Diane
Chambers (played by
Shelley Long): [on the telephone for
Sam] “Yes, yes, I'll take a message... You're welcome.”
[Diane hangs
up the telephone]
Sam
Malone (played by
Ted Danson): “Well?”
Diane:
" ‘You're a magnificent pagan beast.’ "
Sam: “Thanks, what's
the message?”—Cheers, Season 1,
Episode 1, “Give Me a Ring Sometime,”
written by Glen and Les Charles, created by James Burrows with Glen and Les
Charles, directed by James Burrows, air date September 30, 1982
Throughout much of the Eighties, if I ever had any
down moments, I would turn on the latest episode of Cheers and banish the gloom, at least for awhile. Tomorrow marks
the 30th anniversary of the premiere of one of the greatest sitcoms of them all, and
just in time to tell the tale—and what a tale it is!—is Brian Raftery’s oral history in the new issue of GQ Magazine.
I use “tale,” singular, but judging by the backstage anecdotes
related, I have a strong feeling that there’s plenty more where that came from—something
on the order of a Hollywood One Thousand
and One Nights. Many of them, predictably, involve resident wildman Woody Harrelson. (“You
couldn't do what I did now because of all the tweeting and Facebooking. All the
shit I did back then, I'd be hung from the rafters.”)
I don’t want to spoil the rest for you. Read the
whole thing (and preferably online, which contains bits left out of the print
version.) Then, when you’re done, watch the show again. Just don’t ask when they’ll
ever have anything as warm and funny again on TV, because the question will
only break your heart.
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