Cheers
Frasier is spun-off from another series, the popular NBC series Cheers. This was set in Boston, in a bar named Cheers (oddly enough). The series revolved around the loves and lives of its regulars, amongst them Frasier and Lilith. The series ran for 11 seasons and was the third longest comedy series ever produced by NBC. Frasier himself first appeared in the third season, and was originally only going appear in a few episodes. The producers realised the potential the character had, and so he stayed, becoming one of its most popular characters. A similar story also applies to Lilith.
The Cheers story began in the early 1980s when Glen and Les Charles, and James Burrows, the creators of Taxi, created a sitcom about a Boston bar named Cheers. The show debuted in 1982 and introduced us to bar owner Sam "Mayday" Malone (Ted Danson), ex Red Sox player and ex alcoholic, Sam's old coach Ernie "Coach" Pantusso (Nicholas Colasanto) who was a bartender, waitress Carla Tortelli (Rhea Perlman) and bar regulars Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger) and Norm Peterson (George Wendt). In the first episode they were joined by Diane Chambers (Shelley Long), who had to accept a job at the bar as a waitress after her fiancé dumped her.
The first year was about Sam and Diane's feelings for each other, and in the second season they were an item. They split up and Diane met Frasier at the start of Season 3 when she went to the Golden Brook Sanatorium. Diane and Frasier flew to Italy to be married but she jilted him because she still loved Sam.
About the same time Coach passed on, and his pen pal Woody Boyd (Woody Harrelson) replaced him as bartender. Sam and Diane got engaged but Diane left him to go to LA to become an author. Sam sold the bar to a corporation and bought a boat, but when that sank six months later he came back to Cheers to find it under the management of Rebecca Howe (Kirstie Alley). Not long afterwards Frasier and Lilith married.
Rebecca dated various rich guys, including Robin Colcord (Roger Rees), but when she realised Robin was just using her to gain the corporation secrets, she dumped him. Sam bought back the bar but retained Rebecca after the corporation fired her. She and Sam realised they both wanted a baby so got together, but it didn't work out.
Star Ted Danson, who played Sam, decided to leave at the end of Season 11, and the producers decided that the show should come to an end at that point, as it would not be the same without Sam. The last season saw Lilith leave Frasier for life in an eco-pod and later returning to him, and the other loose ends tied up, before both the season and the series ended in a 90 minute finale on May 20, 1993 where Diane returned for the first time in 6 years.
It wasn't just the main characters that made the show great though. Other characters included Woody's girlfriend/wife Kelly (Jackie Swanson), bar regulars Paul (Paul Willson), Phil (Phillip Perlman), Al and others, Rebecca's boss during Season 6 Evan Drake (Tom Skerrit) whom she had a crush on but he didn't know about it (sound familiar?) and Cliff's dominating and overbearing mother Esther Clavin.
The show ran 11 years from 1982 - 1993. Information on the characters can be found on the Other Characters page.
And finally, the words to the famous theme song.
Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.
Wouldn't you like to get away?
Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name,
And they're always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see, our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows your name.
You wanna go where people know, people are all the same,
You wanna go where everybody knows your name.
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Legal Stuff:
Frasier created by David Angell, Peter Casey and David Lee. Based on the character "Frasier Crane" created by Glen and Les Charles and featured in the NBC / Paramount production "Cheers". Frasier is a Grub Street Production for NBC and Paramount. All Frasier characters are copyright NBC, Paramount and Grub Street Productions.
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