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00:01The golden age of television.
00:04I Love Lucy didn't just change American television,
00:06it invented American television.
00:08Back when one screen brought everyone together.
00:11Watching television was a family event.
00:14The shows that shaped us.
00:16The Brady Bunch was part of the American soul.
00:19It's timeless.
00:21The familiar faces.
00:23Ralph Cramden was loved by the Honeymooners.
00:27He was a presence.
00:28The unforgettable moments.
00:30Dynasty captured the essence of what the 1980s were about in America.
00:34These are their stories.
00:35Cheers is the pinnacle of how great the sitcom can be.
00:38This is TV We Love.
00:45It's 1982.
00:47Ronald Reagan is the president.
00:49The US was in a deep recession, high unemployment.
00:52America's still in the Cold War,
00:55and there's the war on drugs going on.
00:57For relief, Jim Goer sweated out to Jane Fonda's workout,
01:01and dance along to Michael Jackson's thriller.
01:05And in that setting, a show premiered about an average Boston bar.
01:14Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name.
01:19Cheers is one of the best sitcoms ever made.
01:25You disgust me.
01:26I hate you.
01:27Are you as turned on as I am?
01:28More.
01:29Definitely.
01:31Cheers was just funny as hell.
01:32I am running with scissors.
01:34Because you're Kelly Kelly.
01:36I am too stupid to live.
01:38But when Cheers premiered, it certainly was not the hit that we come to know it as.
01:46Glenn and Les Charles were the creators of the show along with Jimmy Burrows.
01:50A few years before Cheers was developed, Glenn and Les Charles and Jim Burrows were working on another show on ABC Taxi.
01:57And in 1982, NBC is in really, really bad third place.
02:03Many people were predicting, in fact, that NBC was going to go out of business.
02:07So this was a great opportunity for Glenn and Les Charles and Jim Burrows to form their own company and create a show.
02:12The quality of their work was so well-known that they were able to secure a series order from NBC.
02:18A 13-episode order blind before the show was even really created and put together.
02:23And so they set out to create a setting that could be the core for the show.
02:27We were really big fans at that time of Fawlty Towers and we've kind of been thinking of the idea of a hotel.
02:32But realize that even in a hotel, where do some of the most interesting scenes take place? The bar.
02:37It occurred to us that very few shows had ever focused on bars.
02:42It was a great place for people to meet there and they celebrate there and console themselves when they had a tragedy.
02:48And just a great focal point for human drama in common.
02:51When they were deciding where to set their fictional bar, the producers were thinking,
02:55well, sports bars are very popular, so let's pick a city that has a real affinity for its sports teams.
03:01And they fell in love with Boston as an idea.
03:04Les Charles was in Boston doing research, looking at different bars.
03:08And at the Ritz, the concierge said, there's a really great bar in Boston called Bull and Finch.
03:15It's amazing.
03:16And they went there and just knew immediately this is the feel and kind of bar that they wanted.
03:21And what they came up with was Cheers.
03:25The idea of Cheers is that it's owned by Sam Malone, an alcoholic and a former athlete.
03:34He's the epitome of charisma, the ultimate playboy.
03:38My mother told me to watch out for guys in bars.
03:40Well, then let's get out of this bar so you don't have to worry.
03:43And Diane is this hyper-educated, highly pretentious, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, talking constantly.
03:50Back in college, I held a party where everyone came as their favorite Elizabethan poet.
03:55I remember I chose Christopher Marlowe because I was deeply into Dr. Faustus at the time.
03:59And the crux of the story is the attraction between Sam and Diane, who come from two different worlds,
04:04and the way it affects the rest of the patrons and workers within the bar.
04:08I've never met an intelligent woman that I'd want to date.
04:11On behalf of the intelligent women around the world, may I just say, whew.
04:18And so when they were casting Cheers, they were looking particularly for pairs of Sam and Diane.
04:24Initially, the character of Sam Malone was written to be a football player,
04:29so the studio wanted Fred Dreyer because he was a former football player.
04:34But the Charles Brothers and Burroughs really loved Ted Danson on Taxi.
04:38This young woman came to me this morning with a hairdo that her high school must have found boring,
04:43and I gave her this.
04:45Ted Danson was an absolute gift from the gods
04:50because it is so hard in Hollywood to find a leading man who is handsome and can do light comedy.
04:58But the interesting thing is that Ted Danson is so unlike that character.
05:05I never went to bars. I never picked up somebody.
05:09You know, if the woman was standing opposite me, buck naked, I'd go, oh, me?
05:15For me? But he was able to pull it off.
05:18And they had to rework that character
05:20because he doesn't really have the build of a football player.
05:23So they made him a relief pitcher for the Red Sox, which Ted Danson fits that build perfectly.
