George Wendt on Playing Hooky and Getting Drunk with the ‘Cheers’ Cast

On a new episode of SiriusXM’s podcast “Where Everybody Knows Your Name,” hosts Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson are joined by their “Cheers” co-star George Wendt to discuss a memorable day playing hooky with the cast of the legendary sitcom, being drunk during the show’s finale celebration, and more.

“We finished shooting and we hadn’t seen each other for two or three months and this was the final goodbye,” Danson says during the episode. “The episode was airing, and Jay Leno was gonna have this after final episode episode and they brought us into the bar to do interviews at like two in the afternoon, and we were in the bar at Cheers, Bull and Finch. What do you do in a bar? You start drinking and then later you start smoking, and so by the time, literally Jay Leno, he looked up from his notes and they were going, ‘5, 4, 3,’ and he looked up and saw us all really for the first time, and his eyes started to spin going, ‘Oh my.’ We got a lot of shit for that.”

Check out the full episode with Wendt anytime on the SiriusXM app.

George Wendt on Playing Hooky with ‘Cheers’ Cast

George Wendt: So, what about the boat ride?

Ted Danson: Okay. It was our hooky day, remember?

George Wendt: Yeah. It was, as I recall, it was a very female heavy show, right. Diane had an old something pal from college, I want to say and Maria was a real big part of it and we-

Woody Harrelson: And Bebe. Yeah.

George Wendt: Yeah, yeah. It was a girl, you know, and so we felt like we could maybe, John had just bought a boat.

Ted Danson: Boston Whaler.

George Wendt: Yeah, and he was anxious to show it off, so we cooked up this little getaway.

Ted Danson: I remember we all met at his boat. Woody and I, by then, were already stoned, and we got on the phone at a payphone and called in to Jimmy or called into the show saying-

Woody Harrelson: To Brian.

Ted Danson: Yeah, Brian, you’re right. “I’m not feeling too good. I can’t come in,” and then hand the phone to the next person, “I’m not feeling,” so it was clear that we were playing hooky.

George Wendt: I think somebody said, “Yeah. I’m seasick,” and yeah. I got peer pressured.

Ted Danson: So, we get on the boat. Kelsey immediately had been up all night playing cards, went down to the lower bunk, and fell asleep the whole way. He was sound asleep. Woody turns to mean and goes, “Have you ever had mushrooms?” and I go, “No. No, I haven’t,” and he said, “Well, this will be a good time. We have nothing to do. We’ll be out on a boat,” and we hadn’t had breakfast, so I was fairly hungry and ate I think an extraordinary amount of mushrooms, and then I’m thinking, “Oh, this is all right.” Then off we go and we’re halfway to Catalina and this is true. There was the leftover waves from a hurricane in Mexico that was still a huge swell, so people not on mushrooms would be seasick pretty much, but I sat there getting more and more and more freaked out and whatever it is, you get stoned or whatever it is on mushrooms. and I look at you, Woody, and you stretched out on a bunk, and I think, “Oh, he’s so used to this that he’s just cooling it and relaxing. I am panicking. I’m having trouble breathing. I’ll go up top,” and I came and sat down next to you and you looked at me and you went, “You’re high on something, aren’t you?” and I kind of nodded sheepishly and John was like, “Oh, for crying out loud,” but you spent the next 45 minutes poking me about every minute or two and said, “Breathe,” ’cause I would literally forget to breathe and feel like I was dying, and then you’d poke me, and then Woody, you finally came up ’cause you were afraid. Well, I should let you speak for yourself, but you said you were afraid you might jump off the back of the boat, so you better come up and that was my one kind of visual, you know, I looked at you and you looked skeletal. He looked like Woody the skeleton in my eyes. That was my only kind of visual buzz from mushrooms.

Woody Harrelson: Well, I remember you looked like that too, and also, G was having a bad trip.

Ted Danson: No, I don’t think you were-

Woody Harrelson: I think he did do-

George Wendt: No, on the way back I was seasick.

Woody Harrelson: But didn’t you do mushrooms too?

George Wendt: I did not. No.

Woody Harrelson: Oh, I thought you did.

Ted Danson: No, he was our lifesaver. No.

Woody Harrelson: Well, I just thought how noble it was that you were trying to calm him down when you were tripping, but you weren’t.

George Wendt: No, I wasn’t.

Woody Harrelson: But you did look like a hologram of yourself.

George Wendt: I have yet to do mushrooms.

Woody Harrelson: You really, you just weren’t breathing at all. You never let any air come in.

Ted Danson: I think I’m ready to do mushrooms again because it is a good thing, right? Mushrooms?

Woody Harrelson: Well, I guess it depends on the setting, but definitely in the middle of hurricane in the Pacific Ocean.

George Wendt: No, that was the, I mean, the boat was really going, like the mast thing was going. It was nasty.

Ted Danson: It was the worst four hours of my life truly.