Sam Malone was originally written to be a retired NFL New England Patriots player. But Ted Danson wasn't bulky enough to be a football player, so his character was changed to a retired Boston Red Sox baseball player instead.
Danson said later that he struggled initially with the characterization of Sam, as he was nothing like him in real life (eg, he had no interest in sports, was a mild mannered, college educated family man opposed to a womanizing book dumb bachelor, etc). Runner up (and former NFL Star), Fred Dryer actually nailed the characterization better (but lacked the acting chops that got Danson the role), so in Dryer's early recurring appearances as Sam's former teammate Dave Richards, Danson was told to follow his lead.
When Cheers finally went off the air on May 20, 1993, NBC dedicated most of the night to the show's final episode.note Seinfeld aired its own two-part fourth season finale, "The Pilot", at 8:00 PM to kick off the night, having been moved from its usual 9:30 PM timeslot. It would replace Cheers in the 9:00 berth starting in the 1993-94 season, where it would remain for the rest of its run. It began at 9:00 with a "pregame" show hosted by NBC Sports commentator Bob Costas, followed by the final 98-minute episode itself. NBC stations, O&Os and affiliates alike, then aired tributes to Cheers during their local newscasts, and the night concluded with a special edition of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno broadcast live from the Bull & Finch Pub, with the cast and crew of the show in attendance (and, notoriously, quite inebriated).
The tributes didn't end there. On the following day's Today broadcast, the show dedicated an almost ten-minute segment documenting how loved the show was to people, with Today co-anchor Katie Couric being seen briefly on the Cheers set. The segment began with the show documenting the Tonight Show broadcast with brief comments from the show's cast, in addition to recapping the finale. The show then did an on location report in which NBC News correspondent Roger O'Neil went on location to actual bars across the country, in which staff and patrons of those bars reflected on watching the program from those exact bars. After that, the segment concluded with Couric, now back at NBC News world headquarters in New York, sitting down for an interview with then NBC Entertainment president Warren Littlefield, speaking from the Bull & Finch, about what shows he was going to use to fill the void, along with a side interview with Jeannie Park, then senior editor for television at Entertainment Weekly, in which she and Couric discussed the phenomenon of how Cheers was able to run for 11 seasons despite having abysmal ratings on its inaugural season.
John Ratzenberger originally auditioned for George, which evolved to Norm. When he failed that, he asked the writers if there was a know-it-all character in the series. Thus, Cliff Clavin was born.
Fred Dryer and Julia Duffy auditioned for Sam and Diane. Dryer made four guest appearances as Sam's Sportscaster friend Dave Richards, while Duffy made one guest appearance in the first season.
Robert Prosky was considered for the role of Coach. He would later appear in "Daddy's Little Middle-Aged Girl" as Rebecca's Navy father.
In "Mr. Otis Regrets," everyone jokes about Lilith's lack of singing ability when she takes lessons so she can sing to her baby, until the ending, when Lilith sings a beautiful lullaby. In Real LifeBebe Neuwirth was (and is) a renowned Broadway singer who was famous for playing Velma Kelly in Chicago long before she was cast on Cheers.
Shelley Long has quite a beautiful voice, as well—which is used to dramatic effect in Season One's "Father Knows Last" and Season Two's "Coach Buries A Grudge."
The Character Died with Him: Nicholas Colasanto/Coach Ernie Pantuso. Frasier later revealed that the same thing happened with Al Rosen/Al.
Character Outlives Actor: Nicholas Colasanto died on February 12, 1985, while the third season of Cheers was still in production. Various references are made to Coach being away: in one episode he is off in Vermont taking a drivers' test, and in another he is at a family reunion. After Colasanto died, three episodes were shot without him, but finally, a Deleted Scene featuring Coach was used as The Teaser for the Season 3 finale. (Fans will notice that in the teaser, Carla's not pregnant.) Finally we learn that The Character Died with Him when Season 4 premieres and Woody Boyd arrives to replace Coach.
Corpsing: Al Rosen's the sole member of the cast who would noticeably corpse at his own punchlines. This is okay since his crusty delivery is so dead-on the rest of the actors had trouble not corpsing at him.
Creator Couple: Vera Peterson is Bernadette Birkett, George Wendt's wife. Birkett was actually seen in one episode, playing Cliff's date.
