'You Could Hear A Pin Drop': Ted Danson Recalls 'Cheers'' Live Audience Not Laughing At The Jokes, And The Surprisingly Simple Reason Behind It

Ted Danson has accumulated a lot of impressive TV credits over the years, ranging from Becker to "The Good Place" to CSI for a dramatic turn. He may always be best remembered for his Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning work as Sam Malone on "Cheers," however, and he still has stories to tell about his time on the sitcom that ended more than thirty years before this point in the 2025 TV schedule. He recounted instances when jokes would flop on "Cheers," but sometimes for a perfectly straightforward reason. "Cheers," which ran for eleven seasons on NBC from 1982 - 1993, could boast a consistently funny cast made up of Rhea Perlman, the late George Wendt, a very young Woody Harrelson, future Frasier star Kelsey Grammer, and John Ratzenberger, to name just some of Ted Danson's co-stars. Having a stacked cast didn't mean that there weren't sometimes jokes that just didn't land on set, as Danson shared with "SNL" vet Fred Armisen on the "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" podcast.