Cheers centred on the bar of the same name, located in Boston. Its owner was Sam Malone (Ted Danson), a former Major League baseball player who was also a womanizer. At the beginning of the show he hired a new waitress, Diane Chambers (Shelley Long) a graduate student attending Boston University who eventually has an on-again/off again relationship with Sam. Coach (Nicolas Colasanto) was a retired baseball coach and a bartender at Cheers who was apparently in the early stages of dementia. Carla Tortelli (Rhea Pearlman) was a long time waitress at Cheers and the mother of five children known for not always being polite to customers. Norm (George Wendt) was one of Cheers's regulars and an accountant who is only occasionally employed. Joining the cast very early was Cliff (John Ratzenberger), another regular at Cheer and a postman who thinks he knows everything. Over the years there would be a few changes to the cast, with some characters leaving and other characters joining the cast.
Cheers was created by brothers Glen and Les Charles and James Burrows. The Charles brothers had written for such shows as The Bob Newhart Show and M*A*S*H. James Burrows had directed episodes of the shows The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bob Newhart Show. Initially the three men conceived of something along the lines of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, in which a group of co-workers behave as if they were family. They considered an American version of British sitcom Fawlty Towers, but then changed their idea to a bar, whereupon they drew upon the classic radio show Duffy's Tavern for inspiration. Different cities were considered for the location of the bar, including Barstow, California and Kansas City, Missouri. Eventually they decided to set their planned show on the East Coast and settled upon the location of Boston. They found the Bull & Finch Pub in a Boston phone book and asked the owner, Tom Kershaw, if they could shoot photos of the exterior and the interior for the show. Mr. Kershaw charged the producers only $1. The Bull & Finch Pub has since made a good deal of money from being the real-life bar upon which Cheers was modelled.
Initially the character of Sam Malone was to be a former football player and former NFL player Fred Dryer was considered for the role. The part eventually went to Ted Danson, who had more experience as an actor, having appeared in soap operas and several guest appearances on prime time shows. With the casting of Ted Danson, Sam was then made a former baseball player, the producers feeling that would be more believable than having Sam a former player in the NFL. Shelly Long, who had already appeared in the movies Caveman (1981) and Night Shift (1982), and had been recommended by others to the producers. The character of Cliff was created after John Ratzenberger had auditioned for the part of Norm, which went to George Wendt. After the audition John Ratzenberger asked the producers if they planned to have a bar "know-it-all," something common to most bars. As a result, Cliff Clavin was created.
Cheers debuted to low ratings. Its debut episode ranked 77 out of 100 shows in the Nielsen ratings for the week. Over the coming weeks, ratings did not rise particularly well either. Fortunately, Brandon Tartikoff, then president of NBC, saw something in the show and protected it from cancellation. The ratings for Cheers rose during the summer and it ultimately ranked no. 74 for the year. Its ratings improved immensely in its second season, so that it ranked no. 34 for the season. Its ratings would rise more in its third season, when it came in at no. 13 for the year. By its fourth season Cheers was one of the most popular shows on the air. It ranked no. 5 that season and would remain in the top ten for the rest of its run.
Over its eleven seasons, Cheers would evolve. The early seasons centred a good deal on the relationship between Sam and Diane, which modelled largely after the relationship between characters played by Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in their movies. Over time Cheers became more of a ensemble show, with more and more episodes centring around Carla, Norm, Cliff, and other characters.
For a show that ran eleven years, Cheers had a surprisingly stable cast, with few of the original actors departing. It was following the third season that Nicholas Colasanto died due to his heart condition. Woody Harrelson was then introduced as Woody Boyd, the bartender who replaced Coach. Woody was a naive and none-too-bright Midwesterner. It was following the fifth season that Shelley Long left Cheers to pursue other projects. Diane was written out of the show as having left Boston. It was with the sixth season that the character of Rebecca Howe (Kirstie Alley) was introduced. A corporation had bought Cheers from Sam and Rebecca was its new manager. Once Sam regained control of Cheers, Rebecca would remain, first as a waitress and then once more as its manager.
