Cheers: Ted Danson Addresses Possibility of Reunion

Danson and other Cheers cast members reunited at the Emmy Awards last month.

By Russ Burlingame

Ted Danson, the beloved actor who starred in Cheers for 11 seasons before going on to feature in other hugely popular sitcoms like Becker and The Good Place, recently stopped short of saying "no" to a Cheers reunion. The actor, who reunited with former cast members Kelsey Grammer, Rhea Perlman, John Ratzenberger and George Wendt at the Emmy Awards, recently told ET that the cast stays in touch, but that returning to the actual bar for a Cheers revival wouldn't work, in part because of the age of the characters. Still, the way he spoke of his castmates suggested something more like Max's much-hyped Friends and Harry Potter reunions could be on the table.

Once Frasier released its first trailer, with beer (rather than sherry) prominently featured in it, fans started to wonder whether Dr. Crane might return to his onetime Boston watering hole. The character of Frasier Crane first appeared on Cheers and, during the original 11-season run of the Frasier spinoff, characters from the original show made occasional guest appearances. Still, with the first season of Frasier 2023 in the rear-view mirror, the only Cheers actor to reprise their role was Bebe Neuwirth, who played Frasier's ex-wife Lilith.

"Well you know it's interesting... I've seen them recently, everybody, pretty much everybody," Danson told ET, adding, "I'm sorry Shelley [wasn't there] and Woody was off doing a play in London -- which I saw and he was amazing. But it was lovely."

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That's in reference to Shelley Long and Woody Harrelson, both of whom were series regulars for most of Cheers's run. Neither made it to the Emmy Awards. Long, who left after the series' fifth season, appeared in an episode of Frasier (and returned for the Cheers finale). Harrelson also appeared in an episode of Frasier. Still, the two actors have never been as eager to revisit their Cheers glory days as Danson, Perlman, Grammer, Ratzenberger, and Wendt.

"I'm not sure the guys who wrote Cheers would want us to go back to Cheers," Grammer said back in November. "It's like, let's let that be where it is. It's a monument in the minds of television history. But is it possible we might see someone from the old days at the bar? Maybe. I was just spitballing a little while ago about how it might be kind of fun to do a Christmas show next year, the Christmas of Cheers Past. Frasier could revisit scenes that he lived out before like when he had made a mistake. What could he do to fix it? [Laughs] I don't know, it just seems like a good idea and it would be really funny. And [the original cast] wouldn't even have to appear; it would just be old clips. But we'll see. You know, I love Ted [Danson] and working with him, so I'd love to do something with him. We just haven't broken that idea yet."

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