05:30The producers were considering Julia Duffy as his possible Diane.
05:34But we kept hearing from independent sources,
05:36you got to see this new lady in town, Shelly Long. She's perfect for your show.
05:40And when Shelly was paired with Ted, I think that they could really see the spark.
05:44Don't you ever hit me again!
05:46Like hell.
05:47They just enjoyed playing with each other.
05:51They really took off and we, the three of us huddled and said, there's no choice here.
05:56And now they had to find the other main cast members.
05:59Cheers assembled one of the all-time greatest ensemble casts in television history.
06:06They got Nicholas Colasanto, who played Coach, a beloved character, a wonderful character, the bartender.
06:12Coach is this beacon of just earnest naivete that I think the bar really needed.
06:18And some of that innocence is explained by him having been hit in the head by some fastballs.
06:23Well, sometimes I took one right in the old melon.
06:25That's why he is that way.
06:27But you need to be really smart to play a dumb character.
06:31And that was Nick Colasano.
06:34And we wanted a volatile waitress.
06:38That's a contrast to Diane.
06:39Does not suffer fools gladly.
06:41And has had a very rough life.
06:43And a chip on her shoulder as well.
06:46And Rhea is not very much like Carla.
06:53She's a little bit like Carla, but not very much.
06:56She's a very nice lady and a lovely actress.
07:00Rhea once said to us, Carla's not mean, she's just honest.
07:05Thank God I don't have an alcoholic personality.
07:07You don't have a personality.
07:09The character Cliff is so interesting because it didn't originally exist for the show in the original script.
07:15John Ratzenberger, he came in originally to audition for the role of Norm.
07:21And he left the audition, came back into the room, and said,
07:27Have you thought about having a know-it-all?
07:31You know, a real Boston know-it-all.
07:33And he was just the man for that.
07:36If a pig had thumbs and a language, he could be trained to do simple manual labor.
07:40You mean they'd be part of the workforce?
07:41Yeah, yeah, they'd give you 20, 30 years of loyal service.
07:44Then at the retirement dinner, you could eat them.
07:46But the bar feels a little incomplete without Norm there.
07:49Les Charles once worked as a bartender,
07:51and the character of Norm is based on one of the regulars that he knew as a bartender.
07:55And he was always there at Closing Town.
07:58Having just one more beer, and it was the same.
08:00Very much like Norm, we would get every time the phone rings,
08:02if that's my wife, I'd just laugh.
08:04And then George Wendt was cast in that role.
08:07And what made Norm's character so special is
08:10he didn't look like a television star.
08:12He didn't sound like a television star.
08:14He looked like your neighbor.
08:16And he looked like a guy, ultimately, you want to have a beer with.
08:19And he has the fantastic entrances where everyone calls his name.
08:24Afternoon, everybody.
08:25Norm!
08:27Afternoon, everybody.
08:28Norm!
08:29Afternoon, everybody.
08:30Norm!
08:31That was it, Woody.
08:33Last chance, I'm out of here.
08:35That first season of Cheers, the staff was very, very small.
08:39It was Glenn and Les Charles, Jimmy Burrows, and me and my partner David Isaacs.
08:45And that was it.
08:46And we learned so much from the Charles Brothers.
08:50The Charles Brothers are the best writing team I have ever seen.
08:56And Jimmy knows how to deal with actors.
08:59I had the great pleasure and privilege of working with Jimmy Burrows.
09:03So I understand firsthand what it's like to work with a director like that who knows how to take what a performer is doing and giving them just the right note to take that comedy or that beat to the next level.
09:21And he's a whiz with the cameras and the technical aspect of it.
09:26And he was able to really create a terrific-looking show.
09:31And the Cheers theme song, where everybody knows your name, is one of the most classic openings to any TV show in history.
09:40It was written by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo.
09:43The producers asked Portnoy and Hart Angelo to write the Cheers theme song.
09:48And they submitted three songs and the third one they liked.
09:50So they revised some of the lyrics and they settled on that, you know, catchy phrase of where everybody knows your name.
09:55The first seven note intro is instantly recognizable.
09:59Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got.
10:04The story kicks off with Diane Chambers walking in to the bar with her professor boyfriend.
10:09They're just stopping for a drink on their way to start their new life.
10:13Thunder, this is crazy.
10:15Diane, we're about to be married.
10:17I'm married! Congratulations!
10:19But he abandons and dumps her there.
10:21So, she takes refuge in the bar and Sam gives her a job.
10:24I do need a job. And I'll find one. And you can bet that it won't be waiting tables.
10:30What are you qualified to do?
10:32Nothing!
10:33Shelley Long is a fabulous actress and there's really great chemistry between her and Ted Danson.
