Carla Tortelli
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Carla Maria Victoria Angelina Teresa Apollonia Lozupone Tortelli LeBec, commonly known as Carla Tortelli, is a fictional character in the American television show ''
Cheers ''Cheers'' is an American television sitcom, created by Glen and Les Charles, Glen Charles & Les Charles and James Burrows, that aired on NBC for eleven seasons from September 30, 1982, to May 20, 1993. The show was produced by Charles/Burrows/C ...
'', portrayed by
Rhea Perlman Rhea Jo Perlman (born March 31, 1948) is an American actress and author. She is well-known for playing head waitress Carla Tortelli in the sitcom ''Cheers'' (1982–1993). Over the course of eleven seasons, Perlman was nominated for ten Emmy Awar ...
. Outwardly, at least, Carla is a sarcastic woman who often mocks and makes jabs at others. She had five children with her then-husband Nick when the series started and eight children with three different men when it ended. Carla appeared in all 275 episodes of ''Cheers'' in 1982–1993 and guest-starred in "Cheerful Goodbyes", an episode of the spin-off ''
Frasier ''Frasier'' () is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for 11 seasons from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey (screenwriter), Peter Casey, and David Lee (scr ...
''. She has also appeared in "Cheers", an episode of ''
St. Elsewhere ''St. Elsewhere'' is an American medical drama television series created by Joshua Brand and John Falsey that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982, to May 25, 1988. The series stars Ed Flanders, Norman Lloyd, and William Daniels as ...
''; "
Fear of Flying Fear of flying is the fear of being on an aircraft, such as an airplane or helicopter, while it is in flight. It is also referred to as flying anxiety, flying phobia, flight phobia, aviophobia, aerophobia, or pteromerhanophobia (although aero ...
", an episode of ''
The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...
'', and the pilot episode of the short-lived spinoff '' The Tortellis''. Along with
Sam Malone Samuel "Mayday" Malone is a fictional character and the protagonist of the American television show ''Cheers'', portrayed by Ted Danson and created by Glen and Les Charles. Sam is a former relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox baseball team wh ...
and
Norm Peterson Hilary Norman Peterson is a regular fictional character on the American television show ''Cheers''. The character was portrayed by actor George Wendt and is named Hilary after his paternal grandfather. Norm appeared in all 275 episodes of ' ...
, she is one of only three characters to appear in every episode of ''Cheers''.


Casting

According to an interview with
Ted Danson Edward Bridge Danson III (born December 29, 1947) is an American actor. He achieved stardom playing the lead character Sam Malone on the NBC sitcom ''Cheers'' (1982–1993), for which he received two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe A ...
, Perlman was the first person of all actors to be hired as part of a cast ensemble and then was cast as Carla Tortelli, "a wisecracking, cynical waitress". Before she starred as Carla, she worked once as a waitress in a New York City restaurant, serving meals like spaghetti and fish. Also, she was trained in the Bull & Finch Pub (now called
Cheers Beacon Hill Cheers Beacon Hill is a bar/restaurant located on Beacon Street in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, across from the Boston Public Garden. Founded in 1969 as the Bull & Finch Pub, the bar is best remembered internationally ...
) by a waitress to prepare her character. Perlman previously appeared as Louie DePalma's (
Danny DeVito Daniel Michael DeVito Jr. (born November 17, 1944) is an American actor and filmmaker. He gained prominence for his portrayal of the taxi dispatcher Louie De Palma in the television series ''Taxi (TV series), Taxi'' (1978–1983), which won him ...
) sweet and kind girlfriend, in contrast to tomboy Carla, on ''
Taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a Driving, driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of thei ...
''.


