Raise a Glass and Take Our ‘Cheers’ Quiz

The show’s creators ultimately chose Boston because “It hadn’t been used very much on television, and we wanted a city with some charm — a city that would have that English-style sort of pub in it,” writer Les Charles told GQ. The Cheers bar was inspired by the Bull & Finch Pub in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood, which officially changed its name to Cheers in 2002.

After five seasons playing uppity bartender Diane Chambers, Long decided to leave to pursue a career in film and spend more time with her newborn child. Kirstie Alley played bar manager and corporate foil Rebecca Howe for the show’s remaining six seasons.

Before he was proprietor of his own bar, recovering alcoholic Sam “Mayday” Malone was a relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. His Major League Baseball career came to an untimely end after just five years due to excessive drinking.

Bottomless beer-drinker Norm Peterson (George Wendt) was Cheers’ most loyal customer. He also was its most delinquent. One of the show’s running gags was that Norm never paid his tab. In 2022, men’s magazine MEL decided to calculate his beer debt, and writer Brian VanHooker determined that Norm owed an astonishing $124,406.90.

Fellow bar patrons knew Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger) for his tall tales and his pretentious penchant for erroneous trivia. Cliff lived with his mother and worked as a mail carrier, and his uniform from the show is now on permanent display at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.