Cast of wholesome 80s sitcom ditched work to do mushrooms on star’s boat: ‘Felt like I was dying’-Rishma Dosani-Entertainment – Metro

Cheers aired on our screens in the 80s (Picture: NBC)

The cast of Cheers have opened up about a wild, drug-fueled boat ride they once embarked on after calling in sick at work.

The acclaimed sitcom, which sparked the iconic Frasier spin-off, aired between 1982 and 1993, following the daily lives of the staff and customers at a bar in Boston.

It boasted a star-studded cast including Ted Danson, Shelley Long, Kelsey Grammer, Woody Harrelson, Rhea Perlman and the late Kirstie Alley.

In an upcoming episode of the Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast, Ted, Woody and George – who played Sam Malone, Woody Boyd and Norm Peterson respectively – couldn’t help but wander down memory lane and the raucous moments that the cameras didn’t capture.

They recalled that they enjoyed a ‘hooky day’ after realizing that there were ‘very female-heavy’ scenes being filmed, meaning that they weren’t needed on set as much that day.

‘John [Ratzenberger] had just bought a boat and he was anxious to show it off, so we cooked up this little getaway,’ George began.

It boasted a huge, star-studded cast (Picture: NBC)

‘I remember we all met at his boat,’ Ted continued. ‘Woody and I, by then, were already stoned. We got on a payphone and called into the show, “I’m not feeling too good, I can’t come in”, and then hand the phone to the next person.

‘It was clear we were playing hooky.’

He shared that Kelsey, who played Frasier Crane, immediately went down to the lower bunk and was ‘sound asleep’ for the entire boat trip, as he had been ‘up all night playing cards’.

Reminiscing about the journey, the Good Place legend admitted that it was Woody’s idea to take the mushrooms, which he’d consumed on an empty stomach.

George Wendt – aka Norm – revealed some of the stars played ‘hooky’ one day (Picture: Rex)

Woody Harrelson suggested that the cast take mushrooms (Picture: Rex)

‘Woody turns to me 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,”’ he said.

‘We hadn’t had breakfast, so I was fairly hungry and ate I think an extraordinary amount of mushrooms. I’m thinking, “Oh, this is all right.”’

However, the journey quickly turned into the boat ride from hell before they’d even made it to Catalina, as they battled ‘leftover waves from a hurricane in Mexico’.

Ted Danson didn’t have a very good trip – in more ways than one (Picture: Rex)

In true Frasier Crane style, Kelsey Grammer slept through the entire ordeal (Picture: Rex)

Unsurprisingly, this didn’t mix well with the amount of drugs the pair had taken.

‘People not on mushrooms would be seasick, pretty much,’ Ted insisted. ‘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 [were] stretched out on a bunk.

‘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.”’

We would’ve loved a TV episode focusing on their drug drama… (Picture: NBC)

It was then that he sat down next to a very sober George, who was a ‘lifesaver’ and twigged almost instantly that he was ‘high on something’, and quickly calmed him down.

Ted added: ‘You spent the next 45 minutes poking me about every minute or two and said, “Breathe,” because I would literally forget to breathe, and feel like I was dying, and then you’d poke me.’

Anyone think this could actually be a fun Cheers episode…?

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