John Lithgow on playing Winston Churchill and passing on Cheers

[TMC]

http://www.avclub.com/article/john-l...passing-245098

3rd Rock From The Sun (1996-2001)—“Dr. Dick Solomon”
Frasier (1995)—“Madman Martinez”
The Best Of Enemies (2015)—“Gore Vidal”

AVC: You hadn’t actually done a series at the point that you took on 3rd Rock From The Sun. What was it that led you down that path? Was the material just too good to turn down?

JL: Well, I never intended to do a series. I thought a series was the kiss of death for a character actor, because it was all you would ever be known for. Like the great Carroll O’Connor. He’ll be Archie Bunker forever. So I had sort of avoided it. In fact, I turned down the role of Frasier on Cheers when it was first offered to me. That’s a little known fact.

AVC: Did you ever hear that there was an NBC executive who wanted to do a swap week, where you’d play Frasier Crane one week and Kelsey Grammer would play Dick Solomon?

JL: No! This is the first I’ve heard that! Of course, if I’d been Frasier, it never would’ve been a hit series. Actually, Bonnie and Terry Turner, who created the series, they were very good friends of mine from the three times I hosted Saturday Night Live in the 1980s, and they’re the ones who pitched it to me. Although they were sneaky. They pretended they were just taking me to breakfast, but when I got there for breakfast, they were there with the entire executive staff of Carsey-Werner Productions. And they pitched it to me, and the first thing Terry said to me was, “Well, it’s about these four aliens.” I thought, “Oh, my god, how do I get out of here?” But three minutes later, he persuaded me to do it. It was such a fantastic role and premise for a character man, an alien who basically can’t figure out how to be a human being, so he tries everything.

JL: By the way, Kelsey Grammer and I did finally work together this past year. We were the two voices—I was Gore Vidal, and he was William F. Buckley—in that terrific documentary called The Best Of Enemies. It’s a very good film, and he and I finally worked together. Although I did work once on Frasier. But I was one of the call-ins, so I just showed up and sat in the sound booth, just like everybody did.