The NBC comedy Cheers had a formidable record of visitor stars. Alex Trebek performed himself when Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger) went on Jeopardy! Wade Boggs performed himself and later made inappropriate feedback about Kirstie Alley. John Cleese and Harry Connick Jr. performed characters. That didn’t cease Cheers from attempting to land legendary visitor stars. Lucille Ball didn’t chunk however she turned them down in a hilarious manner.
Cheers author Ken Levine instructed the story on his podcast, Hollywood & Levine. Although we by no means obtained to see Ball on Cheers, we will take pleasure in this story.
The grapevine erroneously instructed ‘Cheers’ Lucille Ball was a fan
Cheers was not a success in its first season. It grew to become one in the second, after everybody found it in summer season reruns. So possibly they need to have been suspicious when somebody instructed them Ball was watching in season 1. They wrote an episode with Diane (Shelley Lengthy)’s mom and hoped Ball may play her.
“Somebody said that Lucille Ball loved Cheers,” Levine stated on Hollywood & Levine. “We were going to do an episode with Diane’s mother. It was written by David Angell. We all thought, wouldn’t it be amazing to get Lucy to come on as Diane’s mother?”
Assembly Lucille Ball
Cheers creators Glen and Les Charles and James Burrows reached out to Ball, and so they obtained by means of. Ball humored them, and it was price it for the story alone.
“So they contacted Lucy and Lucy said, ‘Come on over for lunch,’” Levine stated. “So the Charles brothers and Jimmy went over to her house in Beverly Hills to have lunch with her. And they say, ‘So, we understand that you’re big fans of Cheers?’”
Right here’s the place it will get humorous. Les Charles would say Ball declined as a result of she thought Lucy followers wouldn’t wish to see her as a brand new character. Levine instructed a special story.
“And she goes, ‘Uh, I’ve never seen it. Somebody said it was good but I’ve never seen it,’” Levine continued. “They said, ‘Oh, well, we were wondering whether or not you wanted to guest?’ ‘No, I don’t. I don’t do television anymore. I’m certainly not going to do television for a show I’ve never heard of.’”
By 1983, Ball had already had 4 collection below her belt: I Love Lucy, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Present and Right here’s Lucy. She would try yet another with 1986’s Life With Lucy however in 1983 she thought she was achieved.
The creators of ‘Cheers’ nonetheless loved their lunch with Lucille Ball
In keeping with Levine, neither Burrows nor the Charles brothers pressed the difficulty. So far as they had been involved, they had been assembly Ball. They finally discovered an actor to play Helen Chambers.
“Well, okay, sit down and have lunch,” Levine stated. “And that was their lunch with Lucy. We ended up getting Glynis Johns who did a very fine job.”