Cheers’ Sam Malone Wasn’t The Only Sitcom Character Name Borrowed For Netflix’s The Killer

“The Killer” is the second proper collaboration between writer Andrew Kevin Walker and David Fincher, following their exploration of the limits of apathy with 1995’s “Seven.” Speaking to Netflix’s official companion site, TUDUM, Walker explained that using sitcom names as aliases for the Killer started as an easter egg but that Fincher pushed for it to become a bigger part of the movie. As the screenwriter put it, “It’s the genius of Fincher that he was like, ‘OK, here’s your kind of silly little hidden joke. Let’s bring it forward.'”

Bringing it forward allowed Fincher to emphasize the subversive element of his movie, undermining the killer’s bonafides by likening him to everyman types. Perhaps the most obvious reference is to Sam Malone, Ted Danson’s bartender from “Cheers.” In Beacon, NY, while tracking a fellow assassin played by Tilda Swinton, the killer hires a car with a Massachusetts license bearing the name of Danson’s beloved Bostonian barkeep. In the original sitcom, which ran from 1982 to 1993, the former Boston Red Sox relief pitcher is revered by the patrons of the bar, and remains a beloved character in sitcom history — not exactly the aura Fassbender’s professional murderer gives off.

There are plenty more references to lovable sitcom characters throughout. The next most recognizable name is Archie Bunker, or, as the killer’s plane ticket from Miami to Santo Domingo reads, “Archibald Bünker.” This is obviously a reference to the blue collar patriarch of the Bunker family, played by Carroll O’Connor in “All in the Family” and “Archie Bunker’s Place.” As TUDUM notes, “there’s no evidence that the character’s name originally bore an umlaut,” but this seems like a sly gag inserted by either Walker or Fincher, giving the working class Bunker an incongruous international flair.