Ted Danson apologizes to ‘Cheers’ costar Kelsey Grammer for argument

Ted Danson is expressing his regret over an argument he had with Kelsey Grammer while they were filming Cheers together. 

The actor, who starred as Sam Malone on the legendary sitcom, took a moment to personally apologize to his costar for his behavior — and how it affected their friendship moving forward — during a recent episode of Sirius XM’s Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast. 

“I feel like I got stuck a little bit with you during the Cheers years,” he explained on the episode. “I have a memory of getting angry at you once and it stuck in both of our memories, but I feel like… F—, I don’t know, I missed out on the last 30 years of Kelsey Grammer.” 

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Danson noted that he was at fault for the argument and its subsequent fallout. “I feel like it’s my bad, my doing, and I almost feel like apologizing to you,” he confessed. “No, I don’t feel like, I apologize to you and me that I sat back and didn’t, and I really do apologize.”

Grammer, who starred as Frasier Crane on Cheers and his character’s eponymous spinoff series, accepted Danson’s apology without hesitation. “Thank you,” he replied. “I wish we’d spent some more time together.”

He also recalled a quote that Danson once told him that he’s never been able to forget. “When I turned 40, you came up and you said, ‘You know what it means, don’t you? Now that you’re 40? It means you’re finally worth having a conversation with,’” he said. “I thought that was f—ing brilliant. I always loved that and I’ve repeated it.”

Brushing away their former feud, Grammer added, “And my love for you has always been as easy as the day, as easy as the sunrise, so whatever.”

“Mine to you,” Danson said. “What an amazing thing that the time we all spent together — you can go off in different directions, you can have different lives — but that bond, that love, of making something really funny and really good and cracking each other up and going through life and still showing up, you know, like Jimmy [Burrows, Cheers co-creator] said, ‘I don’t care what you crazy people do during the week, just show up on shoot night and be funny. Just once. That’s all I need.’” 

Grammer joined Danson and the rest of the Cheers cast — including Woody Harrelson, George Wendt, Rhea Perlman, and Shelley Long — as Frasier in the sitcom’s third season. He had a recurring role on the series for two seasons before being promoted to the main cast in season 5, where he remained until Cheers came to a close six seasons later in 1993. 

His spinoff, Frasier, featured his iconic character moving back to Seattle after getting divorced from his partner, Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth). A revival of the series debuted last year and released its second season just last month on Paramount+.

Watch Danson and Grammer put the past behind them in the clip above.