All language subtitles for The.Unknown.Story.S01E03.Cheers.1080p.PCOK.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

"Cheers."

One of
the top five sitcoms

in the history of television.

It was where
everybody knew your name.

♪ And they're
always glad you came ♪

It felt like a family,

and it felt like a family
that you wanted to be a part of.

Created by
award-winning brothers

Glen and Les Charles.

They were
wildly talented.

The Charles Brothers changed
everything for television.

And executed under
the watchful eye of

legendary director
James Burrows.

He did things
that were rather unorthodox.

My boss at the time
used to say,

"There's Jimmy Burrows, and
then there's everybody else."

It changed the game
for national television network

desperate for
a successful comedy.

NBC wasn't
known for sitcoms.

We had nothing.

Back in the early '80s,

there were still
only three networks,

but NBC was thought
to be number four.

It was that bad.

There were
high hopes for "Cheers,"

but when it first premiered,
no one watch.

The ratings sucked
the first couple of years.

But it soon became
must-see TV.

And the
Best Comedy is "Cheers".

Then after five
seasons, Shelley Long drops

a bombshell.

When she announced that
she was leaving,

I personally, I panicked.

That was scary.

And then came Kirstie.

She had swagger.

After 11 years
with "Cheers" on top,

it was lights out
for America's favorite bar.

Let's just say
it was like time to move on.

In this hour,

hear from the people behind
the landmark sitcom.

I said,
"Wow, this is really special."

Yes, we want to be a part of it.

It's as good as
it consistently

because everybody
trusted everybody

to do their jobs.

Every once in a while,
magic happens.

Now, a look behind
the scenes and how it would go

to change television.

There was something
electric going on.

By the early 1990s,
after 11 seasons,

"Cheers" had earned its place
as one of the most popular

and celebrated American sitcoms
in television history.

It's a show
that galvanized people.

People really embraced the idea
that you could go to this bar

and you could be accepted
no matter what your flaws were.

It is one of
the top five sitcoms

in the history of television,
maybe even the best.

As big as the world is,
it reminded all of us

that we all live in
our own little community of

friends, neighbors and family.

In 1993,
after 275 episodes,

"Cheers" wrapped with
a 90-minute finale,

and at the end of
the final episode,

it's lights out in the bar.

I'm the luckiest
son of a bitch on Earth.

♪

Airing in
more than 42 million households,

a staggering 80 million viewers,
40% of the US population

watched the last
episode of "Cheers".

The finale becomes
the highest-rated TV show

in the 1992-93
television season.

It set record numbers.

It was the highest-rated show
that year,

and was in the record books as
one of the most-watched nights

of television
for many, many years.

A celebration
right to the end for "Cheers",

a pioneering stroke
of television genius

that begins not in the 1990s,
but almost two decades earlier.

♪

In the late 1970s,

creative power team of brothers
Glen and Les Charles

are working with
famed director James Burrows

on the television sitcom "Taxi".

With "Taxi",

the Charles brothers
and James Burrow learned that

the ensemble was great,
and the work dynamic was great,

and it was very appealing
to audiences.

Toward the end
of the show's run,

the three decide to create
a show of their own.

The Charles brothers
and then also James Burrows,

their story itself
is kind of fascinating.

It's kind of a Hollywood story.

They decided they wanted
to be TV writers,

and they kind of willed that
into existence.

The term they use is that,

"We blanketed the city
with spec scripts."

Like, "Anyone that was
making a TV show,

"we wrote a spec script for it.

"We didn't have
an in with anyone."

Back in the early '80s,

there were still
only three networks,

but NBC was thought
to be number four.

It was that bad.

I was part of the team
where the mandate was,

"Do more, find more.

"It has to get better
than this."

NBC was so desperate
to get the Charles brothers

and James Burrows
into the NBC family

that they offered them
a series deal

without knowing what
the show was gonna be.

The team
starts developing

a "Fawlty Towers"-type
hotel concept,

but settles on a bar in Boston
as the location.

"Cheers" gave us
the perfect location

where we could get together,
discuss our joys, our heartache.

Everything that happened in life
happened in this bar,

and the series captured that.

They decided we're gonna do
this show that's set in a bar,

but it's not gonna be
about the drinking.

