Cheers Cast Then And Now

Sam Malone - THEN

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Sam was an ex-professional baseball player, a Red Sox pitcher. who bought the "Cheers" bar and was chief bartender.  He was popular with the ladies and had a love hate relationship with cocktail waitress, Diane Chambers.  There was always lots of banter going on with the regulars at the bar.

Ted Danson - NOW

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Ted Danson has been on our television screens for decades, acting in award winning series' like "Frasier" (as Sam) and "Curb Your Enthusiasm."  He's also starred in comedy movies "three Men and a Baby" and the sequel "Three Men and a Little Lady."  From 2015 to 2020 Danson voiced the character of MacFarlane's animated show, "American Dad."  He has been married to Mary Steenburgen since 1995.

Dr Frasier Crane - THEN

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Frasier was a sensitive soul and got quickly engaged to Diane.  When Diane left him for Sam, Frasier began drinking to cope and it was Sam who got his alcohol problem under control.  Frasier often contributed his professional knowledge during "Cheers" discussions but no one listened to him!

Kelsey Grammer - NOW

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When "Cheers" ended, Kelsey Grammer, starring in "Frasier"  which lasted for 11 successful seasons.  Kelsey has appeared in many sitcoms and also turned his hand to much more dramatic roles, such as Dr Geoffrey Skadden in "Dr Death" and Gore Bellows in "Proven Innocent."

Diane Chambers - THEN

Image source: The Hollywood Reporter

Diane often clashed with Sam because they came from such different backgrounds.  Despite the volatile nature of their relationship, they did experience various romantic episodes.  Sam wasn't the brightest spark and Diane was well read and quite snooty.

Shelley Long - NOW

Image source: NY Post

After her role in "Cheers," Shelley Long continued her television work, starring in "Kelly Kelly."  In the 1990s and early 2000s,  Shelley portrayed Carol Brady in the "The Brady Bunch Movie," besides the follow-up films "A Very Brady Sequel" and "The Brady Bunch in the White House."  More recently, she was in the 2021 move "The Cleaner."

Carla Tortelli - THEN

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Carla was a waitress at the "Cheers" bar.  She was very confrontational and sarcastic, often outspoken as she made fun of the customers.  She had eight kids and many of her story lines revolved around her ex husband and her search for a stepfather for her children.

Rhea Perlman - NOW

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Rhea Perlman is still acting, appearing in "The Mindy Project," and "The Goldbergs."  In 2022, she was in the musical film "13", based on the Broadway musical and this year will be seen in the movie "Barbie."   She married Danny De Vito in 1982 but they went their separate ways 30 years later!

Woody Boyd - THEN

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Woody was the simple but kind hearted bartender at Cheers. He had originally come to Boston to meet his pen pal, "Cheers" bartender Ernie "Coach" Pantusso.  Sadly his friend had passed away (he actually did in real life) so Woody was hired on the spot to replace him.

Woody Harrelson - NOW

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Harrelson's career is filled to the brim with iconic roles that showcase his amazing acting skills.  He played Larry Flynt in the biopic "The People vs. Larry Flynt," which led to his first Oscar nomination.  Right through the 1990s, he appeared in iconic movies like "Natural Born Killers" and "White Men Can't Jump."  He earned two more Oscar nominations in 2009 and 2018, for "The Messenger" and "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri."

Cliff  Clavin - THEN

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Cliff was a regular at the bar and knew a lot of useless trivia!  He still lived with his mom so was made fun of.  There was no special lady in his life and his best friend was Norm (Peterson).  He spent much of his life, when not working, sat drinking at the bar and giving out weird facts about stuff no one was interested in!

John Ratzenberger - NOW

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Once "Cheers" had finished , John Ratzenberger continued in the acting profession.  He was in various television shows, such as "Murphy Brown," "That 70's Show" and  "8 Simple Rules."   He even popped up as his "Cheers" character, Cliff, in "Frasier" which fans were delighted to see!

"Norm" Peterson - THEN

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Norm was definitely the most loyal Cheers customer he and had a running tab at the bar which had accumulated for years but was never settled.  As soon as he entered the bar, everyone called out, "Norm" and then they watched him sit next to Cliff, every single day.

George Wendt - NOW

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Throughout his acting career, George Wendt has appeared in many tv shows including "Madigan Men" and "Sabrina The Teenage Witch."  During the past few years, Wendt has also been in hilarious movies "Grand-Daddy Day Care" and "Americanish."  He has been married to his actress wife, Bernadette Birkett, since 1978.  Fun fact - his nephew is Jason Sudeikis!

Rebecca Howe - THEN

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After Sam sold "Cheers" to a large corporation at  the beginning of season 6, Rebecca Howe was appointed as the bar manager by the new owners. She was hardworking, very neurotic and selfish.  She had a brief romance with Sam but it was doomed from the start and didn't last long.

Kirstie Alley - NOW

Image source: New York Post

Kirstie Alley had a very successful acting career after "Cheers." She earned an Emmy nod for her lead role, Veronica in "Veronica's Closet." She also starred in cult favourite movies, "Look Who's Talking," "Looking Who's Talking Too" and "Look Who's Talking Now." Kirstie was even in the "Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan" movie.  She sadly lost her life in December 2022.

