Carla Tortelli

Living… in Boston. Carla has real roots in the city. She’s been friends with her boss Sam Malone since his days playing for the Red Sox. She’s a devoted and often-disappointed Red Sox fan who came to work for Sam once he retired from baseball and started running Cheers. She will literally attack anyone who besmirches her home team. Carla lives in an overstuffed household with four (and counting) children.

Profession… waitress at Cheers. She is the most experienced and efficient waitress at the bar, in contrast with her nemesis Diane Chambers. She’s generally friendly to the customers unless they give her lip, at which point she turns on the sass. However she openly dislikes some of the bar’s regulars, particularly Cliff Clavin and Frasier Crane. Carla doesn’t quite subscribe to the view that “the customer is always right.” But she’s such a good waitress – and practically part of the family – that Sam puts up with her occasional attitude.

Interests... her children and her religion. Carla tends to cherry-pick her religious beliefs, which often verge into superstition. She doesn’t believe in birth control, yet she also doesn’t (evidently) believe in monogamy. She occasionally tries to pass on her religious beliefs to Sam, who revels in sinful living. Carla eventually had four more children (yep, that’s eight total), all uniformly spoiled, unruly, and downright rotten. Hey, it’s hard being a (usually) single mom.

Relationship Status... divorced and still reeling. Her ex-husband Nick Tortelli was a deadbeat father during and after their marriage. He was disloyal and unfaithful, repeatedly cheating on her. Still, Carla can’t seem to let him go. She enlists Sam’s help in making Nick jealous, asking him to pose as her date. She’s devastated when Nick marries Loretta, a dim-witted but much younger and quite buxom blonde. But the fiery Carla has a strange hold on men; hopefully she’ll find happiness again.

Challenge… staying afloat. Carla has a lot on her plate – the mother of many with a waitress’s salary. Sometimes she’s driven to despair: “My life's the pits. Seems like good things happen to everybody except me, you know? Norm has a new job. Frasier actually seems happy since he met his creepy girlfriend. And Sam's given up women and decided to marry Diane. What have I got? Zip…I mean how do you keep such a sunny disposition in this rotten, stinkin', infested world?” Of course, Carla is always just one well-placed zinger at someone else’s expense away from feeling better.

Personality... feisty, cynical, funny. Carla is alternately wise and highly superstitious. She’s been through the gamut of love and loss, yet still revels in seducing men or making her ex jealous. She sells herself short sometimes, repeatedly swallowing emotional abuse from her ex-husband Nick and refusing to cut the cord. She’s a practicing Catholic who is not above seducing her dentist. Yes, Carla’s a contradiction, but Cheers wouldn’t be Cheers without her.