It's gonna be about
the camaraderie

that can exist
in that kind of environment.

ABC was in
a renaissance of comedy.

They had 14 comedies
on their schedule.

It was all working,
something to really be envied.

CBS had Carol Burnett.

CBS had a plethora,
a dozen comedies.

They were in great shape.

We had nothing.

If you're familiar
with the history of television,

you probably know NBC
as "Must-See TV"

and the juggernaut of
its Thursday night sitcom block.

That did not exist
for it in the '80s.

NBC gives
the Charles brothers

a green light to move forward
with the show.

The Charles brothers changed
everything for television.

They came out with the
format of the linear story of

here's a season,
we're gonna plot out

what we want
in the first episode,

middle, and how we
want it to end.

Prior to "Cheers",

most television shows
were extremely episodic,

meaning like everything
was a self-contained story,

and you could drop in
on any episode,

and it didn't matter what had
happened the week before,

and it wouldn't matter
what would happen the next week.

With "Cheers", we see
the introduction of

the popularization of
the long-form storytelling

across an entire season.

Writer and producer
Ken Levine gets a call

from Jim Burrows
that will change his life.

We were doing our own pilots,

and we got a call one day
from Jimmy saying,

"The Charles brothers and I
are doing a new show.

"Would you want to
produce it with us?"

And my first thought was,

why do we want to
produce someone else's show for?

But I said, "Sure,
send me the script,"

and when I read the script,

same with my partner
David Isaacs,

we both said, "Wow!

"This is really special.

"Yes, we want to be
a part of it."

We joined "Cheers"
right from the beginning.

We were there as
writer/producers,

and back in those days,
it was a very small staff.

It was really just
Glen and Les Charles

and David Isaacs and myself.

We were the luckiest
writers in town.

I mean, we had these master
teachers, legacy teachers,

who were bringing everything
that they had learned

and teaching it to all of us.

Jim Burrows started directing
on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"

and worked his way through MTM,
and then when a lot of

the producers of
"The Mary Tyler Moore Show"

went on to Paramount
and created "Taxi",

Jim became their
full-time director.

Jim directed probably close to
100 episodes of "Taxi".

In the world of
creating an atmosphere

of love and fun
and everything you do

is going to work because
if it works for Jimmy, it works.

He is so creative
and somebody who can

look around a set
and find 100 ways to be funny

that we in our writerly
verbal heads never imagined.

What Jimmy brought
to the whole concept

was really making the bar
a character in the show,

and Jimmy is like

the Mozart of
multi-camera directors.

I mean, he can do it all.

He is the A-plus director.

My boss at the time,
Brandon Tartikoff,

used to say,
on sitcom directors,

"There's Jimmy Burrows, and
then there's everybody else."

With the production
team in place,

casting begins for
the two lead characters,

Sam Malone and Diane Chambers.

For Sam and Diane,
I think the touchstone

for the Charles brothers
and Jimmy was

a Tracy-Hepburn relationship.

They wanted an attraction,
but they also wanted real sparks

and they wanted some
comedy muscle.

They cast them as a pair.

They were focused on the
chemistry of the two of them.

They weren't gonna pull
one actor that they liked

and another actress
that they liked

and hoped it worked out.

It was, you audition
with another,

and you moved up together.

Ted Danson
and Shelley Long make it to

the final stage of casting,
but two other paired couples

are vying for the top spot.

Next team was Fred Dryer
and Julia Duffy,

and they were good,
they were contenders.

The final team was
Bill Devane and Lisa Eichhorn.

The network in particular
liked Fred Dryer.

He was a former professional
football player.

He was newer to acting.

While executives
like Long,

they're aren't sold on Danson.

Ted Danson was early
on a strong contender.

However, the role of Sam Malone
had been originally written

as a football player,
ex-NFL player.

They looked at Ted
and they said,

"You're not really much
of an athlete, are you?"

He was like, "No,"
and Ted, tall, slender.

You wouldn't believe that
he had been in the NFL,

and so they said, relief pitcher
for the Boston Red Sox.

And at the end of the day,
there was something electric

that was going on between
Ted Danson and Shelley Long.

