George Wendt (Re-Release)

home should show off who you are, telling your story in every detail, meeting you where you are.

Ashley has styles that balance timeless appeal and modern trends to bring your personal look home.

Pairing eye-catching design with features like stain-resistant performance fabric, Ashley offers well-crafted, affordable pieces built to stand up to real life.

Plus, they provide fast, reliable white glove delivery right to your door.

Visit your local Ashley store or head to Ashley.com to find your style.

But so like in the first year, people are starting to recognize you and

not really.

More like America caught on second, third year sort of.

I think it was a lot of

welcome back to Where Everybody Knows Your Name.

For the next few weeks, we're revisiting some of our favorite episodes from last year before we come back with all new interviews in a few weeks.

We know you've been loving all the cheers nostalgia, so we thought, what the heck, let's revisit our conversation with George Went.

It was the first one we ever recorded, which I think will become blatantly clear.

We were both so nervous.

Anyway, we talked about how George got cast as Norm Peterson.

And the infused time we all played hooky.

So here he is, George Went.

The incredible George Went,

who did all 275 episodes of Cheers.

Did anyone else do that, all of them?

Or was it just you?

I can't remember.

I think so.

It was you guys.

Rhea had a couple of babies.

Babies.

You, Rhea, and Teddy.

But on the night we had to shoot around Teddy when he went to Africa for a movie.

That's.

Oh, no.

So he didn't really do that.

No, nor did Rhea because she had a couple of kids.

Oh, she had three, but only so

involved in production.

Say, why?

It was me.

It was you.

Your three kids never interfered with your ability to get there and shoot the episode.

I think the heading is reminiscing

at the moment.

Okay.

And then catching up with anything you want to catch up with.

But

I love this combination because you and I, roughly the same age, right?

We were like 37 or something when Woody at age 25 showed up and immediately there was this sense of kind of a pissing contest, you know, and let's show the young buck who we are, the new boy.

And I remember taking him out to play basketball.

Do you remember?

Yeah.

And he kicked our ass.

Yeah.

Basically.

Well, that's the thing about Wood.

He's a gamer, you know,

he would kick your ass in basketball, and then he would beat you in chess,

and then he would beat you in arm wrestling, and then he would beat you in a water fight, and then he would beat you in poker.

And, you know what I mean?

It's like

he likes to win.

It's true.

To the point where if we had a good practical joke, it would be a waste on anyone except Woody.

Woody was the focal point of the, you know, I remember also you'd come in on Monday

and the you eventually, yeah, eventually he'd be late, but yeah, he'd come in and we'd both go, you know, come on, come on, sharon, tell us what you did this weekend.

I know.

You know, what was funny is that you're saying it from your perspective, from my perspective, I was like so scared, like, God, these guys, you know, like,

I just looked at you guys as just these walking gods.

And like, I just was, I was very nervous.

Hey, hand on the Bible.

Is this true?

Or is this your,

but I mean, I'm saying, you know, this is at first, eventually you guys made me feel so welcome and at home.

And then there was also the thing of coach being, you know,

you were stepping into someone else's strange.

Yeah.

Remember?

Like the first day, like, I remember we were all like, we were still reading from the script at that point.

And I remember we're all like, you know, getting our blocking and just the very first

doing it.

And then Shelly goes, oh,

God,

it's so strange, you know.

Oh, remember that?

Not to have Nick there.

Yeah,

Nick isn't here and there's this new face.

So you didn't, but you hadn't seen the night I met you.

You had not seen Cheers yet.

Oh, when we met at the store.

Yeah, we were at Gelson's.

That's right.

And I see these two young guys giggling and faces turning red and pointing at me.

And

we'd been on the air for like two years, maybe two and a half.

Three.

Three.

And so I was sort of used to it.

And eventually one boy prevailed and pushed the other over to me.

And it was Wood, and he goes,

I just wanted to say hello.

My friend told me,

you know, I'm auditioning for your show tomorrow.

Oh, you're kidding.

And I said, oh, oh, that's great, man.

Well,

tell you what, good luck with that.

Yeah.

And, hey, what's your name anyway?

Woody.

Oh, no, no, not the character's name.

What's your name?

He goes, Woody.

I go,

I think I might be seeing you tomorrow.

Yeah.

So, yeah, that was an, I forget who I was with at that time, but I do remember.

It was Clint.

Clint.

Oh, or Clem.

Clem.

Or maybe it's Clint.

No, no, it's Clint.

It's Clint.

Yeah, it's Clint.

Anyway, yeah, he said he's on cheer because I hadn't seen it yet.

Yeah.

You know, because I was a television movie star already by then, right?

I was a television addict, and then I quit television cold turkey when I went to college.

And I didn't watch it again, which Cheers, you know, started while I was in college.

It was 82, I believe.

And then,

so, and I, and I didn't want to do television.

I wanted to do theater.

Yeah.

And I had been on a sabbatical from the play to go do this movie with Goldie Hawn.

And then while I was, that was, that happened while I was finishing it up and I was in L.A.

And I ran into Leo Jeter, who's from our college, and he said, you know, I just auditioned for this show.

Cheers, you should audition.

The part is, they're calling the part Woody,

and you should audition for it.

And I said, Well, I don't really want to do TV.

He says, Well, this is a pretty special TV.

Well, after I met you, and then that next day, I did the audition.

And then I'm like, at the end of the audition, then they're like, you know, we're going to bring you in for the, what do you call it?

The

thing where the last thing where you got to sign the network audition.

Network, yeah.

that's what they call it and so you got to sign your life away at that point so i'm like well i better watch this show and then i watched it i'm like oh my god this is a good and you know the way it was so different qualitatively just cinematically because it was like filmed yeah yeah so you look at other television and it was

And even the set was pretty amazing, Richard.

