Photo I Meant to Blog Months Ago Blogging

I was looking at my Flickr page and I remembered that I'd snapped this photo fully intending to blog about it back months ago whenever I was in Amsterdam but then forgot. Nevertheless, the point still stands that there's a bar called Cheers in Amsterdam still trying to secure customers on the basis of an American sitcom that's been off the air for over a decade. Meanwhile, and perhaps relatedly, for some reason the in-flight entertainment on my flight involved a Cheers episode.

Comments

They do love our American television in Europe....because theirs is such crap.

Posted by Mixner | January 28, 2008 1:02 PM

Oddly enough, there's a Cheers bar in Philadelphia on South Street. It just has a sign out front with the Cheers logo.

Posted by RICKM | January 28, 2008 1:03 PM

Probably not the best placement of dartboards I've seen, but not the worst, either.

Posted by Njorl | January 28, 2008 1:07 PM

These used to be more common in the States. Before your time, Matthew. And European expressions of American pop-culture are about a decade behind anyway. I think Matchbox Twnenty is just now getting big in Europe......

Posted by Mike | January 28, 2008 1:07 PM

Anyone want to comment on the presence of "Irish" bars in seemingly every place on earth? Where are the Swedish or Spanish bars?

On a similar note, anyone else giggle a little, while driving in Canada, when one sees signs for "Canadian food" on restuarants?

Posted by Ben | January 28, 2008 1:09 PM

I saw a Cheers bar in Montreal several years ago. I assumed that they got the original broadcast translated to French back in the day.

In all seriousness, it is a franchise. Would you be surprised to see a TGIF or Chilis in Europe?

Posted by freddiemac | January 28, 2008 1:13 PM

I'd much rather see an Irish bar and a Spanish restaurant than the other way around.

Posted by Misplaced Patriot | January 28, 2008 1:13 PM

There's one in Yerevan, Armenia. Logo and everything.

In a Yerevan context, I think it's a signal that "this is an expat bar".

Doug M.

Posted by Doug M. | January 28, 2008 1:15 PM

Matt: Where have you been? When I start drinking with a buddy, I often lift my glass and say Cheers. Quite an appropriate name for a bar and nothing to do with the TV show.

Posted by john bennett | January 28, 2008 1:17 PM

Well, this isn't quite as awesome as the Romanian "Al Bundy Shoe Store". Married with Children is way awesomer than Cheers, and is more a part of our generation's conciousness.

Posted by oljb | January 28, 2008 1:23 PM

I once went to a Cheers in Rockford Illinois. It had sawdust on the ground, and the DJ made everyone in the place stand up while someone karaoke'd "Proud to Be an American." Then the bartender ladies danced on the bar and did shots during my rendition of Welcome to the Jungle. True story.

Posted by Ed | January 28, 2008 1:27 PM

Back in 2003, when I was in Germany, I asked a 22 year old German-born Turkish girl what her favorite TV show was. Her answer... Matlock.

Posted by bubba | January 28, 2008 1:37 PM

What you may not realize, Matt, is the longevity of American television in overseas syndication. See here: http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=25

Posted by jeet | January 28, 2008 1:42 PM

Anyone want to comment on the presence of "Irish" bars in seemingly every place on earth?

Well, there's the whole 'Irish pub in a box' industry, which involves the prefabrication of faux-antique tat in a Dublin industrial estate, to be shipped in a standard freight container wherever you like. ('Mad Marphy's' in Almaty, Kazakhstan is a pub-in-a-box.)

As for Amsterdam, there's also Hill Street Blues, a coffeeshop on Warmoestraat bordering the red-light district, where friends of mine saw Eminem getting interviewed by Dutch journos during his first European tour.

Posted by pseudonymous in nc | January 28, 2008 1:50 PM

Apparently, CSI: Miami is currently the most-watched TV show in the world. It used to be Baywatch.

Posted by Mixner | January 28, 2008 2:05 PM

There seems to be a Cheers franchise in airports, with big prints of the engravings from the Cheers TV show opening montage. It's a place where nobody knows your name.

Posted by Alan in SF | January 28, 2008 2:06 PM

There's also a Cheers Bar at Piccadilly Circus in London...

Posted by Kevin | January 28, 2008 2:42 PM

Would you be surprised to see a TGIF or Chilis in Europe?

In fact, there is a TGIF in Dublin, Ireland.

Posted by Kevin | January 28, 2008 2:51 PM

how about a Flickr of matt on mushrooms?

Posted by me | January 28, 2008 4:39 PM

Did you know there's a McDonald's in Hiroshima?

Posted by stm177 | January 28, 2008 4:42 PM

I think the original was the Bull and Finch Pub in Boston. That was the bar that the series was based upon.

Posted by Dilan Esper | January 28, 2008 5:42 PM

In fact, there is a TGIF in Dublin, Ireland.

Better yet, there's one in the international terminal of Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow. It is apparently the only decent place to eat there.

Posted by MG | January 28, 2008 7:09 PM

There's also a bar named Cheers a few minutes' walk from the Osan Air Base in South Korea. Nice place.

Posted by Korea Beat | January 28, 2008 10:42 PM

Only bars I know in Ireland is Whelan's in Dublin - where the Corrs were discovered by US Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith - and McManus's in Dundalk where the three Corrs sisters used to bartend. The students came for miles...

Heh, heh.

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | January 29, 2008 12:56 AM

Anyone want to comment on the presence of "Irish" bars in seemingly every place on earth? Where are the Swedish or Spanish bars?

Ahhh, Le Shamrock on the Place du Commerce in Nantes. Good times.

Posted by Cyrus | January 29, 2008 12:26 PM

I would have thought 2 seconds reflection would be enough to explain why Irish pubs are popular world wide and Spanish and Swedish bars are not.

Posted by vanya_6724 | January 29, 2008 1:34 PM