Team Coco / Where Everybody Knows Your Name
Things weren’t always cheery behind the scenes of this beloved sitcom.
On Wednesday’s episode of Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson’s “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” podcast, Danson, 76, reflected on his friendship with their “Cheers” co-star Kelsey Grammer.
“This isn’t self-deprecating, but it’s — I feel like I got stuck a little bit with you during the ‘Cheers’ years. I have a memory of getting angry at you once,” the “Good Place” alum told Grammer.
“Yeah, you came and told me that one day,” the 69-year-old replied.
“And it’s stuck in both of our memories,” continued Danson. “But I feel like, f–k, I don’t know. I missed out on the last 30 years of Kelsey Grammer and I feel like it’s my bad, my doing, and I almost feel like apologizing to you.”
And that’s exactly what he did.
“No — I don’t feel like — I apologize to you and me that I sat back, you know, and didn’t, and I really do apologize,” Danson said.
“You said something wonderful to me though, too, that I’ve always, I quote to other people,” Grammer revealed. “When I turned 40, you came up and you said, ‘You know what it means, don’t you? Now that you’re 40, it means you’re finally worth having a conversation with.’”
The two shared a laugh before Harrelson, 63, quipped, “That’s good.”
“That was f–king brilliant. I always loved that. And I’ve repeated it. And my love for you has always been as easy as the day. You know, as easy as the sunrise,” the “Frasier” vet responded.
Danson echoed his friend’s sentiments, saying, “Mine to you.”
“What an amazing thing that we, that time we all spent together. You can go off in different directions, you can have different lives, but that bond, that love of making something really funny and really good and cracking each other up and going through life and still showing up,” he said. “Like Jimmy [director James Burrows] said, ‘I don’t care what you crazy people do during the week. Just show up on shoot night and be funny.’”
Grammer took a moment to reflect on his own relationship with Burrows, 83.
“He recently said, we were doing an interview together and he said, ‘You got to have an oar in the water.’ I’d never heard him express this before, but he said, ‘As long as everybody’s got their oar in the water and they’re pulling, then I’m happy,’” he said. “I thought, ‘Yeah, makes a lot of sense.’ And we’re still working together. I mean, he’s done, you know, he does four shows in the last bunch and it’s been great working with him.”
“He’s like my daddy in show business, really, probably all of ours to some extent,” Danson noted.
“Cheers” ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993, and Danson and Harrelson are now on the mike recounting their time on the iconic show.
In September, Grammer told Parade magazine that he wanted to recruit Danson and Shelley Long for the “Frasier” revival to reprise their roles from the ’80s sitcom as Sam Malone and Diane Chambers.
“I think it’s possible. We have some ideas around both of those characters and actors. But, whether or not they’re going to happen, I can’t tell you. I don’t know. But it sure would be great,” Grammer teased.