Yeah.

That's right.

And the lighting, the way he could light so you could be anywhere on the set, and it kind of worked for.

It really was a big character, the set itself and the show, because it was like doing theater.

You had to be, everyone in the bar had to be live at all times because you'd be in the background, you know,

of almost every shot.

Yeah.

And, you know, the audience, for the audience, it is theater.

And, you know, so, and you think about it, theater is a master, you know, and like,

honest to God, I was, you know, like a theater, well, improv, but still it was stage work.

Right.

You know, I didn't know,

I had no idea where the cameras were ever.

I was only playing to the house.

Right.

Oh, you mean during cheers?

Yeah.

I mean, the first couple of years.

Right, right, right.

Afterwards, I was like, wait a minute, I'm not drinking this piss.

Like, the camera's way over there.

The only thing I realized about cameras was if you had, because we were all live and you would be crossing behind the bar, Rhea would be crossing behind, you know, you were in your corner, but there was lots of crossing and everything.

And I noticed that when I had a great joke, Rhea, Woody, everyone would be crossing right behind me.

If I had a crappy joke, it was like, you know, tumbleweeds.

No one could be found in the shot.

I was like, no, no, stay away from that.

There is, let me, this is, we're bouncing all around.

This is not urban legend, though, that

when we would be in the middle of the week rehearsing, and we would notice that one of us was having trouble with a pretty hefty speech or something or a moment, we would get glints in our eyes.

Oh, we love it.

And we would go, oh, we'll be there for you on the night.

And then we had those footballs, those little short straws, bar straws.

And there was actually, I think, a shot, or at least this is the urban legend, where you can see a spitball in your hairline, where one of us had managed to land one while you were trying to do your.

Well, I'll never forget.

I hit you right in the uvula.

Yes.

Seriously, you were laughing like that.

Your mouth was that open.

And

I saw it, and it was a Zen moment.

And it's a ding, and it's

land on your uvula.

But that led to realizing that this is a great new version of the game.

And we would actually do that.

We would open our mouths and stand back and see if anyone could.

Yeah.

God, that was fun.

Remember, we did that even on the

thing with Jay Leno at the very end.

We were shooting spitballs.

We were so drunk by the time that came around.

They had brought us in.

This was the

shooting, and we hadn't seen each other for two or three months.

And this was was the final goodbye.

The episode was airing, and Jay Leno was going to have this after final episode, episode.

And they brought us into the bar to do interviews at like two in the afternoon.

And we were in the bar at Cheers, Bull and Finch.

What do you do in a bar?

You start drinking, and then later you start smoking.

And so by the time, literally, that Jay Leno,

he looked up from his notes, and they were going five four three

and he looked up and saw us all really for the first time and his eyes started to spin going oh my we got a lot of shit for that remember well not you not only sorry I put it back on Jay but not only was he

green I think it was his first live episode.

Probably he may have never done it live again after that.

I wouldn't blame him.

Yeah, it was.

We were in poor shape to be doing an emotion.

I think actually the only sober person was Kelsey.

Everyone else?

Everyone else.

Because he was kind of mandatorily.

Yeah, maybe.

I don't know, but I remember the rest of us.

Ironic.

Okay, go back to casting.

How did you get cast?

What was that process for you?

Yeah.

My agent called and said,

you know,

honey, they want you to do this

cheers.

Now, you're not available because I had this other show at Paramount right it was for CBS and

then they go but

they want you to come in anyway and

it's really small though I go okay

well I like those guys you know you remember them from taxi yeah yeah

and

what's what how small well it's really just one line I go oh okay

oh actually you know it's one word I'm like, oh,

really?

Well, you know, come to think of it, it's one syllable.

I go, what's the syllable?

She goes, beer.

And

the bit was Shelly,

it was to be a tag, which didn't really exist on our show afterwards.

And Shelly was, it was the end of the pilot.

And Shelly was going to go, hi, I'm Diane.

I'll be your waitress.

Well, I'm not really a waitress.

I'm an academic.

And she goes into a page-long recap of her, you know, as she did.

And then she goes, Oh, I'm sorry.

I should be taking your order.

What can I get you?

And I go, beer.

And she goes, Beer, perfect.

And that was the end of the episode.

But they said that Colzak, Stephen Colzak, said that that's, you know, it's too small.

We can't get a

don't read that here.

Read this other.

And it was George.

And

so

read this other.

Wait, what?

This other role, the role of George.

And

so I read it and then they decided they were going to try to make it work out where I could do both shows.

And then the other show got canceled.

Making the grade.

Making the grade.

So I was thinking about that because, you know, as I was saying earlier, Teddy, like, you know, I learned some things just looking through these bios that I didn't know.

Like, making the grade was 82 and and you did six episodes, and then it got canceled, and you must have been so freaking demoralized.

And yet,

thank God.

Yeah, actually, the day that we did not get picked up for making the grade, the offer came in for cheers.

They knew because it was Paramount, Paramount.

Oh, oh,

so you know, it was.

Now, your part in the pilot, though, got bigger because I can remember

one of my favorite lines is

you trying to make conversation with Shelly.

What are you reading?

A book.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There's.

Wasn't that in the pilot?

Or no?

It might have been as the George character, which I

didn't really see till later.

And then, you know, one day about

not too long ago, seven, eight years ago,

I was doing a symposium with

Glenn and Les and Jimmy at UC Santa Barbara.

And they were having a Q ⁇ A with this audience.

And I was sitting back.

Oh, they meant for me to come on about halfway through the program as a surprise.

And so,

but I'm watching Glenn and Les.

I'm in the wing, you know, just sitting on a barstool.

They're answering all these questions.

Someone said, now, did you

have anybody in mind when you were writing Cheers?

