Ted Danson Shoots Down Any Possibility of a Cheers Return

Summary

• Cheers fans hoping for a reunion series will be disappointed, as Ted Danson believes it wouldn’t work with the “older folks.”
• Kelsey Grammar, who played Frasier Crane, also doesn’t think going back to Cheers is a good idea, but suggests featuring the bar in flashback scenes.
• While a Cheers revival may not happen, there is potential for a Christmas special with Frasier revisiting old scenes through old clips.

The return of Frasier has sparked an interest in a revival of the series that started it all: Cheers. A cast reunion during the 75th annual Emmy Awards just added fuel to the fire. However, despite the hopes of fans of the classic series, a Cheers follow-up series just isn’t going to happen, according to Ted Danson. During the Los Angeles premiere of the twelfth season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Danson spoke with ET about reuniting with his Cheers castmates:

“Well you know it’s interesting … I’ve seen them recently, everybody, pretty much everybody.”

Danson famously portrayed Sam Malone, a former relief pitcher and the owner of Cheers, for the show’s 11-year run from 1982 to 1993. While Danson called his on-stage reunion with Kelsey Grammar, Rhea Perlman, John Ratzenberger, and George Wendt for an Emmys presentation “really fun,” he was adamant that a Cheers reunion with “a bunch of older folks” wouldn’t work. He also spoke about two notable absences from the Emmys stage:

“I’m sorry Shelly (wasn’t there) and Woody was off doing a play in London, which I saw and he was amazing. But it was lovely.”

Danson will appear as a fictionalized version of himself in the twelfth and final season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. He has portrayed creator Larry David’s frenemy on the hit HBO series for over 20 years.

Curb Your Enthusiasm premieres on February 4 on HBO.

Related Ted Danson’s 10 Most Iconic TV Characters These are the versatile actor’s most memorable roles on various TV shows, from Cheers to Mr. Mayor.

Will Frasier Return to Cheers?

Paramount Network Television

Just months after the final episode of Cheers aired, Frasier premiered. The spinoff followed Dr. Frasier Crane to his hometown of Seattle, where he worked as a radio psychiatrist. A Paramount+ revival series premiered last year, and saw Frasier back in Boston following his father’s death. So, while a Cheers revival is unlikely, now that Frasier hs returned to Boston, could audiences see Dr. Crane visit his old stomping grounds? According to Grammer, probably not. During an interview following the premiere of the Frasier revival, he said:

“I’m not sure the guys who wrote ‘Cheers’ would want us to go back to ‘Cheers.’ It’s like, let’s let that be where it is. It’s a monument in the minds of television history.”

Despite that, Grammer doesn’t shoot down the idea of working with his former Cheers castmates or featuring the bar through flashback scenes:

“I was just spitballing a little while ago about how it might be kind of fun to do a Christmas show next year, the Christmas of Cheers Past. Frasier could revisit scenes that he lived out before like when he had made a mistake. What could he do to fix it? [Laughs] I don’t know, it just seems like a good idea and it would be really funny. And [the original cast] wouldn’t even have to appear; it would just be old clips. But we’ll see. You know, I love Ted [Danson] and working with him, so I’d love to do something with him. We just haven’t broken that idea yet.”

Frasier showrunners Chris Harris and Joe Cristalli aren’t opposed to the idea of seeing Frasier pay a visit to the iconic bar, but they say it would be a “big moment” that would need to be done right.

We may just have to find another hangout where everybody knows our names.

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