All language subtitles for TV.We.Love.S01E07.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[narrator]
The golden age of television.

I Love Lucy didn't just
change American television,

it invented American television.

[narrator] Back when one screen
brought everyone together.

Watching television
was a family event.

[narrator]
The shows that shaped us.

The Brady Bunch
was part of the American soul.

It's timeless.

[narrator]
The familiar faces.

Ralph Cramden
was loved on The Honeymooners.

Pow! Right in the kisser!

He was a presence.

[narrator]
The unforgettable moments.

Dynasty captured the essence

of what the 1980s
were about in America.

[narrator]
These are their stories.

[man] Cheers is the pinnacle
of how great the sitcom can be.

[narrator]
This is TV We Love.

♪

It's 1982.

Ronald Reagan is the president.

The U.S. was in a deep
recession, high unemployment.

America's still in the Cold War,

and there's
the war on drugs going on.

[narrator] For relief, gym
goers sweated out

to Jane Fonda's workout

and dance along
to Michael Jackson's Thriller.

And in that setting,

a show premiered
about an average Boston bar.

♪

♪ Sometimes you wanna go ♪

♪ Where everybody
knows your name ♪

Cheers is one
of the best sitcoms ever made.

You disgust me.
I hate you.

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

Cheers was just funny as hell.

I am running with scissors.

♪ Because you're
Kelly, Kelly ♪

I am too stupid to live.

But when Cheers premiered,

it certainly was not the hit
that we come to know it as.

Glen and Les Charles

were the creators of the show
along with Jimmy Burroughs.

A few years before Cheers
was developed,

Glen and Les Charles
and Jim Burroughs

were working on
another show on ABC, Taxi.

And in 1982, NBC is in really,
really bad third place.

Many people were predicting,
in fact,

that NBC was going
to go out of business.

So this was a great opportunity
for Glen and Les Charles

and Jim Burroughs to form their
own company and create a show.

The quality of their work
was so well known

that they were able to secure
a series order from NBC.

A 13-episode order blind
before the show

was even really
created and put together.

And so they set out to create

a setting that could
be the core for the show.

We were really big fans
at that time of Faulty Towers,

and we'd kind of been thinking
of the idea of a hotel.

But realized that even
in a hotel,

where do some of the most
interesting scenes take place?

The bar.

It occurred to us that very few
shows had ever focused on bars.

It was a great place for people
to meet there and they celebrate

there and console themselves
when they had a tragedy.

And just a great focal point
for human drama and comedy.

When they were deciding
where to set

their fictional bar,
the producers were thinking,

"well, sports bars
are very popular.

So let's pick
a city that has a real

affinity for its sports teams.

And they fell in love
with Boston as an idea.

Les Charles was in Boston doing
research,

looking at different bars.

And at the Ritz,
the concierge said,

"there's a really great bar
in Boston called Bull & Finch.

It's amazing."
And they went there

and just knew immediately
this is the feel,

and kind
of bar that they wanted.

And what they came
up with was Cheers.

The idea of Cheers is that
it's owned by Sam Malone,

an alcoholic
and a former athlete.

He's the epitome of charisma,
the ultimate playboy.

My mother told me
to watch out for guys in bars.

Well, then let's get out of this
bar so you don't have to worry.

And Diane
is this hyper-educated,

highly pretentious,

yap-yap-yap-yap-yap-yap-yap-yap
talking constantly.

Back in college, I held a party

where everyone came as
their favorite Elizabethan poet.

I remember
I chose Christopher Marlowe

because I was deeply
into Dr. Faustus at the time.

And the crux of the story is

the attraction between
Sam and Diane,

who come from two different
worlds, and the way it affects

the rest of the patrons
and workers within the bar.

I've never met an intelligent
woman that I'd want to date.

On behalf of the intelligent
women around the world,

may I just say...

And so when they were casting
Cheers, they were looking

particularly
for pairs of Sam and Diane.

Initially,
the character of Sam Malone

was written
to be a football player.

So the studio
wanted Fred Dreyer

because he was a former
football player.

But the Charles brothers
and Burroughs

really loved Ted Danson
on Taxi.

This young woman
came to me this morning

with a hairdo that her high
school must have found boring.

And I gave her this.

Ted Danson was
an absolute gift from the gods

because it is so hard
in Hollywood to find

a leading man who is handsome
and could do light comedy.