And they go oh god no oh no oh we saw everybody in Hollywood and New York and you know we we

you know months and months of meticulous casting and chemistry and

and this is for you know Sam and Diane and then they go but Rhea we we did have Rhea in mind and George I'm like what the fuck I'm sitting now I find out like 20 years later and you think of it the role was written, George.

But anyway, I know that other people were considered, but

they fessed up to that.

That was weird.

I didn't know the George part, that there was a character named George.

Yeah.

That became Norm?

Yeah, they changed it to Norm

when they cast me.

Also, when they were writing it, they called it George.

Given the script, it was George, yeah.

Were they involved with making the grade?

Were they?

No, but I had done taxi

Oh, right.

And did a bit.

It was a fun bit.

I must have scored.

Yeah.

Teddy, you scored on taxi.

I was doing taxi, kind of a last-minute replacement to come down and do it.

But that was when I was shooting that or rehearsing that.

I got called in the lesson, Glenn and Jimmy's office to talk.

about cheers.

That was the first time I

heard about it.

I remember talking about auditioning.

I met them a couple times and read maybe once or twice.

And

then at one point they said, okay,

great.

Do us a favor, don't take any other work

until you check with us.

And I went, so does that mean it's my part?

And they went,

no, no, just

before.

And I walk out.

There were two entrances.

There was an entrance and an exit in their office.

It was on the second floor.

And I walk out the back door and I see a line of actors

coming up.

It's like, oh, man.

I think for sure, I don't think I know for a fact that I got the part because of Shelley, that Shelley and I read well together.

And Shelley was such a home run for that part.

Your chemistry.

Was she already cast at that point or not?

No, but she was, I think, everybody's favorite.

They knew that she was the one sorry she knew they knew she was the one that was going to play that part but that's a little disheartening walking out the wrong door and seeing that long line yeah but actually this was the first time in my life i did not do the oh i won't get it oh i won't i just some part of me went don't do that just

yeah i think this could be yours kind of thing and it was nice

do you ever voice do you ever have that moment where where you go it happened to me, I don't know, probably 10 years ago or but all of a sudden I went, oh my God, I got to play Sam Malone.

You know, it struck me.

Wow.

Unbelievable.

What an amazing character.

And I got to play Sam Malone.

But the cool story is Rax.

Yes.

Oh, yeah.

He went in for my role, you know, for George.

Yeah.

And he sensed it wasn't going well.

And then he literally, in this case, had one foot out the door.

And everybody's, well, thanks for coming in.

Yeah, thanks.

One foot out the door.

He pops his head back in.

Do you have a bar no it all?

And they go, no, what do you mean?

And he started riffing as

that character.

Yeah.

Yeah, Cliff.

He just started going off a little bit, talking, and then just they're like, holy shit.

This guy.

To this day.

So that he, he had a lot of,

I can't remember the name of his group, but it was like him and another guy.

Sounds meat market, right?

It was him and this guy, Ray.

But where did that was that in the UK?

Yeah, huh?

Yeah, England, UK.

Yeah, he worked street theater and everything, I think, right?

10 years, and pretty much every war movie ever made out of

England.

He was the Yank.

Well, just for somebody to be able to

turn around and have the wherewithal after you know you've sunk

your bag.

Yeah, it's no good.

Chutzpah.

And then that's chutzpah.

And you got to have that 10 years of serious, you know, street theater under your belt because you had you had Second City, right?

I did.

And how long did you do Second City?

Six.

Six years?

Chicago.

Yeah.

And I didn't know the thing, that was another thing I learned on these notes here that you came in first day they hand you a broom.

Here you go, kid.

Yeah,

yeah,

stripes kind of momentum.

Yeah, no, it's like, uh, I think you're ready.

This is the workshop teacher, right?

Josephine Forsberg.

I think you might be ready for the children's theater.

I was like, oh my God,

this is amazing.

Because they worked right on the, you know, the main stage at Second City.

So I thought, that'd be just where all these people were: Joe Flaherty and Brian Murray and Harold Ramis.

And so, yeah, come

Sunday, come in at 11 o'clock.

I go, oh, I thought the show was at 2.30.

Yeah, just come in at 11.

And

I ring the doorbell.

Nobody, nobody, nobody.

Finally,

I get lit in and she hands me the broom and the dustpan.

What happens is she wanted me to sweep up the room and

the night porter didn't come in till

like a couple hours before the show.

So it was a, you know,

cocktail glasses everywhere, cigarette butts on the floors and in drinks and in astras, you know, like I had to clean up the room.

House.

Look at you now.

You probably think it's too soon to join AARP, right?

Well, let's take a minute to talk about it.

Where do you see yourself in 15 years?

More specifically, your career, your health, your social life.

What are you doing now to help you get there?

There are tons of ways for you to start preparing today for your future with AARP.

That dream job you've dreamt about?

Sign up for AARP reskilling courses to help make it a reality.

How about that active lifestyle you've only spoken about from the couch?

AARP has health tips and wellness tools to keep you moving for years to come.

But none of these experiences are without making friends along the way.

Connect with your community through AARP volunteer events.

So it's safe to say it's never too soon to join AARP.

They're here to help your money, health, and happiness live as long as you do.

That's why the younger you are, the more you need AARP.

Learn more at AARP.org/slash wise friend.

Skip expensive takeout and unhealthy options.

Chef delivers fresh ingredients and delicious meals directly to you.

I've been on the road, so basically I've been eating in restaurants for the last month.

So I'm going to throw this to my producer, Nick Liao.

Nick.

Well, Ted, I can cook a meal for you because I've been enjoying Home Chef.

Nice.

I'm looking forward to trying the Smoky BBQ Chicken Thighs, which is a good summer meal.

Smoky chicken thighs.

