In this spin-off from Cheers, slimy Nick Tortelli ( Dan Hedaya), one-time husband of Carla, moved to Las Vegas to try to reconcile with his new wife, a spaced-out blonde named Loretta ( Jean Kasem) who was trying to launch a show-biz career there. He swore he'd turn over a new leaf but Loretta's level-headed sister Charlotte ( Carlene Watkins), who lived with them was skeptical. Anthony ( Timothy Williams) was Nick's dumb teenage son, who helped him in his Tv repair business and Annie ( Mandy Ingber) was Anthony's young bride. They both lived with Nick and Loretta too. Mark ( Aaron Moffat) was Charlotte's young son. A Review from The New York Times TV REVIEWS; NBC PRESENTS 'THE TORTELLIS,' A 'CHEERS' SPINOFF By JOHN CORRY FAMILIES, extended or nuclear, are big on television these days. Comes now ''The Tortellis.'' He's unscrupulous; she's dumb; everyone lives in Las Vegas, Nev. The new NBC series, a spinoff from ''Cheers,'' begins tonight at 9:30. It's not great, but here and there it has moments. The moments, even if fleeting, are provided by Dan Hedaya. He played the ex-husband of Rhea Perlman on ''Cheers.'' Ms. Perlman, as Carla, appears briefly tonight. Mr. Hedaya, in a dream sequence, stands at the gates of Heaven, applying for admission. Various people from his life, among them Ms. Perlman, appear as character witnesses. Everyone agrees he was a louse. Mr. Hedaya awakens then. He's on a bus for Las Vegas, and like Scrooge after meeting the spirits, he's ready to begin a new life. The question is, is he truly repentant or is he still a louse? The question, presumably, will be asked on all episodes of ''The Tortellis.'' Why is this taking place in Las Vegas? Tonight's episode doesn't quite tell us, although the producers - Glen Charles, Les Charles, James Burrows and Patricia Nardo - must see comic possibilities. Gambling, divorce and flashy stage shows; Mr. Hedaya's Nick Tortelli, a television repairman, hasn't discovered any of this yet. It is likely that later he will. Tonight, Mr. Hedaya shows up at the apartment of his estranged wife, played by Jean Kasem, and asks for a reconciliation. They separated after she discovered him taking a shower with an Avon Lady. ''I've changed completely,'' Mr. Hedaya says. ''The shirt is different, but the pants are the same,'' Ms. Kasem thoughtfully replies. Ms. Kasem, tall and statuesque, is supposed to be in the Marie Wilson-Suzanne Somers-dumb blonde tradition.
The Tortellis aired from January until May 1987 on NBC.
Published: January 22, 1987
Miss Kasem is living with her sister (Carlene Watkins), who is divorced and has a small son. More comic possibilities then: the small son, an adorable moppet, and Mr. Hedaya will not get along. Anyway, Mr. Hedaya moves into the apartment. Then his son (Timothy Williams) by his first wife and the son's new teen-age wife (Mandy Ingber) move in, too. Welcome to television's new misshapen family.
Mr. Hedaya has a comic presence; he can add weight to an otherwise slapstick joke. Save that, however, ''The Tortellis'' seems to be only a trifle. Maybe it will get going when it leaves the apartment and moves around Las Vegas.
A Review from The Washington Post
'THE TORTELLIS,' NBC'S CRUDE COUPLE
By Tom Shales January 22, 1987
The Tortellis are a nearly perfect couple: an animal and a vegetable. Perhaps what "The Tortellis" lacks then is a mineral. The new NBC comedy series, from the producers of "Cheers," premieres after "Cheers" tonight at 9:30 on Channel 4, then moves to its regular time slot, Wednesdays at 9:30, on Jan. 28.
Both the lead characters in this itchy, tickly sitcom are not only unlikable, they are undesirable. They are, as the Legion of Decency used to say about naughty motion pictures, morally objectionable in part for all. Nick Tortelli is the consummate sleaze and his wife Loretta a tottering bimbo. Merely sharing a three-minute elevator ride with them would be exposure enough.
Sensing the fact that a sitcom built around a creepy person has a hard time in the ratings ("Buffalo Bill" being the example most often cited), the writers devised a prologue to the first show in which Nick, dreaming he is at Heaven's gate and being rejected, vows to reform. He wakes up on a bus to Las Vegas, the city where his wife has retreated for a breather.
Once in Vegas, Nick confronts his new comic foils, who include Loretta's wisecracking and cynical sister, Nick's teen-age son and the son's new girlfriend, all of whom wind up sharing a house. The family extends every few minutes. Nick vows to become a successful TV repairman and to resist as many temptations of the flesh as he can.
The performers are not endearing. As Nick, Dan Hedaya, who previously introduced the character on "Cheers" (he was supposedly married for 12 years to Carla, the saucy waitress), looks like a combination of Richard Nixon and Anthony Newley, with a touch of the missing link thrown in. He prefaces many of his lines and words with a kind of low-throat growl that gets annoying in short order.
Loretta is played by Jean Kasem, who allegedly is adding new sophistication to the stereotype of the dumb blond but who plays a dumb blond nevertheless. In real life, the actress is married to Casey Kasem. At least this series gets her out of the house.
The comedy lines by Ken Estin are about what one would expect -- not stupid, but predictable in their flips and reversals. Describing Nick to her sister before he arrives, Loretta says, "If you met him, you wouldn't think he's a jerk. At least, not right away."