Lilith Crane - THEN

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Lilith was the uptight psychiatrist who dated and went on to marry Frasier.  They were matched together by Diane, who had herself been Frasier's ex fiancee!  The couple became parents to son, Frederick but this didn't stop Lilith looking elsewhere for happiness and she cheated on Frasier and left him.

Bebe Neuwirth - NOW

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Bebe Neuwirth reunited with Ted Danson for a few episodes of "Bored to Death" and has appeared in the movies 'The Faculty" and "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days." She played Morticia in Broadway show "The Addams Family" and also appeared in "Blue Bloods" and "The Good Fight" on TV.

Nanny Gee - THEN

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Nanny Gee was Frasier's first wife.  Although she was occasionally mentioned in the bar, we never got to see her.  That was until Frasier and his new wife, Lilith, took son Frederick to a party and Nanny Gee was there, as the children's entertainer.  It became clear at that time that she had never got over the split and still held a torch for Frasier.

Emma Thompson - NOW

Image source: The Mirror

Emma Thompson has a list of awards as long as your arm.  As well as starring in iconic movies, she is the only person in the whole of the Oscar history to have won accolades for both writing and acting.  This was for "Sense and Sensibility."  Many fans will remember her from "Love Actually.

Janet Eldridge - THEN

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During the three part finale of "Cheers", Sam and Janet Eldridge started dating.  We saw them getting close to each other and we weren't wrong as he proposed to her, but all was not well.  Janet ended the relationship because she knew Sam still had feelings for Diane, the woman he had proposed to and been rejected, many times.

Kate Mulgrew - NOW

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Kate Mulgrew is best known for her roles in "Star Trek" as Captain Kathryn Janeway and the character of Red in "Orange Is The New Black."  Kaye has picked up numerous awards since her time on "Cheers".  In 2021, she reprised her role as Janeway in the animated series "Star Trek: Prodigy."

Emily - THEN

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Emily starred alongside Woody in a community theater production where they are supposed to be love interests in a production of "Our Town."  However, the two of them have no chemistry between them because Woody is convinced that acting in a romantic scene with Emily would be classed as cheating on his girlfriend, Kelly.

Lisa Kudrow - NOW

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Of course, we all know Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay in "Friends."  Phoebe earned Lisa one of the greatest television characters of all time.  Since the series ended, Miss Kudrow has gone on to enjoy a successful film career.  Most of the parts she has played have tended to be in comedies.

Simon - THEN

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Simon, one of Frasier's old Rhodes Scholar buddies, meets up with his old friend at the bar.  Simon is a marriage counsellor and Frasier pays him for one session for Sam and Diane, who are on the brink of getting married!  He says it's their wedding present.  Simon advises them not to go through with it and he's kicked out of the bar.

John Cleese - NOW

Image source: Variety

John Cleese went on to write and star in "A Fish Called Wanda" after his appearance in "Cheers."  The successful Fawlty Towers star was in many more movies including "Frankenstein," two James Bond movies and two Harry Potter films as well as three Shrek films.

Harry The Hat - THEN

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Harry kept the customers of "Cheers" entertained with his magic tricks, jokes and mainly harmless scams, much to the annoyance of Sam, who attempted to ban him from the bar many times.  Unfortunately, Harry the Hat kept turning up like a bad penny.  He was a small time con man with a heart of gold!

Harry Anderson - NOW

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American actor, comedian and magician, Harry Anderson, is best known for the television series "Night Court" where he played Judge Harry Stone.  He then starred as Richie Tozier in the sitcom "Dave's World" as well as various other tv parts.  Harry sadly passed away in 2018.

Russell - THEN

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Even though the patrons of  "Cheers" thought it could not be possible, they came across someone who was even dimmer than Woody and that was his cousin Russell. Russell rolled into the bar, started playing the piano and became totally obsessed with Rebecca, He even painted a mural of her on his wall in the motel he was staying at!  She did not reciprocate the feelings.

Harry Connick Jr - NOW

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As of 2019,  Harry Connick Jr had sold a massive 30 million records worldwide and he is ranked amongst the top 60 best selling male artists in America.  Harry has had 7 top 20 albums and 10 number one jazz albums, more than any other music artist in US jazz chart history.

Here are some surprising things you didn't know about Cheers! It almost got cancelled

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It's amazing to think that a show as popular as Cheers actually almost got the boot - but it's not unheard of for great shows to have trouble finding their feet before they really kick off! This show almost got cancelled after its first season - but thank goodness it didn't!

Did you spot Christopher Lloyd in one episode?

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Christopher Lloyd is a huge actor, best known for Back to the Future of course, but when he guest starred on Cheers, he actually wasn't very well known at the time - which might be why you might not remember him. He appeared in the second season of the show, playing an eccentric artist.

The Cheers bar is actually real

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The bar in Cheers is of course one of the most famous locations - both on the show, and in the world of TV! But is it actually a real bar or was it just a set? Well, the bar that inspired the show is a very real place - and you can visit! It's in Boston's Beacon Hill!

