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Woody Harrelson didn’t take long to win over Cheers

Full name
11 Jan 2022
5 min read
Question: cheers' barkeep woody boyd hails from this indiana town...

Woody Harrelson arrived at Cheers with some big shoes, or perhaps mugs, to fill.

As, essentially, an assistant barkeep character replacement for the popular, lovable Ernie “Coach” Pantusso (played by Nicholas Colasanto, who passed away at age 61 prior to the show’s fourth season), Harrelson had but one uncredited film appearance before nabbing the role of Woody Boyd, in 1985, on one of the most popular sitcoms in American history.

As reported, the hire of unknown Harrelson was, in part, a demographics move by NBC, which was seeking to segue a younger viewership from lead-in show, Family Ties.

As Cheers’ producer Peter Casey later recalled of Harrelson’s audition to The Hollywood Reporter:

"This guy walks in wearing basketball shorts, a T-shirt and unlaced high-tops. He looked like he could be trouble if you crossed him.  And then he read and caught everyone's attention in that room by doing one thing that nobody else did. When Sam told him that Coach died, he teared up and started to cry. You're sitting there going, 'This is a comedy audition,' but then he does that and it's like, 'Whoa, he can really act.'"

Arriving on-screen as Coach’s pen pal, Woody’s run on Cheers soon begins, as he’s hired by Sam Malone to replace Pantusso behind the bar.  

That Harrelson’s character shared the same proname as his real name wasn’t the lone coincidence of his portrayal; in real life, Harrelson, a native of Midland, Texas (and, of note, the son of a convicted hitman) would go on to matriculate at Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana.  Woody Boyd?  Well, as the bumpkin character would reflect on a near-weekly basis, he hailed from Hanover, Indiana.

The character-to-real life crossover creating an effective empathy with audiences, and with Woody’s same likeable naivete as the departed barkeep predecessor nearly thrice his age, it didn’t take long for Harrelson to prove up to the task of pouring out exceptional performances among an all-star cast led by Ted Danson.  

Playing Woody for eight seasons (1985-93), Harrelson was nominated for an Emmy for “Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series” five consecutive years (1987-91), nabbing a win in ’89. (Of note, Colasanto was nominated in the same category three consecutive times, from 1983-85, including a posthumous recognition for the latter year.)

As Cheers’ eventually poured its final nightcap – which, for Woody Boyd, concluded with a child on the way with his wife, Kelly, along with a perhaps creepily-prescient election to the Boston City Council – Harrelson’s career took off with full momentum.  Eschewing the dim-wittedness which oft-defined by his bartending namesake, the actor soon took on all manner of diverse, memorable and challenging roles, including playing title characters in Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers (1994) and, two years later, in The People vs. Larry Flynt.

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