Cheers is one of television’s most beloved sitcoms with an 11-year run on NBC that provided lots of laughs and starred Ted Danson. Unfortunately, if you are in the cast and spend that much time together, practical jokes might take place. Well, Danson pulled a big one on Woody Harrelson one time.
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Danson, who played Sam Malone on there, talked about doing a practical joke on Harrelson during an appearance on Conan O’Brien’s Conan show on TBS.
“When we were in our heyday, people would come watch us,” Danson said. “Audiences would come watch us rehearse. Not just the show night, but the rehearsing. We were rehearsing and everyone was saying, ‘Woody, for god’s sake man, wear some underwear.’ He was in sweatpants, it was like, ‘Come on, that’s ridiculous’. He was just going commando.
Ted Danson Pulls Down Woody Harrelson’s Sweatpants For Embarrassing Practical Joke
“He had one point in the story where his character, he leaps up on a desk,” Ted Danson continued. “And he goes, ‘Hey everybody, give me your attention!’ And there’s an audience like this watching. And I was just like, ‘Oh, I have to do this’.” Danson then gestures pulling down Harrelson’s sweatpants and exposing him to the studio audience.
While that does sound harsh, Danson also said that Harrelson got his revenge about a year later. “He was horrified, and probably rehearsing nervous, so he was doubly horrified,” Danson said. “But he did get me back. He waited, a year later, I was in the show, and George [Wendt] said ‘Leave the door unlocked so I can come in and change.’ We were all late. I had left the door unlocked. The door slams open and Woody rips open the shower door and Kirstie [Alley]’s there with the polaroid and goes ‘click’, and I was immortalized for the wrap show video. The end of the year video.”
Actor Talks About HIs Lack Of Experence In Bars Before Role On ‘Cheers’
Meanwhile, before he played Sam, Danson said that he “never went to bars.” He talked about his bar experiences, or lack thereof of them, while appearing on Late Night With Seth Meyers. The conversation veered in this direction after Danson popped behind a bar in his then-series The Good Place. “Did you feel immediately natural being behind a bar again?” Meyers asked.
“No,” Danson said. “It took me a year and a half of playing Cheers… Sam Malone, my voice changed just now. I’m starting to quaver. I’m getting nervous. Sick. I never went to bars. I was the guy who- I never picked up women.”
