50 Fun Facts About Cheers

Cheers ran on NBC for how many seasons?

From September 30, 1982 to May 20, 1993, spending most of its run in the Thursday 'Must See TV' line-up.

Cheers was created by James Burrows and which pair of brothers?

Burrows directed most episodes and insisted on shooting on film rather than videotape.

How did the Cheers premiere rank in the ratings, nearly getting the show cancelled?

NBC president Brandon Tartikoff and early Emmy wins kept it alive; it later spent one season at number one.

Which season of Cheers, beginning in autumn 1990, was its only year as America's number one show?

It made the top ten in eight of its eleven seasons.

Before owning the bar, Sam Malone was a relief pitcher for which team?

He wore number 16 and was on the 1975 pennant-winning side; his nickname was 'Mayday'.

What was Sam Malone's baseball nickname?

He is a recovering alcoholic who bought the bar in 1977 after his career ended.

In the pilot, Diane Chambers is abandoned at the bar by her fiancé, a professor named what?

She was a graduate student and teaching assistant; stranded, she took a job as a waitress.

What was the title of the Cheers pilot episode?

It aired September 30, 1982, and introduced Sam, Diane, Coach, Carla, Norm and Cliff.

Which one-line character, whose only word was 'Beer!', did the actors behind Norm and Cliff first audition for?

The character was Diane's first customer, whose entire dialogue was 'Beer!'; Ratzenberger pitched a know-it-all instead and Cliff was born.

What is Cliff Clavin's job?

John Ratzenberger created the know-it-all character himself at his audition; he later voiced Hamm in Toy Story.

What is the name of Norm Peterson's never-seen wife?

Norm's full name is Hilary Norman Peterson; the couple married in 1972.

What is Norm Peterson's occasional profession?

He also does spells as a painter-decorator and a brewery beer taster; George Wendt appeared in all 275 episodes.

How many children did Carla Tortelli have by the end of the series?

She started with five by ex-husband Nick and finished with eight by three different men.

How many Emmy Awards did Rhea Perlman win for playing Carla?

She was nominated ten times, and holds the record of six Golden Globe nominations for supporting actress in a TV series.

What was the last major film role of Nicholas Colasanto, who played Coach Ernie Pantusso?

He was better known as a TV director before Cheers; the show wrote Coach's death into the season-four premiere.

Whose picture from Colasanto's dressing room was hung on the bar set in his memory?

Sam straightens the picture in the closing moments of the final episode, eight years later.

Woody Boyd arrives at Cheers expecting to meet Coach, his 'pen pal'. What had the two actually exchanged?

He was hired to fill Coach's job and eventually married the wealthy Kelly Gaines and won a city council seat.

Which company buys Cheers from Sam at the end of season five and installs Rebecca Howe as manager?

Sam sold up to sail around the world, sank his boat, and came back to beg for a job; he bought the bar back for 85 cents in season eight.

For how much was Cheers sold back to Sam in the eighth-season finale?

His reward for alerting the company to Robin Colcord's insider trading; Rebecca was fired for staying quiet, and Sam hired her.

Frasier Crane first appeared in season three as the love interest of which character?

She jilted him at the altar in Europe; he then became a bar regular, married Lilith and eventually got his own show.

Kelsey Grammer earned Emmy nominations for the same character on which three shows?

He also directed more than 30 episodes of Frasier and sang its closing theme.

Frasier's wife Lilith Sternin was played by which actress?

Like her husband she is a psychiatrist; she first appeared in season four's 'Second Time Around' and returned in the 2023 Frasier revival.

How many Emmy Awards did Ted Danson win for playing Sam Malone?

He also won two Golden Globes for the role and received the Carol Burnett Award in 2025.

Shelley Long won her Emmy for playing Diane Chambers in which year?

She was nominated five times and left the show in 1987 after five seasons.

Kirstie Alley finally won an Emmy for Rebecca Howe in 1991. Whom did she memorably thank in her speech?

She had been nominated in 1988 and 1990; the same year she was starring in the Look Who's Talking films.

