‘Cheers’ Wrote a Guest Star Role for Richard Burton Hoping He’d Do It
The NBC comedy Cheers launched the career of Oscar-nominated actor Woody Harrelson. But before they even discovered Harrelson, the show had its sights on an Oscar-nominated legend. Cheers would nab guest stars like athlete Wade Boggs and politician William J. Crowe. In its debut season they tried to get Richard Burton on television.
Cheers writer Ken Levine revealed the role they wanted Burton to play on his Hollywood & Levine podcast. Burton had done TV movies in the ‘70s and appeared on Lucille Ball’s show Here’s Lucy, so it wasn’t that far-fetched.
The episode ‘Cheers’ wanted Richard Burton to guest star on
In the ‘80s, television wasn’t like it is today where movie stars and Oscar winners star in prestige series. But, the Cheers writers heard through the grapevine that Burton might be available.
“Here’s another casting story,” Levine said on Hollywood & Levine. “We had heard, I don’t know from who, that Richard Burton, the great Richard Burton, was going to guest star on The Fall Guy which was the Lee Majors show. So we thought wow, okay. If Richard Burton is doing TV, then maybe he’ll do our show.”
Burton was the acclaimed star of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? And The Spy Who Came In from the Cold. In fact, it was the later one that inspired the Cheers writers.
“So a part was written, an episode called ‘The Spy Who Came In for a Cold One,’” Levine said. “It’s from season 1, it was written by David Lloyd, very excellent script. And we sent it out to see if Richard Burton might want to guest star to play the role. It’s about a guy who came in and pretended to be a spy. It’s actually a very good part.”
Richard Burton wasn’t the only actor who passed on ‘Cheers’
Team Burton didn’t mince words when they passed on the Cheers guest star role.
“Well, Richard Burton’s people said, ‘What are you talking about? This is never going to happen in a million years. He’s not doing The Fall Guy.’”
That was a lie. Burton did play himself on The Fall Guy in 1982. But, Cheers had to move on.
“Okay, well, now what do we do? Glen [Charles], I remember, suggested an actor called Jack Elam. Jack Elam basically played in westerns. He had this really kind of scroungy look with one eye going in the opposite direction. You’ve seen him in a million things. And he passed by the way. We thought wow, this has got to be the first time that Richard Burton and Jack Elam were both up for the same part and of course both of them passed.”
The guest star who came in for a cold one
Cheers didn’t scrap the episode. Burton and Elam’s loss was eventually another actor’s gain.
“We ended up getting a fine Broadway actor, Ellis Rabb who is nothing like either of those two gentlemen,” Levine said.
