Cheers star says he ‘didn’t even understand’ hit sitcom had ended resulting from private life chaos

Ted Danson doesn’t remember much about Cheers coming to an end.

Danson, 78, starred on all 11 seasons of the hit sitcom as Sam Malone along with Kelsey Grammer, George Wendt, John Ratzenberger, Woody Harrelson and Rhea Perlman. He was one of the only cast members to appear in each of the show’s 273 episodes.

During a recent conversation on his Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast, Danson opened up about the state of his personal life as the show concluded.

“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,’” Danson said, adding he “barely knew myself.”

“I wanted to stop being a liar,” he said. “I wanted to be emotionally mature. I wanted to change.”

He sought out a mentor who guided him and gave him “a whole different kind of therapy spirituality kind of thing.”

Danson previously spoke about the tumultuous period around the end of Cheers, saying on a 2025 episode of his podcast that “the transition was easy because I blew my personal life up so badly.”

At the time, Danson had been in the process of divorcing his second wife, Cassandra Coates, following his extra-marital affair with Whoopi Goldberg after filming their 1993 movie Made in America.

Cheers came to an end when Danson wanted to explore other career opportunities and producers decided the series couldn’t 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. “And [there was] a little bit of … ‘If I don’t leave now, I may not know if I could do anything else, and I want to see if I can do any other stuff.’”

Eventually, Danson found his way, going on to appear on shows including Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Good Place, as well as the current Netflix show Man on the Inside.

But much of his current success stems from Cheers. Danson credits landing that coveted role to repeated chemistry reads with eventual co-star Shelley Long.

“Shelley and I kept being paired over and over again. And I do think a big reason why I got Cheers was cause I was paired with Shelley. 100 percent,” Danson said elsewhere during the more recent podcast episode. “Cause she was like a full-blown character out of the game,” he added.

But Danson didn’t necessarily believe she was the best choice to take on the role of Diane Chambers.

“I thought she would be the worst choice for this part,” Danson said before adding, “Cause I’m an idiot.”

He continued: “Our styles of acting, our styles of being were so different that it was almost sometimes hard for me to be in the same room with her.

“We cared for each other a lot,” Danson said, adding that being on set with Long was “f***ing magic.”