My Trip to See The Cheers Robots at the Detroit Airport

Ahh, the Cheers Robots.

They were a couple of robots that looked like Norm and Cliff from Cheers. They were featured in a handful of airport bars back in the mid to late 1990s.

I visited one such bar in the Detroit airport a few years back.

It would have been somewhere between '96 and '98. I am almost certain that '97 was between '96 and '98. If so, that might have been the year.

Anyway, my memory is a bit hazy since it's been a while and I didn't commit the details to memory. I was popping jalapeño peppers like aspirin that day because, hey, I was in Detroit.

We didn't pick it specifically because it was Cheers, it just happened to be the first place to eat we came to. When I say "we" I mean me and the peppers. I think I held the peppers up and sang that "I'm a pepper" song that Dr. Pepper used have in their commercials.

Then some Detroit airport hobo asked me "why doesn't Dr. Pepper taste like pepper?" I thought for a moment then I attempted to strangle him with my shoelaces.

At that moment, I realized I was probably just high from the peppers.

Plus, how would a hobo get in an airport... unless he got a ticket and then got stuck in there without a place to go.

"That's a good idea for a movie" I thought. "It could star Tom Hanks."

Luckily I never followed through with that idea.

As for Cheers, one wall was completely open to the concourse, probably to lure people in.

Color me lured. In the name of the lured, I need to be colored.

They did have the bar but they didn't let any one sit there. I don't think it was as big as the television version and I think one side was against the back wall.

The rest of the layout was also different from the set. I don't remember there being any booths along the sides. They did have some tables but they also had what can be best described as bar tables. I don't remember if it was one long strip where different parties sat together or if they were broken up to seat 4 to 6 people. In either case everyone sat on the same side and the table was made up to resemble the bar. This was where we (me and the peppers) wound up sitting.

The one thing I do remember was that we sat behind and left of the robots so all we could see were their backs. At least I could see their backs. I poked the peppers eyes out during some rough horseplay.

It happens.

The menu was typical restaurant chain food. Burger, sandwiches, etc.

I think I had a burger.