A Last Round for ‘Cheers’ : THE CAST TOASTS THE END WITH FOND MEMORIES

Fans across the country Thursday will be raising their glasses to toast farewell to one of the best-loved and most-honored series in TV history.

And television will be a lot less cheerful. Though “Cheers” will live on forever in syndication, it’s hard to believe those wacky Boston barflies--Sam, Rebecca, Carla, Norm, Cliff, Woody and Frasier--won’t be back in September with new episodes.

NBC is rolling out the red carpet for its most popular show. The farewells begin at 9 p.m. with a 30-minute retrospective hosted by Bob Costas. Following at 9:30 p.m. will be the 90-minute finale, marking the return after six years of Shelley Long as the intellectual waitress Diane Chambers. The cast will then guest with Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show,” which will originate from Boston’s Bull & Finch Pub--the real-life model for “Cheers.”

Cast members and the show’s creators reflect on what “Cheers” meant to them:

TED DANSON (Sam Malone)

I feel very certain about the decision to move, to stop. All the feelings (about leaving) I am sure will come flooding in once I indeed stop. There will be sadness, regret, fear, exhilaration. I think they have done something nice (with Sam). The episode before the last episode, they took him to a sexual addiction group, where he sits and realizes that maybe he has a problem. The truth is he isn’t happy any more, which is a wonderful place to take Sam. I don’t think he is over the hump. I think the last show is a lot of desperation, his one last grab for happiness. Basically, he has gotten to the point that at least he realizes his old lifestyle doesn’t work any more and he isn’t happy. I kind of liked that the writers did that. I liked that they identified that he is alone, that he is sad. He has always had that alcoholic sadness which I really like.

I must confess I haven’t seen a lot of the episodes. It is strange and a little sad because for us to get the perspective on the show that you have, we will have to leave it. We will have to not be part of it any more to turn around and look at it. Part of me looks forward to being able to do that, to turn around and see what this is.

RHEA PERLMAN (Carla Tortelli LeBec)

We have been so lucky. It has been the dream team. It has just worked out so perfect. You can’t imagine having a better group of people working together. It has been such a blessing.

I always liked Carla. . . The most fun episode that we did was the Thanksgiving show where there was a food fight. That was absolutely a ball.

. . .People come up to me and say just wonderful things. They are always thanking me for all the laughs they have had over the years.

KIRSTIE ALLEY (Rebecca Howe)

I am in a deep, dark, dismal depression. It’s a real bizarre, desperate feeling I haven’t experienced yet this lifetime. It’s probably like someone who worked for a company many years and then retired. . . There is something very cocky knowing you are on the best-written television series on the air. We got to see each other every day and we liked being together, which was unique. I think it was, what would we call it, not a total eclipse of the sun, but it is close.

“Cheers “ is a dictatorship. It is a boys’ club and they dictate what the girls do and that is the way you do it (laughs). There are no conferences about what your character is or should be. It makes people go unconscious. They just tell you what your character is doing in the script, period . But I sort of like that. It is sort of refreshing. There is a certain peacefulness in dictatorship because you know there are no other answers and no hashing it through. . . My favorite episode that I wasn’t in was the Thanksgiving show where they all had a food fight. My favorite episode I was in, for myself personally, was the scene I won the Emmy for-- when I had gotten drunk and realized I was basically worthless as a human being. I came on to Ted and he refused me. For the character of Sam to refuse any woman was a landmark in itself. I guess you could say I hit the all-time bottom when even Sam Malone rejected me.

GEORGE WENDT (Norm Peterson)

I always sort of hated Norman episodes. For me, my favorite sort of “Cheers” are the ones where everything is sort of clicking the way it is supposed to. I think my favorite ones would be in the romantic comedy years, the first two or three years where the stories were about Sam and Diane. Coach would have a nice little scene, Cliff had some wacky thing and Norm had a little entrance and a teaser. Everything sort of fit into the pegs they were supposed to. When the supporting cast had stories they would always end up having us do something way out of character.

JOHN RATZENBERGER (Cliff Claven)

Cliff was totally unpredictable. He was just a silly goose. You didn’t know what he was going to say at any given moment. You were always waiting for some outlandish bits of information to roll out of his mouth. He had more freedom than the other characters because his job took him out into the world. He was also a loyal character, even though the other characters didn’t like being around him. Cliff was a loyal individual in that if you were in a hospital, he would visit you. If you had a flat tire, he would help you fix it. I admire that quality in anybody.