Creator Backlash: Everyone involved prefers to forget about the infamous live Cheers-themed special episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that aired immediately after the series finale.note With a half hour break in between for local news For context, Leno was at the much-publicized watch party at the Bull & Finch Pub with the cast to commemorate the series finale, but it was a shit show from the start. First, Kirstie Alley and Shelley Long were not there due to prior commitments, though Alley made a brief videotaped appearance to give her regards to the fans and her cast mates (who booed her as she appeared on screen). Second, since the rest of the cast had been partying at the bar since early afternoon, by the time 11:30PM rolled around they were too intoxicated to participate in any of the skits, sketches and games Leno had planned. Leno acknowledged this during his opening monologue and he instead dedicated the first half of the show to simply giving viewers a tour of the bar and riffing with all the notable (and also heavily intoxicated) Boston-area figures who were there that night, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr and then-Senator John Kerry. Leno then tried to do a Q&A and a trivia game with the cast which amounted to nothingnote Aside from George Wendt possibly admitting that he and Rhea Perlman have had sex to Leno's visible frustration. The show then ended with Leno leading the cast back out onto the sidewalk to do a singalong of the Cheers theme, which they also failed to properly do. Jay Leno publicly referred to the show as a "disaster" immediately afterwards and quickly buried it in the archives. Ted Danson made a subsequent appearance on The Tonight Show the week afterwards to apologize for the special going so spectacularly off the rails. Leno has since only acknowledged the special as the worst episode of The Tonight Show he ever did and to cite it as the reason why he never did a live episode again. Subsequent Cheers retrospectives or any retrospectives that aired as Leno wrapped up his tenure hosting The Tonight Show have disowned the live Cheers special.
"Coach's Daughter" was a favourite for Nicholas Colasanto, George Wendt and John Ratzenberger.
The Danza: Woody Harrelson played Woody Boyd. Oddly enough, the character was named Woody before Harrelson got the part.
All of the minor barflies, such as Paul (Paul Wilson), Al (Al Rosen), Pete (Peter Schreiner), Alan (Alan Koss), Tim (Tim Cunningham), Steve (Steve Giannelli), Phil (Philip Perlman, Rhea's father), Hugh (Hugh McGuire), Tom (Thomas Babson), Larry (Larry Harpel), Paul (Paul Vaughn) Tony (Tony DiBenedetto), and Mark (Mark Arnott).
A few of the recurring characters in the show's early run...including a pre-Night CourtHarry Anderson as itinerant Con Man "Harry the Hat".
Lampshaded when Woody won the lead in Our Town and remarked that his co-star was named Emily (same as her character), so she wouldn't have to worry about difficult things like responding to a new name.
Averted with George Wendt, whose character was originally named George but later evolved to Norm.
Jeopardy! eventually did record two weeks’ worth of episodes in Boston in 1998: five regular games note as of 2017, still the only regular episodes recorded away from the show’s home base in Culver City followed by a Teen Reunion Tournament.
Deleted Role: One character who was cut from the pilot episode was an unpleasant wheelchair-bound old woman named Mrs. Littlefield, supposedly a regular customer of Cheers, who was intended to be recurring. Her lines were filmed as part of a rough cut of the pilot. However, the producers decided to cut her out of the episode, as they found she did not mesh with other characters or with the overall tone of the show. Nevertheless, the uncredited actress who played her can still be seen as a background performer in a few scenes. Some sources credit this actress as Elaine Stritch, although the unidentified actress looks nothing like Stritch. In answer to a question about the actress, writer/producer Ken Levine has stated on his blog "that was not Elaine Stritch". A copy of the original pilot script which was scanned and uploaded online identifies the actress as Margaret Wheeler - almost certainly this Margaret Wheeler. The producers ultimately decided to eliminate Mrs. Littlefield completely from the show from that point forward, necessitating changes to some yet-to-be-filmed scripts for the first few episodes.
Development Gag: Former NFL star Fred Dryer (later of Hunter (1984)) was up for the part of Sam Malone and Julia Duffy (later of Newhart) was up for the part of Diane Chambers. Both later guest-starred on the show, Dryer as Sam's crasser, dumber sportscaster friend, Dave Richards, and Duffy as Diane's snootier and more pretentious best friend, Rebecca Prout. In addition, Robert Prosky (later of Hill Street Blues) was up for the role of Coach, and would later make a late run guest appearance as Rebecca's tough as nails father, Captain Franklin E. Howe, USN.
Edited for Syndication: On Hallmark reruns, the show's opening credits are abridged somewhat (playing the opening piano bars then skipping right into the chorus), language is censored (leaving us with gems like "I'm the luckiest son on Earth."), the end credits are sped up a bit and often shrunken down to make room for commercials. The editing also causes slight skips in the footage, occasionally leading to brief moments of a character's lips not matching their dialogue.
