seasons, Perlman was nominated for ten Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress, winning 4, and was nominated for a record six Golden Globe Awards for Best Supporting Actress in a Television Series. She has also appeared in films, including Canadian Bacon (1995), Matilda (1996), The Sessions (2012), Poms (2019), and Barbie (2023).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam Malone</span> Fictional character in the series Cheers

Samuel "Mayday" Malone is a fictional character and the protagonist of the American television show Cheers, portrayed by Ted Danson and created by Glen and Les Charles. Sam is a former relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox baseball team who owns and tends the bar called "Cheers". He is also a recovering alcoholic and a notorious womanizer. Although his celebrity status was short-lived, Sam retains that standing within the confines of Cheers, where he is beloved by the regular patrons. Along with Carla Tortelli and Norm Peterson, he is one of only three characters to appear in all episodes of Cheers. Sam has an on-again, off-again relationship with the bar waitress Diane Chambers for the series' first five seasons until her departure from the series. Then he tries to seduce Diane's replacement, Rebecca Howe, who frequently rejects his advances. Sam also appears in "The Show Where Sam Shows Up", a crossover episode of the spin-off Frasier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rebecca Howe</span> Fictional character in the series Cheers

Rebecca Howe is a fictional character of the American television sitcom Cheers, portrayed by Kirstie Alley and created by Glen and Les Charles. Rebecca appeared in 147 episodes of Cheers between 1987 and 1993 and in one episode of Wings. She debuts in the season six episode "Home Is the Sailor" after Shelley Long—who played waitress Diane Chambers—left the show to pursue a movie career. Much of the show's humor in previous seasons had been based around the interaction and sexual tension between the womanizing, working-class main character, bartender Sam Malone, and the high-class, snobbish Diane. Rebecca was intended to fill the gap as Sam's new female foil.

<i>The Tortellis</i> 1987 American television sitcom

The Tortellis is an American sitcom television series and the first spin-off of Cheers, starring Dan Hedaya and Jean Kasem. It aired on NBC from January 22 to May 12, 1987.

"Give Me a Ring Sometime" is the pilot episode and the first episode of the first season of the American situation comedy Cheers. Written by Glen and Les Charles and directed by James Burrows, the episode first aired September 30, 1982, on NBC in the contiguous United States and on October 14, 1982 in Alaska. The pilot episode introduces the characters at the Cheers bar in Boston: employees Sam Malone, Diane Chambers, Coach Ernie Pantusso, and Carla Tortelli; and regular customers Norm Peterson and Cliff Clavin. In this episode, Diane, brought in by her fiancé, meets the employees and patrons of the bar. When she realizes that her fiancé has left her alone in the bar, Diane accepts Sam's offer to be the bar's waitress to start over.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam and Diane</span> Fictional couple in the show Cheers

Sam Malone and Diane Chambers, collectively known as Sam and Diane, are fictional characters in the American sitcom television series Cheers. Sam is a working-class, baseball player–turned–bartender played by Ted Danson; Diane is a college-graduate cocktail waitress played by Shelley Long. Danson appeared on Cheers for its entire run of the series; Long was part of the regular cast from the 1982 series premiere until the fifth-season finale, "I Do, Adieu" (1987). Long returned for a special appearance in the 1993 series finale, "One for the Road."

"Woody Interruptus" is the twelfth episode of Cheers's ninth season. It first aired on NBC in the United States on December 13, 1990. In the episode, Kelly returns from France with a male friend who says he's going to steal her from Woody. Woody deals with this by deciding to sleep with Kelly. This episode earned its director James Burrows accolades for Best Directing in 1991 and gained high viewership at its first airing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diane Chambers</span> Fictional character in the series Cheers

Diane Chambers is a fictional character in the American television situation comedy show Cheers, portrayed by Shelley Long and created by Glen and Les Charles. She is one of two main protagonists in the first five seasons of the series. After her fiancé Sumner Sloan abandons her in the Cheers bar in the pilot episode, Diane works as a bar waitress. She has an on-off relationship with the womanizing bartender Sam Malone and a one-year relationship with Frasier Crane, who later becomes a main character of the series and its spin-off Frasier. When Long left the series during the fifth season, the producers wrote her character out. After that, they added her permanent replacement Rebecca Howe, a businesswoman played by Kirstie Alley, in the sixth season. Shelley Long made a special guest appearance as Diane in the series finale, as well as in Frasier as a one-time figment of Frasier's imagination, and as the actual Diane in the crossover episode "The Show Where Diane Comes Back".

<i>Cheers</i> season 1 Season of television series

The first season of the American television sitcom Cheers aired on NBC from September 30, 1982 to March 31, 1983. The show was created and produced by director James Burrows and writers Glen and Les Charles, who previously worked on Taxi, another sitcom. Cheers was produced by Charles Burrows Charles Productions in association with Paramount Television. The concept and production design of the show were inspired by a public house in Boston, the Bull & Finch, which is now called Cheers Beacon Hill.

<i>Cheers</i> season 3 Season of television series

The third season of the American television sitcom Cheers aired on NBC from September 27, 1984 to May 9, 1985. The show was created by director James Burrows and writers Glen and Les Charles under production team Charles Burrows Charles Productions in association with Paramount Television. The third season is available on DVD in a four-disc set.

<i>Cheers</i> season 5 Season of television series

The fifth season of the American television sitcom Cheers aired on NBC from September 25, 1986 to May 7, 1987. This season marks the departure of Shelley Long as Diane Chambers, bringing an end to the Sam and Diane relationship. The show was created by director James Burrows and writers Glen and Les Charles, in association with Paramount Television.

