Yahoo Lifestyle Kelsey Grammer and Ted Danson Didn’t Speak for 30 Years After Danson Confronted Him on ‘Cheers’ Set: ‘I’m Kind of Mad You Don’t Show Up Ready to Go’
Kelsey Grammer recently revealed to the New York Post the reason why he had a 30-year falling out with “Cheers” co-star Ted Danson. The two actors appeared on a podcast last October where Danson apologized to Grammer for an incident on the “Cheers” set that resulted in them not speaking for three decades. Grammer now clarified to the NY Post that there was not a single event that blew up their friendship. Instead, it was gradual tension between the two that culminated in a split.
“It got a little blown out of proportion. There really wasn’t an argument,” Grammer said. “It was at a time in my life when I was actually going through a lot of self-doubt, self-loathing, honestly. It was when I was drinking a lot.”
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“Ted had just come up and said, ‘You know, I’m kind of mad at you that sometimes you don’t show up ready to go,'” Grammer said. “And I said, ‘Okay, I respect that.’ And that actually was sort of it. Now, maybe what happened for Ted was he stepped away from what might have been a better friendship. Maybe he just had to protect himself. I don’t really know. But, I said, ‘Thanks.’ We were fine with that.”
Grammer didn’t think when Danson called out his behavior that it would greatly impact their relationship, but the two actors ended up not speaking for the better part of 30 years. Danson headlined “Cheers” as Sam Malone for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. Grammer joined the cast in Season 3 as Dr. Frasier Crane and became a series regular starting in Season 5. He’d go on to lead the successful “Cheers” spinoff series “Frasier.”
Danson and Grammer reunited last year with “Cheers” co-star Woody Harrelson on the latter’s “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” podcast, where Danson took responsibility for the first time publicly for his role in the fallout with Grammer.
“I feel like I got stuck a little bit with you during the ‘Cheers’ years,” Danson told Grammer at the timee. “I have a memory of getting angry at you once. It’s stuck in both of our memories. But I feel like I missed out on the last 30 years of Kelsey Grammer and I feel like it’s my bad, my doing, and I almost feel like apologizing to you.”
“No, I don’t feel like — I apologize to you and me that I sat back, you know, and didn’t. And I really do apologize,” Danson added.
Grammer then thanked Danson for the apology and said he, too, wishes they had “spent some more time together,“ adding: “My love for you has always been as easy as the day. As easy as the sunrise.”
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