Smoky barbecue chicken thighs.

How does it sound?

You got me coming over to your place.

Yeah, please.

Anytime.

For a limited time, HomeChef is offering our listeners 50% off and free shipping for your first box plus free dessert for life.

Go to homechef.com slash Ted and Woody.

That's homechef.com slash Ted and Woody for 50% off your first box and free dessert for life.

homechef.com slash Ted and Woody.

Must be an active subscriber to receive free dessert.

Cooler temps are rolling in, and as always, Quince is where you should be turning for fall staples that actually last.

This I can vouch for.

I have that Mongolian cashmere sweater, zip-up gray.

I love it.

I use it all the time, especially in the cool weather.

I have a black cap that I'm just starting to wear.

I have linen black pants that I wore all summer.

So this is a really genuinely good product, and it does blow your mind how inexpensive it is compared to what you think it will be.

Anyway, my closet is starting to build up with Quince.

Keep it classic and cozy this fall with long-lasting staples from Quince.

Go to quince.com/slash Ted and Woody for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns.

That's q-u-in-ce-e dot com/slash TED and Woody.

Free shipping and 365-day returns.

Quince.com slash Ted and Woody.

So, wait, how did you go from being kicked out of or asked to leave or whatever it was with your zero zero zero grade point average from Notre Dame?

Neck Bear's mentioning like how you even get a 0.00.

That seems almost impossible.

Well,

I was rocking a solid 2.0 my first two years.

And

then junior year, I thought it'd be cool to move off campus because, you know, I was a big boy.

But I didn't have a car and I just didn't think it through.

I lived a couple of miles off campus.

You know,

South Bend in the winter, you know, like I just, I didn't, I wasn't going to hitchhike.

You know, I wasn't going to freeze my ass off and,

you know, or take the bus or I don't know.

I didn't just didn't, I had no idea how to get there.

I mean, I could, I knew the way, but I wasn't going to get up and walk out at eight o'clock in the morning.

So I just

didn't go to any classes or

exams.

And

not shocked that I got a telegram.

They, no U.S.

mail.

I got a telegram.

Do not come back

after first semester, junior year.

So then what happened?

Oh,

then I

stayed at home for a while, and my parents were like, what are you going to do with your life, life, life?

And so I

got to get it out of here.

So I went to this other college, Rockhurst College and University now.

Rutgers in New Jersey?

No, Rockhurst.

Oh, Rockhurst.

Sorry.

Harvard?

No.

And

after that, you know, once again, my parents, what are you going to do, do, do, do with your life, life, life, life, life?

Cut me out of here.

And this friend of mine said,

oh, you don't know what you're going to do?

I got no idea.

And he goes, well, then I know what you do.

What?

What?

You go to Europe.

I go,

yeah, you can just do that.

Yeah.

Just, you know, get some job and,

you know, get, you know, it's $165 round trip to

Luxembourg City from New York.

And really?

And so that's what I did.

So I honked around Europe for about two years, give or take.

Really?

So wait, is that you working or well?

I came home

in between, like,

and worked at my dad's office for a while and just living at home, so it was really easy to save up a few hundred bucks and to go back, go back, yeah.

I think you know, it's getting cold, I think, a winter in Spain.

Wow, yeah,

and how did you because you really had sleeping on the side of the road, uh, living on lemons and hashish,

you know.

Um,

yeah, I can attest to the sustaining powers of uh lemons.

So how'd you get to Second City?

Well, I said, I can't keep doing this.

And so I did the process of elimination.

I thought lemon?

Sorry, elimination.

Yeah.

Process of elimination.

I was determined to do a job that I wouldn't hate.

Right.

So

I went through, look at teacher, I know I'd hate that.

Sales, I'd hate that.

Doctor, out of the question, policeman, fireman, cop, cowboy, you know, like what, like,

I thought, no, I hate everything, except for Second City.

I'd seen that in college.

I thought, wow, if I could do that, I bet I wouldn't hate that.

So, you know, I didn't even

think about a career in entertainment, you know, let alone being on a, you know, a classic hit sitcom.

I just wanted to be in the second city.

And so it's something to say for short-term goals.

And it wasn't until I was there for a couple of years that are going, well,

I guess I'm an actor.

I think that's the way to go.

I think, sorry, you.

No, I apologize.

No, you, please.

Yeah, you go ahead.

Okay, no, I'll ask you.

Georgie.

Yeah.

God, did we get the right camera?

But did you, how did you go from when you had the broom to suddenly you're on the stage?

Because that's not an easy transition.

Well, I just kept working, you know, in the workshops.

And, you know, this is the first time I ever applied myself at anything.

And so, you know, it was really fun and I dug it.

You know who my buddy was in the workshop?

Brandon Tartikoff.

Whoa.

Yeah.

Isn't that weird?

Amazing.

Brandon, who basically is responsible for Shears thing on the air that first year.

Yeah, you know, and so because

we were just pals in workshop.

And then,

you know, I remember we had this showcase for the workshop students, like a little, you know, Saturday night here and there in this local church nearby.

And Brandon and I were both too green to be involved, but we wanted to be involved, but we couldn't be on stage yet.

So I volunteered to

do the chairs, set up the chairs and break down the chairs.

And Brandon was running this coffee concession,

coffee and whatever, cupcakes.

And

after this magnificent show, like

people were blown away and Brandon and I were just stars in our eyes.

And,

you know, we were just on the sideline.

And so I'm breaking breaking down the chairs after the show and Brandon's breaking down the coffee table and stuff.

And he says to me, George, one of these days it's going to be you and me up there.

Wow.

It was.

We have a photo of that somewhere.

That's a great photo of you topless, you topless, and Brandon Tardikoff, who was

his official.

Oh, I saw that.

Yeah, yeah.

