Twitter

Where to Stream:

Cheers

Ted Danson Reveals ‘Cheers’ Cast Began “Hazing” Woody Harrelson When He Joined The Show: “We Just Wanted To Kick His Ass”

Why the ‘Cheers’ Finale Is Television’s All-Time Great Ending

Maks Chmerkovskiy Rehashes His Spat With The Late Kirstie Alley After She Claimed He Was “Flirty” While Competing On ‘DWTS’

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘A History Of The World In Six Glasses’ On Fox Nation, Where Dan Aykroyd Serves Up A Bubbly Tribute To Drinking

Cheers stars Ted Danson and George Wendt revealed that they once vomited “out of solidarity” with Woody Harrelson, who is vegetarian, after he realized he’d accidentally eaten pork.

Ahead of the cherished sitcom finale’s 30th anniversary, Danson and Wendt reunited for a panel at the ATX Television Festival with John Ratzenberger and series co-creators James Burrows and Les and Glen Charles.

At one point during the hourlong discussion, Wendt recalled the fond memory.

“[One night] we had catered Chinese food, and Woody found out after about 20 minutes that he was eating pork,” Wendt said, per IndieWire. “And he decided to go purge. So I told him, ‘Out of solidarity, I will purge with you.’ And Ted said, ‘I’ll purge, too.'”

According to Wendt, the three actors had a good time puking up their takeout. “There were only three stalls in the Stage 25 men’s room,” he said, “and I’ll tell you this: You don’t want to laugh while puking.”

Harrelson was added to the cast of Cheers in Season 4 as a new bartender who was also named Woody. At the time, Danson recalled, he and the rest of the cast were eager to put the new guy in his place. “We were all, like, 37 when Woody, at age 25, joined us, and it was like, ‘Okay, let’s kick his ass,'” he joked. “So we took him to the basketball court, because we fancied ourselves pretty good basketball players — he killed us.”

Danson also said that they challenged Harrelson to arm wrestling but he beat everyone at that too, so they decided to try something different. “Then we decided clearly we don’t have the physical edge. We’ll play chess,” he said, “and he killed us!”

Earlier in the talk, Glen Charles revealed that they almost didn’t cast Harrelson for the role of Woody. “We were looking for a strong American boy with a Midwest background who comes to the big city and works at the bar,” he said. “We almost signed this gentleman, and our casting director came in and said, ‘I know you like this guy, but I want you to see somebody.’ And in walks Woody.”

Although Harrelson wasn’t “right on the money,” Charles said the actor was “so interesting” and had secured Danson’s approval. “Ted, after [Harrelson] left, said, ‘I know you think you got your guy, but there’s something I really like about this guy.'”