After the lengthy
and thorough casting process,

"Cheers" finally decides on
Shelley Long and Ted Danson

as their two leads.

I remember early on
in the run,

one day, Jim Burrows came up
to the office during lunch,

and he said, "Sam and Diane
are your money.

"No matter what show you do,

"even if it's not
a Sam and Diane show,

"at least have a page or two to
keep that relationship alive."

"Cheers" never, ever
compromised the writing.

They never lowered the bar.

They didn't appeal to
the lowest common denominator.

They wanted a smart show
and that's what they got.

There was a lot of skeptics
that didn't think "Cheers"

could appeal to the masses.

We were constantly
rewriting, constantly looking

for better, fresher, more clever
ways of telling stories.

The other thing that
the Charles brothers

were adamant about,
if there was a storyline

that had been on any other show,

they would say,
"Okay, it's out."

NBC rolls the dice
on the new format,

but will there be
an audience for it?

After an exhaustive
casting process,

"Cheers" has found their leads,
Sam and Diane.

James Burrows
and the Charles brothers

can't deny the chemistry between
Ted Danson and Shelley Long,

and the gamble pays off.

Ted and Shelley had
a great chemistry

that really brought out
the best in each other.

They both also were incredibly
gifted physical comedians.

Ted Danson was just
so charming.

We would do scenes
between the two of them,

even the fight scenes,
and they would just be magic.

You could sense
the sexual tension

between the two of them.

You could also sense
the fact that they both

enjoyed the bantering.

One of the things that
we always tried to do

with that relationship
was have it be a power struggle.

It was constantly

Sam and Diane trying
to top each other,

and that made it fun
and made it interesting.

Ted Danson.

From the minute he enters
the show in the pilot

and you see him
walking down that hall

and just running his hand
along the rail,

you can tell he loves this
place, he loves being here.

He makes it home,

and he makes it
a really comfortable,

good, easy home to live in.

I think it's like, uh,
he's intelligent,

and yet he'd prefer
not to show it,

'cause he thinks that's kind of
beside the point.

He was on the road a long time
as a baseball player,

so, uh, his, uh, exposure
to women is more along

the groupie line.

Shelley Long played
the toughest character ever

on a situation comedy.

It would be so easy
to hate Diane,

and Shelley Long somehow managed
to walk that tightrope

every single episode
where she was condescending,

she was true to the character,
she was kind of haughty.

She was also vulnerable,
she was also lovable.

She also had insecurities.

Shelley Long and Diane
have a lot in common,

striving perfectionists
who have a very strong sense

of what they want
and what they need

in the world to succeed.

I think Shelley Long
very early on showed us that

she was kind of
this wonderful spider

who could pull Sam
into her web.

That was always how
they conceived that character,

that she was the intellectual.

She had a life of knowledge
that was far beyond Sam,

and so in many ways,
she looked down on him,

but Sam also could poke
at who she was,

and there was a wonderful
repartee there.

With Sam and Diane,

you never knew whether
they were going to be, like,

totally turned on
or totally turned off,

and it was the fun of
having that constant surprise.

It was so much fun to write
for those two characters.

We would write some
very funny scenes

that had no jokes in them.

It was just the attitudes
that we had set up.

With Sam and Diane
in place,

the network focuses on
the supporting cast.

James Burrows
and the Charles brothers

had worked with Rhea Perlman
before on "Taxi".

They kind of wrote
the part for her

they knew that they
wanted her for it,

and she was pre-approved
by the studio.

Like, she didn't
have to audition.

It was, they love her,
let's use her,

let's bring her on.

Carla represents
the embittered working class,

and there's a lot of
harshness to Carla.

She's been kind of broken down
by her family situation

with a deadbeat husband
and an ex-husband,

and then, you know,
multiple relationships,

and Rhea Perlman,
in performing Carla,

keeps that abrasive edge,
but then will occasionally

give us just enough glimpse
to the hurt that she's feeling.

Rhea would insist that
Carla's not mean,

she's just honest,
and we the writers would go,

"Nah-uh, she's mean!"

But it was that honesty
underneath it.

It was that quality of
no filter,

saying the thing that
we all know is true,

but nobody else will say.

