‘Cheers‘ was a popular American sitcom that ran for an impressive 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993 on NBC, and ranked among the top 10 of the year-end Nielsen ratings seven times. A mixture of comedy and romance, it revolves around the lives of staff and patrons who used to run a bar in Boston, named Cheers.
The show’s cast, including Ted Danson, Woody Harrelson, and George Wendt, recently took a trip down memory lane and shared how they got stoned while on a break on the set. Here’s all about the story.
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How ‘Cheers’ Cast Ended Up Getting High On Sets
In an exclusive clip from Sirius XM’s Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast, the cast members Ted Danson, Woody Harrelson, and George Wendt from ‘Cheers‘ got nostalgic while talking about one of the experiences they shared during the shooting of the series back in their days. The cast members played hooky from the show and got high on “an extraordinary amount of mushrooms”.
Danson called it a “hooky day” and also said that the scheduling that day was “very female-heavy” as the male co-stars weren’t needed for the shoot. “So we felt like we could maybe [play hooky] — John had just bought a boat,” Wendt explained.
“A Boston Whaler,” Danson clarified. “Yeah, and he was anxious to show it off, so we cooked up this little getaway,” he added.
Danson, who played the role of the bar owner for 11 seasons, recalled that when he and Harrelson went on the boat, they were already stoned. And they called their producers to tell them they were not feeling well, for which they were “peer pressured” by Wendt.
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Ted Danson Says Getting High Was One Of His Worst Experiences, But Would Love To Do It Again
Ted Danson further noted during the interview that the high they got from the mushrooms was a smooth sailing boat for a good while. But as they reached halfway to Catalina Island off the Southern California coast, they were welcomed with huge hurricane waves.
He added, “But I sat there getting more and more and more freaked out and whatever it is — you get stoned or whatever it is on mushrooms — and I look at you, Woody, and you stretched out on a bunk, and I think, ‘Oh, he’s so used to this that he’s just cooling it and relaxing. I am panicking. I’m having trouble breathing. I’ll go up top“.
According to Danson, Wendt was his “lifesaver” as he wasn’t high himself. Wendt never did the mushrooms but he did get seasick during the journey. Despite being the “the worst four hours” of Danson’s life, he added that he would surely love to experience this again. “I think I’m ready to do mushrooms again because it is a good thing, right? Mushrooms?”, he said.
Harrelson also joked “Well, I guess it depends on the setting, but definitely in the middle of a hurricane in the Pacific Ocean.”
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