But the interesting thing

is that Ted Danson
is so unlike that character.

I never went to bars.
I never picked up somebody.

You know, if the woman
was standing opposite me,

buck naked, I'd go,
"oh. Oh, me?"

But he was able to pull it off.

And they had
to rework that character

because he doesn't really have
the build of a football player.

So they made him a relief
pitcher for the Red Sox,

which Ted Danson
fits that build perfectly.

The producers were considering
Julia Duffy

as his possible Diane.

But we kept hearing
from independent sources,

you got to see
this new lady in town,

Shelley Long,
she's perfect for your show.

And when Shelley was
paired with Ted,

I think that they could
really see the spark.

-Don't you ever hit me again.
-Like hell.

They just enjoyed
playing with each other.

And it really took off.
And we, the three of us

huddled and said,
there's no choice here.

And now they had to find
the other main cast members.

Cheers assembled
one of the all-time greatest

ensemble casts
in television history.

They got Nicholas Colasanto,
who played Coach, a beloved

character, wonderful
character, the bartender.

Coach is this beacon
of just earnest naivete

that I think
the bar really needed.

And some
of that innocence is explained

by him having been hit
in the head by some fastballs.

Well, sometimes I took
one right in the old melon.

That's why he is that way.

But you need to be really smart

to play a dumb character.
And that was Nick Colasanto.

And we wanted
a volatile waitress.

That's a contrast to Diane.

Does not suffer fools gladly
and has had a very rough life

and a chip on her shoulder
as well.

[screaming]

And Rhea is not
very much like Carla.

She's a little bit
like Carla, but not very much.

She's a very nice lady
and a lovely actress.

Rhea once said to us, Carla's
not mean, she's just honest.

Thank God I don't
have an alcoholic personality.

You don't have a personality.

The character Cliff
is so interesting

because it didn't
originally exist

for the show
in the original script.

John Ratzenberger, he came
in originally

to audition
for the role of Norm.

And he left the audition,

came back into the room
and said,

have you thought
about having a know-it-all?

You know,
a real Boston know-it-all.

And he was
just the man for that.

If a pig had thumbs
in a language, he could

be trained to do
a simple manual labor.

You mean they'd
be part of the workforce?

Yeah, yeah. They give you 20,
30 years of loyal service.

Then at the retirement
dinner, you could eat them.

But the bar feels a little
incomplete without Norm there.

Les Charles
once worked as a bartender

and the character of Norm
is based on one of the regulars

that he knew as a bartender.

And he was always
there at closing time.

[laughs] Having just one more
beer and it was the same.

Very much like Norm, we would
get, every time the phone rang,

"if that's my wife,
I just left."

And then George Wendt
was cast in that role.

And what made
Norm's character so special

is he didn't look
like a television star.

He didn't sound
like a television star.

He looked like your neighbor.
And he looked like a guy,

ultimately,
you want to have a beer with.

And he has
the fantastic entrances

where everyone calls his name.

-Afternoon, everybody.
-[all] Norm!

-Afternoon, everybody.
-[all] Norm!

-Afternoon, everybody.
-Norm!

That was it, Woody.
Last chance, I'm out of here.

That first season of Cheers,
the staff was very, very small.

It was Glen
and Les Charles, Jimmy Burrows,

and me and my partner,
David Isaacs, and that was it.

And we learned so much
from the Charles brothers.

The Charles brothers
are the best writing team

I have ever seen.

And Jimmy knows
how to deal with actors.

I had the great pleasure

and privilege of working
with Jimmy Burrows.

So I understand firsthand

what it's like to work
with a director like that,

who knows how to take
what a performer is doing

and giving them
just the right note

to take that comedy
or that beat to the next level.

And he's a whiz with the cameras
and the technical aspect of it.

And he was able to really
create a terrific-looking show.

And the Cheers theme song,
Where Everybody Knows Your Name,

is one of the most classic
openings

to any TV show in history.

It was written by Gary Portnoy
and Judy Hart-Angelo.

The producers asked
Portnoy and Hart-Angelo

to write the Cheers theme song.

And they submitted three songs.
And the third one

they liked,
so they revised the lyrics.

And they settled on that catchy
phrase of,

Where Everybody Knows Your Name.

The first seven-note intro
is instantly recognizable.

♪ Making your way
in the world today ♪

♪ Takes everything you've got ♪

The story kicks
off with Diane Chambers

walking into the bar
with her professor boyfriend.

