When Woody Harrelson first joined the cast of “Cheers,” Ted Danson committed a lot of time trying to “outdo” his new cast member.
While talking with “Cheers” co-creator and director James Burrows on their “Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (Sometimes)” podcast, Danson revealed that Season 4’s addition of a young Harrelson had him trying to one-up the young actor – including a bit that made it into the show about who could leap over the bar top.
“We turned my jump over the bar into a comedic bit because I couldn’t jump over it. It kind of drove Sam crazy,” Danson recalled. “That was my relationship with Woody for a long time, trying to outdo him at anything and failing miserably.”
Burrows – who directed all but 35 episodes of the long-running comedy series – said Harrelson’s energy was a shot in the arm to the show as it entered a fourth season. At that point in “Cheers,” he said a lot of his job was keeping the cast from “being bored.”
“[Woody] jumped over the bar, and that was a light to us all,” Burrows said. “And not only in the show, but in the behavior of everybody in the show, the cast. We brought a young soul onto the stage who created havoc, the best havoc a director of that show could ever want.”
Danson also admitted a lot of the one-upping happened as most of the male cast members were in their late-30s while Harrelson joined the show in his mid-20s.
“All the guys were turning 37 and you were like 24 or 25 and 37 is when you realized you’re no longer 25 as a man,” he said. “So first off, we wanted to beat him. When it became blatantly clear, we couldn’t beat him in anything. Basketball, leg or arm wrestling, whatever, chess, all of a sudden it was like practical jokes. If you had a good practical joke and George and John and Kelsey were sitting there, you’d go, ‘No, this is too good. I have to wait for Woody. I have to try to f–k Woody up.’ And it was that kind of energy, that you brought in to the bar.”
“Cheers” ran for 11 seasons from 1982-1993.
You can listen to the full “Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (Sometimes)” episode here.