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Guy "Eddie" LeBec is a recurring character on NBC's Cheers and is Carla Tortelli's love interest and later husband. He debuted in the sixteenth episode of the fifth season and was portrayed by the late Jay Thomas.




Character[]

In two-part episode Never Love a Goalie, Carla meets the Boston Bruins ice hockey player, Eddie LeBec, a French Canadian who is in the middle of a winning streak that he believes is the result from following a strict repeating routine. After a little flirting at Cheers the two begin to date, which unfortunately shortly thereafter brings Eddie's streak to an end. Since both are superstitious, they end their relationship in order to avoid ruining Eddie's ability to play. They reconcile shortly thereafter and then add breaking up to Eddie's routine before every game.

In Home Is the Sailor, Carla is revealed to be several months pregnant with Eddie's twins (incorporated by another of Perlman's pregnancies). In two-part episode Little Carla, Happy at Last, after series of confrontations to various superstitions, Carla and Eddie finally wed.

In Airport V, Carla almost quits her waitressing job because Eddie said that he would take care of her financially. However, the Bruins released him from his contract due to his age and declining athletic performance, and he could not find another team. Therefore, Eddie ends up as a skating penguin for a travelling ice show in another state.

In Death Takes a Holiday on Ice, Eddie was killed by a Zamboni 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".

Appearances[]

S5E16-Never Love a Goalie, Part 1

S5E17-Never Love a Goalie, Part 2

S6E1-Home Is the Sailor

S6E3-Little Carla, Happy at Last, Part 1

S6E4-Little Carla, Happy at Last, Part 2

S6E19-Airport V

S6E22-Slumber Party Massacred

S7E5-Those Lips, Those Ice

S7E20-Call Me Irresponsible

Behind the Curtain[]

The demise of Jay Thomas's character Eddie LeBec has been claimed (On Ken Levine's blog) to be Thomas's comments on his morning radio show Power 106. When asked what it's like working on Cheers he said "It’s brutal. I have to kiss Rhea Perlman." However, Thomas denied this and declared that he was referring to Carla's character, not the actress. 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."

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