“Cheers” co-stars George Wendt, Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson reunited on the “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” podcast. Team Coco / Where Everybody Knows Your Name
“John had just bought a boat,” Wendt recalled of his “Cheers” co-star John Ratzenberger, who portrayed the beloved character Cliff Clavin on the series. “And he was anxious to show it off, so we cooked up this little getaway.”
Danson then shared that when they met up on Ratzenberger’s boat — skipping work to do so because it was, in Wendt’s words, “a very female-heavy” shoot day — he and Harrelson , 63, were “stoned.”
“So, we get on the boat,” Danson, 76, recalled. “Kelsey [Grammer] immediately had been up all night playing cards, went down to the lower bunk and fell asleep the whole way.”
Danson (left) as Sam Malone and Harrelson as Woody Boyd on “Cheers.” NBCUniversal via Getty Images Danson (from left), John Ratzenberger, George Wendt and Harrelson on “Cheers.” NBC/Courtesy Everett Collection
“He was sound asleep,” Danson continued. “Woody turns to me and goes, ‘Have you ever had mushrooms?’ And I go, ‘No. No, I haven’t.’ And he said, ‘Well, this will be a good time. We have nothing to do. We’ll be out on a boat.’
“We hadn’t had breakfast, so I was fairly hungry,” the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actor went on. “And I ate I think an extraordinary amount of mushrooms, and then I’m thinking, ‘Oh, this is all right.’”
But things were not all right, as they faced dangerous waves while boating off the Southern California coast thanks to the outer bands of a hurricane near Mexico sending massive swells their way.
Danson and Harrelson revealed they once skipped work on “Cheers” to get high on mushrooms. Team Coco / Where Everybody Knows Your Name Wendt shared that the high times happened on the high seas, when the actors went for a joyride on fellow cast member Ratzenberger’s boat. Team Coco / Where Everybody Knows Your Name
“So people not on mushrooms would be seasick pretty much,” Danson added.
“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[‘re] stretched out on a bunk, and I think, ‘Oh, he’s so used to this that he’s just cooling it and relaxing.’”
Danson had a different reaction. “I am panicking,” he said. “I’m having trouble breathing,” explaining that he then decided to “go up top” — thinking things might be better on the deck than in the hull.
Harrelson (left) and Danson on “Cheers.” Paramount Television/Courtesy Everett Collection The “Cheers” cast: Ratzenberger (from left) as Cliff Clavin, Rhea Perlman as Carla Tortelli, Roger Rees as Robin Colcord, Danson as Sam Malone, Kirstie Alley as Rebecca Howe, Kelsey Grammer as Dr. Frasier Crane, Bebe Neuwirth as Dr. Lilith Sternin, Harrelson as Woody Boyd and Wendt as Norm Peterson. NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Wendt ended up being there to calm Danson’s nerves, “poking” the star of “The Good Place” every minute for roughly 45 minutes and reminding him to breathe.
Danson called Wendt a “lifesaver.” Wendt’s method of soothing the actor was not, it seems, learned from any personal experience with mushrooms, as he shared that he had never tried them himself.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest TV shows ever, “Cheers” ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993 .
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