10:38Everyone knows that hate is not the opposite of love. Indifferences.
10:42Well, whatever you say. I really don't care.
10:44But they do also break from that for some really great moments.
10:49Cheers? Yeah, just a sec. Is there a Rudy Pantuso here?
10:54That's you, coach.
10:55Speaking!
10:56I saw the pilot of Cheers and I thought it was very funny.
11:01But when Cheers premiered in September of 1982, it certainly was not the hit that we come to know it as.
11:07It was literally the least watched thing on all of television, according to the Nielsen ratings.
11:12It was a flop.
11:13When Cheers first went on the air, it failed spectacularly. In the ratings, there were some weeks where it was literally the least watched thing on all of television.
11:30We were saying, what are we doing here? No one's watching this.
11:35As someone who had to make a lot of decisions about programs that didn't do very well in their initial runs,
11:42I don't know if a show like Cheers would succeed today if it had the ratings out of the gate in its first season that it did.
11:51But even though we were not getting great ratings, I just felt this was something special.
11:57It was a show that we were incredibly proud of.
12:01There was incredibly strong, smart writing.
12:05But also phenomenal characters that you grow to love.
12:08Ultimately, mine is Sam Malone, the driving force of the show.
12:11You know, I haven't seen Christie since Woodstock.
12:15You were at Woodstock?
12:16A friend of mine told me to go down there and said it was a great place to pick up chicks.
12:20I should have known you weren't there for the music.
12:22There was music at Woodstock?
12:24And Shelley Long is underrated for her physical comedy.
12:28There's one episode where she was on a motorcycle and she comes in with this wind-swept hair and she just owns that moment when she enters the bar.
12:34And Norm and Cliff are so funny.
12:37I mean, it doesn't exactly take a Phi Beta Kappa to stick a brush in a bucket and slap it on the wall, does it?
12:42I mean, any monkey can do that, huh?
12:44Oh, yeah. As opposed to the high level of skill and precision it takes to shove a postcard through a slot.
12:48I love the episode, The Boys in the Bar.
12:51Cliff hasn't had a date in quite some time.
12:55Where there are a couple of gay guys in the bar who make it known that they're there but they don't say who they are and it sparks paranoia among people like Norm and Cliff.
13:02Oh, yeah, Norm. Well, how come we've never seen this Vera you're allegedly married to, eh?
13:07Really smartly written.
13:09Yeah, the guys I was talking about are still here. Right, guys?
13:14Right!
13:15And Cheers would have people come in that weren't main characters of the show. They were just people who came into the bar.
13:21Paul Krapens was one of the bar flies at the stool and his one-liners became a fan favorite on the show.
13:28You did good, kid, but I still think I got a more reliable system.
13:31Yeah, I could really use one. What's yours?
13:33I just bet opposite whatever you pick.
13:36Norm and Cliff were friends of mine. So I was sort of part of their little subset and I did more than 50 episodes, ultimately.
13:46So even though our ratings were terrible the first year, at the time, the president of NBC was Grant Tinker, who was just a wonderful executive.
13:59And he felt, you know, unless we have something better, then let's stick with this.
14:05His feeling was give them quality and they'll find it.
14:10Most good shows, in my opinion, take more time to find an audience than not so good shows.
14:17And also Cheers was definitely championed by TV critics and it won awards.
14:22Shelly Long for Cheers.
14:27And the winner is, what's here?
14:32I think that alerted a lot of people to, wow, this is a show that won the Emmy and I've never seen it.
14:38And so people having heard word of mouth that the show was good, started tuning into Cheers and falling in love with it.
14:44The moment I'm proudest of from season one is the last one, the very last moment.
14:52And that was when Sam and Diane finally kiss.
14:57You disgust me. I hate you.
15:00Are you as turned on as I am?
15:01More.
15:02At me.
15:04That was just such a great moment.
15:06Seeing Sam and Diane in mortal combat that ends in full on mutual lust.
15:16And the audience went nuts.
15:21That moment is, I think, one of the great moments in the history of television.
15:28It was the first show that had an actual will they or won't they.
15:32The way Ted Danson and Shelly Long, the way their characters were written,
15:36and the way they slowly came together after the squabbling and it was perfect.
15:43It certainly influenced many programs that came after it.
15:48Sam and Diane as a will they, won't they couple has become like a generic element of the sitcom.
15:54Most TV shows before weren't terribly serialized.
15:56Every episode was self-contained because you never know if people have been able to watch the previous show
16:01and there's no means of ready access for them to go rewatch an episode that they missed.
16:05But in the 1980s, that was like an act of trust in the American audience that they'd be able to follow this along.
