‘Cheers’ Series Finale Almost Included a President Bill Clinton Cameo
By the time the NBC comedy Cheers ended after 11 seasons, everybody who’s name you know wanted to be on it. The show made Sam, Norm, Cliff and all the regulars famous, but the show was ready to go out with a major cameo. Then President Bill Clinton was set to do a cameo in the Cheers series finale, but alas it didn’t work out.
The creators of Cheers spoke to Variety in 2018 for the finale’s 25th anniversary. They revealed the Clinton cameo that fell through and other famous faces who did make it into the Cheers series finale.
The Bill Clinton ‘Cheers’ series finale deleted scene
Co-creator Les Charles revealed that Clinton asked to appear on the Cheers series finale. It sounds like he would have played himself.
“Bill Clinton was president then and sent us a communiqué that he wanted to appear in the final episode,” Les told Variety. “So we actually wrote an entire segment that involved Bill Clinton coming into the bar. But then shortly before we were about to start filming, he had to back out.”
They’re not Bill Clinton but you’ll recognize these celebrities in the ‘Cheers’ series finale
Perhaps President Clinton had too many national commitments to film an acting gig. Other celebrities were able to sit in the bar for the Cheers series finale.
“If you go back and watch that show, there are people in the back of the bar that you can’t believe,” co-creator and director James Burrows said. “If you know art, Ross Bleckner is back there, who’s a wonderful painter. Garry Trudeau is in one scene. [NBC executive] Brandon Tartikoff is in the show. We just used to put people in the back of the bar where I knew you would see them because of the traditional shots I had in the show. In fact, we actually used to auction off the opportunity to sit in the bar!”
These are the less familiar faces
Plenty of the Cheers series finale cameos were people the average viewer wouldn’t recognize. But they were significant to the show.
“Everybody who was associated with the show was sitting at that bar at one time or another,” Les said. “Every network executive and Paramount person, writers, producers. …Of course, they were lousy extras!”
Les’s brother, co-creator Glen Charles, added, “They probably should’ve stuck to their day jobs!”
The final customer who enters Cheers after Sam Malone (Ted Danson) is closing up was significant too. Bob Broder is the last customer on the Cheers series finale. Broder was the Charleses’ agent.
“So we had him come up to the door at the end to try and get in,” Glen said. “And Sam has to tell him, ‘Sorry, we’re closed.’ You can’t tell, because he’s silhouetted, but there were tears streaming down his cheeks.”
