Ted Danson Remembers the Time Woody Harrelson Skipped ‘Cheers’ to See the Berlin Wall Fall
Thirty-nine years after Woody Harrelson joined the cast of Cheers, he and former costar Ted Danson remain close. In fact, they cohost a podcast called Where Everybody Knows Your Name, where they interview friends from their past, including former Cheers cast members like Kelsey Grammer. However, on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Danson explained why the podcast’s subtitle is “With Ted Danson & Woody Harrelson (sometimes)” — Harrelson is a “whimsical creature,” according to Danson, who isn’t always available to record.
And, as Danson recalled, the podcast isn’t the only time when Harrelson’s whimsical personality made him difficult to get ahold of. One day in 1989, Harrelson was late to the set of Cheers for a rehearsal. The cast was “waiting for him, and it got to be about half an hour late for rehearsal, and half an hour is when you’re late.” As the assembled group puzzled over where Harrelson could possibly be, “someone came running in and said ‘Woody called, he’s in Berlin, the Wall is coming down and he didn’t want to miss it.'”
Photo by Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images
That, Danson marveled, was “the whimsical side of Woody, but also the magnificent side! He bites off these big chunks of life, he’s just astounding.”
He also recalled his first day meeting Harrelson, who joined the show in its fourth season. “[Harrelson] got in a bar fight and was carjacked in the same day. And you think, ‘Oh dear god, that’s who that is.’ Then [Harrelson] says, ‘Could you look at this poem I wrote?’ … [and] it’s like the most beautiful poem you’ve ever read. And he [says] would you come see the play I wrote? … and it’s a brilliant play. You cannot pigeonhole that guy.”
In addition to his podcast with Harrelson, Danson has a new Netflix show, A Man on the Inside, in which he plays a college professor who is hired by a private detective to go undercover in a senior living facility. The Academy Award-nominated Harrelson has multiple film projects set to be released in 2025, including the James L. Brooks-directed comedy Ella McKay.
Check out the rest of Danson’s interview below as he also talks about meeting Jane Fonda and how he is not tech-savvy:
Remind 
Oh What A Year: 1980
January 2020
Take a look back at our retrospect of the year 1980 where we celebrate the hottest in movies, music and TV.
Buy This Issue