16:11Cheers really was a master class of how to keep your characters changing and evolving
16:17in ways that were new and did keep the audience wanting to see more.
16:20And our ratings were vastly improved when the Cosby show premiered.
16:26The Cosby show was a phenomenon and it brought lots of eyeballs to NBC on Thursday night.
16:32So the Cosby show led into Family Ties, which led into Cheers, which led into Night Court, which led into Hill Street Blues.
16:40And so Cheers was critical to the success of must-see TV in the 80s on NBC.
16:47Hello, Sam.
16:48And then Kelsey Grammer brought another whole level to that show.
16:52I'm Dr. Fraser Crane. I'm sorry I startled you.
16:55Kelsey Grammer initially was only supposed to be in three episodes.
17:00I always thought of him as like a male Diane, very pompous and overly erudite.
17:06And it was interesting that early on the audiences did not like him because he was coming between Sam and Diane.
17:11But we saw that we had lightning in a bottle with this guy and just kept writing more and more.
17:20There was not a line you could throw at him that he wouldn't elevate.
17:25I am running with scissors.
17:28And eventually was brought on as a full cast member.
17:31Well, Sam, Diane and I really must be going.
17:33But it looks like we'll be seeing each other again.
17:35But during that period of time, Nick got sick.
17:40He had certain heart issues.
17:43And if you look at his last episodes, Nick does not look well at all.
17:51You could see his health kind of declining.
17:53He was getting skinnier.
17:54The cast was told he has heart disease.
17:57And it's, we don't know how long he'll have, but it's not looking good.
18:01And he died at the end of that season.
18:06It really felt like the first time you lose a family member.
18:16So, um, yeah, it was, it was very sad.
18:21It hit the cast really hard.
18:23He was very beloved.
18:24They were very close.
18:26He was just a dear, dear man and meant a lot to us and especially to me.
18:31He was one of my closest friends on the set.
18:34Oh, Coach.
18:36I'm gonna miss you.
18:38How do you replace somebody like Coach?
18:41There are people who think that that was the end of Cheers.
18:52After Nicholas Calasanto passes away,
18:54the producers knew they would need a new regular that could work in the bar.
18:58There wasn't any discussion of replacing the actor and just keeping Coach as is
19:02and just putting someone else in or replacing him with a similar aged individual.
19:07When we lost Nick, uh, we, we knew we wanted youth on the show.
19:11We wanted to go younger.
19:12Um, the network thought that was, that was a good idea.
19:15And they had created the idea of this character that they were gonna name Woody.
19:19He wasn't named after the actor.
19:20That was the name that they already had in place.
19:22Excuse me.
19:23My name's Woody Boyd.
19:24I mean, how many Woodys have you met in your day?
19:29Woody Harrelson came in and there's just something special about him.
19:35He brought all of that genuine, honest-to-goodness Indiana energy.
19:42And we needed that energy, that innocence.
19:45He was amazing.
19:46I'm a friend of Coach's. Is he around?
19:48The producers chose not to do a specific episode about Coach's passing.
19:53Uh, when Woody Boyd is introduced,
19:56he comes to the bar to meet Coach and Sam just says,
19:59I'm sorry, Woody. I guess you hadn't heard.
20:01No, uh, Coach passed away a couple months ago.
20:05Coach gone? I can't hardly believe it.
20:10There's a moment of somberness,
20:11but if they just treat Coach's passing happened in that interim
20:13for the people in the bar and for the viewers.
20:15I don't remember him mentioning Woody.
20:17Well, we never met.
20:19We were kind of like pen pals.
20:21You exchanged letters?
20:22No, pens.
20:23And he just revitalized the whole show,
20:26not to mention which he's just fall-down funny.
20:29You got a spot right there.
20:30Yeah, yeah, right.
20:31You're not gonna make me look like a dope.
20:33Woody really scratched a lot of the same itch that Coach did, though,
20:37in terms of the naivete to the point of stupidity.
20:40But every once in a while, I had something really sharp to say.
20:43You know, when I left home,
20:44my father gave me some very sound advice.
20:47Never trust a man who can't look you in the eye.
20:50Never talk when you can listen.
20:52And never spend venture capital on a limited partnership
20:55without a detailed analytical fiduciary perspective.
20:58It just adds to the comedy,
21:00because we're not used to that coming from Woody.
21:02And Lilith is a brilliant character.
21:05We wrote an episode for Kelsey.
21:07And to start off that episode,
21:09we were gonna see him on a bad date.
21:12And that bad date was just gonna be
21:14a one-and-done appearance by Bebe Neuwirth.
21:17I thought that we might have a drink or two,
21:19thereby lowering our inhibitions a bit
21:21and enabling us to go back to your place
21:23and have a physical encounter of some sort.
21:25Well, we won't.
