Ted Danson Reveals Why He Still Watches ‘Cheers’ 40 Years Later – ‘It’s Great To See My Friends’

It’s been 40 years since the premiere of the beloved sitcom Cheers, which ran from 1982 to 1993, but star Ted Danson still enjoys watching the show that made him famous to this day.

‘It Still Makes Me Laugh’

“Unbelievable. I remember being 35 when I started, that’s always a nice kind of memory,” Danson, 74, told Entertainment Tonight of the show’s 40th anniversary. “My hair was brown, and I had a lot of it.”

“It still makes me laugh when I watch sometimes,” he added alluding to the beloved sitcom, going on to reveal why he still watches it. “It’s funny and it’s great to see my friends and they make me laugh.”

Danson explained that he has never forgotten where he came from, and that he owes much of his later success to Cheers. 

“I was so blessed,” he admitted. “I got my introduction to this business with [Cheers creators] Jimmy Burrows and [Les Charles] and Glen Charles, who are like half-hour aristocrats. I mean, they were some of the best in the business and that’s how I got introduced to half-hour [television].”

“The reason why we’re talking, the reason why I’m sitting next to [‘Mr. Mayor’ co-star] Holly [Hunter] is because of Cheers,” Danson continued. “Everything I do is because of the popularity of that show.”

Danson is referring to his current show “Mr. Mayor,” which ran for two seasons on NBC before being cancelled earlier this year.

Danson won two Emmy Awards for playing the smooth-talking Sam Malone on Cheers, and this is all the more impressive given the fact that he never felt comfortable stepping into this role.

“It took me a year and a half on Cheers playing Sam Malone [to feel comfortable],” Danson disclosed in a 2018 interview, according to People Magazine.

“I never went to bars, I never picked up women. The woman would have to be standing naked in front of me and I’d go, ‘Me?'” the actor cheekily joked. “Playing Sam Malone was anathema to me for the longest time.”

Watch Danson talk more about this in the video below.

Related: ‘Cheers’ Star Kirstie Alley Triggers Hollywood Liberals Then Issues Brutal Response To Her ‘Nasty’ Haters

Rhea Perlman Honors ‘Cheers’

Rhea Perlman, who played the sassy waitress Carla Tortelli on Cheers, also spoke out about it being four decades since the sitcom premiered.

“It’s hard for me to say, ‘This is the best,’ but I’ll say it, ‘OK?’ Cheers was the best show ever,” she told TODAY with a laugh.

As for whether audiences would love Cheers today as much as they did 40 years ago, Perlman thinks some changes would need to be made.

“I think they would respond to a version of it. Not that exact thing,” Perlman asserted. “I think there would be a version that would work. You’d have to change it. It would be a different kind of Lothario. There’s still Lotharios around, you know, but Sam was a very kind-hearted person.”

Related: ‘Cheers’ Star Kirstie Alley Skewers Democrats – They’ve ‘Accomplished Nothing’

‘Cheers’ Brought People Together

Cheers was on in a time before DVRs and other television recording devices, meaning Americans everywhere had to be home at a certain time to watch it. The feeling of camaraderie that this brought for viewers is not something that Perlman thinks can be replicated in this day and age.

“Aside from the Super Bowl, or something like that? No, I don’t think we will. I don’t see how we can go back,” Perlman said. “We now know we don’t need to have to be in a certain place at a certain time.”

Though it’s been 40 years since it premiered and nearly 30 years since it went off the air, Cheers is a show that has never been forgotten by fans. No wonder Ted Danson still gets a kick out of watching it all these years later!