By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Pew PatriotsPew PatriotsPew Patriots
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
  • Home
  • News
  • Tactical
  • Guns and Gear
  • Prepping & Survival
  • Videos
Reading: George Wendt’s wild ‘Cheers’ days revealed: Cast pranks, mushroom trips and shotgun gifts
Share
Font ResizerAa
Pew PatriotsPew Patriots
  • News
  • Tactical
  • Guns and Gear
  • Prepping & Survival
  • Videos
Search
  • Home
  • News
  • Tactical
  • Guns and Gear
  • Prepping & Survival
  • Videos
Have an existing account? Sign In
Follow US
George Wendt’s wild ‘Cheers’ days revealed: Cast pranks, mushroom trips and shotgun gifts
News

George Wendt’s wild ‘Cheers’ days revealed: Cast pranks, mushroom trips and shotgun gifts

Jimmie Dempsey
Last updated: May 22, 2025 9:53 am
Jimmie Dempsey Published May 22, 2025
Share
SHARE

Join Fox News for access to this content

Plus special access to select articles and other premium content with your account – free of charge.

By entering your email and pushing continue, you are agreeing to Fox News’ Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which includes our Notice of Financial Incentive.

Please enter a valid email address.

Having trouble? Click here.

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Don’t let George Wendt’s mild-mannered portrayal of loyal “Cheers” regular Norm Peterson fool you; the late actor had some pretty wild times with the cast. 

Wendt, who died on Tuesday at 76 years old after suffering from health issues, was cast on “Cheers” in 1982 following an audition that involved just one word: “beer.”

 But his subtle comedic timing and authenticity quickly made his character an icon of 1980s television. 

Wendt reunited with former “Cheers” cast members Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson last year on their “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” podcast, and the trio quickly began to reminisce about the shenanigans they got up to, which closely resembled the way their characters joked around with each other. 

‘JEOPARDY!’ FANS SLAM CONTESTANTS FOR MISSING ‘OBVIOUS’ TRIPLE STUMPER CLUE ABOUT ‘CHEERS’

Danson revealed that when the cast noticed during rehearsals that another actor was “having trouble with a pretty hefty speech or something, we would get glints in our eyes and we would go ‘Oh, we’ll be there for you on the night.’” 

But instead of being supportive while filming, the cast would shoot spitballs at the actor. 

He continued of Wendt, “And there was actually a shot, I think, or at least this is the urban legend, where you can see a spitball in your hairline where one of us had managed to land one while you were doing your [speech].” 

“I’ll never forget I hit you right in the uvula once,” Wendt replied. “You were laughing like that and your mouth was that open, and I saw it, and it was a Zen moment.”

Danson also remembered the time the cast got drunk before going live on air with Jey Leno to do a special interview following the last episode of the show in 1993. 

‘CHEERS’ STAR KELSEY GRAMMER REVEALS WHERE TED DANSON FALLING-OUT CAME FROM AFTER 30 YEARS 

He said the cast was brought into Boston’s Bowl and Finch Pub, which served as the bar’s exterior on the show, early in the afternoon hours before they went live on “The Tonight Show.” 

“What do you do at a bar? You start drinking, and later you start smoking, so by the time literally that Jay Leno, he looked up from his notes, and they were going, ‘five, four, three, two..,’ he looked up and saw us all really for the first time and his eyes start to spin going, ‘Oh my –.’ We got a lot of s— for that, remember?” Danson said. 

Norm on Cheers

Wendt said that may have been Leno’s first live show, adding that the “Tonight Show” host might have never done another live show again after that.

“I wouldn’t blame him, we were in poor shape to be doing anything,” Harrelson said. 

Wendt, who came from an improv background at Chicago’s Second City, revealed that the cast kept the show fresh through its eleventh season by not over-rehearsing, which they may have overdone. 