Coach is a fantastic
character because

he exists in a world
where there is no subtext,

there is only text.

What everyone says to him,
he believes wholeheartedly.

So much of the heart of
the series in the initial years

was Nicholas Colasanto
'cause he's also, like Sam,

this kind of meathead
stereotype, this dumb guy,

but the sweetest darn
dumb guy there was,

and the funniest darn
dumb guy there was.

Norm is
the anchor of the bar.

He's there at the end,
and the bar feels a little odd

when he's not there.

But he's an interesting
character in that

I think he functions best

as almost like
an alcoholic Greek chorus

that is commenting on
the action around him,

but he never needs
his own story line.

He doesn't really need
to carry a plot.

One of the most famous things
about Norm is his entrance,

where he walks into the bar
and everyone yells, "Norm,"

and someone says a setup line
and he hits a slam dunk closer

that just always gets a laugh.

- Afternoon, everybody.
- Norm!

Norman!

Hey, what's happening, Norm?

It's a dog-eat-dog world,

Sammy, and I'm wearing
Milk-Bone underwear.

George Wendt
did not get

all of those Emmy nominations

as Norm Peterson for being
so good at sitting in a stool

and drinking beer.

He got them because
he elevated those two things

to high art.

After auditioning
for another role,

John Ratzenberger turns to
the casting team with an idea.

In a Hail Mary pitch,

he said, "You guys have
a bar know-it-all?

"My local bar has
a know-it-all,"

and he did a improv bit
of what Cliff could be,

and they ended up loving it
and ultimately cast him.

Cliff Clavin
is a blowhard know-it-all

who's wearing a mailman costume
with high socks and short shorts

and he has his mustache,
and John Ratzenberger's voice

is perfect for this kind of
comedic character.

Everybody at "Cheers" has
the thing they're not finding

in the rest of their life
that they find at the counter

of this bar.

When you have
an ensemble,

then you have actors
who you really have to service,

and one of the things
we always said to our cast was,

you know, there may be episodes
where you're light,

but when you look at
the entire season,

we will devote at least
one episode to your character.

"Cheers" took
a group of misfits

and put them together
into one perfect show,

and it goes to show you
that there are more people

out there who don't fit in
than are perfect,

and that was the success
of "Cheers".

The show is about this
dysfunctional group of people

who, for whatever reason,
because they work in the bar

or they hang in the bar,
their home isn't at home.

Their home is here,

and it's always there for us
to join them in their home.

We know where they sit,
we know what they do.

They're our gang.

While shooting,
director Jim Burrows

masters the set

in his own unique style.

When you look at
that set, it's very large,

and can be very unwieldy.

He brought you right inside
and he did things

that were rather unorthodox.

An example, he would have
extras cross in front

of the actors.

Now, you never saw that.

It just created a depth
and a feeling that

you were really in that bar.

The "Cheers" pilot

airs on September
30th, 1982 on NBC.

Hello?

Sam?

Are you Sam?

Yes, he's here.
Someone named Vicky.

No, no, no, no, no, no!

We had, like,
a fast-food network,

and all of a sudden,
we were serving a gourmet meal,

and so, the audience,
they weren't watching

sophisticated adult
comedy on NBC.

Why would they?
They didn't know about it.

We didn't have
a lot of circulation,

and so it was kind of a dud.

For all
the assembled talent on screen

and behind the scenes,
not only does the premiere

rate last in its time slot,
but the entire first season

ranks as one of the lowest-rated
network shows of the year.

Would it already be last call
for the gang at "Cheers"?

On September 30th,
1982, NBC airs the very first

episode of "Cheers",
hoping to set a new standard

for network comedies
and to breathe life into

their otherwise lackluster
lineup in prime time.

Unfortunately,
very few people watched it.

People weren't used to
that kind of viewing,

and they also had other shows
that they already liked

that they were sticking with.

They weren't going to give
"Cheers" a chance.

It's a
disappointing first season,

but NBC executives
see few options.

Grant Tinker, who
was then the chairman of NBC,

popped his head in
Brandon's office,

said, "Wait, what are you
talking about?"

I said, "Well, you know,
talking about 'Cheers',

"we have to make
a decision pretty soon

"on whether that's a show
we can bring back."

