Cheers is an American
situation comedy television series that ran for eleven seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by
Charles-Burrows-Charles Productions in association with
Paramount Television for
NBC, having been created by the team of
James Burrows,
Glen Charles, and
Les Charles. The show is set in the Cheers
bar (named for the
toast "Cheers") in
Boston, Massachusetts, where a group of locals meet to drink and have fun. The show's theme song was written by Judy Hart Angelo and
Gary Portnoy and performed by Portnoy;
[Gary Portnoy (2006). Portnoy's personal site] its famous refrain, "
Where Everybody Knows Your Name" also became the show's
tagline.
After premiering on September 30, 1982, it was nearly cancelled during its first season when it ranked dead last in ratings (77th out of a possible 77 shows
[Toasting Cheers By Dennis A. Bjorklund [1]]).
[Blogcritics.org (January 22nd, 2004) (2006). Blog on the History of Cheers] However,
Cheers eventually became a
highly rated television show in the United States, earning a top-ten rating during eight of its eleven seasons, including one season at #1, and spending the bulk of its run on NBC's "
Must See Thursday" lineup. Its
widely watched series finale was broadcast on May 20, 1993. The show's 273
episodes have been successfully
syndicated worldwide, and have earned 28
Emmy Awards from of a total of 117 nominations.
[IMDb (2006). Awards for Cheers] The character
Frasier Crane (
Kelsey Grammer) was featured in his own successful
spin-off,
Frasier.
Cast
Cheers maintained an
ensemble cast, keeping roughly the same set of characters for the entire run. Numerous secondary characters and love interests for these characters appeared intermittently to complement storylines that generally revolved around this core group.
The table below summarizes the main cast of
Cheers.
[
cast photo.jpg|thumb|right|150px|The main cast of Cheers after season 7
(from left to right): (top) [[John Ratzenberger],
Roger Rees,
Woody Harrelson (middle)
Rhea Perlman,
Ted Danson,
Kirstie Alley,
George Wendt (bottom)
Kelsey Grammer,
Bebe Neuwirth]].
The character of
Sam Malone was originally intended to be a retired
football player and was originally supposed to be played by
Fred Dryer, but after casting
Ted Danson it was decided that a former baseball player would be more believable, given Danson's slimmer physique.
[TV1 (2006). TV1 - Cheers] The character of
Cliff Clavin was created for
John Ratzenberger after he auditioned for the role of "Norm". While chatting with producers afterwards, he asked if they were going to include a "bar
know-it-all", the part which he eventually played.
[Newport Under the Stars (2005)(2006). John Ratzenberger's Newport Under the Stars] Kirstie Alley joined the cast when
Shelley Long left, and
Woody Harrelson joined when
Nicholas Colasanto died. Danson,
George Wendt, and
Rhea Perlman were the only actors to appear in every episode of the series.
[IMDb (2006). IMDb Trivia for Cheers]
Guest stars
Although
Cheers operated largely around that main ensemble cast,
guest stars did occasionally supplement them. Notable repeat guests included
Jay Thomas as
Eddie LeBec,
Dan Hedaya as
Nick Tortelli,
Jean Kasem as
Loretta Tortelli,
Roger Rees as
Robin Colcord,
Tom Skerritt as
Evan Drake, and
Harry Anderson as Harry 'The Hat' Gittes. Other celebrities guest-starred in single episodes as themselves throughout the series. Some sports figures appeared on the show with a connection to Boston or Sam's former team, the Red Sox, such as
Luis Tiant,
Wade Boggs, and
Kevin McHale (star player of the
Boston Celtics). Some television stars also made guest appearances as themselves such as
Alex Trebek,
Arsenio Hall,
Dick Cavett, and
Johnny Carson. Some political figures even made appearances on
Cheers such as then-
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral William J. Crowe, former
Colorado Senator Gary Hart, then-
Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill, Senator
John Kerry, then-
Governor Michael Dukakis, and then-
Mayor of Boston
Raymond Flynn (the last four of whom all represented Cheers' home state and city). Musician
Harry Connick, Jr. appeared in an episode as Woody's cousin
[IMDb (2006) (April 10th, 2006). Full Episode Casts] and plays a song from his Grammy winning album
We Are in Love (c. 1991).