<i>Cheers</i> season 6 Season of television series

The sixth season of the American television sitcom Cheers aired on NBC from September 24, 1987 to May 7, 1988. The show was created by director James Burrows and writers Glen and Les Charles under their production company Charles Burrows Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Television. This season features the debut of Kirstie Alley as Rebecca Howe.

<i>Cheers</i> season 7 Season of television series

The seventh season of the American television sitcom Cheers aired on NBC from October 27, 1988 to May 4, 1989. The show was created by director James Burrows and writers Glen and Les Charles under production team Charles Burrows Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Television.

<i>Cheers</i> season 8 Season of television series

The eighth season of the American television sitcom Cheers aired on NBC from September 21, 1989 to May 3, 1990. The show was created by director James Burrows and writers Glen and Les Charles under production team Charles Burrows Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Television.

<i>Cheers</i> season 9 Season of television series

The ninth season of the American television sitcom Cheers aired on NBC from September 20, 1990 to May 3, 1991. The show was created by director James Burrows and writers Glen and Les Charles under production team Charles Burrows Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Television.

References

From primary sources:

  1. ↑ "Father Knows Last", season 1
  2. ↑ "Whodunit?", season 3
  3. ↑ "Little Sister Don't Cha", season 2
  4. ↑ "Honor Thy Mother", season 10
  5. ↑ "The Tortelli Tort," Season 1
  6. ↑ "The Cranemakers", season 7
  7. ↑ "Get Your Kicks On Route 666", season 10
  8. ↑ "The Tortelli Tort", season 1
  9. ↑ "Truce or Consequences", season 1

From non-primary sources:

  1. ↑ Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). "Fear of Flying". BBC. Archived from the original on September 16, 2007. Retrieved August 19, 2010.
  2. ↑ Danson, Ted (2003). "Setting the Bar: A Conversation with Ted Danson". Cheers: The Complete First Season (DVD). Paramount Pictures.
  3. ↑ Scott, Vernon. "Series Producers Working Now to Get `Cheers'." Telegraph Herald [Dubuque, Iowa] 11 July 1982: 20. Google News . Web. 5 April 2012.
  4. 1 2 Buck, Jerry (April 24, 1983). "Rhea Perlman Mixes Real Life with Series". The Press-Courier . Oxnard, California. TV Week, p. 7. Retrieved July 23, 2012– via Google News Archive.
  5. ↑ Kerr, Peter (November 29, 1983). "NBC COMEDY 'CHEERS' TURNS INTO A SUCCESS". The New York Times . Retrieved November 16, 2012.
  6. ↑ "Real Life Cheers Bartender Laid Off". CBS News. Associated Press. March 10, 2009. The waitress who trained Rhea Perlman was eventually fired for berating a customer for "leaving a $1 tip on a $100 bill".
  7. ↑ Raftery, Brian (October 2012). "The Best TV Show That's Ever Been". GQ. Retrieved September 27, 2012.
  8. ↑ "Cheers star unlucky". Ottawa Citizen . Associated Press. January 24, 1986. p. D15.
  9. ↑ Buck, Jerry (January 23, 1983). "Cheers provides tough education". The Modesto Bee . Associated Press. p. 3, TV Magazine. Retrieved August 24, 2012– via Google News Archive.
  10. ↑ "Cheers starts 6th season with new co-star". Fort Scott Tribune . Fort Scott, Kansas. August 17, 1987. p. 5.
  11. 1 2 Raftery, Brian (October 2012). "The Best TV Show That's Ever Been". GQ .
  12. ↑ Levine, Ken (July 21, 2006). "The kiss of death for Eddie LeBec". ...by Ken Levine.
  13. ↑ "In memory of David Lloyd". ...by Ken Levine. November 11, 2009. Retrieved November 20, 2012.
  14. ↑ Mills, Kim I. "TV viewers glad Sam stayed single." The Sunday Gazette [Schenectady, NY] 2 May 1993: A3. Google News. Web. 21 January 2012. The margin of error in the survey was ±3, according to the polls. In this web edition, scroll down to see the title of the headline.
  15. ↑ "The 100 Greatest TV Characters." Bravo, 2004. Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Web. 10 February 2012. Archived from the original.
  16. ↑ Craig, Steve. "Selling Masculinities, Selling Femininities: Multiple Genders and the Economics of Television." The Mid-Atlantic Almanack 2 (1993): 15–27. Internet Archive Wayback Machine. 1–21. Web. January 14, 2011.
  17. ↑ Simmons, Bill (February 21, 2002). "Page 2: Dear Sports Guy..." ESPN . Archived from the original on December 10, 2008. Retrieved June 20, 2012.
  18. ↑ Hundley 2005, p. 219.
  19. ↑ Hundley 2005, p. 207.
  20. 1 2 Hundley 2005 , p. 218
  21. ↑ Bjorklund 2014, pp. 458–459, 461.
  22. ↑ "The Ratings Game - CBS Eked Out a Win, but NBC Takes the Top Honors in the Quality Poll". The Seattle Times (4th ed.). The Associated Press; Knight Ridder. April 22, 1985. p. B1. Record no. 20902. The Cosby Show topped as the "Best Regular Series" in the survey of 36 critics.
  23. ↑ "Lifetime American Comedy Awards to Hepburn, Skeleton". The Modesto Bee . Modesto, California. Associated Press. May 24, 1989. p. D3.
  24. ↑ Cocks, Simon (August 8, 2012). "TV Review: Cheers – Seasons 6 to 11". Television Addiction.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.