Nick is attracted to the sister and asks about her marital state. "Better dead than," she says. Her last husband was a "sewer rat," she tells Nick, and he advises, "Don't let one rat spoil the whole sewer." And so on. Rhea Perlman, who plays Carla on "Cheers," does a quick cameo during the dream sequence.
"Cheers" veteran James Burrows, the director, maneuvers the actors nimbly around the large, airy, Vegas ranch house set, and he has worked hard at turning the two gauche grotesques into semipalatable comic figures. But the thought of a weekly visitation remains unappetizing. To know the Tortellis is to realize one is better off not knowing them.
An Article from People Magazine
Playing Dumb, Jean Kasem Gives a Brassy Tint to The Tortellis
Mary Ann Norbom
March 16, 1987 12:00 PM
Though itâs hard to fathom in light of her TV character, The Tortellisâ dimbulb blonde, Jean Kasem, once lost a job because she was too brainy. Auditioning for a news post at L.A.âs KCOP in 1980, Kasem knew how to write copy, she says, and âwas knowledgeable about what was going on in the world. But I wasnât prepared for how much show business had crept into the news. It was all chitchat and folderol. They told me I was too serious.â
Suffice it to say that Kasem, 32, has since wised up. Now she acts dumb. Very dumb. In fact her Loretta Tortelliâan aspiring Las Vegas lounge singer with a statuesque coif and clothes garish enough to make Liberace do 360s in his graveâplumbs new levels of dumb. So what if her husband, Nick (Dan Hedaya), ex-spouse of Cheersâ opinionated barmaid Carla, is a neâer-do-well lowlife whose noblest ambition is to be âTV repairman to the starsâ? She idolizes the slug. And so what if Nick is giving the eye to every woman in sight. In the great tradition of ditzy TV blondes, Loretta remains blindly optimistic. âSheâs the Jiminy Cricket of the show,â says Kasem; if Lorettaâs brain is half empty, âher glass is always half full.â
Kasem, in contrast, is dealing from a full deck. For starters, she attended the University of Guam at 16. Sheâs also a natural brunette, and her voice is at least an octave lower than Lorettaâs squeak. After only a few minutes in the three-bedroom Beverly Wilshire Hotel apartment she shares with her husband, deejay Casey Kasem, it becomes apparent that Jean is quite articulate. She can move through such topics as industry business, stepchildren and world politics more easily than Vanna White can pick her favorite vowel. Mentioning that two of her closest friends are consumer reporter David (Fight Back!) Horowitz and his wife, Suzanne, Jean says, âDavid was a war correspondent in Nam. The first time we went out to dinner together, David and I talked about the war while Casey and Suzanne twiddled their thumbs.â
Kasem is well-acquainted with the war. Because of her recurring pneumonia, her fatherâa civil servant who purchased military suppliesâtransferred his family from cold Portsmouth, N.H. to warm Guam in 1963. Things grew hotter during the war, when the military base at Guam was used as headquarters for the Strategic Air Command. âWe lived right by the ammo dump,â says Kasem, who was born Jean Thompson. âWe saw them bury guys right outside our school window. There were 21-gun salutes every 15 minutes.â After nearly drowning when she was 14, Jean decided to do good works by volunteering at the Navy hospital. âIt was right after the Tet Offensive,â she says. âIt was the worst time I can remember. They were operating in hallways and elevators. Evacuees were stacked three high in the halls. I grew up very fast in Guam.â
Jean grew up so fast she married a Navy lieutenant when she was 17, a choice she now calls a mistake. She worked as a waitress and saleswoman while following her husband to bases throughout the Pacific. When the marriage ended after six years, Kasem moved to California and tried to break into broadcast journalism. Rejected for such sundry reasons as being too tall as well as too serious, the 5â10½â Kasem joined an acting workshop to vent her frustration. Noticing that she was the only non-blond, male or female, in the class, she dyed her hair. Roles in Matt Houston, Fantasy Island and Alice followed.
Her career breakthrough came in 1983 when Cheers was casting for two new characters, Nick and Loretta Tortelli. By chance, Kasem was paired with Dan Hedaya. The physically odd couple had NBC execs laughing as soon as they walked into the audition room. âSheâs tall, blond and buxom,â explains Hedaya. âIâm short, dark and not buxom.â
The same can be said of her husband, 5â6â³ Casey Kasem, 55, whose syndicated radio show, American Top 40, is heard on 1,035 stations each Sunday. The two met on Dec. 21, 1979 (six months after Caseyâs seven-year marriage ended) and were wed a year to the day later. The busy Kasems, who now live in a hotel for the convenience of room service, try to see Caseyâs three children as much as possible.
Though Casey wields his share of showbiz clout, he says heâs done nothing to help his wifeâs career except to give her guidance. âI take pleasure in seeing talent develop,â he says. âShe has a marvelous quality that only a handful of beautiful blond actresses have. Itâs the same quality Judy Holliday and Marilyn Monroe hadâcomedy timing.â Jean isnât bothered by such comparisons. âSome actresses have had trouble dealing with their dumb-blonde image,â she says. âI donât. I can do other roles, but if all people ever want from me is Loretta, Iâll continue to do her. You have to be smart to play dumb.â
To watch clips from the Tortellis go to https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+tortellis+tv+show
For more on The Tortellis go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tortellis
For a Page dedicated to the Tortellis go to http://nostalgiacentral.com/television/tv-by-decade/tv-shows-1980s/tortellis/
For a look at how the Tortellis were spun-off from Cheers go to http://poobala.com/cheersandtortellis.html
For some Tortellis-related interview videos at the Archive of American Television go to https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/tortellis