John Cleese won an Emmy for his guest appearance as "Dr. Simon Finch-Royce" in the fifth season episode, "Simon Says".
guest starred as Nanny Gee/Nanette Guzman, a famous singing nanny and Frasier's ex-wife.
Christopher Lloyd guest starred as a tortured artist who wanted to paint Diane.
John Mahoney once appeared as an inept jingle writer, which included a brief conversation with Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer), whose father he would later play on the spin-off
Frasier.
The Righteous Brothers,
Bobby Hatfield and
Bill Medley, also guest starred in different episodes.
Recurring characters
Paul Willson, who played the recurring
barfly character of "Paul", made early appearances in the first season as "Glen", was credited as "Gregg", and also appeared in the show as a character named "Tom".
[IMDb (2006). Trivia for Paul Willson] Thomas Babson played "Tom", a law student often mocked by "Cliff Clavin", for continually failing to pass the Boston Bar exam. "Al", played by
Al Rosen, appeared in 38 episodes, and was known for his surly quips. Rhea Perlman's father Philip Perlman played the role of "Phil".
Production
The concept for
Cheers was the end result of a long consideration process. The original idea was a group of workers who interacted like a family, hoping to be similar to
The Mary Tyler Moore Show. They considered making an American version of the
British Fawlty Towers centered around a hotel or an inn. When the creators settled on a bar as their setting the show began to resemble the
radio show Duffy's Tavern. They liked the idea of a tavern as it provided a continuous stream of new people arriving, giving them a constant supply of characters.
[
Street Boston 2005.jpg|thumb|right|Picture of [[Bull & Finch Pub] in Boston in 2005. This view is similar to the opening credits of the show.]]
After choosing a plot, the three had to choose a location. Early discussions centered around
Barstow, California, then
Kansas City, Missouri. They eventually turned to the
East Coast and Boston. The
Bull & Finch Pub in Boston that Cheers was styled after was originally chosen from a
phone book. When Glen Charles asked the owner to shoot initial
exterior and interior shots the owner agreed, charging
$1. He has since gone on to make millions, licensing the pub's image and selling a variety of
Cheers memorabilia, making the Bull & Finch the 42nd busiest outlet in the American food and beverage industry in 1997. Coincidentally, during the casting of Shelley Long (who was in Boston at the time filming
A Small Circle of Friends), Long remarked that the bar in the script resembled a bar she had come upon in Boston, which turned out to be the Bull & Finch.
Most
Cheers episodes were shot before a live studio audience on Paramount Stage 25, generally on Tuesday nights. Scripts for a new episode were issued the Wednesday before for a
read-through, Friday was
rehearsal day, and final scripts were issued on Monday. Nearly 100 crewmembers were involved in the shooting of any given episode. Burrows, who directed most episodes, insisted on shooting on
film rather than
videotape. He was also noted for using motion in his directorial style, trying to always keep characters moving rather than standing still.
Crew
The crew of
Cheers numbered in the hundreds; as such, this section only provides a brief summary of the many crewmembers for the show. The three creators —
James Burrows,
Glen Charles, and
Les Charles — stayed on throughout the series as executive producers along with
Tom Palmer.
[IMDb (2006). Full Cast and Crew] In fact, the two Charles brothers kept offices on Paramount's lot for the duration of the
Cheers run. In the final seasons, however, they handed over much of the show to Burrows. Burrows is regarded as being a factor in the show's longevity, directing 243 of the episodes and supervising the show's production.
was also a part of the crew from the start, writing many
Cheers episodes. The show was often noted for its writing,
[The Museum of Broadcast Communications (2006). ] which most credit, along with other production factors and the ensemble cast, for the show's success.
Awards
Over its eleven-season run,
Cheers and its cast and crew earned many awards.
Cheers earned 117
Emmy nominations, with a total of 28 wins. In addition,
Cheers has earned 31
Golden Globe nominations, with a total of six wins. All ten of the actors who were regulars on the series received Emmy nominations for their roles.
Cheers won the Golden Globe for "Best TV-Series - Comedy/Musical" in 1991 and the Emmy for "Outstanding Comedy Series" in 1983, 1984, 1989 and 1991.