Who released that picture after 30 years or whatever?

Yeah, I don't know.

I don't know.

Ungotly, maybe.

Who knows?

But that's the way you should start

what ends up being the passion of your life, not caring where it leads, just knowing you have to be part of it.

I just was determined not to do something I hated.

Yeah.

But so it took like a year or many months or how long before you finally got to get on stage.

There's only a year in the workshops, actually.

And so the first time you're up there and you're improvising for the first time in front of a crowd, Yeah.

What was that like?

I sucked.

You know, I improv really, you know, for as long as I did it, I was never

really very good at it.

I would get in my head a lot and be self-conscious.

Maybe it was the weed.

Did you write?

Did you have to write

like Saturday Night Live?

Do the people write their

thriller.

I mean, you improvise bits.

Yeah.

And then the the director,

the late Del Close,

he would, you know, essentially be like a head writer.

You know, he'd watch the,

you know, the improv set

and,

you know, let you know,

you know, there's a chunk of this scene that we could maybe develop into something else.

you know, a scene that otherwise didn't really work on its own.

But, you know, so

and then you sort of fine-tune, you know you keep improvising it and then it gets to a point where like uh this this just works kind of every time we try it and then you pretty much lock it in uh the you know so it's scripted at the end right right and i was much stronger with the scripted material than i was with the um

and and is it word for word scripted or you have any way within that well you don't want to you know the beats you don't want to blow you know the beats and you don't want to blow anybody's uh

setup or punch or something, you know.

So, you, it was pretty tightly scripted.

And Del Close was pretty hardcore, though, wasn't he?

Like, he could rain some terror down on people, yeah.

And he was, you know, I'll never forget.

Uh,

you know, he was a notorious substance abuser, notorious.

I mean, uh,

and

one time he came back.

We were in previews for a new show, and he he came back stage at intermission and he goes,

I've figured out the closer.

We're going to do the entire second act as Walruses.

And we all just kind of looked at each other.

And I saw Danny Breen, my friend, great friend, walking.

behind to the payphone backstage and I see him ding, ding, you know, with a couple couple of whatever dimes or quarters.

And he dials Bernie Solins, the producer who lived nearby.

Bernie, yes.

Del wants us to do the second act as Walruses.

He says, I'll be right over.

So how did you get from there to Los Angeles?

Bernadette got a pilot.

So wait, how does Bernadette, Bernadette, your wife,

fit into this story at Second City?

Was she there as well?

She was.

She was in the touring company, and I got fired after about a year in the resident company.

I had sort of a

steady progression.

I spent like a year in the workshops, including the children's show.

Then a year in the touring company on the road, you know, doing sort of best of material.

Then

got invited to join the resident company and i was in there for about a year and sucking at improv like i said and uh so

i basically got fired and uh but they said don't go away just go back in the touring company um because we have a bunch of work and

We want you to, you know, continue to, you know,

whatever.

And so that's where I met Bernadette was in the touring company.

And

uh and we got married uh

in

like two years later

oh and then she um

then i got back in the resident company and bernadette gets this pilot uh in la

and

um

so she came back after about three weeks in la said you know i think we ought to consider moving and uh so i did

she said she said we should move Yeah, yeah.

She was getting a lot of attention.

You know,

managers and agents and, oh, you got to move out here, that kind of thing.

You can't work out of Chicago.

For all you Cheers Watchers, Bernadette

played Norm Peterson's off-screen right.

Correct.

His wife, who we never saw but heard of.

And also Cliff Clavin's one-time love interest, Tinkerbell.

I forgot that.

He was Ponce de Leon, and he was like a, you know, he got into character as this great conquistadoro,

and

he was full of,

you know,

full of stuff.

And then once they took the masks off, neither of them could talk.

Oh, that's right.

Oh, that's right.

I remember that.

Wow.

So jumping forward

into into when you started doing Cheers and then you had a kind of a radical change of lifestyle, would you say?

From

going from anonymity to fame.

Oh, that was, yeah, that was peculiar, wasn't it?

What was it like for you then?

Oh, I don't know.

Mind fuck, I guess.

It took a year or so for that to kind of happen in my case.

I mean, yeah, yeah, no, it took a a year.

Oh, that's right.

Because Cheers was dead last in the ratings at first.

And

just, I'm just saying,

it's a great story because

what's his name, you know, decided to keep it on.

What's his name?

I just, we were just talking about Brandon.

Brandon.

Yeah.

Brandon Kharkov said, no, we're going to stick with it.

He got credited for saving Cheers, but he said later in some interview, oh, I would have replaced them.

We just didn't have anything good enough to replace.

Yeah.

And Grant Tinker, of course, was

the actual boss.

But so like in the first year, people are starting to recognize you.

Yeah, not really.

More like,

you know, when America caught on second, third year, sort of.

I think it was.

Pretty much when you started with it.

One of the highlight shows that we all, it was when Kevin McHale, remember when Kevin Celtics was on the show?

Yeah.

And he would go around and say, you know, Woody, you have a shot just like, and he'd name some famous basketball player.

And the rest of us were incredibly jealous.

Well, this, this sports writer friend of mine and friend of many, Alan Malamud, the late Alan Malamud, called me one day and

said,

yeah, Ron Shelton's doing this movie.

And yeah, he can't find anybody who plays basketball.

You said you play with Woody.

Woody, can he play?

And I go,

yeah, yeah, he's good.

You know, he goes, no, really, because they can't find anybody.

And I was like, well, how would you describe?

I said, well,

if you put Woody

in a game of like a Division II or three

college basketball team, you know, he would not look out of place.

You wouldn't go, go, who's that guy?

What's that all about?

You know, he didn't fit right in.

He goes, hmm, I'll tell Ron.

Wow.