Development

When the show premiered in 1982, "feisty", "worldly-wise", Catholic and highly superstitious waitress Carla Tortelli has four children to support, fathered by her ex-husband Nick Tortelli (
Dan Hedaya Daniel G. Dan Hedaya (born July 24, 1940) is an American actor best known for his supporting roles in films such as '' The Hunger'' (1983), '' Blood Simple'' (1984), ''Commando'' (1985), '' The Addams Family'' (1991), ''Benny & Joon'' (1993), '' ...
): Anthony (Timothy Williams), Serafina ( Leah Remini), Gino (Josh Lozoff), and Anne Marie (Risa Littman). During their marriage, he was a deadbeat father and disloyal, unfaithful husband to Carla by cheating on her with other women. Over time, she gives birth to four more children: Lucinda (Sabrina Wiener) fathered by Nick;"Father Knows Last", season 1 Ludlow, nicknamed Lud (Jarrett Lennon), by Frasier's mentor Dr. Bennett Ludlow (
James Karen James Karen (born Jacob Karnofsky; November 28, 1923 – October 23, 2018) was an American character actor of Broadway, film and television. Karen is known for his roles in ''Poltergeist'', '' The China Syndrome'', ''Wall Street'', ''The Retur ...
);"Whodunit?", season 3 and twins Elvis (Danny Kramer) and Jesse (Thomas Tulak) by Eddie Lebec ( Jay Thomas), a then-
ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
player who later becomes an ice show performer. All children but one (Lud) turn out to be unruly, rotten, and spoiled. They defy whoever is substituting for their mother Carla, including babysitters. Carla has siblings, including two sisters (younger Annette (also played by Perlman)"Little Sister Don't Cha", season 2 and Angeline) and two brothers (including Sal)."Honor Thy Mother", season 10 Six of her siblings are older."The Tortelli Tort," Season 1 In "The Cranemakers" (1989), according to Whitney Norris (James R. Winker), representative of the estate of Carla's late grandfather, Antonio Lozuponi, Antonio deserted his wife in 1921, moved to
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with just his "lucky quarter", and made fortune selling peach and oil products. Feeling bad about leaving his family behind, he gave his surviving legitimate family a will of $20 million, suppressed by his illegitimate son, Paolo, who "squandered the entire fortune on fast horses and loose women." The will was not discovered until Paolo's death in the previous month. Norris delivers just Antonio's "lucky quarter" to Carla, devastating her."The Cranemakers", season 7 She also has a nephew Frankie, to whom Lilith and Rebecca are attracted while he works as a temporary bartender for one time."Get Your Kicks On Route 666", season 10 As a waitress, she is more experienced than her nemesis
Diane Chambers Diane Chambers is a fictional character in the American television situation comedy show ''Cheers'', portrayed by Shelley Long and created by Glen and Les Charles. She is one of two main protagonists in the first five seasons of the series. A ...
(
Shelley Long Shelley Long (born August 23, 1949) is an American actress, singer, and comedian. For her role as Diane Chambers on the sitcom ''Cheers'', Long received five Emmy nominations, winning in 1983 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. S ...
), who has a nice personality and upper-class traits, contrary to Carla, who treats regular customers with disdain and mostly negative sarcasm, including
Cliff Clavin Clifford C. Clavin, Jr. (born 1947 or 1949) is a fictional character on the American television show ''Cheers'' played by John Ratzenberger. A postal worker, he is the bar's resident know-it-all. Cliff was not originally scripted in the series' ...
, a know-it-all bar patron. A devoted and often-disappointed
Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...
fan,"The Tortelli Tort", season 1 she became friends with
Sam Malone Samuel "Mayday" Malone is a fictional character and the protagonist of the American television show ''Cheers'', portrayed by Ted Danson and created by Glen and Les Charles. Sam is a former relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox baseball team wh ...
(
Ted Danson Edward Bridge Danson III (born December 29, 1947) is an American actor. He achieved stardom playing the lead character Sam Malone on the NBC sitcom ''Cheers'' (1982–1993), for which he received two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe A ...
) and Coach Ernie Pantusso (
Nicholas Colasanto Nicholas Colasanto (January 19, 1924 – February 12, 1985) was an American actor and television director. He is best known for his role as Ernie Pantusso in the American television sitcom ''Cheers'' (1982 – 1985). Early life Colasanto was b ...
) during Sam's baseball days at least five years before the show started"Truce or Consequences", season 1 and came to work for him at Cheers when Sam retired from baseball and bought the bar. Carla notably idolizes
Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...
, opting to take annual trips to
Graceland Graceland is a mansion on a estate in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, once owned by American singer Elvis Presley. Presley is buried there, as are his parents Vernon and Gladys, paternal grandmother Minnie Mae, grandson Benjamin, and daugh ...
, naming one of her later kids after him, and even eventually trying to make contact with him in "Don't Shoot... I'm Only the Psychiatrist" (1992). In two-part episode "Never Love a Goalie" (1987), Carla briefly dates the
Boston Bruins The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The t ...
ice hockey player, Guy "Eddie" LeBec, who has an endless winning streak and a
French Canadian French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French people, French colonists first arriving in Canada (New France), France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of ...
background. As a result, Eddie's winning streak ends abruptly. Since both are superstitious, they promise to break up repeatedly before every game to avoid the "curse". In " Home Is the Sailor", Carla is revealed to be several months pregnant with Eddie's twins (incorporated by another of Perlman's pregnancies), so she and Eddie wed in "Little Carla, Happy at Last: Part 2". Also, in the episode, the Bruins replaces him with a younger player, and he could not find another team. In "Airport V" (1988), Eddie becomes a penguin mascot for a traveling ice show in another state. In "Tale of Two Cuties", Carla gives birth to their twin boys, named Elvis and Jesse. In "Death Takes a Holiday on Ice" (1989), Eddie was killed by an
ice resurfacer An ice resurfacer is a vehicle or hand-pushed device for cleaning and smoothing the surface of a sheet of ice, usually in an ice rink. The first ice resurfacer was developed by American inventor and engineer Frank Zamboni in 1949 in Paramount, C ...
when he saved the life of another member of the ice show. At the funeral, it was revealed that he had concurrently another wife Gloria with twins, as well. Carla changes her surname back to Tortelli to avoid being confused with the other "Mrs. LeBec". The demise of Jay Thomas's character Eddie LeBec has been claimed to stem from Thomas's comments "about" Perlman in a radio show. However, Thomas denied this and declared that he was referring only to the Carla character. Despite Ken Levine's praise on Thomas's acting and pairing of Eddie and Carla, Eddie was written out of the show because Perlman thought that the pairing would make her "not part of the people in the bar." In "Head Over Hill" (1991), Carla tries to pull a vengeance on John Allen Hill (
Keene Curtis Keene Holbrook Curtis (February 15, 1923 – October 13, 2002) was an American character actor. Early life Curtis was born in Salt Lake City, Utah to Polley Francella (née Holbrook), a teacher, and Ira Charles Curtis, a railway and civil-servi ...
), Sam's upper-class rival, owner of the restaurant Melville's, and co-owner of Cheers, on Sam's behalf. However, she ironically ends up sleeping with him. Since then, she has on-and-off sexual encounters with John. In "Feelings... Whoa, Whoa, Whoa" (1992), she comes into terms of her feelings for John, but she and John find each other incompatible except in bed. In her only episode of ''
Frasier ''Frasier'' () is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for 11 seasons from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey (screenwriter), Peter Casey, and David Lee (scr ...
'', "Cheerful Goodbyes" (2002), according to her, two of Carla's sons are imprisoned and her house is on the verge of foreclosing. She is relieved that Cliff will be retiring into Florida. However, in his retirement party, influenced by his friends' farewell comments - including a vicious tirade by Carla which he mistakes as a sarcastic tribute - Cliff decides to stay in Boston, much to her dismay. She attempts to attack him with a harpoon but is restrained by others.


