‘Cheers’: Season 6 Finally Filmed the Original Idea for the Pilot
The NBC comedy Cheers lasted 11 seasons, but it took until season 6 to do the show as it was originally conceived. James Burrows co-created Cheers with Les and Glen Charles. Their first season got away from their original idea, but season 6 gave them an opportunity to go back to it, as Burrows explained in a recent interview.
Burrows was a guest on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast on Sept. 4 to discuss his book, Directed by James Burrows. He told O’Brien about creating Cheers, and how season 6 returned to the original pitch.
The original idea for ‘Cheers’
Before Cheers, Burrows and Charles brothers worked together on Taxi. The Charles’ were producers and writers for the James L. Brooks show and Burrows directed. Towards the end, they started talking about creating their own show which would become Cheers
“We had the same agent who said, ‘You guys should do your own show,’” Burrows said on Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend. “We love Fawlty Towers so we thought about a hotel. Then we thought about the bar and then we thought about a bar in Barstow. We’re all sports fans so we’re going to do something in Boston or Philadelphia. We chose Boston, we formulated these characters. The original conception of the show, believe it or not, was Sam Malone, the lothario working for a woman.”
‘Cheers’ Season 6 finally made Sam work for a woman
The pilot for Cheers showed Diane Chambers (Shelley Long) arrive at Cheers after her fiance leaves her. She becomes a waitress and the love interest to bartender and owner Sam (Ted Danson). After five seasons, Long left Cheers. Season 6 introduced Rebecca Howe (Kirstie Alley), who works for the corporation that bought the bar from Sam. When Sam must return to work as a bartender, he now works for Rebecca.
“When Shelley decided she didn’t want to do the show anymore, we had to in essence break them up and go back to the original conception of the show when we sat around talking about it, which is Sam working for a woman,” Burrows said.
James Burrows and the Charles Brothers go back longer than ‘Taxi’
Les and Glen Charles also wrote for Phyllis and The Bob Newhart Show, which Burrows directed. So Cheers was a long time coming for them.
It was a wonderful experience. I met the boys, I call him the boys, the brothers on Phyllis. They were story editors and I was the permanent director the first year. I met them then and we reconnected on Taxi. They were the producers and I was the director of Taxi which was a wonderfully funny show but it was really hard. It was the first time I used four cameras and I had this cast that was interplanetary. We went through a lot. At that point, Jim Brooks, who is one of the great comedy minds, was also doing a movie so he wasn’t there on certain days. There were other producers who had certain ideas. The show turned out fine but it was really difficult.
James Burrows, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, 9/4/22