"Cheers" was going to be
the lowest-rated network show

on any network
for that first season,

and Grant said, "Well,
do you have anything better?"

And we said, "Dear god, no."

And he said, "Well,
I think you made your decision."

When the network
airs reruns of

"Cheers" that summer,

the show climbs to 9th place
in the ratings.

Once people had a chance
to come to "Cheers",

all of a sudden,
it was like, wow.

As the "will they
or won't they" battle of wits

between Sam and Diane rages on,
audiences are riveted.

I'll tell you, go for it!

Are you okay?

Oh, yeah, yeah.

I'm fine, I'm fine.

At the end of season one,
we decided to have Sam and Diane

finally kiss and finally admit
their attraction to each other.

Great episode written by
the Charles brothers.

And that night,
when we did that scene,

and Sam and Diane finally kiss,

the audience went
absolutely crazy.

It was huge.

You disgust me.
I hate you.

- Are you as turned on as I am?
- More!

Bet me.

I've never heard
such a roar and such applause

from an audience,

and I remember turning to
my writing partner David Isaacs

at the time and I said,
"We peaked.

"There's nothing we can do
with these two characters

"that will ever match
the impact of this,

"whether they sleep together,
whether they get married,

"whether they break up."

Whatever it is,
it's not gonna have

the impact that this moment had.

Then the Emmy
nominations came around,

and they really echoed
our enthusiasm

and the critics' enthusiasm.

In its first season,

"Cheers" receives
13 Emmy nominations

and wins for
Outstanding Comedy Series,

Outstanding Writing,
and Outstanding Directing.

To be honest,
we went into the night

expecting to lose,

because it was
the final season of "MASH",

and the final episode of "MASH"
was seen by 121 million people,

and our show was seen by seven.

And then they say,

"And the Best Comedy
is 'Cheers'."

And we went nuts.

And then I started
hearing our music,

and it was like,
"Oh my god, we won!"

Shelley Long
also takes home a statue

for Outstanding Lead Actress
in a Comedy.

"Cheers" wins, and Shelley,
and so, writing and directing,

it's a big, wonderful commercial
for what we're doing.

"Cheers" is the only show
I've ever worked on

where you had
network executives saying,

"You guys will figure it out,"

and I think that's
part of the reason

it's as good
as it is consistently

is because everybody trusted
everybody to do their jobs.

Meanwhile,
writers worked to keep

the Sam and Diane dynamic fresh.

In season two, the creators
break the couple up.

That relationship,

that on-again, off-again
Sam and Diane dynamic,

had been fully explored,

and in order to
go further with it,

we're gonna have to probably
get them together together.

Although there had been shows
that had tried that,

like "Moonlighting,"

and it hadn't
worked out very well.

Nobody knew quite what
was going to happen

after we got Sam
and Diane together.

Then they fell in
love, and then there

was a proposal,
and then there was a rejection.

What the Charles brothers
and Jimmy felt they needed

was they needed another
romantic interest for Diane.

The choice was to go
against the grain.

You don't want to step on
what you've established

with Sam,

so they went for
another intellectual,

and there were a number
of actors that auditioned,

and then there was Kelsey,
and for the boys,

it was like, "That's our guy,
Kelsey Grammer."

In season three,
Grammer joins the cast

as pretentious psychiatrist
Frasier Crane,

a new love interest for Diane.

Kelsey Grammer was brought on
as a foil to Sam Malone.

The key to Frasier is I think
he actually really cares,

but he doesn't have
all the equipment to express it.

Frasier was only supposed
to be in, like, three episodes,

but Kelsey Grammer was so good,

and the Charles brothers
recognized that

they might have
lightning in a bottle,

and so they kept it going,
and it became a triangle.

If you're an actor and
you want to get more material

just nail what you've
been given,

and, wow, did Kelsey understand
how to do that.

And even when
his romantic relationship

burnt out with Diane,

it was still clear that
this was a character and a voice

that everyone wanted
in that bar.

With Kelsey Grammer
signed on,

Shelley Long delivers
some personal news.

What came to us is,
she's pregnant.

We're gonna hide it.

It's not gonna be
a part of the narrative,

and we left that up to the magic
of what Jimmy Burrows does.

