After actor George Wendt died in May , his “Cheers” role as affable beer drinker Norm Peterson was in the news. And belatedly, a connection between the TV sitcom and the Inland Empire surfaced. Isn’t there always one?

“Cheers” creators Glen and Les Charles both attended the University of Redlands. Les, who graduated in 1971 as a literature major, was a regular at a Redlands pizza parlor and watering hole, Gay 90s. He briefly tended bar there.

Gay 90s has been acknowledged by the brothers as an inspiration for the bar, named Cheers, on the NBC sitcom, which ran from 1982 to 1993.

Not the sole inspiration or even the major inspiration, which was Boston’s The Bull & Finch Pub. But an inspiration, part of the grist for the mill.

And there’s more.

A 1993 Associated Press story on the con

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