John Ratzenberger Reveals He Saved His Doomed “Cheers” Audition by Pitching His 'Bar Know-It-All' Character on the Spot

Cheers wouldn’t have been the same without Cliff Clavin — and the beloved character wouldn't exist without John Ratzenberger's quick thinking, according to the actor.

While reuniting with his former Cheers castmates Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson on the Jan. 6 episode of their podcast, Where Everybody Knows Your Name, Ratzenberger, 77, recalled bombing his audition for the iconic NBC sitcom — and then saving it by pitching the “know-it-all” mailman he would go on to portray.

“So I was walking out the door, literally walking out the door — and I don't know whether this is my fantasy or it happened in reality — but I could have sworn that my 8x10 [headshot] was going like this into the wastebasket,” Ratzenberger recalled of the fateful audition.

Related: One of Ted Danson's 'Favorite Cheers Stories' Involves Woody Harrelson Running Late to Rehearsal — and Then Having the Best Excuse Ever

Fearing the worst, he decided to create his own character, drawing on his own experiences in bars like the titular establishment and pitching it to the show’s creators, Glen and Les Charles James Burrows, on the spot.

"So I stopped, I said, ‘Do you have a bar know-it-all?’ That was the writer part of me asking,” Ratzenberger told the podcast hosts. “And it was Glen who said, ‘What are you talking about?’ I said, ‘Every bar that I've ever been in — in New England anyway — has some horse's ass who pretends to know everything, but everybody defers to that person anyway.’

Ratzenberger then explained that for him, this archetype can be traced to a man named Sarge, whom he encountered often at his dad's go-to bar growing up.

Modeling the kinds of interactions patrons would have with the “know-it-all” regular, he said: “ ‘Hey, Sarge, what's the length of a whale's intestine?’ And he responds, 'Baleen or blue?’ — and as a kid, I thought that was hysterical.”

Related: Ted Danson Recalls Initially Having a 'Horrible' Off-Screen Dynamic with Cheers Costar Shelley Long: 'A Bad, Bad Idea'

“Yeah, so I just picked up on that kind of character,” Ratzenberger said. “And I think I used a ballpoint pen from the desk in the audition, and explained why the Bic Pen was originally called the ‘Bich Pen.’ And why they had to take the 'H' off — which is a true story, by the way.”

Thus, the foundation for his “know-it-all” mailman character was laid, according to Ratzenberger, who would go on to spew trivia at Cheers patrons as Cliff for years to come.

He played Cliff on all 11 seasons of Cheers, which ran from 1982 to 1993,  alongside Danson, who portrayed Cheers owner Sam Malone. Harrelson, meanwhile, joined in season 4 as bartender Woody Boyd.

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Recently, Ratzenberger also reunited with another one of his Cheers costars, George Wendt, who portrayed series regular Norm Peterson.

The former castmates crossed paths again in 2023 — 30 years after the final episode was filmed — to say goodbye to the bar that backdropped the beloved series as it went up for auction.

Reflecting on visiting the set prop one final time, Wendt told news outlet WHDH 7, "It was fantastic, so great to see the bar.”

“Preserving this … that's a big deal,” Ratzenberger said at the time. "That's a real big deal because all these things are part of our lives."

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