Cheers stars Ted Danson, Woody Harrelson, and George Wendt have recalled being "so drunk" when they appeared together on a live TV special, hosted by Jay Leno, to mark the end of their classic sitcom.
The beloved NBC show, which was set in a Boston bar, included Shelley Long, Rhea Pearlman, Kelsey Grammer, Kirstie Alley, and John Ratzenberger among its star-studded cast. Debuting in 1982, the show ended in 1993 after 11 seasons.
Comedian Leno, who was one year into hosting The Tonight Show at the time, was tasked with helming a live special, which has remained a talking point on social media over the years because some cast members appeared to have indulged a little while marking the end of the show.
On the latest installment of their podcast Where Everybody Knows Your Name, Danson and Harrelson welcomed their old co-star Wendt, with whom they shared memories of their times working together on the set over the years.
Danson played the bar's owner and head bartender Sam Malone, Harrelson portrayed the bartender Woody Boyd, and Wendt took on the role of bar regular Norm Peterson.
Recalling the Cheers special with Leno after their show came to an end, Harrelson told Danson and Wendt: "We were so drunk by the time that came around."
Giving podcast listeners some context, Danson explained: "We hadn't seen each other for two or three months and this was the final goodbye. The episode was airing, and Jay Leno was going to have this after final episode.
"They brought us into the bar to do interviews at like, two in the afternoon, and we were in the bar at Cheers... What do you do in a bar? You start drinking, and then later you start smoking."
After sustained revelry, Danson recalled, Leno "looked up from his notes" to see that he might have something of a challenging experience his hands.
"They were going, '5, 4, 3...' and he looked up and saw us all, really for the first time," Danson added of Leno.
"We got a lot of s*** for that, remember? Danson asked his co-stars.
Noting Leno's relatively recent arrival to live TV at the time, Wendt said: "Not only was he green, I think it was his first live episode. Probably, he may have never done a live [broadcast] again after that."
"I wouldn't blame him," Harrelson quipped. "We were in poor shape to be doing anything."
"I think actually, the only sober person was Kelsey," Danson added in reference to Grammer, who would go on to continue playing his Cheers character Frasier Crane in the show's long-running spinoff Frasier.
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