Ted Danson Says He Turned ‘Cheers’ Into A Pissing Contest When Woody Harrelson Signed On
When Woody Harrelson showed up on Cheers, his youthful energy and physical abilities didn’t only change the dynamic behind the bar. Director James Burrows wondered if Harrelson’s Woody character could jump over the bar. “Well,” Harrelson said sheepishly, “maybe.”
That drove Sam Malone crazy, said Ted Danson on a recent episode of the Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast. And it bugged Danson as well. “I couldn’t jump over it,” he admitted. “That was my relationship with Woody for a long time. Trying to outdo him at anything and failing miserably.”
“Well,” Burrows pointed out, “you had less testosterone.”
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Harrelson was just a young buck when he joined the Cheers cast. “All the guys were turning 37, and you were 24 or 25,” Danson told Woody. “And 37 is when you realize you’re no longer 25, as a man.”
Realizing your limitations is one thing, but accepting them is another. So Danson and the rest of the Cheers barflies engaged Harrelson in just about every kind of pissing contest they could think of. “We wanted to beat him, but it became blatantly clear we couldn’t beat him at anything — basketball, arm wrestling, whatever, chess.”
Danson previously confessed to Conan O’Brien that “I have a bad elbow to this day because I wouldn’t give up arm wrestling.”
Once Danson and company concluded that Harrelson was going to kick their ass in whatever competition they chose, the Cheers guys came up with a new way to vent their frustrations. “All of a sudden it was practical jokes,” Danson said. “You know, if you had a good practical joke and George (Wendt) and John (Ratzenberger) and Kelsey (Grammer) were sitting there, you’d go, ‘No, this is too good. I have to wait for Woody. I have to try to fuck Woody up.’”
“It was that kind of energy that you brought into the bar,” Danson laughed. “You really did.”
“He introduced a challenge and a way of life that was great for the show,” agreed Burrows.
Doesn’t sound like Harrelson was too bothered about being on the receiving end of those pranks. “In my memory, (Cheers) was the most idyllic, amazing experience,” he said. “I can’t imagine a better experience for an actor.”
Easy to say when you’re winning every contest, Woody.
