Belly up to the bar and relax as we return to the subject of the delightful tie between the sitcom “Cheers” and Redlands.
To refresh your memory, the sitcom, which aired from 1982-1993, was created by Glen and Les Charles, brothers who had 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. “Cheers,” I probably don’t have to tell you, was set at a fictional bar in Boston.
Gay 90s opened in 1958 at 1405 W. Colton Ave., a window-free box of a place that served pizza, grinders and salads as well as draft and bottled beer.
By the time “Cheers” ended, Gay 90s had moved downtown to Orange Street and its original, Les Charles-frequented location had been demolished. Gay 90s later moved to Mentone before closing.
As a 1993 Associated Press story on the Gay 90s connection to “Cheers” put it: “Les Charles has acknowledged his memories of the place — including his specific recollection of a Norm-type barfly — found their way into scripts.”
That’s a reference to Norm Peterson, the Cheers regular played by George Wendt, who died in May.
Who was the “Norm-type barfly” from Gay 90s? That question, posed here in August, was tentatively answered here a week later.
Reader Michael Tacchia of San Bernardino told me the fictional Norm was inspired by a real-life Norm: a man named Norman Baffrey. However, newspaper stories that might have confirmed the theory were unavailable.
That’s no longer the case.
Two intrepid researchers, Sue Payne of the San Bernardino Public Library and Ruth McCormick of the Riverside Main Library, did a deep dive — into the archives, not a dive bar — because, like me, they are thirsty for the truth. It’s unknown whether, to fuel their research, they munched on pretzels.
In a joint interview in The Sun in 1984, the Charles brothers explained that they’d chosen a tavern as a setting because of the range of personalities who might work there or be regulars. On the East Coast, Glen said, “bars are very neighborhood, social-type establishments.”
With a setting established, the brothers began creating characters based on, Glen said, “people, and composites of people, we had known.”
As Sun staffer Tom Jacobs wrote: “For instance, Norm, the overweight accountant, was based on a character Les came to know while he was tending bar in the Gay 90s Pizza Parlor in Redlands.”
Les said: “There was a guy who was there all night, every night, and every beer he had was his last beer. So we put that in. But once we cast George Wendt, the character changed. The character’s a lot more George than that guy.”
So, the character was initially based on a Gay 90s patron in Redlands. But who?
Unlike at Cheers, where everybody knows your name, no one from Gay 90s seems to have ever been absolutely, positively named as the ur-Norm.
But a lot of people thought it was Norm Baffrey.
Baffrey, who died in 1994 at age 62, was a regular at Gay 90s.
“I’ve been told it’s me, so I guess it’s my claim to fame,” Baffrey told Sun writer Gregg Patton in 1993. “I used to be quite heavy, and I vaguely remember (Les Charles) working behind the bar. Obviously, he remembered me.”
Guy DeRoos, who bought Gay 90s in 1975 after years as a customer, in the same article said he remembered seeing Baffrey in the correct era.
“Norm could very well be Baffrey,” DeRoos said. “He was kind of heavyset and he had a place at the end of the bar where he’d always hold forth. He always wore a coat and tie, just like Norm.”
DeRoos added that his wife, Claudia, told him he might be Norm. Patton’s article, printed on May 20, 1993, the day of the “Cheers” finale, was headlined “Who’s the inspiration for Norm?”
No definitive answer was provided. Patton didn’t uncover a smoking mug.
As his article pointed out, “anyone slightly overweight who enjoyed his beer and spent much time at the Gay 90s in the early 1970s has probably been accused” of being TV’s Norm.
But Baffrey is the likeliest suspect.
In a 1987 Sun story about Gay 90s, Baffrey said fondly: “You never knew who you were going to run into.”
Who was Norm Baffrey?
A Rhode Island native and Korean War veteran, he came to Redlands in 1954 to study music at the university and worked in advertising for Security Pacific Bank.
The city of San Bernardino hired him in 1972 for the Parks and Recreation Department as cultural affairs director, a position he held until his Sept. 9, 1994 death of a stroke at age 62.
Baffrey sang in such Civic Light Opera productions as “Man of La Mancha” and “Cabaret,” taught gourmet cooking classes, reviewed restaurants for The Sun, painted and played piano, according to his obituary.
“Norm was a man of many talents,” said John Kramer of Ontario, who worked with him in Parks and Rec from 1980 to 1994.
The existence of a statue of Martin Luther King Jr. outside San Bernardino City Hall owes a lot to Baffrey, who organized a concert in 1981 that raised the first $10,000 to buy it.
Jane Sneddon of Loma Linda got to know Baffrey when she worked in the San Bernardino city clerk’s office. “Norm Baffrey and Norm on ‘Cheers’ had the same side profile,” she said.
Rita M. Weiss of San Bernardino directed the magazine-style cable show “Inland Empire Alive” in the late 1980s. Baffrey discussed his Sun restaurant reviews in five-minute segments.
“I remember Norm as a larger-than-life character who came into the studio greeting everyone, always in a good mood, a natural in front of the camera,” Weiss said.
Baffrey was said to have been a Gay 90s patron from its start. The amateur chef was credited with having created a signature menu item, the cashew pizza, despite having been a customer, not an employee.
“He had an endless storehouse of jokes for the entertainment of all of his friends,” said Michael Tacchia. “He reminisced frequently about the great old times at Gay 90s.”
David Allen writes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday with a limited storehouse of jokes. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, and follow davidallencolumnist on Facebook or Instagram, @davidallen909 on X or @davidallen909.bsky.social on Bluesky.