They're just stopping
for a drink on their way

to start their new life.

Sumner, this is crazy.

Diane, we're
about to be married.

-I know--
-Married! Congratulations!

But he abandons
and dumps her there.

So she takes refuge in the bar
and Sam gives her a job.

I do need a job.
And I'll find one.

And you can bet
that it won't be waiting tables.

-What are you qualified to do?
-Nothing.

Shelley Long
is a fabulous actress.

And there's really great
chemistry

between her and Ted Danson.

Everyone knows that hate
is not the opposite of love.

Indifference is.

Well, whatever you say.
I really don't care.

But they do also break from that
for some really great moments.

Cheers.
Yeah, just a sec.

Is there a Rudy Pantuso here?

-That's you, coach.
-Speaking.

I saw the pilot of Cheers.
And I thought it was very funny.

But when Cheers premiered
in September of 1982,

it certainly was not the hit
that we come to know it as.

It was literally
the least watched thing

on all of television, according
to the Nielsen ratings.

It was a flop.

[whooshing]

When Cheers first
went on the air, it failed

spectacularly in the ratings.

There were some weeks
where it was literally

the least watched thing
on all of television.

We were saying,
what are we doing here?

No one's watching this.

As someone who had
to make a lot of decisions

about programs
that didn't do very well

in their initial runs,
I don't know if a show

like Cheers would succeed today

if it had
the ratings out of the gate

in its first season that it did.

But even though we were not
getting great ratings,

I just felt this
was something special.

It was a show that we
were incredibly proud of.

There was incredibly
strong, smart writing.

But also phenomenal characters
that you grow to love.

Ultimately, mine is Sam Malone,
the driving force of the show.

You know, I haven't seen
Christy since Woodstock.

-You were at Woodstock?
-A friend of mine told me to go

down there, he said it's a great
place to pick up chicks.

Should've known
you weren't there for the music.

There was music at Woodstock?

And Shelley Long is underrated
for her physical comedy.

There's one episode
where she was on a motorcycle

and she comes in
with this windswept hair

and she just owns that moment
when she enters the bar.

And Norm and Cliff are so funny.

I mean, it doesn't
exactly take a Phi Beta Kappa

to stick a brush in a bucket
and slap it on a wall, does it?

I mean, any
monkey can do that, huh?

Oh yeah, as opposed
to the high level of skill

and precision it takes to shove
a postcard through a slot.

I love the episode,
The Boys in the Bar.

Cliff... hasn't had
a date in quite some time.

Where there are a couple
gay guys in the bar who make

it known that they're there
but they don't say who they are

and it sparks paranoia among
people like Norm and Cliff.

Oh yeah, Norm. Well,
how come we've never seen

this Vera you're allegedly
married to, huh?

Really smartly written.

Yeah, the guys I was talking
about are still here.

-Right, guys?
-Right.

And Cheers would
have people come in.

They weren't main
characters of the show.

They were just
people who came into the bar.

Paul Krapence was one
of the bar flies at the stool

and his one-liners became
a fan favorite on the show.

You did good, kid,
but I still think

I got a more reliable
system.

Yeah, I could really use one.
What's yours?

I just bet opposite
whatever you pick.

Norm and Cliff
were friends of mine.

So I was sort
of part of their little subset

and I did more
than 50 episodes, ultimately.

So even though our ratings
were terrible the first year,

at the time,
the president of NBC

was Grant Tinker, who was
just a wonderful executive.

And he felt, you know,
unless we have something better,

then let's stick with this.

His feeling was give them
quality and they'll find it.

Most good shows,
in my opinion, take more time

to find an audience
than not-so-good shows.

And also Cheers was
definitely championed

by TV critics and it won awards.

Shelley Long for Cheers.

And the winner is Cheers.

[cheers and applause]

I think that alerted
a lot of people to, wow,

this is a show that won
the Emmy and I've never seen it.

And so people having heard word
of mouth that the show was good,

started tuning into Cheers
and falling in love with it.

The moment I'm proudest of from
season one is the last one.

It's the very last moment.

And that was when
Sam and Diane finally kiss.

You disgust me.
I hate you.

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

[audience laughter]

That was just
such a great moment.

Seeing Sam and Diane
in mortal combat

that ends in
full-on mutual lust.

And the audience went nuts.

That moment is, I think,

one of the great moments
in the history of television.