Cheers was presented with the "Legend Award" at the 2006
TV Land Awards, with many surviving cast members attending the event.
["TV Land Honors Cheers, Dallas, Good Times, and Batman" for SitcomsOnline on February 22, 2006. Retrieved March 21, 2006.]
The following table summarizes awards won by the
Cheers cast and crew.
| Winner
| Award
|
| Kirstie Alley
| Emmy, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (1991)
|
| Golden Globe, Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Comedy/Musical (1991)
|
| Ted Danson
| Emmy, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (1990, 1993)
|
| Golden Globe, Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series - Comedy/Musical (1990, 1991)
|
| Woody Harrelson
| Emmy, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (1989)
|
| Shelley Long
| Emmy, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (1983)
|
| Golden Globe, Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Comedy/Musical (1985)
|
| Golden Globe, Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV (1983)
|
| Bebe Neuwirth
| Emmy, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (1990, 1993)
|
| Rhea Perlman
| Emmy, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (1984, 1985, 1986, 1989)
|
| John Cleese
| Emmy, Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series (1987)
|
| Production Awards
| Emmy, Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series (1983, 1991)
|
| Emmy, Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series (1983, 1984)
|
| Emmy, Outstanding Individual Achievement in Graphic Design and Title Sequences (1983)
|
Emmy, Outstanding Film Editing for a Series (1984)
Emmy, Outstanding Editing for a Series - Multi-Camera Production (1988, 1993)
|
Emmy, Outstanding Live and Tape Sound Mixing and Sound Effects for a Series (1985)
Emmy, Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy Series or a Special (1986, 1987, 1990)
|
Plot
For the full list of episodes, see List of Cheers episodes
Nearly all of
Cheers took place in the front room of the bar, but they often went into the rear pool room or the bar's office.
Cheers didn't show any action
outside the bar until the first episode of the second season, which took the action to Diane's apartment.
Cheers had some
running gags, such as Norm arriving in the bar greeted by a loud "Norm!" Early episodes generally followed Sam's antics with his various women, following a variety of
romantic comedy clichés to get out of whatever relationship troubles he was in for each episode. As the show progressed and Sam got into more serious relationships the general tone switched to comedy on Sam settling down into a
monogamous lifestyle. Throughout the series, larger
story arcs began to develop that spanned multiple episodes or seasons interspersed with smaller themes and one-off episodes.
Romance
The show's main theme in its early seasons was the romance between the intellectual waitress Diane Chambers and bar owner Sam Malone, a former major league
baseball pitcher for the Boston Red Sox and a recovering
alcoholic.
[Television Heaven (2002)(2006). Cheers - A Television Heaven Review] After Long left the show, the focus shifted to Sam's new relationship with neurotic corporate climber Rebecca. Both relationships featured multi-episode "will they or won't they"
sexual tension that drew viewers in. After Sam and Diane's courtship was consummated, the show's popularity grew greatly and subsequent TV shows now very commonly have such "will they or won't they" tensions between opposites.
[TV Tropes (2006). Will They or Won't They?]
Social issues
Many
Cheers scripts centered around or were improved with a variety of social issues. As
Toasting Cheers puts it:
was a subtext of the show. The "upper class" - represented by characters like Diane Chambers, Frasier Crane, Lilith Sternin and (initially) Rebecca Howe — rubbed shoulders with middle and working class characters — Sam Malone, Carla Tortelli, Norm Peterson and Cliff Clavin. An extreme example of this was the relationship between Woody Boyd and
millionaire's daughter
Kelly Gaines. Many viewers enjoyed
Cheers in part because of this focus on character development in addition to plot development.
and the role of women were also recurring themes throughout the show, with some seeing each of the major female characters as a flawed feminist in her own way.
[Dr. Caren Deming. "Talk: Gender Discourse in Cheers!" in Television Criticism: Approaches and Applications edited by Leah R. Vande Berg and Lawrence A Wenner. White Plains, NY: Longman, 1991. 47–57. The essay is co-authored by Mercilee M. Jenkins, who teaches at San Francisco State University.] Diane was a vocal feminist, but Sam was the epitome of everything she hated: a
womanizer and a
male chauvinist. Their relationship led Diane to several diatribes on Sam's promiscuity, while Carla merely insulted people.