Okay.

Say thank you.

So you're responsible

basically for my career.

And I'm just finding out.

Thank you.

I mean, that doesn't seem like enough of a word, but thank you.

Forged by nature and alive with fall color, Maine does autumn the way it's meant to be.

Think quiet misty mornings, glowing foliage, salt-scented breezes, then fresh lobster, just pressed cider and warm donuts straight from the farm.

There's no script here, just woods, waves, and whatever comes next.

This fall, write your story in Maine.

Start planning at visitmaine.com.

Skip expensive takeout and unhealthy options.

HomeChef delivers fresh ingredients and delicious meals directly to you.

I've been on the road, so basically I've been eating in restaurants for the last month.

So I'm going to throw this to my producer, Nick Liao.

Nick.

Well, Ted, I can cook a meal for you because I've been enjoying Home Chef.

Nice.

I'm looking forward to trying the Smoky Barbecue Chicken Thighs, which is a good summer meal.

Smoky chicken thighs.

Smoky.

barbecue chicken thighs.

How does it sound?

You got me coming over to your place.

Yeah, please.

Anytime.

For For a limited time, Home Chef is offering our listeners 50% off and free shipping for your first box plus free dessert for life.

Go to homechef.com/slash Ted and Woody.

That's homechef.com/slash Ted and Woody for 50% off your first box and free dessert for life.

HomeChef.com/slash Ted and Woody.

Must be an active subscriber to receive free dessert.

We don't have to talk about Jimmy Burroughs, our director, in

detail right now, but that was one of the things that made him so amazing was he let everybody, he let you be insane until

unless it interfered with.

No, until you were in front of the camera.

He'd say, you're comedy commandos.

I don't care how you do, what you do during rehearsal or da-da-da-da-da-da, as long as you show up.

On Tuesday.

Yeah, on the night.

And he would see it once

at the read-through

or any of the table reads or,

you know, once in rehearsal, and he'd know, okay, he's got that.

And, you know, if you start rehearsing stuff

too much,

you know, we're a lot of us, this sounds really pretentious, but, you know, it's like we're jazz men, you know, we kind of get bored with our choices after

a few times and

want to move on.

But

there's really one that really just was right.

And Jimmy knew that we'd come back to that one on the night.

I think that there was times, because how do you stay fresh when you've done a show eight, nine, 10, 11 years?

And part of the thing was we would not learn it to the point where we were a little scared when we came in, like, oh, I went too far.

I went too far this time.

Kelsey was really practicing for a little bit.

But Kelsey was insane.

Kelsey would be on book, and not just as an affectation, he would have his script and he'd be reading it right up until, you know, 20 minutes before we shot it.

And then he'd come in and be word perfect.

Right.

It was on video.

Yeah.

It was.

He was.

And after a while, John and I would be sitting there next to each other, you know, like I'm talking about like year eight or nine or something.

And

they'd go, okay, ACEN,

stand by.

And I'd look at John and say,

any idea?

He'd go, nope.

And but then once, so you prayed that your first the first line wasn't your bit.

Yeah.

So somebody started to go, oh, this bit, you know, as long as once it started, we'd know where we were.

You guys.

George, you remember that time?

This is the first time this ever happened to me Was when we were doing, this is probably at least, you know, several years into it for me,

probably six, seven years into it,

where

the

we went up and you and I were smoking a joint and thought we were done.

Remember?

And then they're like, Woody, come down for your monologue in CNC.

And I'm like,

and I go down, and what would have taken one time,

one and two,

three

attempts.

And then Jimmy's like, Woody, you okay?

Yeah, fine, fine, fine, fine.

Everything's fine.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no problem.

Let's do it again.

It took like 10 times to finally get it.

And that was the first time I tried

acting while stoned, which I realized that don't

mix.

Mind you, I tried it a couple other times.

but each time I learned the same lesson.

Yeah, it's not

paranoia.

You would after the audience left.

Self-conscious kind of what?

After the audience slept, you went from that horrible near beer or whatever it was you had to drink.

We would drink real beer after the audience left.

Yeah.

Even sometimes while the audience was there, slip in a beer.

Once in a while, you know.

Pretty rare.

Usually after they left.

Yeah, that's true.

Professional all the way.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You,

Woody and George and Kirstie were involved with the prank on me.

I think about six months before I had pants you.

You were wearing sweatpants and all day long, George and I and John were going, Woody, put on some fucking underwear.

My God, you know.

because of your sweatpants were slightly revealing.

And then we brought in an audience would start watching us when we were in our eighth or ninth year.

They'd bring in an audience to watch dress rehearsal or whatever it was.

And there was a moment where you jumped on this table.

I'm sitting next to the table and your character jumps up on the table and makes a huge announcement.

And I swear to God, I hadn't planned it, but I was looking at your offending member.

And so I

grabbed your sweatpants and jerked them down to your ankles.

And you were rightfully, horribly embarrassed.

yeah i thought it was great and four months pass wow no retribution i'm clear this is good i go in to take a shower right before show george knocks on the door and says do you mind if i come in and shade while you're in the shower i went no that's fine so the door is

primed by you to be open and i can't quite remember i think you

you dove in grabbed the shower door and swung it open and cursed the took a polaroid yeah of me in all my glory confirming your leading man status thank you thank you and then it showed up during uh the uh rap party put it on a rap rap video yeah andy ackerman put it on there yeah yeah that was great it was embarrassing but

well i mean even steven

so what about the boat ride what okay

yeah it was our hookie day remember yeah, it was as I recall that it was a very uh female-heavy show.

Diane had an old something pal from college, I want to say,

and um,

and Ria was a real part of it, real big part of it, and um,

and uh,

baby, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was a girl, you know, and so we felt uh like uh we could maybe

John had just bought a boat, Boston Whaler.

