You could hear the theme song and feel your shoulders drop. A bar in Boston, a bartender with a grin, a barfly on his stool, and the whole crowd bellowing “NORM!” every time the door swung open. Cheers wasn’t about anything and it was about everything — it was the place you went, four nights removed, to be around people who felt like friends.

Cheers premiered on NBC on September 30, 1982, and ran for eleven seasons until 1993, set almost entirely inside a Boston bar. It starred Ted Danson as former baseball player and recovering ladies’ man Sam Malone, who owned the place. Created by James Burrows and brothers Glen and Les Charles, it grew from a ratings dud into one of the most acclaimed sitcoms ever made.

It almost got canceled before it started

Here’s the fact that stops people cold: Cheers nearly died in its crib. Its first season finished near the very bottom of the ratings — dead last in some weeks. NBC, itself struggling at the time, stuck with it on faith and critical praise, and slowly audiences found it. Within a few years it was a Thursday-night cornerstone and a Top 10 fixture. It’s the textbook example of a network’s patience paying off — a show that would never have survived a quicker trigger finger.

Sam and Diane, and the argument that ran for years

The engine of early Cheers was the will-they-won’t-they war between Sam Malone and Diane Chambers (Shelley Long), the brainy, pretentious grad student slumming as a waitress. Their bickering — attraction disguised as contempt — set the template a hundred sitcom couples would copy. When Long left, the show pivoted brilliantly to Rebecca Howe (Kirstie Alley), proving the bar was bigger than any one romance.

Remember when Norm Peterson walked through the door and the entire bar shouted “NORM!” in unison — and he’d fire back a perfect one-liner about beer or his wife Vera before he even reached his stool? That call-and-response happened nearly every episode, and it never once got old.

The regulars made it a home

The supporting bench is what turned Cheers into an institution: Norm (George Wendt) on his permanent stool; know-it-all mailman Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger); dim, sweet bartender Woody (Woody Harrelson); acid-tongued waitress Carla (Rhea Perlman); and pompous psychiatrist Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer), who was so good he got his own hit spinoff. It was an ensemble in the truest sense — you came for the bar, and the bar was those people.

Why Cheers still pours

Cheers perfected the “hangout sitcom” — no premise beyond a place and the people in it — and everything from Friends to How I Met Your Mother is drinking from its tap. Its finale in 1993 was a national event. And that theme song still promises the thing everyone actually wants: somewhere they’re always glad you came, where everybody knows your name.

FAQ

When did Cheers air?
It premiered September 30, 1982, on NBC and ran for eleven seasons, ending in 1993.

Where was Cheers set?
In a fictional Boston bar called Cheers, inspired by a real Boston pub, the Bull & Finch.

Who starred in Cheers?
Ted Danson as Sam Malone, with Shelley Long, later Kirstie Alley, and an ensemble including George Wendt, John Ratzenberger, Rhea Perlman, Woody Harrelson, and Kelsey Grammer.

Is it true Cheers almost got canceled?
Yes — its first season ranked near the bottom of the ratings, but NBC kept it on for its critical acclaim, and it grew into a massive hit.

What spinoff came from Cheers?
Frasier, following Kelsey Grammer’s psychiatrist Frasier Crane to Seattle, became a hit in its own right.

What was the deal with “NORM!”?
Whenever regular Norm Peterson entered the bar, the crowd greeted him by shouting his name in unison — one of the show’s most beloved running gags.

Cheers was one landmark of the 80s TV golden age — pull up a stool to the rest in our 80s pop culture icons guide, or head home to Family Ties next.