21:26And there was that magic, there was that chemistry,
21:29there was something we had never seen on the show before.
21:32And so we thought, let's bring her back.
21:35She just owns the screen when she is on there as Lilith.
21:39Her line readings are so funny.
21:41The way that she can imbue such kind of sardonic disdain
21:46into simple words.
21:48If you ever open that gateway to hell,
21:50you call a mouth in my direction again,
21:52I'll snap off your extremities like dead branches
21:55and feed them to you at gunpoint.
21:57There's a whole lineup of Iconic Cheers episodes.
21:59I do love Thanksgiving Orphans.
22:00That is a good one.
22:01It's Thanksgiving, Carla.
22:03That was a favorite.
22:04We still get a lot of love for that.
22:06Every November that rolls around.
22:09It's a really funny episode.
22:13Thank you, Carla.
22:14Hello, everyone.
22:15And the food fight is obviously iconic.
22:19Kiss your butt, goodbye!
22:21And it does have the only appearance of Vera, sort of.
22:28Norm's wife Vera is one of the most famous never seen characters on television
22:33where there'll be references to what this character is doing.
22:36Norm's on the phone with Vera very often, but they never cast a Vera.
22:40And then you hear Norm welcoming Vera from off screen,
22:43and Shelley Long throws a pie at Ted Danson and he dodges it.
22:49And then an actress walks in with pie all over her face.
22:51Everybody, this is Vera.
22:53So we do kind of have Vera on screen for one brief moment there.
22:58But we never seen her face in the series.
23:01Eventually, Cheers became one of the biggest shows on television.
23:04And the show that everybody was talking about.
23:07But Shelley Long decided to leave the show.
23:11I was surprised because it was doing so well.
23:16She was doing so well.
23:17The show was obviously a hit.
23:19She was very, very popular.
23:21She had done five years as Diane Chambers, over 100 episodes.
23:25And Shelley Long had a movie career.
23:28And it was about to take off big time.
23:31And also, she did feel like the Sam and Diane relationship,
23:35we've done everything we can do.
23:37They fought, and then they got together.
23:38And then they were together, and then they broke up.
23:40I mean, there's only so many ways you can do that.
23:44But there was a lot of concern that the show would go in the tank without Shelley.
23:50I mean, it's half of the core of the show is going to be walking off.
23:54So yeah, of course it would be so scary to say what's next.
23:58None of us knew what was going to happen.
24:01The producers were hoping that Shelley Long,
24:03right until the last minute, might have a change of heart.
24:06So when they shot the fifth season finale of Cheers,
24:10and they also shot a different ending to the scene
24:12where Sam and Diane get married in case Shelley changed her mind.
24:16You saying to me that you want to marry me?
24:18I do. Are you saying you want to marry me?
24:20I do. And I'll pronounce you man and what?
24:23It was a way to keep spoilers from being revealed.
24:26Had the word gotten out that it's definite that Sam and Diane break up,
24:29it might have leaked out before the episode aired.
24:34So after the Institute audience left,
24:36they continued filming a scene in which Sam and Diane essentially just break up,
24:42and Diane goes to fulfill her dream of writing a book.
24:45And that was what aired.
24:48Have a good line.
24:50Ted Danson's delivery of that line is so fantastic.
24:52It's like I'm getting choked up just thinking about it.
24:56Like, he knows that she's gone.
24:59And I felt that too.
25:01I felt that too.
25:03Yeah.
25:05I've actually never said this even out loud,
25:10certainly not on camera, but I'm really sad they didn't get together in the end.
25:15Everyone at Cheers was very worried when Shelly left.
25:20She was so integral to the show for so many years that to lose Shelly,
25:29we didn't know whether the show could survive that.
25:33It was controversial when Shelly Long chose to leave Cheers.
25:43It was truly, I think, one of the hardest decisions of my life.
25:47There were a couple of TV critics who said,
25:48that's it, that's the end of Cheers.
25:50And Shelly walked out the door.
25:51Because everyone believed that Cheers was Sam and Diane.
25:55It was the Sam and Diane show, Sam and Diane.
25:57How do you do a show with just Sam and no Diane?
25:59They didn't try to recast Diane, and I think that was a good idea.
26:03We wanted her to be a very different character.
26:06We didn't want her to be just Diane Chambers 2.0.
26:10How do you do?
26:11Um, ooh.
26:12And Kirstie Alley was just a breath of fresh air.
26:17Get over here. She's supposed to be with me.
26:20Kirstie Alley, everybody.
26:23Kirstie's birthday on the set.
26:25Well, I thought it would be awkward for everybody,
26:27so I dressed like Shelly.
26:29She was wearing a blonde wig like Shelly.