Both Shelley Long
and Rhea Perlman

were pregnant that year,
and so the storyline had

Shelley Long going to Europe
with Frasier Crane,

and so they had her
in a lot of coats

and a lot of long jackets
going through Europe

where her pregnancy
would not show.

Rhea Perlman stayed in the bar
and always crossed stage

holding a big tray
in front of her belly,

and I believe she had, like,

three children during
the run of "Cheers".

Blessings
for the "Cheers" family,

but in 1985, tragedy strikes
when Nicholas Colasanto

dies from a heart attack
in his home.

Nick Colasanto,
we loved him.

That was such a beautiful
father-son relationship

that Sam had with Coach.

But Nick had a heart attack
and he was gone.

Losing the Coach
was a huge loss for the show.

To replace him,
the Charles brothers

always wanted to go
a different way,

and not just bring in somebody
who is kind of like the Coach.

So they thought,
well, let's go younger.

They wrote the character
of Woody Boyd.

They wanted him to be just 21,

like just old enough
to work in a bar,

and that's when we put out
the casting call,

and we were able to
cast it with Woody Harrelson,

who was amazing,

and he changed the show because
he brought a youthfulness

into the show
and his dating life,

he was living in Boston,
he was from, I believe, Indiana,

and he just added
new energy to the show

that was really valuable.

After he got the part,

he came into my office
and asked to use my phone,

and I said, "Of course."

And he called his mother
and he said,

"Mom, I got the 'Cheers' role.

"I want you to quit your job."

And I was, like,
knocked out by that,

and it was with such affection
and such love for his mom,

who had raised
three boys by herself,

and he didn't want her
to have to work so hard anymore.

He could send her money now,
he had a real job.

That ushered in
a delightful,

crazy dumb guy

into our world.

It was a new voice,
a new dimension.

"Cheers" did such
a good job of reloading

over the years, especially for
such a simple show.

They brought in people so well.

The replacements
that they created

were great replacements.

"Cheers" is a show about
the chemistry of its cast

and stunningly how they could
replace elements of that cast

and still maintain
that chemistry.

Also joining
the gang at "Cheers",

Dr. Lilith Sternin,

played by Broadway actress
Bebe Neuwirth.

Bebe came in to do
just a little one-off,

and she did one scene,
and we all looked at each other

in the editing room and went,
oh, we have to bring her back.

I'll get the script
at home one night

and I'll read through it
and laugh out loud

alone in my apartment,
and then go into the reading,

and it is even, you know,
80 times as funny.

When you have
new characters introduced,

then you also have
a different chemistry.

You have new storylines
that you can do,

and if the character works,
it can keep the show going

for another two, three,
in the case of "Cheers",

six more years.

I think change really ended up
being good for the show.

"Cheers" enjoys
a cast of colorful characters,

but by the fifth season,

Long announces
she's leaving the show.

Shelley made the decision
midway through season five.

She was contractually obligated
through five seasons,

and she fulfilled
her obligation.

She had a burgeoning
movie career.

By this time,
Long had appeared in

"Outrageous Fortune",

"The Money Pit",
"Irreconcilable Differences",

and "Night Shift".

I think part of it too is

because the Sam
and Diane relationship

over five years had kind of gone
through twists and turns,

and it was sputtering
a little bit.

When she announced
she was leaving,

I personally, I panicked.

We had perfection,
don't mess with it.

We were losing what was
the comic engine of the show,

the central romantic
comedy relationship,

and that's not easy
to duplicate or replace.

That was scary.

And then came Kirstie.

It is 1987, and
"Cheers" is at the top

of its game, five years in
and still a hit in the ratings,

winning awards and securing a
top spot on NBC's "Must-See TV"

Thursday night lineup.

But then, after five seasons,
Shelley Long leaves the show.

There was grave concern

that the show would not
be able to survive.

So the answer to

"What are you gonna do
without Shelley Long,"

the answer became Rebecca Howe.

The idea was to give Sam
an adversarial attraction,

not with somebody
who's intellectual,

but somebody who is
entrepreneurial.

We were going to bring in
somebody who would be

Sam's new boss,
the woman he has to answer to.