Frasier is actually a Cheers spin-off!

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We know that Frasier Crane was a character in Cheers, so you might have already put two and two together, but you also might have just thought it was a coincidence. Frasier is actually 'officially' a spin-off from Cheers, where Crane moved to Seattle, following his life there.

Its catchy theme song has been voted the best of all time

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We know how great the Cheers theme song is, and you're probably singing it right now aren't you? It wasn't just a great catchy opening tune - it was actually voted the best TV theme song of all time, and it's no surprise really! Even now, years later, it's still going strong.

Lucille Ball from I Love Lucy REALLY wanted to be on the show!

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I Love Lucy was another famous TV show of the time, and the star of the show Lucille Ball actually really wanted to get a piece of the Cheers action! The actress got in touch after watching the first season to say that she'd be interested in going on... but then she changed her mind and decided not to - go figure!

The show wanted John F. Kennedy Jr.

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So this time it was the show's turn to choose who they really wanted to make an appearance - and they really wanted John F. Kennedy Jr.! They wanted him specifically to do a promo for the show, but it didn't work out and Kennedy Jr. never showed his face!

The famous Thanksgiving scene didn't use real food

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Any fan of Cheers will remember that particular Thanksgiving scene, and you might have thought they wasted a pretty decent amount of food at the time - but the truth is, it was fake food used for the food fight, and this was apparently so it wouldn't stick onto things as easily!

Sam Malone was supposed to be a football player, not baseball

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Originally, the character of Sam Malone was supposed to have a football player background, and that was because originally it wasn't supposed to be Ted Danson playing him. When Danson had so much chemistry with cast mates, he was cast with an alteration to a baseball player background!

Danson actually went to bartending school!

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And to prep for his role and get into the spirit of things, actor Ted Danson actually went to bartending school! He went for two weeks to a bartending school in Burbank, California, so he could get a better idea of playing Sam in a more convincing way! Do you think he managed it?

Norm wasn't supposed to be a regular character

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Can you imagine Cheers without Norm being part of the regular crowd? Well that's almost the way it went. Originally, the actor who played Norm auditioned for a very minor character who wasn't called Norm at the time - he was just going to be a random guy who yelled, 'Beer!'.

Norm's wife is voiced by the actor's real wife

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A quirk of the show was that Norm's wife was never actually seen, but she was known as his wife Vera. The actor George Wendt's real life wife, Bernadette, actually provided the voice for Vera! Not only that, but Bernadette then later made an appearance as a love interest of Cliff's.

And the character of Norm is based on a real person!

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The co-creator of the show revealed that the inspiration for Norm's character came from a very real person - a person who came into the bar that the show's creator worked at when he was at college. The guy - though he wasn't called Norm - would do the same thing in saying he was 'only going to have one'... and we know how that turns out!

Some of the dialogue came from eavesdropping on real bar conversations

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As we know, bar conversations are a league of their own - they can extend from the trivial to the profound, earth-shattering questions (depending on how much alcohol has been consumed). The creators of the show would go to real bars in LA and take note of actual conversations happening around them to use for the show's dialogue!

Cliff wasn't supposed to be there at all!

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The actors who played Cliff and Norm actually auditioned for the same role on the show - at that time, it was a minor character named George who then became who we know as Norm. But the actor who played Cliff convinced the creators that they also needed a 'bar know it all' - and Cliff was the result!

And Cliff's actor improvised many of his 'facts'

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After the actor convinced the show's creators they need a bar know it all to drop some heavy facts, there was of course pressure to deliver those facts! And the actor actually improvised most of the 'facts' his character says on the show, after the writers stepped back and knew they could trust him to run with it!

The show didn't shy away from social issues

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Many of the major themes on the show were written and performed in an unabashed way - they definitely didn't shy away from the hard topics! Though, of course, it's still a comedy after all, so a 'funny' spin had to be put on a lot of the serious, social issue stuff.

There was a HIV scare storyline that was scrapped

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There was going to be a cliffhanger episode in which Sam learned one of his ex-girlfriends had contracted HIV - but due to a writer's strike in America at the time, several episodes of the show had to be scrapped, and that included the planned HIV storyline for Sam!

Jay Thomas made a remark on radio that led to his being booted off the show

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As we know, Jay Thomas's character was killed off on the show - and you might have been wondering why. It was because, when he wasn't filming scenes for Cheers, Jay Thomas worked on a popular radio show. And on the show, when asked what it was like to work on Cheers, he made some rather disparaging comments about kissing Rhea Perlman..

There was a 'lost' scene that played at the Super Bowl

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Many great TV shows have lost scenes, or scenes that were chosen not to be aired, and one scene was written for Cheers that was specifically intended to be played before the 1983 Super Bowl - and only for this one-off appearance. The scene showed the cast discussing who was going to win the big game!

Ted Danson actually wore a hairpiece!

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One of the most iconic features of Ted Danson's character, Sam, was that impressive head of hair - but turns out, this wasn't all natural on Danson's part! He actually wore a hairpiece to guarantee those luscious locks, because in real life he didn't have the hair to pull it off!