Ranking the ‘Cheers’ Stars’ Likelihood of Appearing on the ‘Frasier’ Revival
Now that we know that the Frasier revival is taking place in Boston, don’t you think its protagonist would wanna go where everybody knows his name? That is to say, is it really a coincidence that the Kelsey Grammer character is back in the same city as Cheers, the bar where TV viewers first met him?
In fact, we’d be astonished if the Paramount+ series didn’t bring back some of Grammer’s Cheers costars. In an interview with MovieWeb this November, the actor seemed open to reuniting with his old drinking buddies on the new Frasier. “Good Lord, you know, there’s always a chance, but I haven’t really thought about it,” he said. “If it comes up, and it’s entrenched into a storyline, yeah, probably. You never know.”
So now we’re ranking the Cheers stars by their likelihood of appearing in the Frasier revival — from least to most likely — minus, sadly, Nicholas Colasanto, who died in 1985, and Kirstie Alley, who died in December.
George Wendt (Norm Peterson)
Relative to other characters, Wendt’s barfly character didn’t have much drama with Frasier Crane — except, perhaps, that Frasier’s son, Frederick, said “Norm” as his first word. Plus, Wendt might be too busy for another Frasier appearance, considering he’s joining Dan Aykroyd, Jim Belushi, Jon Lovitz, and Kevin Nealon in A History of the World in Six Glasses, an upcoming Fox Nation docuseries from former Cheers executive producer Rob Long.
Shelley Long (Diane Chambers)
Long played Diane Chambers, the waitress-turned-writer who left Frasier at the altar at the end of Cheers Season 3. She returned in Frasier’s third season — in the aptly titled “The Show Where Diane Comes Back” — where she gets some closure with her ex-fiancée. Considering that tidy conclusion — and the fact that Diane lives in Los Angeles now — we wouldn’t necessarily bet on seeing the character again.
John Ratzenberger (Cliff Clavin) and Rhea Perlman (Carla Tortelli)
We think Ratzenberger and Perlman are equally likely to appear in the new Frasier episodes. Their characters, mail carrier Cliff and waitress Carla, popped up in the Season 9 installment “Cheerful Goodbyes,” in which Cliff decided to stay in Boston after all, much to Carla’s dismay. Plus, both actors are still active on screen, having appeared in separate episodes of Poker Face this year. And they’re both nostalgic for Cheers, it seems. Ratzenberger told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018 he’d “love to see” a Cheers revival, and Perlman told Yahoo Entertainment last year she’d “give anything to be with them all again.”
Bebe Neuwirth (Lilith Sternin)
Neuwirth might be occupied with her role on the HBO Max drama Julia, which is coming back for a second season (and co-stars Frasier’s David Hyde Pierce, coincidentally enough). But the actress told Variety last year she was “very supportive” of the Frasier revival, and she did appear in a dozen episodes of the original Frasier, reprising her part as the lead character’s ex-wife Lilith. Also, we know that Frasier and Lilith’s son, Freddy, will be part of the revival, so the groundwork for another Lilith appearance is already set.
Woody Harrelson (Woody Boyd)
Woody made a foray into politics at the end of Cheers, but as of the time of his Frasier appearance — in Season 6’s “The Show Where Woody Shows Up” — he was still tending bar at Cheers in Boston. Harrelson, meanwhile, is a very busy actor — his IMDb filmography shows four projects in production or pre-production at the moment — but he seems eager to support his Cheers costars, so we think another Frasier cameo could easily be arranged.
Ted Danson (Sam Malone)
Danson’s schedule, meanwhile, is freer now that NBC voted his comedy Mr. Mayor out of office. Plus, Sam and Frasier have a score to settle: In Sam’s one and only Frasier appearance to date, Season 2’s “The One Where Sam Shows Up,” the bar owner never learned that Frasier slept with his fiancée, Sheila (Téa Leoni). Danson has tempered hopes of a Cheers reboot, but we don’t think he’d turn up his nose at another Frasier appearance.