Executive Meddling: Early in the show's run, Paramount and NBC encouraged the producers to cut costs by switching from film to videotape. They made it as far as recording a test scene on tape, but the end result was so poor (even after being professionally color-corrected, according to Ken Levine) that it ended any further discussion.
Foiler Footage: A fake ending to Sam and Diane's wedding and season finale was filmed with the audience present so no one would spoil the ending and reveal it to be Diane's last episode.
When Shelley Long was pregnant during the third season, she was mostly filmed behind the bar or from the neck up. This was also covered by pre-shooting scenes of Diane and Frasier vacationing in Europe early in the season, before she was showing, which were then inserted into multiple episodes later on.
Averted with Rhea Perlman. Whenever Perlman was pregnant, it was worked into the show.
There were rumours that Shelley Long didn't get along with her co-stars, which have since been confirmed by most of the show's cast and crew in retrospect. She often kept to herself between takes and was also perceived as seeing herself "above" those with whom she worked on the show. She did get on with Nicholas Colasanto, as he understood her "process" (having a history working with Method actors like Robert De Niro) and would defend her to their co-stars if they badmouthed her in his presence. His tragic death during the filming of season 3 not only demoralized the cast, but it left her without an ally among them, and this likely contributed to her decision to leave the show after season 5.
The timing of Colasanto's death coincided with the introduction of the character of Dr. Frasier Crane, played by Kelsey Grammer. Long was what we would today call a major Sam/Diane shipper and didn't appreciate the character of Frasier interfering with their romance. Grammer, for his part, claimed that Long tried to have all of his punchlines removed from the script but Long denies this. The writers of the show loved Grammer and what he brought to the role of Frasier, tending to side with him over Long whenever there were any disputes between them. (Grammer stated that he and Long made peace with each other during her guest appearance on Frasier.)
Shelley Long, though, has claimed that she wasn't opposed to the Frasier/Diane romance, but rather Diane getting pregnant from Frasier, which Long claimed would drive away Diane from Cheers, as she would now be taking care of the baby instead of working there. Long claims Grammer confused this with being opposed to the whole romance plot.
One of Long's biggest enemies on set was Rhea Perlman, which no doubt enhanced the antipathy between their characters, though in the years since Perlman has made a point not to revisit their past emnity even when asked about it directly. When GQ did its retrospective on the series, the interviewer asked Perlman if Long's antics annoyed her: "I can't go there again. I just can't. Life is too short".
In the Cheers biography documentary, Ted Danson admitted there was tension between him and Long but "never at a personal level and always at a work level" due to their different modes of working. Two examples of this, both admitted by Long herself: she apparently asked "too many questions" of the writers (which Long said was based on a desire to better understand her character and motivation); and she was always late to filming (according to Long, because makeup and hair took much longer for her than her castmates, which they were not sympathetic about). Danson stated that Long was much more like her character than she would like to admit, but also said that her performances often "carried the show."
Lilith Sternin was initially depicted as a terrible singer, even though before CheersBebe Neuwirth was mostly known for her singing roles in Broadway musicals; in 1986 she even won a Tony Award for a production of Sweet Charity, and she later won a second Tony for her best-known role of Velma Kelly in Chicago. Later on the writers had Lilith take some singing lessons, and all of a sudden she became a great singer.
Although Carla Tortelli and her ex-husband Nick were depicted as devout and practicing Roman Catholics who were Italian, actors Rhea Perlman and Dan Hedaya are actually Ashkenazi Jews in real life.
Jeopardy! uses "pulling a Clavin" to refer to when a contestant whiffs the way Cliff did on an episode.
In real life, Shelley Long, just like her character Diane Chambers, never quite managed to fit in with the rest of the Cast.
Method Acting: Ted Danson went to bar tending school to prepare and actually properly prepared drinks as they were ordered. He eventually abandoned this practice when he realized that he was being shot from the chest up and that his skills weren't actually being shown to the home audience.
Network to the Rescue: The show was an utter bomb in its first year, having the worst Nielsen ratings of the year. Fortunately, NBC Entertainment president Brandon Tartikoff refused to cancel it, and put it in a prime slot right after The Cosby Show and Family Ties, and it soon became the #1 sitcom in America, even beating its lead-ins. Ironically, Tartikoff would later serve as chairman of Paramount, which produced both Cheers and Family Ties.
The Other Darrin: Two different actors alternated playing Gary in the various "Bar Wars" episodes.
Not only is the storyline of the Season 11 episode "Norm's Big Audit" virtually identical to that of the Wings episode "Hell Hath No Fury Like a Police Woman Scorned," but the same actress who played the hard-nosed, lovesick policewoman in Wings was hired to play the hard-nosed, lovesick IRS auditor in this series.
