Hillary Norman "Norm" Peterson was a character on the American television show Cheers, portrayed by George Wendt.

Norm enters the show as an accountant, though later becomes unemployed and eventually a housepainter. Ironically, even when unemployed, Norm is the bar's biggest customer. Numerous jokes are made about the enormity of Norm's tab at Cheers (e.g., several large binders are shown as being just a portion of it). His entrance into the bar is a running gag on Cheers, typically beginning with a welcome by the bar crowd followed by a joke from Norm. A typical entrance went:

Norm enters

Norm: Afternoon, everybody!

Customers: Norm!

Coach: How's life treating you Norm?

Norm: Like it caught me in bed with its wife.

This is referenced in The Simpsons episode "Flaming Moe's" where Barney Gumble walks into the newly successful and popular Moe's Tavern to be greeted with the friendly cry of "Barney!"

Since Norm is always welcomed when he enters, some believe he is the person the lyric "everybody knows your name" from the Cheers theme song refers to.

Norm has a wife named Vera who is often mentioned but almost never seen. When she is finally shown, her face is covered in a thrown pie. The only other time she is seen, viewers can see only her legs. Vera was played by George Wendt's actual wife, Bernadette Birkette.

Norm's best friend is postman and fellow barfly Cliff Clavin.

The Deep Space Nine character of Deep Space Nine characters#Morn was inspired by and anagrammatically named after the Norm Peterson character. Morn was also a patron of Quark's, the bar/casino that served as one of the main sets on that show, though he was not nearly as prominent a character on DS9 as Norm was in Cheers, as he was never heard speaking by the home audience, despite being described as loquacious by the show's other characters.

References

• List of Norm quotes

Cheers characters