Ted Danson says he didn't even realize Cheers had ended
Ted Danson says he was so deep in personal turmoil when Cheers wrapped that he “didn’t even realize” the hit sitcom had ended. The 78-year-old actor told his podcast he wanted to “stop being a liar,” grow emotionally mature, and change after blowing up his personal life around the 1993 finale.
Key Takeaways
- Danson said personal chaos left him unaware Cheers had ended for months.
- He sought a mentor and aimed to stop lying and become emotionally mature.
- The sitcom ended after 11 seasons when he left to pursue other roles.
- He later starred in Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Good Place, and Man on the Inside.
What did Ted Danson say about the end of Cheers?
On a recent episode of his podcast Where Everybody Knows Your Name, Danson revisited questions fans still ask about the series finale. “People say, ‘What was it like? What did you do when she was over?’ I said, ‘I had f***ed up my life so much that I didn’t even realize Cheers was over,’” he recalled, adding that he “barely knew myself.”
According to Page Six, he also described taking a “postgrad grow-up class fast” during his final year on the show and driving to Long Beach to see a mentor who offered “a whole different kind of therapy spirituality kind of thing.”
He put his goal bluntly: “I wanted to stop being a liar. I wanted to be emotionally mature. I wanted to change.” For more star headlines, visit our celebrity breaking news hub.
Why was Danson’s personal life in chaos when Cheers ended?
According to The Independent, Danson was divorcing his second wife, Cassandra Coates, after an extra-marital affair with Whoopi Goldberg that followed their 1993 film Made in America.
On a 2025 podcast episode with guest Charlie Day, Danson said “the transition was easy because I blew my personal life up so badly,” and that he did not realize the show had ended for a few months while he dealt with personal matters.
That period, he suggested, overshadowed the milestone of leaving one of television’s most beloved sitcoms. Fans asking what he did when the series wrapped got an answer rooted less in celebration than in recovery and self-reinvention.
Why did Cheers end after 11 seasons?
Danson starred as Sam Malone from 1982 to 1993 and appeared in all 273 episodes alongside castmates including Kelsey Grammer, George Wendt, John Ratzenberger, Woody Harrelson, and Rhea Perlman. The series wrapped when he wanted other opportunities and producers decided it could not continue without him.
“I was changing for the better and working really hard at that, so I thought, ‘Might as well jump completely off the cliff,’” he said. He also worried that staying might leave him unsure whether he could succeed in other roles.
After Cheers, Danson went on to Becker, Curb Your Enthusiasm, CSI, The Good Place, and Netflix’s Man on the Inside. He also credited chemistry reads with Shelley Long for helping him land the Cheers role, calling their on-set dynamic “f***ing magic” despite very different styles.