Reception

Carla Tortelli was voted a favorite character by eight percent of 1,011 people, who were surveyed in 1993 by the Times Mirror Center for the People and the Press (now
Pew Research Center The Pew Research Center (also simply known as Pew) is a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the world. It ...
).Mills, Kim I.
TV viewers glad Sam stayed single
" '' The Sunday Gazette'' chenectady, NY2 May 1993: A3. ''Google News''. Web. 21 January 2012. The margin of error in the survey was ±3, according to the polls. In this web edition, scroll down to see the title of the headline.
She was ranked No. 66 out of
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's ''The 100 Greatest TV Characters'' of all-time. Steve Craig of the
University of North Texas The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public university, public research university located in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Its main campus is in Denton, Texas, Denton, with a satellite campus in Frisco, Texas, Frisco. It serves as the ...
noted that she "lacks the charm, warmth, and demureness of the feminine ideal" and is a ridicule of anti-feminism for her "un-ladylike" promiscuity.
Bill Simmons William John Simmons III (born September 25, 1969) is an American podcaster, Sports journalism, sportswriter, and cultural critic who is the founder and CEO of the sports and pop culture website ''The Ringer (website), The Ringer''. Simmons fir ...
, previously of
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, praised her in episodes that do not mainly focus on her. Heather Hundley noted that the series sends a "
double standard A double standard is the application of different sets of principles for situations that are, in principle, the same. It is often used to describe treatment whereby one group is given more latitude than another. A double standard arises when two ...
s" message about men and women involved in promiscuity. She noted that the series portrays Sam Malone as heroic, who never suffers from negative consequences of his promiscuity, while it portrays Carla as "nymphomaniac", who regrets her own promiscuities for out-of-wedlock pregnancies and wrong lovers. She finds the series's portrayal of premarital sex "negative and unhealthy", especially for omitting other dangers of promiscuity, like
sexually transmitted disease A sexually transmitted infection (STI), also referred to as a sexually transmitted disease (STD) and the older term venereal disease (VD), is an infection that is spread by sexual activity, especially vaginal intercourse, anal sex, or ...
s and
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.
Rhea Perlman Rhea Jo Perlman (born March 31, 1948) is an American actress and author. She is well-known for playing head waitress Carla Tortelli in the sitcom ''Cheers'' (1982–1993). Over the course of eleven seasons, Perlman was nominated for ten Emmy Awar ...
won
Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...
as an Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in
1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...
,
1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...
,
1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal en ...
, and
1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...
for her portrayal of Carla. She was honored as the Best Supporting Actress (Comedy) by
Viewers for Quality Television Viewers for Quality Television (also called "VQT") was an American nonprofit organization (under 501(c)(3)) founded in 1984 to advocate network television series that members of the organization voted to be of the "highest quality." The group's g ...
in 1985 and the "Funniest Supporting Actress" by the
American Comedy Awards The American Comedy Awards were a group of awards presented annually in the United States recognizing performances and performers in the field of comedy, with an emphasis on television comedy and comedy films. They were first presented in May 19 ...
in 1989.


References

* * From primary sources: From non-primary sources: {{DEFAULTSORT:Tortelli, Carla Television characters introduced in 1982 Fictional bartenders Cheers characters Fictional waiting staff American female characters in sitcoms Fictional Italian people