It was the first show that had

an actual
will-they-or-won't-they.

The way Ted Danson
and Shelley Long,

the way their characters
were written,

and the way they slowly
came together after squabbling.

It was perfect.

It certainly influenced many
programs that came after it.

Sam and Diane, as a
will-they-or-won't-they couple,

has become a generic
element of the sitcom.

Most TV shows before
weren't terribly serialized.

Every episode was
self-contained because you never

know if people have been
able to watch the previous show.

And there's
no means of ready access

for them to go re-watch
an episode that they missed.

But in the 1980s, that was
like an act of trust

in the American audience they'd
be able to follow this along.

Cheers really
was a master class

of how to keep
your characters changing

and evolving
in ways that were new

and did keep the audience
wanting to see more.

And our ratings were vastly
improved

when The Cosby Show premiered.

The Cosby Show was a phenomenon.

And it brought lots of eyeballs
to NBC on Thursday night.

So The Cosby Show led
into Family Ties, which led

into Cheers,
which led into Night Court,

which led into
Hill Street Blues.

And so Cheers was critical

to the success of must-see
TV in the '80s on NBC.

-Hello, Sam.
-And then Kelsey Grammer

brought another
whole level to that show.

I'm Dr. Frasier Crane.
I'm sorry I startled you.

Kelsey Grammer initially

was only supposed
to be in three episodes.

I always thought
of him as a male Diane.

Very pompous and overly erudite.

And it was interesting
that early on, the audiences

did not like him because he was
coming between Sam and Diane.

But we saw that we had
lightning in a bottle

with this guy and just kept
writing more and more.

There was not a line
you could throw at him

that he wouldn't elevate.

I am running with scissors!

And eventually was brought on
as a full cast member.

Well, Sam, Diane
and I really must be going.

But it looks like we'll
be seeing each other again.

But during that period
of time, Nick got sick.

He had certain heart issues.

And if you look at his last
episodes,

Nick does not look well at all.

You could see
his health kind of declining.

He was getting skinnier.

The cast was told
he has heart disease.

And we don't know
how long he'll have.

But it's not looking good.

And he died
at the end of that season.

It really felt like the first
time you lose a family member.

So yeah, it was very sad.

It hit the cast really hard.

He was very beloved.
They were very close.

[Shelley]
He was just a dear, dear man.

And meant a lot to us,
and especially to me.

He was one of my
closest friends on the set.

Oh, Coach.
I'm gonna miss you.

How do you replace
somebody like Coach?

There are people who think that
that was the end of Cheers

[whooshing]

After Nicholas Colasanto
passes away,

the producers knew they would
need a new regular

that could work in the bar.

There wasn't any discussion
of replacing the actor

and just keeping Coach as is and
just putting someone else in.

Or replacing him
with a similar aged individual.

When we lost Nick, we knew
we wanted youth on the show.

We wanted to go younger.

The network thought
that was a good idea.

And they had created the idea
of this character

that they were gonna name Woody.
He wasn't named after the actor.

That was the name
that they already had in place.

Excuse me,
my name's Woody Boyd.

I mean, how many
Woodys have you met in your day?

Woody Harrelson came in

and there's just something
special about him.

He brought all
of that genuine,

honest to goodness,
Indiana energy.

And we needed
that energy, that innocence.

He was amazing.

I'm a friend
of Coach's, is he around?

The producers chose not to do
a specific episode

about Coach's passing.

When Woody Boyd is introduced,

he comes to the bar to
meet Coach and Sam just says,

I'm sorry, Woody,
I guess you hadn't heard.

No, Coach passed away
a couple months ago.

Coach gone!
I can't hardly believe it.

There's a moment of somberness,
but they just treat

Coach's passing happened
in that interim

for the people
in the bar and for the viewers.

I don't remember
him mentioning a Woody.

We never met.
We were kind of like pen pals.

-You exchanged letters?
-No, pens.

And he just revitalized
the whole show.

Not to mention
which he's just fall down funny.

-You got a spot right there.
-Yeah, yeah, right.

You're not going
to make me look like a dope.

Woody really scratched a lot
of the same itch that Coach did

though, in terms of the naivete
to the point of stupidity.

But every once in a while had
something really sharp to say.

You know,
when I left home,

my father gave me some very
sound advice.

Never trust a man
who can't look you in the eye.

Never talk when you can listen.