26:32And we just knew, like, okay, okay, she's gonna be fun.
26:39But it took us a while to really find how to write that character.
26:45She's introduced as this very serious, confident woman
26:48that was really gonna put Sam in his place.
26:50You know, Mr. Malone, we've known each other only seconds,
26:53and I'm already tired of you.
26:55We just couldn't figure out what the magic was
26:59and what the funny was.
27:01And then one day, Kirstie Alley showed us
27:04that she could swallow a cigarette
27:06and then push it back out of her mouth, fully lit.
27:12Hey, uh, where's the pool table?
27:14Wrong room.
27:18And we went, oh, we can use that.
27:21And more important than that,
27:23she showed us that she could cry.
27:26Maybe you could send me a postcard from the Caribbean
27:28and address it to me at...
27:31Oh, I don't know.
27:33The YWCA Skid Row is...
27:39And not since, I think, Lucille Ball...
27:41Man, what a great cry.
27:42...has there been a more wonderful
27:45and varied set of cries.
27:49I am too stupid to live!
27:52When the writers saw how well she could fake cry
27:54and how she could be really good at playing a mess,
27:57they realized that's who she is.
27:59We all just said, that's it.
28:01Have this beautiful, seemingly together woman
28:06be a complete and utter mess.
28:10And she was really, really funny.
28:13So, Cheers was not slowed down by the loss
28:15of its leading lady.
28:16And in fact, people amazingly gave Rebecca Howe a chance.
28:20Talk about a stroke of luck.
28:22But there is a group of people who feel,
28:26ah, after Diane, the show is terrible.
28:30And then there's other people who came upon Cheers
28:34in the fifth, sixth, seventh season with Rebecca.
28:37It just jump-started the series, in a way.
28:41It became less of a romantic comedy,
28:44and we leaned more into the bar
28:48and all of the characters
28:51and their relationship.
28:53Like, Norm gets more of a soul episode.
28:56Enough foreplay. Let's be sheet meat.
28:59Can I tell you that I was married?
29:01Congratulations. Let's celebrate with a roll in the head.
29:04And then Frasier and Lilith take off
29:06as, like, a main romantic couple.
29:08Which is just comedic gold.
29:10You know, I'm beginning to wonder
29:11if you're fit to carry my seed.
29:13I'm beginning to wish you kept it.
29:15My favorite episode that I wrote
29:18was Frasier's bachelor party.
29:21And something really cool in that episode,
29:24Frasier comes into the bar,
29:27and he has a speech.
29:29I was listening to a rock and roll station
29:31on my way over here,
29:32and there was a passage in one of those tribal songs
29:35that I feel, ah, well, is the keynote for this evening.
29:40Everybody have fun tonight.
29:42Everybody Wang Chung tonight.
29:46And it got a really big laugh.
29:50And my partner David and I
29:53loved writing Carla episodes.
29:56Tell me the truth.
29:58Well, my curse on you is gonna be
30:01your tongue is gonna swell up so big
30:05you're gonna have to buy a seat on the plane for it.
30:08How gullible does he think I am?
30:12Ken and David wrote the most episodes,
30:14and they have really owned
30:16the whole Gary's bar rivalry.
30:19There are sheep in my office.
30:24Ah, cheers.
30:26Where good times go to die.
30:28We wrote all of the bar wars episodes.
30:31What are you trying to say?
30:32Don't rip off the day!
30:34Those are where Cheers goes to war
30:39with Gary's Old Town Tavern.
30:42And hilarity, of course, ensues
30:44as things get more and more ridiculous
30:46in the battle between the two.
30:48We just shut down Gary's Old Town Tavern
30:49on one of the busiest bar nights of the year.
30:52At a certain point,
30:54we were reaching 34 million people every Thursday.
30:59Stunning.
31:01The year we were number one
31:03was the year that Roseanne goofed up
31:06the Star Spangled Banner in San Diego.
31:08For the land of the sea!
31:14And it cost her just enough points
31:16in the ratings so that we were able
31:18to be number one.
31:19But once we got it, we didn't let go.
31:21But there were all kinds of problems going on
31:25behind the scenes with Kelsey Grammer.
31:28Kelsey is a very sweet man,
31:30but he was troubled.
31:31He was using drugs and stuff.
31:33And that occasionally impacted his work.
31:37And it did come to a head a couple of times
31:39where producers were really concerned
31:41that he may either lose his life
31:43or be incapable of continuing to work on the show.
31:51Kelsey Grammer was fantastic as Frasier,
31:57but his substance abuse issues
32:00and some of his other personal demons
32:02became ongoing issues on Shears.
32:04But he also had a very tough life.
32:07His father was murdered.
32:09His sister was murdered.