Carla was respected because of her power, while Diane was ignored as she commanded little respect. Rebecca was a stereotypical ambitious and
golddigging woman, seeking relationships with her superiors at the Lillian Corporation, most notably
Robin Colcord, to gain promotions or raises. However, she encountered a
glass ceiling and ended the show by marrying a plumber rather than a rich businessman.
Homosexuality was dealt with from the very first season, a rare move for American network television in the early 1980s. In the first season episode "The Boys In The Bar" (after the 1970s film
The Boys in the Band) a friend and former teammate of Sam's
comes out in his
autobiography. Some of the male regulars pressure Sam to take action to ensure that Cheers does not become a
gay bar. The episode won a
GLAAD Media Award,
and the script's writers,
Ken Levine & David Isaacs, were nominated for an Emmy Award for their writing.
would later appear in the 1990s as "Mark Newberger", Rebecca's old high school sweetheart who is gay. Finally, the final episode included a gay man who gets into trouble with his boyfriend (played by
Anthony Heald) after agreeing to pose as Diane's husband.
Addiction also plays a role in
Cheers, almost exclusively through Sam, although some critics believed the issue was never really developed.
[The Bemusement Park (May 7th, 2004) (2006). The Situation of Comedy] Sam was a recovering
alcoholic who ended up buying a bar after his baseball career was ruined by his drinking.
[IMDb (2006). IMDb Plot Summary of Cheers] Frasier also has a notable bout of drinking in the fourth season episode "The Triangle." Some critics believe Sam was a generally
addictive personality who had largely conquered his alcoholism but was still a
sexual addict, shown through his womanizing.
[The National Association for Christian Recovery (2006). On Addiction from: STEPS Volume 2, Issue 1, Winter 1990.]
Cheers owners
Cheers obviously had several owners before Sam, as the bar was opened in 1889 (The "Est. 1895" on the bar's sign is a made-up date chosen by Carla for
numerological purposes as revealed in the 8th season episode "The Stork Brings a Crane"). In the second episode, "Sam's Women", Norm tells a customer looking for the owner of Cheers that the man he thought was the owner has been replaced, and his replacement was replaced by Sam. Then in a later episode Gus O'Mally comes back from Arizona for one night and runs the bar while Sam goes to a drive-in movie with the guys.
The biggest storyline surrounding the ownership of Cheers begins in the fifth season finale, "I Do, Adieu", when Sam and Diane part ways, Shelley Long leaves the regular cast, and Sam leaves to attempt
circumnavigating the Earth. Before he leaves, Sam sells Cheers to the Lillian Corporation. Sam returns in the sixth season premiere, "Home is the Sailor", having sunk his boat, to find the bar under the new management of Rebecca Howe. He begs for his job back and is hired by Rebecca as a bartender. Throughout the sixth season, Sam tries a variety of schemes to buy back Cheers. This plot largely comes to an end in the seventh season premiere, "How to Recede in Business", when Rebecca is fired and Sam is promoted to manager. Rebecca is allowed to keep a job at Lillian vaguely similar to what she had before, but only after Sam had Rebecca "agree" (
in absentia) to a long list of demands that the corporation had for her.
From there Sam would occasionally attempt to buy the bar back with schemes that usually involved wealthy executive
Robin Colcord. Cheers did eventually end up back in Sam's hands in the eighth season finale, when it was sold back to him for eighty-five
cents by the Lillian Corporation after he alerted the company of Colcord's
insider trading. Fired by the corporation over her keeping quiet, Rebecca earns back a hostess/office manager job from Sam.