And never spend venture capital
on a limited partnership

without a detailed analytical
fiduciary perspective.

It just adds to the comedy

because we're not used to
that coming from Woody.

And Lilith
is a brilliant character.

We wrote an episode for Kelsey,
and to start off that episode,

we were going
to see him on a bad date.

And that bad date was
just going to be a one and done

appearance by Bebe Neuwirth.

I thought that we might
have a drink or two,

thereby lowering
our inhibitions a bit

and enabling us
to go back to your place

and have a physical
encounter of some sort.

Well, we won't.

And there was that magic.
There was that chemistry.

There was something we had never
seen on the show before.

And so we thought,
let's bring her back.

She just owns the screen
when she is on there as Lilith.

Her line readings are so funny.

The way that she can imbue such
kind of sardonic

disdain into simple words.

If you ever open that gateway
to hell you call a mouth

in my direction again,
I'll snap off your extremities

like dead branches and feed
them to you at gunpoint.

There's a whole lineup
of iconic Cheers episodes.

I do love Thanksgiving Orphans.
That is a good one.

-It's Thanksgiving, Carla.
-That was a favorite.

We still get
a lot of love for that

every November
that rolls around.

It's a really funny episode.

Thank you, Carla.

Hello, everyone.

And the food fight
is obviously iconic.

Kiss your butt goodbye.

[everyone yelling]

And it does have the only
appearance of Vera, sort of.

Norm's wife Vera
is one of the most

famous never seen
characters on television

where there'll be references
to what this character is doing.

Norm's on the phone with Vera
very often,

but they never cast a Vera.

And then you hear Norm
welcoming Vera from off screen

and Shelley Long throws a pie
at Ted Danson and he dodges it.

And then an actress walks
in with pie all over her face.

Everybody, this is Vera.

So we do
kind of have Vera on screen

for one brief moment there.

But we've never seen
her face on the series.

Eventually Cheers became

one of the biggest
shows on television.

And the show that everybody
was talking about.

But Shelley Long
decided to leave the show.

-[applause]
-Thank all of you.

I was surprised
because it was doing so well.

She was doing so well.
The show was obviously a hit.

She was very, very popular.

She'd done five years as
Diane Chambers

over 100 episodes.

And Shelley Long had
a movie career,

and it was about to take off
big time.

And also she did feel like
the Sam and Diane relationship,

we've done everything we can do.

They fought and then
they got together,

and then they were together
and then they broke up.

I mean, there's only so many
ways you can do that.

But there was a lot of concern

that the show would go in
the tank without Shelley.

I mean, it's half of the core
of the show

is going to be walking off.

So yeah, of course it would
be so scary to say what's next.

None of us knew
what was going to happen.

The producers were hoping
that Shelley Long,

right until the last minute,
might have a change of heart.

So when they shot the fifth
season finale of Cheers

and they also shot
a different ending to the scene

where Sam and Diane
get married

in case
Shelley changed her mind.

You saying to me that
you want to marry me?

I do! Are you saying
you want to marry me?

-I do!
-I now pronounce you

-man and wife.
-[yelping]

It was a way to keep
spoilers from being revealed.

Had the word gotten out
that it's definite

that Sam and Diane
break up,

it might've leaked out
before the episode aired.

So after
the in-studio audience left,

they continued filming
a scene in which

Sam and Diane essentially
just break up,

and Diane goes to fulfill
her dream of writing a book.

And that was what aired.

Have a good life.

Ted Danson's delivery
of that line is so fantastic.

It's like I'm getting choked
up just thinking about it.

Like, he knows that she's
gone, and I felt that too.

I felt that too.
Yeah.

I've actually never said this
even out loud,

certainly not on camera,
but um...

I'm really sad they didn't
get together in the end.

Everyone at Cheers was very
worried when Shelley left.

She was so integral
to the show for so many years

that to lose Shelley,

we didn't know whether
the show could survive that.

[whooshing]

It was controversial
when Shelley Long

chose to leave Cheers.

It was truly, I think,

one of the hardest
decisions of my life.

There were a couple of TV
critics who said,

that's the end of Cheers,

when Shelley
walked out the door.

Because everyone believed
that Cheers was Sam and Diane.

It was the Sam
and Diane show, Sam and Diane.

How do you do a show
with just Sam and no Diane?

They didn't try to recast Diane

and I think that was
a good idea.

We wanted her to be a
very different character.