It was during the third season that one major character would be introduced to the show. Originally psychiatrist Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) was a recurring character and a love interest for Diane. In the fourth season Diane dumped Frasier at the altar, after which he became a regular at Cheers. It was with the fifth season that Frasier became part of the main cast.
As successful as Cheers was, it should be no surprise that the show would produce spin-offs. Nick Tortelli (Dan Hedaya) was Carla's ex-husband and a recurring character on Cheers early in its run. He had married again, this time to Loretta (Jean Kasem). They were eventually spun-off into their own show, The Tortellis. On The Tortellis, Nick and Loretta are now in Las Vegas. The Tortellis would not prove successful, running for only 13 episodes. After the cancellation of The Tortellis the characters would once more appear on Cheers.
While The Tortellis failed, the second spin-off of Cheers, Frasier, was nearly as successful as the original show. Indeed, it also ran for eleven seasons. On Frasier, Frasier Crane had returned to his hometown of Seattle, where he became a local radio host. He moves in with his elderly father (John Mahoney), His younger brother Niles (David Hyde Pierce) was also a psychiatrist. Daphne Moon (Jane Leeves) was Frasier's father Martin's live-in caretaker, with whom Niles was in love. Roz Doyle (Peri iGilpin) was the producer of Frasier's radio show. Except for Rebecca, every single remaining character from Cheers would appear on Frasier on one time or another.
While Wings was not a spinoff of Cheers, the two shows seemed to exist in a shared universe. Wings was created by Cheers veterans David Angell, Peter Casey and David Lee. Cliff and Norm as well as Frasier and his wife Lilith appeared in episodes of Wings, while Rebecca had a cameo in yet another episode. St. Elsewhere also appears to exist in the same shared universe. In the St. Elsewhere episode "Cheers," Westphall, Craig, and Auschlander visit Cheers, which is apparently only manned by Carla at the time. As might be expected, Norm and Cliff are there.
After eleven seasons, Ted Danson decided it was time to move onto other things. Rather than continue the show without Sam, the production team then decided to bring the show to an end. Given Cheers had run eleven years and was still a high rated show, NBC then pulled out all the stops for the series finale. A whole night was dedicated to "One for the Road," the final episode of the show. In addition to the episode itself, NBC aired a retrospective of the show. Following the episode the network aired an interview with the cast by Jay Leno. As might be expected, "One for the Road" was very successful in the Nielsen ratings, with a 64 or 62 share. It is currently the third highest rated series finale after all time, after the M*A*S*H finale "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" and The Fugitive finale "The Judgement Part 2." It remains the fourth highest episode of an American television, after the M*A*S*H, after the M*A*S*H finale, the Dallas episode "Who Done It," and the Fugitive finale.
As mentioned earlier, Cheers would go onto a highly successful run as a syndicated rerun and can still be found in syndication on local stations and cable channels. All eleven seasons have been released on DVD. The entire run of the show is also available on several streaming services.
Throughout its run Cheers earned 111 Emmy nominations, with 28 wins.
The success of Cheers can largely be chalked up to its characters. Its creators had set out to create a show about a group of co-workers who interact like a family. Ultimately, they created a show about a group of co-workers and their customers who interact as a family. Much like such shows as The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show before it, Cheers centred on a close-knit group of friends with who the average person could identify. In many ways the show was summed up by the title of its theme song, "Where Everybody Knows Your Name."
When it came to sitcoms, Cheers was also a bit of a pioneer. It was its third season that Cheers began using serialized storylines, with story arcs that would last through several episodes. It was also with that season that Cheers began using season finale cliffhangers. There had certainly been shows that had used serialized story lines before (The Beverly Hillbillies being one), but Cheers was still among the earliest. As to cliffhangers, very few sitcoms prior to Cheers had ever used them. If many of today's sitcoms are serialized today, it is largely because of the success of Cheers.
Cheers was one of the most successful shows of the Eighties and ultimately one of the most successful shows of all time. It remains widely available, both in syndication and on streaming services. It is one of those very few shows that has maintained its popularity for forty years. It is safe to say it will still be popular in another forty.
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