Ted Lasso Season 3 Couldn't End Without One Last Cheers Easter Egg

This post contains spoilers for "Ted Lasso" season 3.

"Ted Lasso" season 3 has just come to an end, leaving the fictional team of AFC Richmond at a crossroads after their head coach leaves his fish-and-chips-out-of-water life in London behind. Overall, the supposedly last season of the Apple TV+ phenomenon left a lot to be desired, failing to live up to the high points of the first two seasons where the jokes that hit far outweighed the ones that fell flat. While a lot of the episodes in season 3 felt overly long and unnecessarily melodramatic, the overall spirit of the show managed to stay intact thanks to Jason Sudeikis' naively positive "aw shucks" attitude as Ted.

Ted isn't only a sports fan, he's a pop culture aficionado raised on Thursday night primetime sitcoms from the '80s. Throughout its entire run, "Ted Lasso" has peppered in a number of clever references to the golden years of U.S. television that, sadly, no one staying on the other side of the pond seems to understand except Ted. Some of the nods to other TV shows and movies are almost impossible to spot, including a subtle nod to Nora Ephron's "You've Got Mail" during Rebecca and Sam's anonymous online courtship on the UK-based app bantr. In the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan re-imagining of "The Shop Around the Corner," Hanks' chat name is "NY152" and Ryan's is "Shopgirl." In "Ted Lasso," Sam's handle is LDN52" and Rebecca's is "Bossgirl."

The names Sam and Rebecca are also a clear shoutout to Ted Danson and Kirstie Alley's character names on "Cheers." Some of the pop culture references are deeply embedded within the show on phone screens or on office whiteboards. But one last "Cheers" reference in the season 3 finale, "So Long, Farewell," is almost impossible to miss.

The love for creator James Burrows' barfly sitcom started early on in "Ted Lasso" when someone said "Cheers" to Ted and he awkwardly responded, "Night Court," referencing the legendary NBC Thursday night lineup of the mid-80s. There's a natural sports and drinking connection between both shows as well. Sam Malone is a retired relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox and one of his first bartenders, the dim-witted but lovable character Coach (Nicholas Colasanto), was his former coach when they were both in the big leagues. Coach was killed off at the end of season 3 and later replaced by Woody Harrelson. All the regulars inside Cheers talk about life on and off the field in much the same way that Ted, Coach Beard, and the Richmond faithful do inside Mae's (Annette Badland) pub, Crown & Anchor in "Ted Lasso."

The pub scenes are a clear parallel between both shows, and the final scenes of "Cheers" and "Ted Lasso" mirror each other almost exactly. After eleven seasons, the final shot of "Cheers" features Sam straightening a framed picture of Geronimo before turning the lights off for the night. It shows how much affection Sam has for the bar but it's also a little tip of the hat to Coach and Colasanto, who passed away a few years after "Cheers" started its run, eventually becoming one of the most successful sitcoms of all time.

At the end of "So Long, Farewell," Mae walks up to a picture holding the same exact same photo of Geronimo and straightens it. It's a perfect nod to "Cheers" and a fitting ending for "Ted Lasso" that sees Mae tending to her pub and thinking about Ted in the same, perfect little moment.

Criticizing that final scene as a blatant ripoff of one of the all-time classic sitcom endings would be easy if it weren't for the numerous other connections "Ted Lasso" has to "Cheers." Norm, the beer-drinking painter planted on the corner barstool, was played by Jason Sudeikis' real-life uncle George Wendt. Going all the way back to season 2, episode 5, a signed photo of Wendt is seen hanging next to Richmond royalty Roy Kent inside the kabob restaurant Ted frequents.

In a show that pays so much reverence to one of the all-time great sitcoms from James Burrows, any potential spin-offs of "Ted Lasso" would be another reference to "Cheers" as well. Personally, I'd welcome a spin-off focusing on Mae and the football diehards at the Crown & Anchor pub. That's unlikely, unfortunately. Supposedly, "Cheers" was loosely inspired by "Fawlty Towers," which starred John Cleese as an inept hotel manager. "Cheers" just took place inside a bar instead of an Inn. That's to say, a UK-based series revolving around Mae and her pub could be a truly full circle moment.

If a new show centered around Jaime Tartt or a female-centric show with Keely and Rebecca ever happens, let's just all hope that they're more in the vein of "Frasier" than the short-lived series "The Tortellis" — the first "Cheers" spin-off starring Dan Hedaya, which only lasted for a single season on NBC back in 1987.