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Father Raymond J. de Souza: The ‘Norm Effect’: Why George Wendt’s ‘Cheers’ Character Still Resonates in a Lonely World – Brown Pelican Society of Lousiana

Father Raymond J. de Souza: The ‘Norm Effect’: Why George Wendt’s ‘Cheers’ Character Still Resonates in a Lonely World

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By Father Raymond J. de Souza, National Catholic Register, June 6, 2025

Father Raymond J. de Souza is the founding editor of Convivium magazine.

COMMENTARY: There are millions of people out there like the lovable character portrayed on TV by George Wendt, looking for places where at least some people know your name.

While in university, I would drink every Thursday night with Norm Peterson. Millions of people did, the Cheers character whose name everybody did know.

When George Wendt, the actor who played Norm, died recently, people of a certain generation remembered a comfortable, if not inspiring, presence. Norm had a job he didn’t like (accounting) and a wife he avoided (Vera), but he did have friends in a neighborhood pub (Cheers) in Boston where everybody did know his name.

“Norm!” the entire bar would hail Peterson as he ambled in and headed directly for his stool at the end of the bar, where he would drink until closing time. Norm had precious little to offer, really, except one thing that was in demand in the early 1980s, and is even more desperately needed now: that he knew the people at Cheers and was known by them. …

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