We didn't want her to be
just Diane Chambers 2.0.

-How do you do?
-A-who-a?

And Kirstie Alley was just
a breath of fresh air.

Get over here.
She's supposed to be with me.

-[humming]
-Kirstie Alley, everybody.

Kirstie's first day on the set?

Well, I thought it would
be awkward for everybody,

so I dressed like Shelley.

She was wearing
a blonde wig like Shelley.

And we just knew like, okay.
Okay, she's going to be fun.

But it took us
a while to really find

how to write that character.

She introduces this
very serious, confident woman.

That was really going
to put Sam in his place.

You know, Mr. Malone,
we've known each other

only seconds
and I'm already tired of you.

We just couldn't figure out

what the magic was
and what the funny was.

And then one day,
Kirstie Alley showed us

that she could swallow
a cigarette

and then push it back out
of her mouth fully lit.

Ah-ha!

Hey, where's the pool table?
Wrong room.

[audience laughter]

And we went,
"oh, we can use that."

And more important than that,

she showed us
that she could cry.

Maybe you could send me
a postcard from the Caribbean

and address it to me at,

oh, I don't know,
YWCA Skid Row.

[audience laughter]

And not since,
I think, Lucille Ball.

Man, what a great cry.

Has there been a more wonderful
and varied set of cries?

I am too stupid to live.

When the writers saw
how well she could fake cry

and how she could be really
good at playing a mess,

they realized that's who she is.

We all just said, that's it.

Have this beautiful,
seemingly together woman

be a complete and utter mess.

And she was
really, really funny.

So Cheers was not slowed down
by the loss of its leading lady.

And in fact, people amazingly
gave Rebecca Howe a chance.

Talk about a stroke of luck.

But there is a group of people
who feel,

ah, after Diane,
the show is terrible.

And then there's other people
who came upon Cheers

in the fifth, sixth,
seventh season with Rebecca.

It just jump-started
the series in a way.

It became less
of a romantic comedy.

And we leaned more into the bar

and all of the characters
and their relationships.

Like Norm gets
more of a soul episode.

Enough foreplay.
Let's be sheep meat.

Did I tell
you that I was married?

Congratulations. Let's celebrate
with a roll in the hay.

And then Frasier
and Lilith take off

as the main romantic couple.

Which is just comedic gold.

I'm beginning to wonder
if you're fit to carry my seed.

I'm beginning
to wish you kept it.

My favorite episode that I wrote
was Frasier's bachelor party.

And something
really cool in that episode,

Frasier comes into
the bar and he has a speech.

I was listening to a rock & roll
station on my way over here

and there was a passage in one
of those tribal songs

that I feel, well, is
the keynote for this evening.

Everybody have fun tonight.

[audience laughter]

Everybody Wang Chung tonight.

[audience laughter]

And it got a really big laugh.

And my partner David and I loved
writing Carla episodes.

Tell me the truth.

Or my curse on you
is gonna be your tongue

is gonna swell up so big

you're gonna have to buy
a seat on the plane for it.

[muffled]
How gullible does he think I am?

[audience laughter]

Ken and David
wrote the most episodes.

And they have really owned
the whole Gary's bar rivalry.

[screams]

There are sheep in my office!

Ah, Cheers.
Where good times go to die.

We wrote all
of the bar wars episodes.

-What are you trying to say?
-Don't rip off the tape!

-[audience laughter]
-[camera clicks]

Those are where Cheers goes to
war

with Gary's Old Town Tavern.

And hilarity of course ensues
as things get more and more

ridiculous in the battle
between the two.

We just shut down
Gary's Old Town Tavern

on one of the busiest
bar nights of the year.

At a certain point,
we were reaching

34 million people
every Thursday. Stunning.

The year we were number one
was the year that Roseanne

goofed up the Star Spangled
Banner in San Diego.

[dramatically off key]
♪ For the land of the free ♪

And it cost her just
enough points in the ratings

that we were able
to be number one.

But once we got
it we didn't let go.

But there were all kinds
of problems going on

behind the scenes
with Kelsey Grammer.

Kelsey is a very sweet man,
but he was troubled.

He was using drugs and stuff.

And that occasionally impacted
his work.

And it did come to a head
a couple of times

where producers
were really concerned

that he may either
lose his life

or be incapable of continuing
to work on the show.