The "main male character's older brother who is better at everything" was used for Cheers as well. Many sitcoms used virtually the same script, including Three's Company.
Diane borrows money from Sam in one episode, and proceeds to spend it on apparently frivolous items before paying Sam back. This is a very common sitcom plot, used again in Frasier and many other shows.
In Season 7, a newspaper mistakenly runs Rebecca's obituary. Being mistaken for dead is another common sitcom plot, and happened to Frasier on an episode of that series several years later.
In the Season 3 finale everyone at the bar is impressed by Sam's new answering machine. In Season 4 Sam is jealous when Diane's boyfriend has a car phone.
In "Where Nobody Knows Your Name" Frasier mentions the bar TV's "sixteen wonderful cable channels",
Rebecca's "very expensive calculator" in "My Son, the Father".
In "Norm and Cliff's Excellent Adventure", Woody buys Rebecca "a portable, solar-powered phone".
In "Those Lips, Those Ice" Frasier needs a briefcase to carry around his "portable cellular telephone".
According to John Ratzenberger, he badly botched his audition for the role of Norm, and, figuring he had nothing to lose, asked if the cast included a bar know-it-all. He proceeded to improvise for a few minutes as such a character, and the writers subsequently created the part of Cliff for him.
Troubled Production: The series had its share of issues over the years, including poor ratings early on, Shelley Long often not getting along with the rest of the cast, the illness and death of Nicholas Colasanto during the third season, and recurring actor Jay Thomas being fired and having a bridge dropped on his character after insulting screen wife Rhea Perlman in a radio interview, but all things told it was a pretty non-troubled production until the final season (season 11) rolled around.
After the end of season 10, the long-serving showrunner team of Cheri Eichen, Bill Steinkellner and Phoef Sutton departed, leaving the far less experienced duo of Tom Anderson and Dan O'Shannon to take over. Running out of ideas, writers started focusing a lot more on the flaws of the characters in order to create comedic tension, along with recycling a script from sister showWings wholesale.
Near the middle of the season, Ted Danson announced that it would be his final year. The writers approached Woody Harrelson to take over as the lead actor, but he declined unless Danson stayed on. Other actors were also starting to grow bored of their roles and wanted out of the series, too, forcing the writers to hustle their resources together to write in an ending that made sense. As the season came to a close, many characters were given closure that seemed to come almost out of nowhere. Lillith's actress, Bebe Neuwirth, also left the show mid-season to return to the theatre, and made few appearances afterwards.
The final episode was set to be filmed and Long was brought back. The writers had a minor feud over whether to allow Diane and Sam to be together. Shoots took so long that Long had to go back to her other commitments, and the episode's closing scene in the bar was filmed without her. The scene was also done in secret without a studio audience, meaning a laugh track had to be added after the fact. The final episode proved to be one of the most watched and remembered series finales in television history.
Then there's the matter of Kelsey Grammer's substance abuse, which took a spike in this season. Co-stars noticed that he was oddly difficult to work with and would often be nearly catatonic between takes. After several intervention attempts, Grammer finally got help. He would ultimately not make a full recovery until the early seasons of Frasier.
Speaking of Grammer — the writers often gave him the unfunniest lines to read, and he would often make them funny through pure force of personality.
Unfinished Episode: A cliffhanger was planned for the sixth season wherein Sam discovers a former girlfriend is HIV positive, thus putting Sam himself at risk. The episode was never filmed, due to the writers' strike.
The show was originally planned to take place in a hotel. When they realised the bulk of the show was going to be set in the hotel bar, they dropped the hotel and stayed with the bar.
Sam was originally written as a retired football player, and many auditionees for the role were former football players (see Fred Dryer and Ed O'Neill, below); he was rewritten as a retired baseball player because it better suited Danson's wiry frame.
Diane was initially conceived as a sassy, career-driven businesswoman; if this sounds familiar, it's because the Charles Brothers recycled the concept when they introduced Rebecca.
The draft pilot script included only one patron, a barfly named George, whose only scripted line was his order of "Beer!" Both George Wendt and John Ratzenberger auditioned for "George"; Ratzenberger, after having been rejected, pitched the role of Cliff for himself (see Throw It In!) and Wendt was cast as George, who was radically rewritten into Norm. Another bar patron who appeared in the pilot but was cut was an irascible elderly woman (in a wheelchair, even though Cheers doesn't have wheelchair access) named "Mrs. Littlefield".note Although some reports indicate that Elaine Stritch - who seems to have made a career out of all the parts she didn't get - was chosen for the part, the original pilot script credits "Margaret Wheeler", presumably this Margaret Wheeler, as having played the role. The character can be seen in several scenes in the pilot, but all her lines were cut because she was found not to gel with the other characters or the general tone of the series, and she was never seen again.
