Cheers

Cheers is a sitcom that aired on NBC for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993 and followed the lives of the staff and patrons of Cheers, a fictional bar in Boston.

The main cast included Sam Malone (played by Ted Danson), a former Major League Baseball pitcher turned bar owner. and Diane Chambers (played by Shelley Long), a graduate student working as a waitress. Their on-again, off-again romantic relationship was a central storyline during Diane’s tenure on the show from 1982 to 1987.

Other key characters included “Coach” Ernie Pantusso (played by Nicholas Colasanto), a dimwitted bartender, featured from 1982 to 1985. After Colasanto died of a heart attack, the show introduced Woody Boyd (played by Woody Harrelson), a naive bartender who joined the show in 1985 and remained until its conclusion. After Long departed the series following the fifth season, she was replaced with Kirstie Alley, who received an Emmy Award for her portrayal of Rebecca Howe.

The ensemble cast also featured George Wendt as Norm Perterson, John Ratzenberger as Cliff Clavin and Kelsey Grammer as Dr. Frasier Crane.

Cheers earned many accolades including 28 Emmy Awards and six Golden Globe Awards. Much of the cast went on to achieve significant success. Harrelson became a prominent film actor, Danson, Long and Alley continued to star in both television and film, and Grammer reprised his role as Frasier Crane in the successful spinoff, Frasier (1993-2004) and joined the Paramount+ revival in 2023.