[whooshing]

Kelsey Grammer
was fantastic as Frasier

but his substance abuse issues

and some of his other
personal demons

became ongoing issues on Cheers.

But he also
had a very tough life.

[Joseph]
His father was murdered.

His sister was murdered.

His stepbrothers
died in an accident.

And it seems like in trying

to cope with some
of this tragedy he had some

unhealthy coping mechanisms
as he tried to navigate that.

It's remarkable
I survived some of that.

I might be asleep on one of
the benches in the Cheers set

and then when it was my turn
I'd just stand up and go do it.

The cast was very supportive

and loved him
and took that to heart.

And they respected
his comedy acting ability.

I mean I don't know
if anybody was funnier

on the show than Kelsey.

It just shows what a family
they all were together

on and off the show.

He's such an endearing person

and so incredibly talented

that they were willing
to deal with that.

And from then on
he really got it together.

He came to work, thick or thin.

And was always great.

And the last
three years of the show

it was quite an experience.

The characters are all given
their time to shine.

-Let me buy you a beer.
-Eh.

The character work
that was done on that show

-is unparalleled.
-That's what made the show.

You wanted to see what was
gonna happen to each of them.

You have activated the internal
laser beam motion detector.

-[beeping]
-What's that mean?

[audience laughter]

Come over for a little action.

I'm stuck
in the middle of Star Wars.

"Lilith is Pregnant,"
is one of the standout episodes.

I am mother.

My man's seed
is nourished within me.

[audience laughter]

Touch my breasts my friend.
I am lactating.

It's so different than what we'd
seen before from Lilith.

And you get Woody Boyd entering
into a relationship with Kelly.

-Will you go out with me again?
-Well, sure!

Probably my favorite Woody scene
was singing "Kelly Kelly Kelly."

♪ Kelly, K-E-L-L-Y ♪

♪ Why? Because you're
Kelly, Kelly, Kelly ♪

-[audience laughter]
-♪ Kelly, Kelly, Kelly ♪

♪ Kelly, Kelly, Kelly,
Kelly, Kelly ♪

♪ Kelly, Kelly of mine ♪

♪ Mine, mine, mine ♪

And my character
became more integral to the show

because they figured out
what to do with him.

Ever since my wife left me,

I've been sort of desperate for
female companionship, you know.

So there were storylines
created around me.

The episode in which
there's a party at Cheers...

Carla made one of her
specialty drinks last night.

Things got out of hand.

And everybody got so drunk,
they forgot what happened.

Carla knew that
she'd had sex with somebody,

but she couldn't
remember who it was.

Oh, Sammy, Sammy, please.

Please, tell me it was you.

And then I come into the bar.

[audience laughter]

Hey, sexy.

-That was very funny.
-[indistinct singing]

[audience laughter]

[screaming]

It was a glimpse into
my character that perhaps

could have been enlarged
the next season,

but we didn't go to
the next season

because Ted
wanted to move on.

Ted felt that that was enough.

And, mmm...

it's hard to say
that he was wrong.

We did like 250 episodes
of Cheers.

So Ted Danson was having this
kind of come to Jesus moment.

How much longer do
you want to play this character?

How many more stories
do you think the show has in it

before
it becomes repetitive?

And he was going through some
personal turmoil at the time.

He had infamously had an affair
with Whoopi Goldberg.

It ended his marriage.

And I think that just
a combination

of doing the same old thing
at work

and having the rug pulled out
from your personal life

was the impetus finally
to end the show.

And I know they really, really,
really tried to keep him.

They apparently offered him
plenty of money

if he was willing to come back.

But he kind of said,
"I've done 11 years,

and this is probably the right
moment for me to step off here."

They knew they couldn't continue
the show without Sam Malone.

It's, it would never
be the same.

America's favorite
bartender confesses the decision

to stop starring
in Cheers was agonizing.

Danson says he's, quote,

"not leaving Cheers
as a career move.

That would be a stupid
career move," end quote.

I think everybody,
all the writers,

Jimmy and Glen and Les,
were concerned

because they knew how important
it was to get that finale right.

The fans were just
sort of skeptical

and waiting to see
what we would do.

And luckily,
they had a chance to really

go out in style with the big
return of Shelly Long as Diane.

The producers knew
they wanted Shelly Long

for the series finale, and it
makes all the sense in the world

for her to be back
in the finale.

[whooshing]

I was so happy
to see Diane come back

in the series finale of Cheers.