Other recurring themes
Aside from the storylines that spanned across the series,
Cheers had several themes that followed no storylines but that recurred throughout the series. There was a heated rivalry between Cheers and the rival bar, Gary's Olde Towne Tavern. One episode of every season depicted some wager between Sam and Gary, which resulted in either a sports competition or a battle of wits that devolved into complex practical jokes. Aside from the very first and very last "Bar Wars" episodes, the Cheers gang almost always lost to Gary's superior ingenuity, though they managed to trick him into missing the annual Bloody Mary contest in one episode. Another episode had Sam collaborating with Gary's to get revenge on his co-workers on a prior practical joke. Sam also had a long-running feud with the management of the upscale restaurant situated directly above the bar, Melville's. The restaurant's management found the bar's clientele decidedly uncouth, while Sam regarded the restaurant as snobbish (despite the fact that customers often drifted between the two businesses via a prominent staircase). This conflict escalated in later seasons, when Melville's came under the ownership of John Allen Hill (
Keene Curtis), and it emerged that Sam did not technically own the bar's poolroom and bathrooms. Sam subsequently was forced to pay rent for them and often found himself at the mercy of Hill's tyranny. Rebecca eventually bought the back section from Hill, making her and Sam partners in managing the bar.
Norm Peterson continually searched for gainful employment as an accountant but spent most of the series unemployed, thereby explaining his constant presence in Cheers at the same stool. The face of his wife, Vera, was
never fully seen onscreen, despite a few fleeting appearances and a couple of vocal cameos. Cliff Clavin seemed unable to shake the constant presence of his mother, Esther Clavin (
Frances Sternhagen). Though she did not appear in every episode, he would refer to her quite often, mostly as both an emotional burden and a smothering parent. Carla Tortelli carried a reputation of being both highly fertile and matrimonially inept. The last husband she had on the show,
Eddie LeBec, was a washed-up
ice hockey goaltender who ended up dying in an ice show accident involving a
zamboni. Carla later discovered that Eddie had cheated on her, marrying another woman after impregnating her. Carla's sleazy first husband,
Nick Tortelli, also made frequent appearances, mostly to torment Carla with a new custody battle or legal scam that grew out of their divorce. Carla's eight children (four of whom were "born" during the show's run) were also notoriously ill-behaved.
Critical reactions
Cheers was critically acclaimed in its first season, though it landed a disappointing 74th out of only 74 shows in that year's ratings.
[TVParty (2006). How NBC got its Groove back] This critical support, coupled with early success at the Emmys and the support of the president of NBC's entertainment division
Brandon Tartikoff, is thought to be the main reason for the show's survival and eventual success.
[Variety (May 20th, 2003) (2006). Review - Cheers][BBC (July 4th, 2003) (2006). Cheers - the TV Series] The cast themselves went across the country on various
talk shows to try to further promote the series after its first season. With the growing popularity of
Family Ties which ran in the slot ahead of
Cheers from both shows' inceptions until the end of the former was moved to Sundays in 1987 and the placement of
The Cosby Show in front of both at the start of their third season (1984), the line-up became a runaway ratings success that NBC eventually dubbed "
Must See Thursday". The next season,
Cheers ratings increased dramatically after Woody Boyd became a regular character as well. By its final season
Cheers had a run of eight consecutive seasons in the Top Ten of the
Nielsen ratings.
Some critics now use
Frasier and
Cheers as a model of a successful spin-off for a character from an already successful series to compare to modern spin-offs.
NBC dedicated a whole night to the final episode of
Cheers. The show began with a "pregame" show hosted by
Bob Costas, followed by the final 98-minute episode itself. NBC affiliates then aired tributes to
Cheers during their local newscasts, and the night concluded with a special
Tonight Show broadcast live from the Bull & Finch Pub. Although the episode fell short of its hyped ratings predictions to become the
most-watched television episode, it was the most watched show that year, bringing in 80.4 million viewers (64 percent of all viewers that night), and ranked 11th all time in entertainment programming. The episode originally aired in the usual
Cheers spot of Thursday night and was then rebroadcast on Sunday. Some estimate that while the original broadcast did not outperform the
M*A*S*H finale, the combined non-repeating audiences for the Thursday and Sunday showings did.
Toasting Cheers also notes that television had greatly changed between the
M*A*S*H and
Cheers finales, leaving
Cheers with a broader array of competition for ratings.
Spin-offs, crossovers and cultural references
Some of the actors and actresses from
Cheers brought their characters into other television shows, either in a guest appearance or in a new
spin-off. The most successful
Cheers spin-off was the show
Frasier which directly followed Frasier Crane after he moved back to
Seattle,
Washington (on the other end of
Interstate 90) to live with his recently-disabled father and to host a call-in radio show. Frasier was originally supposed to be a small disliked character who only existed to further Diane and Sam's relationship, but Kelsey Grammer's acting turned what were supposed to be unfunny lines into comedy the audience enjoyed.
