Fred Dryer And Low Ratings ( How 'Cheers' Became A Hit Sitcom) - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

Brian Damage · 05-29-2012, 10:20 AM

Fox411: Football player and "Hunter" star Fred Dryer was a strong contender to play Sam Malone in "Cheers."

Warren Littlefield: Fred Dryer was great in the audition. We thought, now there’s a lot of people who know Fred Dryer as an athlete, what a big upside, and it was really the Charles brothers and Jimmy Burrows (the creators) who said, ‘Fred’s great but we cannot give him the time to get the performance on the stage.’ They told us to do a drama with Fred, and we listened, and they said, ‘The guy we really believe in is Ted Danson,’ and they were right.

Fox411: It got terrible ratings the first year.

WL: At the end of its first season it was the lowest rated comedy and the second lowest rated program in all of TV, and yet we loved it and we went forward and kept it on the air, and that kind of patience being rewarded was a really important lesson. History would repeat itself in our success by being patient, sticking with things we believed in, and of course ‘Seinfeld’ took over the mantle of ‘Cheers’ and gave us a decade of strength in the same way ‘Cheers’ did. Again, a rocky start, but it became critical to our success.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment...#ixzz1wGhLCEp0

Johnny be good! · 05-30-2012, 12:18 PM

Thank Brandon Tartikoff for giving Cheers another chance.

05-29-2012, 10:20 AM	#1
Brian Damage I'm Rich Bitch Forum Icon Join Date: Feb 03, 2002 Location: What Ain't No Country I Ever Heard Of...They Speak English in What? Posts: 63,107	Fred Dryer And Low Ratings ( How 'Cheers' Became A Hit Sitcom) Fox411: Football player and "Hunter" star Fred Dryer was a strong contender to play Sam Malone in "Cheers." Warren Littlefield: Fred Dryer was great in the audition. We thought, now there’s a lot of people who know Fred Dryer as an athlete, what a big upside, and it was really the Charles brothers and Jimmy Burrows (the creators) who said, ‘Fred’s great but we cannot give him the time to get the performance on the stage.’ They told us to do a drama with Fred, and we listened, and they said, ‘The guy we really believe in is Ted Danson,’ and they were right. Fox411: It got terrible ratings the first year. WL: At the end of its first season it was the lowest rated comedy and the second lowest rated program in all of TV, and yet we loved it and we went forward and kept it on the air, and that kind of patience being rewarded was a really important lesson. History would repeat itself in our success by being patient, sticking with things we believed in, and of course ‘Seinfeld’ took over the mantle of ‘Cheers’ and gave us a decade of strength in the same way ‘Cheers’ did. Again, a rocky start, but it became critical to our success. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment...#ixzz1wGhLCEp0
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05-30-2012, 12:18 PM	#2
Johnny be good! Member Senior Member Join Date: Feb 18, 2007 Location: Westland, Michigan Posts: 1,633	Thank Brandon Tartikoff for giving Cheers another chance.
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