The part
goes to Kirstie Alley.

We all loved her
at NBC as soon as

the first episode was shot.

We all knew that we lucked out
yet again on "Cheers"

and had the perfect actress
for the perfect role.

Kirstie walked on that stage

and she didn't suffer from
any ghosts of Shelley Long.

I mean, she owned it,
and she was immediately kind of

one of the boys in that
"Cheers" mens' bar club,

and the cast loved her.

She had swagger,
she was strong.

She was tough
in a very different way

than the strength of Diane.

Tell you what,
why don't you

put that back where you found.

That way, we'll know
where it is when we need it.

When Hell freezes over.

I remember the first night

we filmed that first
episode with Kirstie,

I was like, "Oh my god,
this is gonna work."

And I raced off the stage,
I got to a phone.

Didn't have cell phones then.

I called Brandon at home,
and I said, "It's gonna work."

He said, "What do you mean?"

I said, "She's fantastic."

And it's a new dynamic.

Sam is like rocked back
from her punch,

and it's a very different punch
than what Shelley had.

After one
particular scene,

the writing team taps into
Rebecca's more emotional side.

We were having trouble
in those early episodes with her

finding the funny
in that character,

and then in an episode,
she's upset and she cries.

Is there something wrong?

Hey, well, yes,
I understand, of course.

Here, here, have a seat, here.

We all looked at each
other on the stage and went,

"Oh, oh, that's where
the funny is."

It's not that she is the,

you know, the biggest, toughest,
ballsiest woman in the bar.

It's that she's the biggest
loser in the bar!

And once we set on that,
we tried to find ways

to make her cry
every single week.

It's like a light bulb
went off over all of our heads.

If Rebecca is a mess,
she's really funny,

so let's do whatever we can
to upend her professional life

and her personal life,
her sex life,

whatever we can do
to just keep her a mess.

And once we made that switch,
then we were off to the races.

The show, in a sense,
got a shot of adrenaline

because it went in
a different direction.

They had a different
kind of chemistry,

but it was equally wonderful.

As audiences
embraced Kirstie Alley's

Rebecca Howe,
the cast and creative team

worked together on storylines,

at the time
a rare treat in Hollywood.

Sometimes when you
go down to the set,

you'll see that there is
a real animosity

between the writers
and the actors,

and that was never the case
with "Cheers".

There was a tremendous
collaboration between

the writers and the actors.

But as popularity
continues to grow

and more characters
are added to the cast,

the writers face new challenges.

You've got a cast of
12 beloved regulars that

we're trying to squeeze into
26 minutes of airtime,

so that was challenging.

We as a writer's room
always felt obliged to top

the last best thing we did,

so it was not without
its challenges.

It was fun but hard.

But in 1992,
Ted Danson announces season 11

will be his last.

Teddy was right.

It was time.

We were struggling a little bit
to come up with new stories.

That just seems like
time to move on.

Last call
for "Cheers",

but the cast and crew gear up
for the send-off of a lifetime.

After 11 seasons,
Ted Danson announces

he is leaving "Cheers"
after the 1992-93 season

with the show
still on top of the ratings.

After briefly considering
"Cheers" without Sam Malone,

the creators and NBC agree
to bring the hit show to an end.

Make no mistake,
Ted Danson was our rudder.

You know, he was the center
so that we could navigate

from half of the run
of the show,

the first five years
with Shelley Long brilliantly,

and then Kirstie Alley.
So all you say after

Ted saying, "It's time for me"
is "Thank you."

NBC heavily
promotes the finale,

calling it the television
event of a lifetime.

"Cheers" is one of
the greatest comedies

of all time,
and the audience had spent

11 years with that show.

For the audience,
there harbored this kind of,

"Wow. Wow, how will it end?"

The problems with
a series finale,

number one, the expectations
of the audience,

and number two,

networks wanting to
expand the show

because they're gonna get
Super Bowl-type ratings.

They want
Super Bowl-type commercials,

so they want
that kind of revenue.

"Cheers" had one advantage,

and that was
they could bring back Diane.

So there was something
that was still unresolved

that could be resolved
by the series finale.

In the last show,
Sam first leaves the bar behind

for a new life with Diane,

but Danson's character
returns to Cheers without her,

realizing Sam and Diane
can never be together.