“After a while, John [Ratzenberger] and I would be sitting there next to each other – I’m talking about year eight or nine or something – and they’d go , ‘OK, next scene, standby,’ and I’d look at John and say, ‘Any idea?’ He’d go, ‘Nope.’ … So, you’d prayed that the first line wasn’t your bit.”

The cast also like to prank each other. 

TED DANSON THROWS MORE COLD WATER ON HOPES FOR ‘CHEERS’ REUNION: ‘I THINK IT’D BE A LITTLE SAD’

Danson remembered that around six months after he’d “pantsed” Harrelson during a show, Wendt and Kirstie Alley, who came onto the show as bar manager Rebecca Howe in the sixth season, and Wendt got him back. 

He said he went into his dressing room to take a shower and Wendt knocked on the door and says, “‘You mind if I come in and shave while you’re in the shower?’ I went, ‘No, that’s fine.’ So, the door is primed by you to be open. And I can’t quite remember, I think you dove in, grabbed the shower door and swung it open and Kirstie took a Polaroid of me in all my glory. And then it showed up during the wrap party.”

The cast of Cheers

In fact, Wendt and Ratzenberger, who played know-it-all Cliff, helped Alley start the show with a bang.

In 2023, during a cast reunion at the ATX TV Festival in Austin, Texas, Wendt said the cast was having dinner before Alley’s first show when they realized they should have bought the actress – who wasn’t at the dinner – a gift.

Danson, Harrelson, and Rhea Perlman, who played Carla on the show, all said they were busy, so Wendt and Ratzenberger were entrusted to get the gift. 

While driving down Melrose in Hollywood, they saw a Big 5 Sporting Goods store.

 “And John goes, ‘You wanna buy her a shotgun?'” Wendt told the audience. 

“And, like you, I laughed for about five minutes,” he told the crowd. “And then immediately pulled into the parking lot, and we bought her a freakin’ shotgun.… John and I were never tasked with the gifts again.”

Ratzenberger added, “I think you even wrote on the card, ‘You’re gonna have to shoot your way out.’” 

Recent photo of George Wendt

Wendt told the “Still Here Hollywood” podcast last December that the cast was “horrified” by the present, but “Kirstie loved it.”

On Danson and Harrelson’s podcast, Wendt recalled the time the men in the cast played “hooky” from the show during a “female-heavy” episode focused on Shelley Long’s character Diane and Perlman’s Carla. 

“John had just bought a boat, and he was anxious to show it off, so we cooked up this getaway,” Wendt said. 

Danson said when he and Harrelson arrived at the boat they were “already stoned” and they all called into the show from a payphone saying they weren’t feeling well. 

“I think somebody said, ‘I’m seasick, heh heh,’” Wendt, added, joking, “I got peer pressured.”

Danson said before the ride, Harrelson got him to try mushrooms for the first time. 

“And ate, I think, an extraordinary amount of mushrooms,” he added. 

LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS

The men then took off for Catalina, a resort island off the coast of Los Angeles, and quickly hit leftover waves from a hurricane in Mexico. 

“There was still a huge swell, so people not on mushrooms would be seasick pretty much. But I sat there getting more and more freaked out and whatever it is you get, stoned, or whatever it is on mushrooms,” the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star remembered. 

Danson said that he saw Harrelson looking relaxed, stretched out on a bunk, so he decided to go up on deck to attempt to calm down. 

He told Wendt: “And I came and sat down next to you, and you looked at me and you went, ‘You’re high on something aren’t you?’ I kind of nodded sheepishly and John was like, ‘Oh, for crying out loud.’ But you spent the whole next 45 minutes poking me about every minute or two and said, “Breathe,” because I would literally forget to breathe and feel like I was dying and you’d poke me.” 

Norm and Cliff on Cheers

“He was our lifesaver,” Danson added of Wendt, who said while he didn’t do any mushrooms, he was seasick on the ride. 

Danson called the ride there and back the worst four hours of his life. 

The actors all got chewed out the next day. 