Yeah.

And he was anxious to show it off.

So we cooked up this

little getaway.

I remember we all met at his boat.

Woody and I, by then, were already stoned.

And we got on the phone at a payphone and called in to Jimmy

or called into the show saying.

To Brian.

Yeah.

Brian, you're right.

I'm not feeling too good.

I can't come in and then hand the phone to the next person.

I'm not feeling so.

It was clear that we were playing hook.

Somebody said,

I'm, yeah, I'm seasick.

And, yeah, I got peer pressure.

So we get on the boat.

Kelsey immediately had been up all night playing cards, went down to the lower bunk and fell asleep.

The whole way.

He was sound asleep.

Woody turns to me and goes, have you ever had mushrooms?

No, No, no, I haven't.

And he said, well, this will be a good time.

We have nothing to do.

We'll be on a boat.

So, and we hadn't had breakfast.

So I was fairly hungry and ate, I think, an extraordinary amount of mushrooms.

And then I'm thinking, oh, this is all right.

Then off we go and we're halfway to Catalina.

This is true.

There was the leftover waves from a hurricane in Mexico.

There was still a huge swell.

So people not on mushrooms would be seasick pretty much.

But I sat there getting more and more and more freaked out and whatever it is, you get stoned or whatever it is on mushrooms.

And I look at you, Woody, and you

stretched out on a bunk.

And I think, oh, he's so used to this that he's just cooling and relaxing.

I am panicking.

I'm having trouble breathing.

I'll go up top.

And I came and sat down next to you.

And you looked at me and you went, you're high on something, aren't you?

And I kind of nodded sheepishly and John was like, oh, for crying out loud.

But you spent the next 45 minutes poking me about every minute or two and said, breathe.

Because I would literally forget to breathe and feel like I was dying.

And then you'd poke me.

And then Woody, you finally came up because you were afraid.

Well, I should let you speak for yourself, but you said you were afraid you might jump off the back of the boat.

So you better come up.

And

that was my one kind of visual,

you know,

I looked at you and you looked skeletal.

You looked like Woody the skeleton in my eyes.

That was my only kind of visual buzz from mushrooms.

Well, that's, I remember you looked like that too.

And also, G was having a bad trip.

No, I don't think you were.

I think he did.

No, on the way back, i was seasick but didn't you do mushrooms too no i did not no no oh i thought you did no he was our lifesaver no well i just thought how noble it was that you were trying to calm him down when you were tripping but you weren't no i wasn't

but you did look like a hologram of yourself

i just thought you really you just weren't breathing at all i think i've never let the mushroom air come in because it is a good thing right mushrooms Well, I guess it depends on the setting, but definitely in the middle of a hurricane,

Pacific Ocean.

The boat was really going, the mast thing was going.

Yeah.

It was nasty.

It was the worst four hours of my life.

Truly.

And we were in such trouble.

I thought that I didn't think anyone would give a shit.

They called us in one at a time to give a shit the next day.

Yeah.

Well, it was fair.

We shouldn't have done that.

No, but we've been perfect for like

six, seven years.

I thought the hip move, well, it would have been extravagant, but I thought Burroughs should have

rented a helicopter

with the girls.

Oh.

and brought them and meet us on the pier.

And when we got off the boat, go, okay, ACN is up.

Like, what?

Oh, Jesus.

Their complaint was, you should have told us, we would have let you.

And it'd be like, was like, but that's that's not hooky, Jimmy.

That's

that's not hooky.

Just calling in the morning was, I thought, pretty noble.

Yeah.

Kelsey, we had to roused him.

He didn't wake up.

He came alive when we got to Albana, wherever we were on Catalina.

Yeah.

Kelsey had two amazing, like,

um,

like

super moves that were his.

And one was, remember how he would eat just the tiniest bit of something and chew it like forever.

You know, when we'd go eat together, he'd be three times longer consuming his food than anybody.

Oh, I forgot that.

He'd eat butter.

And he'd eat butter.

Remember that?

He'd just take the knife and he'd take a little piece of the butter wedge and then another little piece.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's got the constitution of a horse, so whatever he was was doing worked but his other superpower was his ability to just sleep and just go deep into the sleep and restore come back ready to run i'll give you one more shoes on stage yeah oh he didn't wear shoes but he would play basketball with us on uh no shoes yeah no shoes barefoot

flat-footed he was flat-footed man yeah he still is

I suppose we should give a mair time to defend himself.

Well, I think we crushed it, guys.

I think we did a whole year's worth of reminiscing.

Not so.

Oh, there's more.

There's so much more that I know we're not thinking of.

Favorite bits, favorite bits that you remember while shooting.

I got both of my favorite bits are Woody's.

And people always ask, what's my favorite show?

And I say

jumping jerks when the boys went skydiving and we all chickened out.

And then we go,

oh man,

I'm not jumping, neither am I, neither am I.

And it's like, but we can't tell them back at the bar.

We can't say we chickened out.

Right.

We got to come up with a story.

Right.

Right.

Right.

But we got to be able to stick to it, right?

Yeah, yeah.

So it's got to be simple and believable.

Simple and believable.

Simple and believable.

I got it, says Sam.

We jumped, the parachutes opened, and we landed.

It's simple.

It's believable.

Right.

We jumped the parachutes open.

We landed.

Okay, we got it.

We go back in the bar.

Oh, man, I never felt so alive.

Woo, that was amazing.

What happened?

What?

Are you kidding?

It was great.

It was amazing.

Wood and Rhea, Carla smells a rat.

And she goes up to Woody, Woody,

what happened?

He goes, What, what?

We jumped, the parachutes open, and we landed.

It was all very simple and believable.

And my other favorite joke or bit was

also Woody.