[Poobala (2006). Notes on Cheers / Frasier crossovers] Sam, Diane and Woody all had individual crossover appearances on
Frasier where they came to visit Frasier, and his ex-wife
Lilith was a constant supporting character throughout
Frasier. Cliff, Norm, Carla, and two of Cheers' regular background barflies Paul and Phil had a crossover together in the
Frasier episode "
Cheerful Goodbyes". In that episode, Frasier, on a trip to Boston, meets the Cheers gang (though not at Cheers itself) and Cliff thinks Frasier has flown out specifically for his (Cliff's) retirement party, which Frasier ends up attending. Rebecca Howe is the only
Cheers regular aside from Coach (whose actor, Nicholas Colasanto, had died, after which the character died in the series) to not appear on
Frasier.
Frasier was on the air for as many seasons as
Cheers, going off the air in 2004 after an eleven-season run. Although
Frasier was the most successful spin-off,
The Tortellis was the first series to spin off from
Cheers, premiering in 1987. The show featured Carla's ex-husband
Nick Tortelli and his wife
Loretta, but was canceled after 13 episodes and drew protests for its stereotypical depictions of Italian Americans.
In addition to direct spin-offs, several
Cheers characters had guest appearance crossovers with other shows. In
The Simpsons episode "
Fear of Flying",
Homer stumbles into a Cheers-like bar after being kicked out of
Moe's. Most of the central cast appears in the episode, including Frasier (though ironically, Frasier does not speak, as Grammer already had a recurring role on
The Simpsons as
Sideshow Bob). The tagline for Moe's Tavern, "Where nobody knows your name", is also a reference to the theme song of
Cheers. Characters also had crossovers with
Wings—which was created by
Cheers producers–writers—and
St. Elsewhere in a somewhat rare comedy–drama crossover.
[Poobala (2006). Notes on Cheers / St. Elsewhere crossover] The
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine character
Morn, who remained mostly at
Quark's Bar, is named (as an
anagram) for Norm Peterson.
[TV Acres (January 24, ????) (2006). Nor-r-rm!] The bar and its patrons were also featured in a scene in
The Wonderful World of Disney TV special
Mickey's 60th Birthday. The
opening sequence and theme song has become iconic of the series, leading to
parody such as on
The Simpsons episode "Flaming Moe's".
The
Scrubs episode "My Life in Four Cameras" makes numerous jokes about
Cheers and
multicamera setup laugh track sitcoms.
Scrubs is notable for using a
single camera setup, having no laugh track, and not being filmed before a live audience.
Cheers had all four cameras, a laugh track, and was filmed before a live studio audience, and a dream sequence in "My Life in Four Cameras" was shot with three cameras. In addition, the main patient treated was fictional
Cheers writer "Charles James", a mixture of
Cheers creators James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles. The episode makes repeated comments about these "traditional" sitcoms and ends with the opening notes of the
Cheers theme playing while
J.D. says "Unfortunately, around here things don't always end as neat and tidy as they do in sitcoms."
[(2006) Scrubs - My Own Personal 'Net Thing. Script from the episode][(February 16, 2005) (2006) TV Guide. Rough Dispatches][(March 10, 2005) (2006) Chicago Tribune. Cheers to "Scrubs"]
In the
Seinfeld episode "The Ticket", Ted Danson's salary per episode of
Cheers comes up as a point of debate between Jerry and George.
Licensing
Cheers was perhaps the first major non-science fiction TV series to have an important licensing campaign since
I Love Lucy. The show lent itself naturally to the development of "Cheers" bar-related merchandise, culminating in the development of a chain of "Cheers" themed pubs. Paramount's licensing group, led by
Tom McGrath, developed the "Cheers" pub concept initially in partnership with Host Marriott which placed "Cheers" themed pubs in 24+ airports around the world. A full-scale Cheers reproduction was built in
Piccadilly Circus in London and Boston boasts of the original Cheers bar (historically known to generations of Boston insiders as the
Bull and Finch) as well as a Cheers restaurant in the Faneuil Hall marketplace and
Sam's Place, a spin-off sports bar concept also located at Faneuil Hall. The theme song to the show was licensed to a Canadian restaurant,
Kelsey's[Kelsey's Launches Ad Campaign with Cheers TV Theme Song: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance]
clear
Syndication and home video
Cheers grew in popularity as it aired on American television and entered into syndication. When the show went off the air in 1993,
Cheers was syndicated in 38 countries with 179 American television markets and 83 million viewers.