 “And John goes, ‘You wanna buy her a shotgun?'” 

— George Wendt of the “Cheers” cast’s welcome gift to Kirstie Alley. 

Wendt remarked, “It would have been extravagant, but I thought [James] Burrows, [the co-creator of ‘Cheers’], should have rented a helicopter with the girls and brought them and meet us on the pier, and when we got off the boat go, ‘OK, A scene is up.’ ‘What? Oh, Jesus.’” 

Danson said the producers told them they would have let them go out on the boat if they had let the show know, “’But that’s not hooky, Jimmy,’” he said he told Burrows. 

While often goofing off, the cast was also sentimental. 

George Wendt with the cast of Cheers last year

Danson remembered before Nicholas Colasanto, who played Coach on the show, died during the third season, his heart condition had left him forgetful, and he began to cover every surface of the set with his lines, including one about a friend who’d died that read: “It’s almost as if he’s still here with us.” 

He said the cast noticed the line the first time they came back to the set after Colasanto’s death. 

“I think we all basically burst into tears ‘cause it was how we were all feeling. And then we would make a ritual, for the next four or five years, as we came down to greet the audience, everyone would touch the [line] ‘It’s almost like he’s here with us.’” 

One day, set painters painted over the line on the wall in the off-season, he said, “and we all damn near quit, we were so angry when we came back.”

The cast also insisted that a photograph of Geronimo that Colasanto had in his dressing room be hung on the wall of the set in memory of him. 

On Tuesday, Danson paid tribute to Wendt, saying in a statement to several outlets: “I am devastated to hear that Georgie is no longer with us. I am sending all my love to [Wendt’s wife] Bernadette and the children. It is going to take me a long time to get used to this. I love you, Georgie.”



Read the full article here

You Might Also Like

Schumer, Democrats try to save face, blame GOP for possible government shutdown

Federal judge approves Colorado law banning people under 21 from buying a gun

Inside Trump’s urgent meeting with House GOP to pass the ‘big, beautiful bill’

Diddy files for mistrial over alleged false testimony in federal court about 2016 balcony incident

Netanyahu calls on Iranian citizens to seize ‘opportunity’ for regime change

Share This Article
Facebook Twitter Email Print
Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

We Recommend
UFC’s Dana White remembers Hulk Hogan after WWE icon’s death
News

UFC’s Dana White remembers Hulk Hogan after WWE icon’s death

Jimmie Dempsey Jimmie Dempsey July 25, 2025
Former Congressman George Santos delivers ‘glamorous’ farewell before going to prison: ‘The curtain falls’
Raiders cut ties with defensive tackle Christian Wilkins in shocking move, igniting feud over bonus money
Woman learns fate after DOJ guilty plea admitting she helped North Korean tech workers infiltrate US companies
ICYMI: Opinel Implements New Opiflex Mechanism on the Néo6
Hillary Clinton sounded alarm on Biden’s political viability ‘by 2024,’ Klain told House investigators
Iranian Lawmaker Warns: Tehran Ready to Exit Nuclear Treaty if Western Powers Reimpose Sanctions
Prepping & Survival

Iranian Lawmaker Warns: Tehran Ready to Exit Nuclear Treaty if Western Powers Reimpose Sanctions

Jimmie Dempsey Jimmie Dempsey July 24, 2025
Massive car explosion caught on camera rocks parking lot in major DC suburb
News

Massive car explosion caught on camera rocks parking lot in major DC suburb

Jimmie Dempsey Jimmie Dempsey July 24, 2025
Bucs place 450-pound rookie on non-football injury list due to weight issues
News

Bucs place 450-pound rookie on non-football injury list due to weight issues

Jimmie Dempsey Jimmie Dempsey July 24, 2025
Pew Patriots
  • News
  • Tactical
  • Prepping & Survival
  • Videos
  • Guns and Gear
2024 © Pew Patriots. All Rights Reserved.
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?