"Cheers" is one of the greatest sitcoms in the history of television, and some of its finest moments featured the gang's long-standing competitive battle with rival bar, Gary's Olde Town Tavern.

Roughly once a season there would be one of these "Bar Wars" episodes, which would inevitably devolve into over-the-top practical joking, like when Gary's crew filled Rebecca's office with sheep or they elaborately staged his death.

But two decades later, what does that have to do with anything? Well, we just happened to notice a recent news story about a bowling alley burning down in New Jersey that is arguably the melding of every "Bar Wars" plot "Cheers" writers ever devised. Read on to see what we mean.

Police in Vineland, N.J., have filed charges against three men in connection with a fire that burned down the bowling alley.

The alleged mastermind, Steven Henry Smink, the owner of Pike Lanes Bowling Alley, apparently had a long-standing, if one-sided, rivalry with nearby Loyle Lanes. Police are keeping quiet on the details but have revealed that Smink's finances have been a point of interest. Customers who frequented both establishments said Smink often spoke of challenging the other alley's owners or putting them out of commission altogether, thanks to losing some league play to Loyle Lanes.

Call us weird, but this sounds suspiciously familiar. The very first "Bar Wars" episode on "Cheers" features a challenge between the two rivals, where Gary and Sam decide to settle their differences via a not-so-friendly bowling competition.

In later years, the hijinks escalated, and the crew at Cheers gets tricked and double-crossed repeatedly by the Smink-like Gary. At one point, they have their door blown off by someone they suspect is a mob boss; at another, Gary's ends up being demolished completely, the result of one final prank the guys at Cheers weren't even sure they were pulling. And that doesn't take into account the episode in which Cheers actually did mostly burn down -- and the first guess was that Gary was behind it.

OK, so this is a stretch in our attempt to give a shout-out to the excellent "Bar Wars" episodes on "Cheers." But it's not a stretch to say that, for some people, when it comes to bowling, clearly anything goes.