Why Ted Danson Just Apologized to Former ‘Cheers’ Co-Star Kelsey Grammer

Ted Danson and Kelsey Grammer are raising a toast to a new chapter. Grammer appeared as a guest on the Wednesday, Oct. 23 episode of his former Cheers co-stars Danson and Woody Harrelson’s SiriusXM’s podcast Where Everybody Knows Your Name, during which they discussed their time on the iconic sitcom.

Danson, 76, recalled to Grammer, 69, a moment in which he was struggling with him on set. “This isn’t self-deprecating, but I wish — I feel like I got stuck a little bit with you during the Cheers years,” Danson told him. “I have a memory of getting angry at you once.”

“Yeah, you came and told me that one day,” said Grammer, who would go on to star in the Cheers spinoff Frasier as Dr. Frasier Crane. Danson noted that while the memory of their disagreement is “stuck” in both of their memories, “I feel like, f—, I don’t know. 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. …I apologize to you and me that I sat back, you know, and didn’t. I really do apologize.”

Despite their friction on set, Grammer said he still took with him words of wisdom from Danson during those years that he still recites to this day. “When I turned 40, you came up and said, ‘You know what it means, don’t you? Now that you’re 40, it means you’re finally worth having a conversation with,’” Grammer recalled, calling the moment “f-ing brilliant.”

He added, “I always loved that. And I thought about it, and I’ve repeated it. My love for you has always been as easy as the day. You know, as easy as the sunrise.” Danson agreed, “Mine too.”

The Good Place star explained that director James Burrows emphasized to the cast how important it was for everyone to show up and be in the comedic moment together.

“He recently said, we were doing an interview together and he said, ‘You got to have an oar in the water,’” Danson remembered. “I’d never heard him express this before, but he said, ‘As long as everybody’s got their oar in the water and they’re pulling, then I’m happy.’ I thought, ‘Yeah, makes a lot of sense.’ And we’re still working together. I mean, he’s done, you know, he does four shows in the last bunch and it’s been great working with him.”