The actor who played Norm received how many consecutive Emmy nominations for the role?

He never won; after Cheers he had his own short-lived CBS sitcom in 1995.

Judy Hart Angelo co-wrote the Cheers theme "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" with which singer, who performed it?

It was recorded on August 13, 1982, and released as a single the following year.

The real Boston pub used for the exterior shots was originally called what?

Founded in 1969, it renamed itself Cheers in 2002 after a deal with the studio; owner Tom Kershaw charged the producers $1 for photos.

How did the producers find the Boston pub that became the model for the bar?

Earlier ideas had placed the show in Barstow, California, and Kansas City before Boston won out.

What is the name of the fancy restaurant upstairs from Cheers, whose owner feuds with Sam?

Owner John Allen Hill needled Sam constantly and had an ongoing relationship with Carla.

Which rival bar did the Cheers gang wage a running prank war with, almost always losing?

The one victory came when Diane helped Cheers win a bowling trophy.

The 'Est. 1895' date on the Cheers sign was made up by which character, for numerology reasons?

The bar actually opened in 1889 as Mom's, and its address was revealed as 112½ Beacon Street.

The Cheers finale, 'One for the Road', aired on May 20, 1993, in a special version running how long?

About 42.4 million households watched, second only to the M*A*S*H finale among series enders.

Which character returned for the finale after a six-year absence?

Shelley Long came back so Sam and Diane could have one more go; Woody was running for city council.

NBC ended finale night with a special live broadcast from the Boston bar of which late-night programme?

Bob Costas hosted a 'pregame' show, and the hour-long Seinfeld finale served as the lead-in.

What was the 1987 Cheers spin-off following Carla's ex-husband Nick to Las Vegas called?

Dan Hedaya and Jean Kasem starred; it lasted 13 episodes.

In the spin-off Frasier, which premiered in 1993, Frasier Crane moves from Boston to which city?

He works as a radio psychiatrist at KACL; Grammer negotiated $700,000 an episode by 2001.

Which first-season episode, about a former teammate of Sam's coming out, won a GLAAD Media Award?

Its title nodded to the play The Boys in the Band; tackling the subject in 1983 was rare on US television.

Cheers was filmed before a live studio audience on which numbered soundstage at Paramount?

Filming was generally on Tuesday nights, with the read-through the previous Wednesday and rehearsals on Friday.

How many episodes of Cheers were made in total?

George Wendt appeared in every one of them as Norm.

Woody Harrelson joined Cheers in season four. What surprising job does Woody land in the final season?

Frasier helps him write his political speech in the finale.

What was the Cheers bar originally called when it opened in 1889, according to the show?

Coach tells a customer in the second episode that the previous owner, Gus, is dead; Gus O'Mally later turns up alive.

The 1993 series finale of Cheers earned what ratings distinction?

The show had finished in the Nielsen top ten in eight of its eleven seasons after nearly being cancelled in its first.

Which two American cities were floated as the show's setting before the creators settled on Boston?

Once Boston was chosen, the Bull & Finch Pub was picked from a phone book to serve as the model for the bar.

How does Carla's husband Eddie LeBec, a hockey player turned ice-show penguin, die?

After his death Carla discovers he had committed bigamy with another woman he had gotten pregnant.

How many times did Cheers win the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series?

The wins came in 1983, 1984, 1989 and 1991, and the show was nominated in the category for all eleven of its seasons.

The creators considered making Cheers an American version of which British sitcom?

Once they chose a bar over a hotel or inn, the concept began to resemble the old radio programme Duffy's Tavern.

Which actor was originally slated to play Sam Malone, then conceived as a retired football player?

Ted Danson was chosen for being younger and more experienced, and Sam became an ex-ballplayer; the runner-up later recurred as Dave Richards.

Which Welsh-born actor played the wealthy Robin Colcord, Rebecca's love interest?

Tom Skerritt played another of Rebecca's corporate crushes, Evan Drake, in the same era of the show.

Who composed the show's original music, apart from the theme song, for its entire run?

His extensive compositions won him numerous series awards; the theme itself came from Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo.