{"id":38941,"date":"2025-07-04T20:20:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T20:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/38941\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T20:20:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T20:20:14","slug":"ted-danson-reveals-why-he-didnt-want-shelley-long-on-cheers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/38941\/","title":{"rendered":"Ted Danson Reveals Why He Didn\u2019t Want Shelley Long On \u2018Cheers\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cheers may have been the bar where everyone knew your name, but behind the scenes, Ted Danson was just fine forgetting one in particular. <\/p>\n

In a Wednesday episode of the podcast \u201cWhere Everybody Knows Your Name,\u201d<\/a> Danson sat down with fellow actor Helen Hunt to talk shop, including the often-unspoken alchemy (and tension) that defines on-screen chemistry. <\/p>\n

The conversation stirred up an old memory from 1982, when Danson was cast on \u201cCheers\u201d alongside a now-iconic ensemble \u2014 though one name, Shelley Long, initially gave him pause.<\/p>\n

\u201cI looked at Shelley Long when we were auditioning for \u2018Cheers\u2019 and I went, \u2018No, no, no. Do not hire her. It will ruin the show,\u2019\u201d he recalled. <\/p>\n

\"TedTed Danson as Sam Malone and Shelley Long as Diane Chambers in “Cheers.”<\/p>\n

Earlier in the conversation, he noted that people tend to take his advice and \u201cdo the exact opposite,\u201d and in turn \u201care every successful.\u201d That, he joked, was certainly the case with Long.<\/p>\n

He confessed to initially being wrong about Long because, in his opinion, \u201cshe made the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe came out hitting a home run,\u201d Danson noted. <\/p>\n

The three-time Golden Globe winner went on to say that the two were \u201cso different,\u201d but that he \u201cgrew to love her.\u201d But he stated that their \u201cdifferences\u201d made it hard for the pair to hold a conversation \u2014 but that changed once the cameras started rolling.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when we got in front of a camera, it was like a prize fight,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

During the show\u2019s 30th reunion in 2012<\/a>, Danson praised Long for putting the show on the map.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd this is not my opinion. This is everybody\u2019s. We hadn\u2019t seen a character like Diane Chambers for years … You really put \u2018Cheers\u2019 on the map with your astounding performance,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cheers may have been the bar where everyone knew your name, but behind the scenes, Ted Danson was…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":38942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[11624,171,31243,31242,173,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-38941","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-cheers","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-shelly-long","11":"tag-ted-danson","12":"tag-tv","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114796824068816891","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}