A Round for the Regular

If television is built on regular people—not to mention people who tune in regularly—then Norm Peterson was the most regular of all.

- RAJA SEN

If television is built on regular people—not to mention people who tune in regularly—then Norm Peterson was the most regular of all. For eleven seasons, he walked into the bar at Cheers with such clockwork regularity that his every entrance elicited a resounding and welcoming "Norm!," a salute not only to a beloved character, but to constancy itself. On a show filled with sharp-tongued banter and characters in constant romantic or existential turmoil, Norm offered something rare and essential: stability.

He arrived in the frame not like a man entering a room, but like a law of nature asserting itself. A sitcom's center of gravity doesn't always sit at the heart of the plot. Norm rarely drove storylines, but his presence was gravitational. He gave the show ballast. Week after week, the late George Wendt—who passed away on 20 May, aged 76—played Norm with weary charm and unshakeable timing. His delivery was always dry, never deadpan. Norm wasn't bored by the world, merely tired of pretending it made sense. Wendt didn't oversell his jokes. He let them sit, like a pint on a coaster, waiting for you to notice.

"How's life treating you, Norm?"

"Like I just ran over its dog."

That line was one of many. What didn't change was Norm's response: weary resignation with a fizzy head of humor. Norm didn't believe things would get better, but he believed in showing up anyway.