Ted Danson Apologizes to Kelsey Grammer for ‘Cheers’ Beef

Turns out Shelley Long wasn’t the only Cheers co-star that irritated Ted Danson. In the latest episode of the Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast, the guy who played bartender Sam Malone confessed that he also had beef with Kelsey Grammer.

“I got stuck a little bit with you during the Cheers years,” Danson admitted to Grammer. “I have a memory of getting angry at you once.”

“You came and told me that one day,” acknowledged TV’s Frasier Crane.

“It's stuck in both of our memories,” said Danson. “But I feel like, fuck. I don’t know. I feel like I missed out on the last 30 years of Kelsey Grammer. It’s my bad, my doing. And I almost feel like apologizing to you. No, I don’t ‘feel like.’ I apologize.”

Both comic actors lamented the fact that they hadn’t spent more time together in the intervening years, all because Danson couldn’t keep his resentments to himself. All of which begs the question: WHY WAS DANSON ANGRY WITH GRAMMER?

Whatever it was, the tiff didn’t stop Danson from guest-starring on Grammer’s spin-off. In fact, maybe it created just the acting challenge he needed. “I came on Frasier because it scared the shit out of me,” Danson explained. 

Grammer, of course, used Danson’s admission as an opportunity to invite him to guest once again on the current reboot. “I would love that,” responded Danson.

“I think you’ll be really safe in there,” Grammer said. “I know you will.” 

It’s not clear why showing up on Paramount+ would be unsafe for Danson, but all of the back-slapping still fails to answer the question: WHY WAS DANSON ANGRY WITH GRAMMER?

The lovefest between the old Cheers stars got almost sickening. “You said something wonderful to me that I quote to other people,” Grammer said by means of accepting the apology. “When I turned 40, you came up and you said, ‘You know what it means, don’t you? Now that you’re 40, it means you’re finally worth having a conversation with.’ I thought that was fucking brilliant.”

Cue the hugs. “I always loved that, and I’ve repeated it,” Grammer continued. “And my love for you has always been as easy as the day, you know, as easy as the sunrise.”

“Mine to you!” exclaimed Danson like a man who’d never spoken words of hatred to Grammer. But he did. We know he did. There’s only one thing we don’t know: WHY WAS DANSON ANGRY WITH GRAMMER?

You can’t keep us hanging like this, man.