It's funny.
It's a little strange.

It's different
than it was before,

but it feels very familiar.

There had been a lot of loose
ends when she departed.

It was left on
such a tenuous note,

with her saying to Sam,
I'll be back in six months,

and him saying,
have a nice life.

So it was a must-see
event for everyone.

And the ratings
for the finale were massive.

Over 80 million people
tuned in

to watch
the ending of Cheers.

And it's such a nice plot line.

Can it be?
Is it really her?

Diane Chambers has won
an award and is in the news

and is back on the radar
of the Cheers gang.

Terpsichore, Thalia and Urania
are too soft to be heard.

Forgive me, gals,
if I forgot someone.

God, is it her.

It was great to see
Shelley Long

come back in the bar,
looking wonderful.

-Hello, everyone.
-[screams]

The night that the show aired,

all of us were in Boston,
and we were at that Cheers bar.

[reporter]
Hey, there's Woody,

the absent-minded bartender
working the crowd.

And outside, they had
set up a large jumbotron,

and there were like
20,000 people.

You would hear a joke
and 20,000 people laughing.

Can you do me one
little favor, please?

This isn't what you used to
mean by favor, is it?

And ultimately,
Sam and Diane get back together.

Sam is going to leave
with her to go to California

and sell the bar
and be done with the bar,

and leave all his friends.

And while
on the plane with Diane,

both realize this isn't right.
This isn't gonna work.

And... has to apologize
to all his friends.

I'm sorry about
blowing up like that.

I hope you understand
where that was coming from.

Yeah, it's all right, Sam.
We understand.

I mean, here you are,
washed up ballplayer,

-alcohol problem.
-Sex problem.

-Lost your one true love.
-Twice.

No apology necessary.

And it's just a beautiful moment
when he turns the lights out

and pulls the blinds down
and tells that last set

of feet coming
down the stairs into the bar.

Sorry, we're closed.

[Jim] It's poetic.

It was like, wow.

11 years and it's over.

It's a lot of
hugging and crying.

[Woody] And we realize
it's our last exchange together

on Cheers and we were sad,
you know, it was heavy.

And I cried, I cried that day.

Haven't even yet got to...

what happens
after the show is over?

[announcer]
Live from the Bull & Finch,

the Cheers bar in Boston,
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

All the cast of Cheers
were at the Bull & Finch bar

in Boston watching
the final screening.

And then the cast had to go do
The Tonight Show live.

Unfortunately, the cast
showed up early

for that taping
and just started drinking.

And when you watch the footage
of that Tonight Show,

they are hammered.

Kurt-- Krusty, you know,
you are my best friend,

but we all
need to say this to you.

-Yes.
-[all] You're stupid!

Jay Leno is trying
to wrangle this cast

into something that could
possibly make the air.

-It was magic.
-[Rhea] Talk about it.

-All right, dammit.
-Talk about it.

Can I get you all another drink?

It was like, oh my God,
this is such a train wreck.

You can feel the tension
from Jay Leno as he's trying

to corral these people
who are celebrating this

decade-plus-long
accomplishment of being on

one of the most popular shows
in television history.

[Jay] Kelsey,
you got a show coming up, right?

Yeah, I have a show coming.

At the end of Cheers,

they decided to do
Frasier as a spinoff.

Which was really a popular show,
and ran for 11 seasons.

You expect me to give up my
study, the place where I read,

where I do my
most profound thinking?

Ah, use the can
like the rest of the world.

And there's a very
long tale of influence

that Cheers has had on so many
shows that have come after.

Any show that came
after that took place

a lot in a bar,
Cheers gets credit for it.

How I Met Your Mother
is a perfect example.

[all] Swarley!

And Cheers still gets referenced

in media
that's being produced today.

Cheers, Sam and Diane,

guy and a girl on a TV show
dig each other, but never say it

because if they do,
their ratings would go down.

[announcer]
We now return to Cheers.

-[all] Norm!
-And Peter, yay! Yay!

How's life in the fast lane,

-Mr. Peterson--
-Griffin!

I can't find the on-ramp,
Woody.

He was talking to me, Norm.

Quit stealing my punchlines,
you fat drunk.

So Cheers is a show
that continues to be discovered

even by younger generations.

It's the pinnacle
of how great the sitcom can be,

and one of the greatest
shows of all time.

♪

[vibrant jazz music]

♪

♪

♪