Wednesday, September 09, 2020
EP191: CHEERS trivia you might not know
On this week's Hollywood & Levine, Ken takes you behind-the-scenes with insider stories about the hit sitcom Cheers. If you thought you knew a lot about Cheers, think again! This is a must listen for sitcom fans.
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Cheers Trivia Podcast Episode
ReplyDelete1. So glad to hear the “shout out” to Grammarly. It’s an excellent company whose products have helped me, and my friends, considerably.
2. Concerning Cheers trivia: Is it true that the Harrelson character nickname - Woody - came about because the actor had a giant member with which he would drive nails into the bar during rehearsals (unbeknownst to Burrows, listening, as was his wont, with his eyes closed)? I’m asking for Mother.
It drives me slightly bonkers every time I hear the tv commercial for Applebee's and they use the Cheers theme. It makes me wish one of the channels I get with old tv shows would be running it.
ReplyDeleteKen, thought you might find this interesting... a friend of mine has been doing a bracket-style tournament on Facebook for the last few months. The topic is Greatest American Sitcom. Every day he posts a match-up and everyone votes for their favorite. The winner advances forward. After months of pairings, hundreds of people voting, (and a lot of nerd-like discussion over each match) we are officially down to three choices... MASH, Cheers and I Love Lucy.
ReplyDeleteFor the final three, he's doing a round robin thing. If one of them defeats the other two in both of their head-to-head match-ups then that show will be declared the winner.
I'll let you know what happens. Congratulations on being part of two out of three of these greats.
Funny anecdotes about early CHEERS, always a pleasure. And it is very comforting that the military, with all of its hundreds of billions in its budget, would skimp and use a shitty Radio Shack phone for the black box.
ReplyDeleteThe Mrs Littlefield story is fascinating to me. I will now have to re-watch the pilot. This website has a great article about this. http://www.dirtyfeed.org/2020/04/heres-to-you-mrs-littlefield/
ReplyDeleteDiana Rigg RIP
ReplyDeleteGreat podcast, Ken. The irony is that Richard Burton DID do The Fall Guy. I remember that episode.
ReplyDeleteWhat a funny coincidence. I generally try to avoid "click- bait." But a few days ago I saw one that peaked my curiosity. "CHEERS' Racist Character" or similar title. It was all about the Mrs. Littlefield character. The article even quoted Ken.
ReplyDeleteI'm a big believer in omens. Maybe this means something.
M.B.
Looking forward to listening it during my evening exercise run. Thanks a bunch Ken. You have mentioned things that are wrong or absurd about Cheers in the past. Do you haven enough of those for a whole podcast? Things similar to what people say about Gilligan's Island like "why do their clothes never wear out". and "How come the professor can make a radio out of a coconut but can't fix a while in the a boat?
ReplyDeleteThanks. The lyrics to the theme aren't that bad, they're just goofy- as if Mr. Portnoy recalled Eddie Lawrence's "Old Philosopher" bit.
ReplyDeleteGreat episode! Fun to hear these stories.
ReplyDeleteFriday question: In the podcast episode you talked a bit about how the writers' strike kept "Bar Wars" from being given that final polish. I know in non-strike times, occasionally an actor might suggest a change in lines or an ad-lib gets laughs in a table read or rehearsal and makes the final show. During a strike when a show is filming that last pre-strike script, what happens if the director or an actor or whatever stumble on a great new two sentences (or recognize that the tag for this scene clearly didn't get the once over before the strike began and come up with their own idea) ? Is it just that no member of the WGA can contribute during the strike, but the others on the show can do whatever they'd like, or are there rules about filming such a script essentially "as is" ? Thanks!
Antenna TV just aired the Subway Story episode of Becker which featured Frances Sternhagan. The final scene is incredible. Great work from from Sternhagan and Danson.
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