When I first heard about (“Cheers” ending), my initial thought quite frankly was that it was asinine. I told (the producers) that. But after the Christmas break, I had time to really think about it. I realized it was the best decision. It seemed like the wind had gone out of the producers’ sails. The last night of the actual filming was sad. The party the following night was fun. I had to leave early because I had a job the next day. Everybody was looking at me as if I was nuts, but I said, “I have to get up at 7 a.m.”

BEBE NEUWIRTH (Lilith Crane)

It has been a really, really great time for me. I like to feel like I have learned an awful lot about the construction of comedy and the continuing skills of playing comedy. I have had some really wonderful acting partners and learning some more tricks on how to keep a straight face on stage, although the outtakes would belie that.

The show has covered a lot of very important moments in Lilith’s life, but I think she has stayed the same person, although this is the same person who has now fallen in love, gotten married, had a baby, has come to a crisis point in her marriage and she has now come back to her husband. Those are enriching, albeit painful, moments in a person’s life. But they expand a person’s consciousness. In that sense, she has evolved, but I like to think she is the same person.

I really don’t (have a favorite episode). I have liked so many of the episodes I have been in, even ones where I just have an entrance and I am done and never seen again. There have been a lot of things I really have had fun doing. Kelsey Grammer has been a fantastic partner on the show. I really couldn’t ask for anything or anyone better than that. I lucked out.

SHELLEY LONG (Diane Chambers, 1982-87)

It was like going back to the old neighborhood, there are always changes. People have moved, buildings have moved. There were many people there who were from the days when I was there, and then there were others who were new. It felt familiar, but it felt new at the same time. I didn’t have a whole lot of time to figure out how I was feeling. I was pretty much paying attention to how Diane was feeling. I had to find where she had been when she left, which I did by looking at some episodes from my last year, and reminding myself of different events. Then I had to be creative on my own to fill in the blanks to what she had been doing. . .

I was concerned about how they were going to explain why Diane had never called Sam. Diane with her many faults, still--and is in the final episode--a responsible person. They understood completely. I said, “I just don’t know why she didn’t call.” So we talked a lot about that, about what she would say and address the fact she had never seen Sam or explained to him why she didn’t come back. I felt good about the speeches they gave me to address that.

KELSEY GRAMMER (Dr. Frasier Crane)

(Ending “Cheers”) actually feels good in many ways. It’s exciting to be moving into a new phase in life, a new chapter. But of course, it was sad and sort of a sentimental last evening together. I am certainly sorry to say goodby to all of those people, but excited about a new life. It is one of those bittersweet experiences.

We have been talking about this for years. You knew it was a matter of time. We thought there would be one more year. I thought the 12th year would by all means be the last year. So it was a year earlier. It was OK.

Everyone was really impeccable at their jobs. The style of the writing was excellent and the actors were truly gifted. It turned out to be one of those marvelous kismets.

WOODY HARRELSON (Woody Boyd)

Everything has its season.

We had 11 of them. After a while, there is just no reason to keep on. But I cried when we all got together for the final scene. I just bawled my eyes out. I never mind crying. An adult is nothing but a child with layers on.

LES CHARLES (Executive Producer and Creator)

I think we may be flattering ourselves, but I think we do see “Cheers”’ influence on shows. . .One of the things we have done is bring conversation back to sitcom, or introduced it. We had a lot of people sitting around talking to each other, and I noticed that others like “Seinfeld” and “The Golden Girls” felt freer to do that. One of the things we discovered is that you can do very good shows without a lot of plot. . . In order for this show to have kept going, we would have had to make some kind of changes, some cast changes. I think some of the vitality was going out of the show. The way to fix it would have been to replace some of the people and the audience wouldn’t want that.

GLEN CHARLES (Executive Producer and Creator)

I know some people didn’t want “Cheers” initially because it was set in a bar. I think that would be even more prevalent now. I think the Sam Malone character might not in this day and age be given the same latitude he was given. . .

It is really is hard to pick a favorite (show). I think there are some characters who are easier to write for --I think I would say Sam (is the easiest). He is played so well by Ted. It was an evolutionary process with him. He didn’t walk on the set the first day as Sam. He has really changed and grown into it over the years.

JAMES BURROWS (Executive Producer and Creator)

I think they have all changed by nature. I think Sam has not philandered as much as he used to. Carla has gone through a marriage and has had more kids. Woody is certainly less innocent than when he started, which has a lot to do with the actor. So they have matured that way. Cliff has stayed the same. . .