‘Cheers’ Stars Highlight Environmental Benefit

Stressing that U.S. involvement in the Middle East is a direct result of the country’s dependency on oil, Ted Danson, star of the NBC television show “Cheers,” said Saturday that the need is greater than ever to find alternative energy sources.

“I think that if this country can send our kids over there to fight because of oil, we owe it to them here on the home front to start finding alternatives so we won’t be so reliant on oil and so threatened by global policy,” Danson said aboard the Spirit Newport yacht. He said his American Oceans Campaign is backing the search for alternatives to oil.

Appearing at “A Celebration of the Seas,” a weekend-long fund-raiser for the organization at the Dana Point Resort, Danson was joined by “Cheers” co-stars Woody Harrelson and John Ratzenberger.

The campaign was started by Danson and his wife, Casey, in 1987 after they took their two children to a beach one afternoon but were unable to swim because of pollutants.

“I decided right then and there to see how effective one person could be at fighting this thing,” said Danson, president of the organization, which has Santa Monica and Washington offices. “My aim was to make sure the public was aware of what is going on and what will happen if something isn’t done to preserve our oceans.”

The organization--which lists among its supporters Sen. Alan Cranston, Rep. Joseph Kennedy (D-Mass.) and actress Carol Burnett--boasts various accomplishments, including getting Congress to impose a one-year ban on offshore oil drilling in California, parts of Alaska, the Florida Keys, Massachusetts and the mid-Atlantic.

“That’s probably one of our biggest victories, but there is much to be done, including finding alternatives for the toxics that are destroying the ozone layer,” said Danson. “Our current energy policies aren’t helping in any way, which means Americans are going to have to make those little sacrifices--such as driving smaller cars. That may seem like an inconvenience, but if something isn’t done about the problem, we’ll give up much more.”

Participants paid $600 for the event, which included a three-day hotel stay, wine-tasting parties, art premieres and auctions by six artists, and dinner with Danson and other celebrities, such as Robert Urich and Ed Begley Jr.

Danson’s co-star Ratzenberger has formed his own business, Ecopack, which produces environmentally safe packing material as a way of cutting down on items that cannot be recycled. Harrelson, who joined the organization after Danson asked him to fill in for him at a press conference two years ago, now sits on the board of directors.

All proceeds from the three-day event will go to the American Oceans Campaign, which hopes to raise $100,000.