It was one of the Bar Wars episodes.

And

Gary,

you know, we're pranking Gary's old town tavern.

And where's Woody?

I don't know.

And then,

oh my God, Woody's missing.

You don't suppose.

And then in the background, you see Woody, like done up like Houdini, hanging by his heels upside down in a rope with gaffer's tape all over his

body.

And he's swinging back and forth, you know, on this backstairs, right?

So we go, there he is.

There's Woody.

We all run and we open the door.

And Woody's going,

and we're like, oh my God, he's trying to tell us us something

what's he saying i don't know he's got that tape

and we take it

we rip the gaffer's tape off his mouth he goes don't rip the tape off

you're the only one that that did something you had a bit that stopped the show we literally stopped shooting because the audience wouldn't stop laughing and i can't remember the setup maybe you do, but they had rigged you.

You know, you guys were supposed to be hot and sweating or something.

I can't remember the setup.

And they had rigged a tube up your shirt.

And so

you were just pouring from your armpits.

Yeah.

The audience was.

And water wasn't even playing.

Oh, so it was glycerin?

It was oil.

Yeah, I think they had to use like three in one oil or something to make.

And I took off my sport coat and it's like, uh,

am I fitted or what, you know, like, uh, yeah, yeah.

Um, I forget the setup, though, but uh, yeah,

Jimmy claims it's the only time he ever had to cut the camera on a laugh.

Remember that one time uh

rats did a thing where he did a long pause, but the laugh was

oh, oh, that's remember that he did.

And it was almost a challenge during rehearsal.

It kept going longer and longer.

And he just, as long as he paused, he got funnier and funnier.

Remember that?

I do.

I forget what the bit was there, but it was hysterical, man.

You must have been with us by then.

Maybe it had to be your first year.

Nick Colisanto, who played the coach, had passed away

with about four or five shows left the third season.

And Nikki, we didn't real, I didn't, I don't know if you did, didn't realize that he had a heart condition, heart disease.

And he knew that when he came

to the show, but he was getting more and more forgetful, to our eye, he was just getting more and more forgetful.

But, you know, he wasn't getting the oxygen he needed because of his heart.

So he would write down.

on every surface in the bar his lines.

And he had one line where he had an entrance where the show was about that he had just lost his friend, a lifelong friend, his age, and had died.

T-Bone Scarpigione.

Wow.

And he had written his line on

the back of where we all enter, you know, the stairs.

And it was on the flat side, not the audience side.

He had written his line so he wouldn't forget it when he entered the bar.

And the line was something like, it's almost as if he's still here with us.

Yeah.

Right?

It's almost as if T-Bone is still here with us.

And then the first time we came back, and you had to be there because that was your first show,

Woody,

we noticed it.

And

it was so,

I think we all basically burst into tears because it was how we were all feeling.

And then we would make a ritual for the next four or five years.

As we came down to greet the audience,

everyone would touch the,

it's almost like he's here with us.

Kind of.

That was your ritual.

I got the tongue from Kirstie.

But one day, one day, the painters had decided on the offseason to paint the flats and painted over that.

And we all damn near quit.

We were so angry when we came back.

That's just bad.

Bad.

Who does that?

You're going to cover that stuff up.

We also went to his dressing room after he died, and he had an old sepia photograph of Geronimo.

It's a very famous photograph.

And we insisted that they hang it in the bar.

Remember that?

Yeah.

It's the one you

fuss with at the end of the last episode.

Okay.

We reminisced.

Wow.

Georgie, thank you.

Sure.

Yeah, thanks, G-Man.

Oh, yeah.

Appreciate it.

The great George Went, everybody.

That was so much fun.

We haven't been together for quite a while and to reminisce and laugh and giggle like silly people was a great joy.

And who knows, you might even hear some more cheers, guests, in the future.

Actually, you will, for sure.

That's our show for this week.

Thank you so much for listening.

Even though we are a young podcast, I am so happy to hear that listeners like you are actually tuning in and wanting to hear us chit-chat for an hour or more.

But really, it's a privilege for me and for Woody to share our friends with you.

And thank you for all of those who've left great ratings and reviews on Apple Podcasts.

It truly means a lot.

If you like this episode, be sure and tell a friend and subscribe on your favorite podcast app to get new episodes whenever they land.

Thanks again, everybody.

See you right back here next week where everybody knows your name.

You've been listening to Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson.

Sometimes.

The show is produced by me, Nick Leow.

Executive producers are Adam Sachs, Colin Anderson, Jeff Ross, and myself.

Sarah Fedorovich is our supervising producer.

Our senior producer is Matt Apodaka.

Engineering and Mixing by Joanna Samuel with support support from Eduardo Perez.

Research by Alyssa Grahl.

Talent booking by Paula Davis and Gina Batista.

Our theme music is by Woody Harrelson, Anthony Gen, Mary Steenbergen, and John Osborne.

Special thanks to Lily Navrey.

We'll have more for you next time where everybody knows your name.

New fall arrivals are at Nordstrom Rack stores now.

Get ready to save big with up to 60% off Vince.

Kurt kurt geiger london and more how did i not know rack has adidas there's always something new join the nordy club at nordstrom rack to unlock exclusive discounts on your favorite brands shop new arrivals first and more plus get an extra five percent off every rack purchase with a nordstrom credit card great brands great prices that's why you rack at rx bar they believe in simple nutrition without the bs That's why they said no to artificial ingredients and yes to deliver intentional, transparent nutrition.

Try their original 12-gram protein bar, the nut butter and oat bar, or minis, RXBar, the proud sponsor of No BS.

Use code rxbar on rxbar.com for 25% off, subject to full terms and conditions and to change, valid until September 30, 2025, and may not be combined with other offers.

See rxbar.com for full details and limitations.