32:10His stepbrothers died in an accident.
32:12And it seems like in trying to cope
32:15with some of this tragedy,
32:16he had some unhealthy coping mechanisms
32:18as he tried to navigate that.
32:20It's remarkable that I survived some of that.
32:22I might be asleep on one of the benches
32:24in the chair set,
32:25and then when it was my turn,
32:26I'd just stand up and go do it.
32:28The cast was very supportive
32:30and loved him and took that to heart.
32:33And they respected his comedy acting ability.
32:36I mean, I don't know if anybody was funnier
32:38on the show than Kelsey.
32:40It just shows what a family they all were together
32:43on and off the show.
32:44He's such an endearing person
32:46and so incredibly talented
32:48that they were willing to deal with that.
32:50And from then on,
32:51he really got it together.
32:53He came to work,
32:55to thick or thin,
32:57and it was always great.
32:58And the last three years of the show,
33:01it was quite an experience.
33:02The characters are all given their time to shine.
33:04Let me buy you a beer there.
33:07The character work that was done
33:10on that show is unparalleled.
33:14That's what made the show.
33:15You wanted to see what was going to happen to each of them.
33:17You have activated the internal laser beam motion detector.
33:20What's that mean?
33:22Come over for a little action.
33:26I'm stuck in the middle of Star Wars.
33:28Lilith is pregnant is one of the standout episodes.
33:32I am mother.
33:33My man's seed is nourished within me.
33:38Touch my breasts, my friend.
33:39I am lactating.
33:40It's so different than what we've seen before from Lilith.
33:43And you get Woody Boyd entering into a relationship with Kelly.
33:46Will you go out with me again?
33:47Well, sure.
33:48Probably my favorite Woody scene was singing Kelly, Kelly, Kelly.
33:53Kelly, Kelly, Kelly.
33:54Kelly, K-E-L-L-5.
33:56Why?
33:57Because you're Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly.
34:01Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly of mine.
34:08Mine, mine, mine.
34:09And my character became more integral to the show because they figured out what to do with him.
34:15Ever since my wife left me, I've been sort of desperate for female companionship, you know?
34:20So there were storylines created around me.
34:23The episode in which there's a party at Cheers.
34:27Carla made one of her specialty drinks last night.
34:30Things got out of hand.
34:31And everybody got so drunk they forgot what happened.
34:34Carla knew that she'd had sex with somebody,
34:37but she couldn't remember who it was.
34:39Oh, Sammy, Sammy, please.
34:41Please tell me it was you.
34:43And then I come into the bar.
34:50Hey, sexy.
34:52That was very funny.
34:54Come on, Lisa, man.
34:59It was a glimpse into my character that perhaps could have been enlarged the next season,
35:03but we didn't go to the next season because Ted wanted to move on.
35:08Ted felt that that was enough.
35:12And it's hard to say that he was wrong.
35:17We did, like, 250 episodes of Cheers.
35:22So Ted Danson was having this kind of come-to-Jesus moment.
35:25How much longer do you want to play this character?
35:27How many more stories do you think the show has in it before it becomes repetitive?
35:31And he was going through some personal turmoil at the time.
35:34He had infamously had an affair with Whoopi Goldberg.
35:36It ended his marriage.
35:38And I think that just a combination of doing the same old thing at work
35:41and having the rug pulled out from your personal life
35:44was the impetus, finally, to end the show.
35:47And I know they really, really, really tried to keep him.
35:53They apparently offered him plenty of money if he was willing to come back,
35:57but he kind of said, I've done 11 years,
35:59and this is probably the right moment for me to step off here.
36:02They knew they couldn't continue the show without Sam alone.
36:05It wouldn't never be the same.
36:07America's favorite bartender confesses the decision to stop starring in Cheers was agonizing.
36:12Danson says he's, quote, not leaving Cheers as a career move.
36:16That'd be a stupid career move."
36:18End quote.
36:19I think everybody, all the writers, Jimmy and Glenn and Les,
36:22were concerned because they knew how important it was to get that finale right.
36:29The fans were just sort of skeptical and waiting to see what we would do.
36:37And luckily they had a chance to really go out in style
36:41with the big return of Shelley Long as Diane.
36:45The producers knew they wanted Shelley Long for the series finale,
36:48and it makes all the sense in the world for her to be back in the finale.
36:52I was so happy to see Diane come back in the series finale of Cheers.
37:03It's funny. It's a little strange. It's different than it was before, but it feels very familiar.
37:09There had been a lot of loose ends when she departed.
37:12It was left on such a tenuous note with her saying to Sam,
37:17I'll be back in six months, and him saying, have a nice life.
37:20So it was a must-see event for everyone.
37:24And the ratings for the finale were massive.
