Ted Danson may have been one of television’s biggest stars when Cheers ended, but behind the scenes, his personal life was falling apart.
The 78-year-old actor, who became a household name playing womanizing bartender Sam Malone on the hit NBC sitcom, has admitted that by the time Cheers wrapped its 11-season run in 1993, he felt so lost that he barely recognized his own life.
Danson said the turmoil surrounding his marriage, divorce and highly publicized romance with Whoopi Goldberg left him emotionally overwhelmed at what should have been one of the biggest moments of his career.
“People say, ‘What was it like? What did you do when she was over?’” Danson recalled of the end of Cheers. “I said, ‘I had f—d up my life so much that I didn’t even realize Cheers was over.’”
For Danson, the end of the beloved sitcom came during an especially chaotic period.
His relationship with Goldberg reportedly contributed to the collapse of his second marriage to producer Casey Coates. The pair divorced in 1993, with the costly split reportedly setting Danson back around $30 million.
Looking back, Danson said he knew something had to change.
“I wanted to stop being a liar,” he said. “I wanted to be emotionally mature. I wanted to change.”
His relationship with Goldberg also led to one of the most controversial moments of his career.
In October 1993, Danson appeared in blackface during a Friars Club roast honoring Goldberg, sparking widespread outrage.
Decades later, the actor said he still feels the need to apologize for the stunt.
“I need to and want to apologize for the rest of my life because somebody today can go on the internet” and see it, he said.
After Cheers, Danson began rebuilding both his personal life and his career.
He said he took what he described as a “postgrad grown-up class” with an “amazing” mentor and began confronting the behavior that had left him feeling as though his life was built on dishonesty.
At the same time, Danson decided he needed to take more risks professionally instead of forever being known as Sam Malone.
“If I don’t leave now, I may not know if I could do anything else,” he recalled thinking. “And I want to see if I can do any other stuff.”
That gamble paid off.
Danson went on to star in a string of successful television shows, including Becker, Curb Your Enthusiasm, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and The Good Place.
He currently stars in Netflix’s A Man on the Inside and has been married to actress Mary Steenburgen for more than 30 years.
By 2024, Danson had reportedly appeared as a regular on 12 television series, giving him one of the most unusually long and consistent careers in Hollywood.
And after surviving decades of personal and professional ups and downs, Danson said even a recent health scare has changed the way he looks at life.
He said he is now “fine,” but added that the experience may have ultimately been a wake-up call.
“I think it was the best thing that could have happened to me,” Danson said, “and I’m doing some things differently.”