Then, after going off the air,
[International Real Estate Digest (August 20th, 2001) (2006). Boston Gets a Hollywood Cheers Pub] Cheers entered a long, successful, and continuing syndication run
on
Nick at Nite. While the quality of some earlier footage of
Cheers had begun to degrade, it underwent a careful restoration in 2001 due to its continued success.
[Kodak (October 2001) (2006). Cheers restored for a new generation of laughs] Notably, a
Cheers rerun replaced
Australia's Naughtiest Home Videos on Australia's
Nine Network. The latter was cancelled mid-episode on its only broadcast by
Kerry Packer, who pulled the plug after a phone call.
Cheers was aired by
NCRV in the
Netherlands. After the last episode, NCRV simply began re-airing the series, and then again, thus airing the show three times in a row, showing an episode nightly.
DVD releases
CBS Home Entertainment has released the first 10 seasons of
Cheers on DVD in
Region 1.
In Region 2, only the first 6 seasons have been released on DVD.
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release dates
|
| Region 1 | Region 2
|
| The Complete 1st Season | 22 | May 20, 2003 | November 24, 2003
|
| The Complete 2nd Season | 22 | January 6, 2004 | June 7, 2004
|
| The Complete 3rd Season | 25 | May 25, 2004 | September 6, 2004
|
| The Complete 4th Season | 26 | February 1, 2005 | July 18, 2005
|
| The Complete 5th Season | 26 | May 17, 2005 | November 27, 2006
|
| The Complete 6th Season | 25 | September 13, 2005 | May 14, 2007
|
| The Complete 7th Season | 22 | November 15, 2005 | N/A
|
| The Complete 8th Season | 26 | June 13, 2006 | N/A
|
| The Complete 9th Season | 26 | April 29, 2008 | N/A
|
| The Complete 10th Season | 25 | September 2, 2008 | N/A
|
| The Complete 11th Season | 26 | January 27, 2009 [Season 11 DVD release announcement] | N/A
|
Post-Cheers
Kelsey Grammer was arguably the most successful with his spin-off
Frasier, which lasted for the same eleven-season run
Cheers had, as well as a recurring guest role on
The Simpsons as
Sideshow Bob. By the final season of
Frasier, Grammer had become the highest paid actor on television,
[Yahoo News (2006). Kelsey Grammer's Yahoo biography] earning about
$1.6 million an episode.
Woody Harrelson has also had a successful career following
Cheers, including appearances in a number of notable films that have established him as a box-office draw. He also earned an
Academy Award nomination in 1997 for
The People vs. Larry Flynt.
Ted Danson, who had been the highest paid
Cheers cast member earning $450,000 an episode in the final season,
[IMDb (2006). Ted Danson's IMDb Bio] has starred in the successful sitcom
Becker as well as the unsuccessful sitcoms
Ink and
Help Me Help You and currently appears in the successful drama series
Damages. He has starred in a number of movies, including
Three Men and a Baby and
Made in America. Ted and his wife (actress
Mary Steenburgen) regularly play themselves on
Curb Your Enthusiasm as Larry David's friends.
John Ratzenberger has voice acted in all of
Pixar's
computer-animated feature films and currently hosts the
Travel Channel show
Made in America.
[Travel Channel (2006). Made in America - Travel Channel] On
Made in America he travels around the U.S. showing the stories of small towns and the goods they produce. Coincidentally, Ted Danson starred in a film also called
Made in America.
Ratzenberger is heavily involved in a charity known as the Nuts, Bolts and Thingamajigs Foundation,
which encourages children to get involved with tinkering and mechanical work, as well as to encourage schools to resurrect Industrial Arts programs. He also was on
Dancing with the Stars.