37:27Over 80 million people tuned in to watch the ending of Cheers.
37:31And it's such a nice plot line.
37:34Can it be? Is it really her?
37:36Diane Chambers has won an award and is in the news
37:38and is back on the radar of the Cheers gang.
37:42Terpsichore, Deliah, and Urania are too soft to be heard.
37:47Forgive me, gals, if I forgot someone.
37:50God, is it her?
37:52It was great to see Shelley Long come back in the bar, looking wonderful.
37:55Hello, everyone.
37:58The night that the show aired, all of us were in Boston, and we were at that Cheers bar.
38:06Hey, there's Woody, the absent-minded bartender, walking the crowd.
38:10And outside, they had set up a large jumbotron, and there were like 20,000 people.
38:18You would hear a joke, and 20,000 people laughing.
38:22Can you do me one little favor, please?
38:25This isn't what you used to mean by favor, is it?
38:28And ultimately, Sam and Diane get back together.
38:31Sam is going to leave with her to go to California,
38:34and sell the bar, and be done with the bar, and leave all his friends.
38:39And while on the plane with Diane, both realize this isn't right, this isn't gonna work.
38:44And has to apologize to all his friends.
38:47I'm sorry about blowing up like that.
38:49I hope you understand where that was coming from.
38:52Yeah, it's all right, Sam. We understand.
38:54I mean, here you are, washed up ball player, alcohol problem, sex problem.
39:00Lost your one true love.
39:02Twice.
39:03No apology necessary.
39:04And it's just a beautiful moment when he turns the lights out,
39:08and pulls the blinds down, and tells that last set of feet coming down the stairs into the bar.
39:14Sorry, we're clothed.
39:16It's poetic.
39:17It was like, wow, 11 years, and it's over.
39:26It's a lot of hugging, and crying, and...
39:30We realized it's our last exchange together on Cheers, and we were sad.
39:36You know, it was heavy, and I cried.
39:38And I cried that day.
39:39Haven't even yet got to what happens after the show is over.
39:44Live from the Bull and Finch, the Cheers bar in Boston,
39:48The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
39:51All the cast of Cheers were at the Bull and Finch bar in Boston,
39:55watching the final screening.
39:56And then the cast had to go do The Tonight Show live.
39:59Unfortunately, the cast showed up early for that taping,
40:03and just started drinking.
40:05And when you watch the footage of That Tonight Show, they are hammered.
40:09Cresti, you know, you are my best friend, but we all need to say this to you.
40:14Yes.
40:15You're stupid!
40:17Jay Leno is trying to wrangle this cast into something
40:20that could possibly make the air.
40:22What's magic?
40:23Talk about it.
40:24All right, damn this.
40:25Talk about it.
40:26Can I get you all another drink?
40:28It was like, oh, my God, this is such a train wreck.
40:32You can feel the tension from Jay Leno as he's trying to corral these people
40:36who are celebrating this decade-plus-long accomplishment
40:40of being on one of the most popular shows in television history.
40:43Chelsea, you got a show coming up, right?
40:45Yeah, I have a show coming.
40:47At the end of Cheers, they decided to do Frasier as a spinoff,
40:52which was really a popular show and ran for 11 seasons.
40:54You expect me to give up my study, the place where I read,
40:57where I do my most profound thinking?
40:58I use the can like the rest of the world.
41:01And there's a very long tale of influence that Cheers has had
41:04on so many shows that have come after.
41:07Any show that came after that took place a lot in a bar,
41:10Cheers gets credit for it.
41:11How We Met Your Mother is a perfect example.
41:13Swarmy!
41:14And Cheers still gets referenced in media that's being produced today.
41:18Cheers, Sam and Diane, a guy and a girl on a TV show,
41:23dig each other, but never say it,
41:25because if I knew the ratings would go down.
41:27We now return to Cheers.
41:29Norm!
41:30And Peter! Yay!
41:32How's life in the fast lane, Mr. Peterson?
41:34Ruffin!
41:35I can't find the on-ramp, Woody.
41:36He was talking to me, Norm!
41:38Quit stealing my punchlines, you fat drunk!
41:40So, Cheers is a show that continues to be discovered
41:43even by younger generations.
41:45It's the pinnacle of how great the sitcom can be
41:49and one of the greatest shows of all time.
42:15Have a funny, boys.
42:17Cause youplibalYE.com
42:25Handsome, Joey.
42:26Tyler Brugber flat.
42:27Barbara!
42:28Are you lipematous?
42:33You've got hair on the small lines.
42:35I'm fried.
42:37Remember.
42:38Love yous?
42:39It's the pinnacle of how great the sitcom happened here,
42:41and Paul is blown by.
42:42Do you know what to buy?
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