Carla’s troubles probably began on the day of her christening, when she was bestowed with her birth name: Carla Maria Victoria Angelina Teresa Appollonia Lozupone. That’s a lot of name for such a diminutive woman -- never mind the two additional names she’ll add to it with each subsequent husband. But if anyone can manage, it’s this vitriolic hothead, a working mother with eight kids, and Cheers’ wisecracking waitress.

No one escapes the lash of her barbed tongue (save for Sam and Coach), and she takes absolute delight in tormenting Diane, for whom she has an assortment of unpleasant nicknames. Carla has no time for high-minded Diane, and she has no qualms about taking her (or anyone else) down a peg when she they too high and mighty. She doesn’t suffer fools either, and she often turns her wrath onto bar know-it-all Cliff Clavin. However, sharp tongue aside, Carla is really a good waitress. She’s been at it since she was 15 and it doesn’t look like she’s going to give it up anytime soon.

Twice married -- first to stammering nitwit (and father of five of her kids) Nick Tortelli, then to hockey player Eddie LeBec (father of her twins Elvis and Jesse) -- Carla’s only real weakness (other than being extremely superstitious) is men. She met and married Nick when she was 15, and remained faithful to him throughout their 10 years together (the same cannot be said for philanderer Nick). Hockey player Eddie LeBec is a loveable lug and the only person more superstitious than Carla. When a runaway Zamboni kills him, Carla is not only convinced she’s cursed, but also that Eddie is communicating with her from the other side. Between Nick and Eddie, she has a whirlwind romance with (of all people) Dr. Bennett Ludlow (Frasier’s mentor), with whom she has child number six, also named Ludlow. After Eddie’s death Carla has a steamy affair with John Hill, owner of Melville’s restaurant, and Cheers’ upstairs competitor.

In her youth, Carla was a bit of a hell-raiser (she did a little time at St. Clete's Correctional Institute for Wayward Girls -- a lot of good that did since she ended up pregnant and married to Nick), and now she’s got her own wild and willful brood. Carla spends a lot of energy bickering with and managing them, particularly her oldest son, Anthony. She loves him to death, but is fearful he’s following in her footsteps by marrying his teenaged girlfriend, Annie. Undoubtedly, Carla takes comfort in her job at Cheers, not because it provides her with her livelihood, but because it gets her away from her feral pack of kids.