Real-Life Sam Malone Laid Off

by Jordan Yerman | March 10, 2009 at 08:17 am

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Eddie Doyle, who inspired the character of Sam Malone on Cheers, got laid off. That sucks.

Doyle worked at the Bull & Finch, later renamed Cheers, for over thirty years, slinging booze, dispensing sage advice, and raising tons of cash for charity.

So, exactly how bad is your bar doing that you're laying off bartenders? You can't exactly outsource it, and robot bartenders, while they indeed exist, aren't quite ready to step in yet at a professional level.

The guy's a celebrity bartender (how many of those are out there?), and arguably a huge draw. I've stopped going to certain bars when my favorite staff members left, and none of 'em were Sam freakin' Malone! One can only imagine the impact here: the owner is playing checkers instead of chess.

For nearly 35 years, or almost half of his life, Doyle has been the smiling face behind the bar at Cheers - the Beacon Hill pub that inspired the TV show with the same name in the early 1980s. As one of Boston's last fabled bartenders, he served drinks and advice for five decades. During that time, his charitable deeds became the stuff of legend. Along the way he got to know thousands, introduced dozens of singles who would eventually marry, and held numerous fund-raisers that attracted everybody from the glitterati to the near-homeless.

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