Cliff was initially supposed to appear in Seven episodes of Season 1 but was kept on for all episodes except one episode. Frasier Crane was also intended to only appear in Six episodes and of course stayed for the rest of the series and a spin off.
At one point during the show's development, producers considered setting it in Chicago.
They had also considered California, Kansas City and Detroit as other potential locations
Frasier's last name was initially Nigh, but was changed because Kelsey Grammer felt it didn't fit
John Cleese was to return as his Emmy Award-winning character Dr. Simon Finch-Royce in the episode "The Visiting Lecher", but Cleese inexplicably bowed out and John McMartin took over the part as another of Frasier's doctor friends.
The network originally wanted to have Woody take over the bar after Ted Danson announced he was leaving after season 11. However, Woody Harrelson refused to do the show without Danson and so it was decided to simply end the series.
Originally, Danny DeVito was the casting favorite for Nick. But then his movie career took off, and rendered him unavailable. It would have been a Casting Gag since Rhea Perlman played is on-again, off-again girlfriend in Taxi.
The finale for Season 6 would have teased the idea that Sam had possibly contracted AIDS from a former lover. The episode made it as far as rehearsals before it was pulled, since it was becoming clear there was no way for the subject pushed the show really far into Dude, Not Funny! territory (The episode would have aired in 1988, when the number of AIDS-related deaths was quite high).
Cliff was originally to be a police officer, but producers felt that his being a mailman would give him more access to information regarding his trademark "Little Known Facts". Many of Cliff's "Little Known Facts" were ad libbed by John Ratzenberger with scripts written simply to cue him in to the lines relating to his facts.
Lucille Ball was a fan of the series and met with the producers about possibly playing Diane's mother, Mrs. Helen Chambers. But she backed out because she felt that viewers would not accept her as a character that was different than her "Lucy" characters. Instead, Diane's mother ended up being played by Glynis Johns.
John Lithgow was the first choice to play Frasier Crane. However, Lithgow refused the role due to the fact that he wanted to concentrate on his film career. He was previously considered for Sam, but missed his audition due to illness.
Al Rosen was considered for elevation to the main cast around Season 7, but turned the offer down for health reasons. Rosen ultimately died of cancer just before filming of Season 9 got underway. Paul Wilson(Paul Krappence) got elevated into a semi-regular character instead in the last few seasons(though was never billed in the main credits).
Three endings were written for the Season 5 finale: Sam and Diane don't get married (which was used), Sam and Diane do get married, and a mysterious third ending which the production refused to divulge. The alternate ending where Sam and Diane successfully get hitched was actually shot before the live studio audience (to throw them off; it wasn't publicly known at the time that Shelley Long would be leaving the show), and this ending has since been broadcast (on retrospective specials about Cheers, never as part of an episode of Cheers itself).
One of the many spin-off ideas that was proposed mid-series was a prequel that would have focused on Coach during the 1950s. Supposedly the network liked the concept, but were concerned that the 1950s setting would be too expensive to realize on-screen, and instead opted to produce The Tortellis, which ended up a critical and commercial flop. It's thought that at least some of the work that David Angell did for the series bible and pilot script ended up being recycled for Wings, which he co-created with fellow Cheers showrunners Peter Casey and David Lee.
According to Wikipedia's Cheers section, Stephen Tobolowsky claimed he auditioned for the role of Cliff. Although, since Cliff was written specifically for John Ratzenberger, it's possible he was misremembering, and actually auditioned for Norm.
Retired baseball umpire Ron Luciano auditioned for Coach's role, but he was turned down because the producers wanted an experienced actor.
Paul Willson first appeared in the first-season episode "Someone Single, Someone Blue" as a character named Glen. In the second-season episode "Little Sister Don't Cha," he played a character named Tom. Then, in the fourth-season episode "Fools and Their Money," he debuted as Paul Krapence, a role he would continue for 53 episodes, becoming a semi-regular in the show's later years.
Interseries example with Frasier: John Mahoney and Peri Gilpin both guest-starred on "Cheers" as different characters.
As well, Jennifer Tilly played Candi on Cheers and Kim on Frasier 15 years apart; both characters were good-hearted floozies who had flings with Dr. Crane. The first few minutes of dialogue the two have is nearly identical in both episodes.
Averted with Bernadette Birkett, who appears in one episode ("Fairy Tales Can Come True") as Cliff's date, and then four times without ever showing her face as Vera Peterson.
It even had a more-show-accurate second location at Quincy Market