Bebe Neuwirth has gone on to star in numerous
Broadway musicals, earning two
Tony Awards for her work, and co-star in numerous successful films. She also did voice work for
All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 and
All Dogs Go To Heaven the TV series.
Kirstie Alley starred in the TV series
Veronica's Closet as well as numerous
miniseries and film roles.
Although some believe Shelley Long leaving the show was a bad career move,
she has gone on to star in several television and film roles, notably
The Brady Bunch Movie and its sequels.
In addition to continuing careers after
Cheers, some of the cast members have had personal problems. In 2004, Shelley Long grew
depressed after divorcing her husband of 23 years and appears to have attempted suicide by overdosing on drugs.
[FemaleFirst (November 25th, 2004) (2006). Shelley Long's overdose][Prevent Suicide Now (November 26th, 2004) (2006). Actress Shelley Long Attempts Suicide] Kirstie Alley gained a significant amount of weight after
Cheers, which somewhat affected her career. She went on to write and star in a sitcom partly based on her life and weight gain,
Fat Actress. She formerly was a spokeswoman for
Jenny Craig.
The
Host Marriott Corporation installed 46 bars modeled after
Cheers in their hotel and airport lounges.
licensed the characters and details of the show, allowing the bars to have fake memorabilia such as Sam Malone's supposed jersey while playing for the Red Sox. Among the details Marriott included were two robots, "Bob" and "Hank", one of which was heavy (resembling
Norm Peterson), with the other wearing a postal uniform (
Cliff Clavin).
[E News Online (Oct 2th, 2000) (2006). Wendt/Ratzenberger's case is reinstated by the Supreme Court]
Ratzenberger and Wendt filed a groundbreaking
lawsuit against Paramount in 1993 (around the time that
Viacom purchased Paramount), claiming that the company was illegally licensing and earning off their images without their permission.
[E News Online (Sep 25th, 2000) (2006). Wendt and Ratzenberger bring their case to the Supreme Court] Ratzenberger and Wendt claimed that Paramount could not earn off their images simply because the robots are dressed like the characters over which Paramount still holds rights. The case was dismissed by a
Los Angeles Superior Court judge in 1996,
though a
federal judge reinstated the case in the Los Angeles court. Paramount tried to bring the case before the
Supreme Court of the United States but the court refused to hear the case, instead merely reaffirming the ruling to reinstate the case in the Superior Court.
Some believe the case could have had significant implications in
Hollywood, as its outcome would have determined whether rights over a character imply rights to reproduce the actor's image with or without his or her permission, so long as the image is of the actor as the character. Rather, Paramount settled with the two before a ruling in the suit was delivered.
[MarkRoesler.com (2006). Several Intellectual Property cases, including a section on the Cheers case]
Outside the bar
The first year of the show took place entirely within the confines of the bar. (The first location outside the bar ever seen was Diane's apartment.) When the series became a hit, the characters started venturing further afield, first to other sets and eventually to an occasional exterior location. The exterior location shots of the bar were actually of the
Bull & Finch Pub, located directly north of the
Boston Public Garden, which has become a
tourist attraction because of its association with the series and draws in nearly a million visitors annually.
It has since been renamed Cheers Beacon Hill,
[Cheers Boston (2006). Cheers Beacon Hill] though its interior is different from the TV bar. To further capitalize on the show's popularity, another bar, Cheers Faneuil Hall,
[Cheers Boston (2006). Cheers Faneuil Hall] was built to be a replica of the show's set to provide tourists with a bar whose interior was closer to the one they saw on TV. It is near
Faneuil Hall, about a mile from the Bull & Finch Pub. The official Cheers site is
www.cheersboston.com. In 1997 Europe's first officially licensed Cheers bar opened in London's Regent's Street W1.
[Cheers London (2003). Cheers London] Like Cheers Faneuil Hall, Cheers London is an exact replica of the set. The gala opening was attended by James Burrows and cast members
George Wendt and
John Ratzenberger.
[ USA Today (September 23, 1997).] The actual bar set was on display at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum until the museum’s closing in early 2006.
[Hollywood Entertainment Museum (2006). Hollywood Entertainment Museum]