There were a lot of people
that just wished that

Sam and Diane
had gotten together

and gone off into the sunset,

but the feeling was,

they're never gonna live
happily ever after.

I mean, they just aren't.

And ultimately,

I loved the honesty
of the choice,

and I think
it's incredibly satisfying

as we're left with
Sam and his bar,

and he says goodbye.

The last episode
airs on May 20th, 1993 on NBC,

and ends with the Cheers gang
hanging out one last time

just before Sam closes the bar.

Sorry, we're closed.

Sam says,
"Sorry, we're closed."

I cried.

I loved it. Poetic.

I think if you had to take
one scene to define

Glen and Les Charles, for me,
it would be that scene.

Most of
the "Cheers" family

watches the finale
together in Boston

while a crowd of thousands
watched outside.

We're hearing laughs
like 10 seconds delayed

from Boston Common
from 20,000 people.

When it was over,
the cast went to the window

waving to the adoring crowd.

It was so emotional.

We were all hugging and crying.

That night,
the cast joins Jay Leno

on "The Tonight Show" for a
memorable appearance in Boston.

Live from
the Bull and Finch in Boston,

the very bar and location
that was kind of the birthplace.

It was a night of celebration,
of laughter, of love.

But the Leno
appearance quickly goes

off the rails.

We all arrived
at the bar at seven.

We've been drinking now
for four and a half hours.

They were hammered.

The cast was so drunk
by the time "The Tonight Show"

live portion was going out.

They were very emotional,
and so they just got silly.

You know, you'd like to say
something to Kirstie?

All right, Kirstie?
- Wait, wait.

Kirstie, you are
my best friend,

but we all need to
say this to you.

- Yes.
- You're stupid!

It was a frat party
that went bad.

11 years of our lives
was just suddenly over.

The series finale of "Cheers"

is still one of the most-watched
episodes of all time.

Every once in a while,
magic happens in a sitcom

where everything comes together,

and the writing was just
amazing,

the casting was amazing,

direction, just the idea that
they all met in this bar

where everybody knows your name.

A Sam and Diane relationship
is now so core

to so many sitcoms, you know.

The spinoff "Frasier" has
the Niles and Daphne dynamic.

"The Office" has Jim and Pam.

"Friends" has Ross and Rachel,

and that all goes
back to "Cheers".

And as Littlefield
had hoped, after 11 years,

"Cheers" changes the programming
landscape for NBC.

There was no
sophisticated adult comedy

on NBC until "Cheers".

A very slow start,
but once they realized that

they had found
a good friend in "Cheers",

that really became
a signal for us

of what we were
capable of doing.

When "Cheers"
came to a natural end,

Kelsey Grammer was ready
to do "Frasier,"

and the writers
were the writers from "Cheers"

and it was directed
by Jimmy Burrows,

and it was another amazing show.

So many people have
gone back to season one

and watched every one
of the 11 seasons.

That's an amazing feeling
to know that those ideas

that you've bounced off
each other

in a wild writer's room in
the '80s are still resonating.

Watching an episode of
"Cheers" is like therapy.

You know the jokes,
and yet, it's so comfortable

to be with those friends again.

I continue to laugh at the jokes

that I laughed at
nearly 40 years ago.

I fall in love
with those characters again

every time that I watch.

I think it goes back to
that sense of family.

It felt like a family,

and it felt like a family
that you'd want to be part of.

People relate to
workplace comedies because,

at their best,
they're a family,

and workplace
comedies allow that

'cause it allows
different people

from different backgrounds
to become your family.

If you are lucky enough
to land on a show

where you can be
as smart as you can

and as heartful and as feeling
and as dumb as you can be

because you have this
brilliant ensemble of characters

and cast of actors who can play
all those different notes,

um [sighing] run with it
as hard and as long and as fast

and as fun as you can.

I've worked on
a lot of sitcoms in my career,

and I just believe
sometimes magic happens,

and everything comes together:
the writing, the directing,

the casting, and that's what
happened with "Cheers".

We wanted
the audience to laugh,

but more importantly,
we wanted the audience to care,

and that was our,
really, guiding star.