They weren’t feeling cheery.
In a recent episode of their SiriusXM podcast “Where Everybody Knows Your Name,” Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson were joined by “Cheers” creators Glen and Les Charles. The brothers revealed that they weren’t sure they could continue after Shelley Long left.
Les Charles said that when he heard about her exit, he felt, “Sheer panic.”
His brother and co-creator Glen chimed in, “There were some critics that said when Shelley walks out the door, that’s the end of ‘Cheers.’ And we had to live with that because that was this element of the show, the main element of the show was the Sam Diane courtship.”
Les added that the creators often said, “we’re not sure that ‘Cheers’ would have survived without Shelley in that first season because she was so strong and so confident and knew exactly who the character was and who she was. And I think all of the rest of you were finding your way a little bit.”
Danson, 77, playfully quipped, “Kiss my a–. That’s so rude.”
“Cheers,” which aired for 11 seasons on NBC from 1982 to 1993, followed womanizing former pitcher Sam Malone (Danson), and the customers who frequented the bar he owned.
Long co-starred as Diane, the highly educated barmaid who had an “on again, off-again” relationship with Sam.
Harrelson, 63, entered the show in Season 4, playing simpleminded bartender Woody Boyd.
Long, 75, left the show in 1987 to focus on her family and her film career. The “Cheers” cast had a reunion at the 2024 Emmys — but Long didn’t attend.
“Shelley really gave the first year or two or three the boost that ‘Cheers’ needed because she landed into her part feet first on the pilot and was astounding and unlike any other character we’ve seen since maybe, ‘I Love Lucy’ or something,” said Danson.
The “Cheers” creators also revealed that they initially cast a different actor to play Woody, but Danson vouched for Harrelson behind the scenes.
“The interesting thing is we had actually named the character Woody, but before we even read an actor, we named him Woody before we’d ever heard of the character, Woody,” said Glen.
“In fact, nobody had ever heard of Woody at that point. Anyway we said, we want a country bumpkin kind of guy, somebody from Iowa, Ohio, farm boy. And there’s the big city of Boston. So he has, he’s a little naive. He needs to learn things,” he went on. “And we, so we read a guy that was right on the money and I can’t remember, even remember his name. I think his name was John.”
Glen said their casting director Steve Kozak suggested Harrelson.
“Meantime, this John had gone out and bought a car and yeah, rendered it, got married and he’s now listening,” Les joked about the original actor. “He’s listening 40 years later, yeah, he’s an AA now.”
After Harrelson auditioned, Glen said that Danson “fought like hell” for him.
“I remember very well you said, ‘I know you think you’ve got your guy, but this guy’s more interesting.’ And we got the other guy, as I said, was right on the money. But what he was not exactly, he was the part, everything we wanted in the part, but a little more.”
Danson said about Harrelson, “He’s a dangerous motherf–ker.”
Glen agreed, saying, “There was an element of danger, crazy as hell.”