A bar in Boston, a regular called Norm, and a room that shouts his name every time he comes in. The bar was a real pub on Beacon Street. The room was a soundstage in Hollywood. Follow the names out to both.
The Television Academy lists Ted Danson as Sam Malone, with Shelley Long, Rhea Perlman, Woody Harrelson, George Wendt, Kirstie Alley and Kelsey Grammer.
Founded in 1969 as the Bull & Finch Pub, Cheers Beacon Hill became the original inspiration for the setting of the TV show, which premiered on 30 September 1982.
Gary Portnoy sang the theme and wrote it with Judy Hart Angelo; the two were nominated for an Emmy for it.
The shout
Each time Norm Peterson arrives he bellows a greeting to the whole bar and gets a shout of “Norm!” back. Pick who comes down the steps, then shout. Each press brings in another stool. When the whole bar has it, the name takes you somewhere real.
The Bull & Finch · since 1969
Founded in 1969 as the Bull & Finch Pub, it became the original inspiration for the setting of Cheers. The producers went to Boston looking for the ideal American bar; after visiting other bars they came back to the Bull & Finch and declared, “This is the place.”
The producers want the front for the opening shots.
84 Beacon Street, Boston · Daily from 11am · no reservations · children until 10pm
The pub that inspired the show, on the lower level of 84 Beacon Street: two oak bars, booths, patches on the beams and a Giant Norm Burger on the menu.
Hours and directionsThursday 20 May 1993 · Beacon Street
On the night of the final episode NBC throws its party upstairs, 500 guests fill bleachers on Beacon Street for a live Tonight Show, and the pub is the green room.
Seats 0 of 500
The bleachers are empty. The Tonight Show goes out live after the last episode.
The Hampshire House is a Bostonian mansion on Beacon Hill used for weddings and private events. Thomas A. Kershaw has owned the Hampshire House Corporation since it began in 1969. On the night of the last episode, 20 May 1993, NBC held its party upstairs at the Hampshire House; most of the cast came.
A private events house: weddings, parties and dinners by arrangement. The pub downstairs is open to everyone.
Stage 25 · Paramount, Hollywood · 4,173 km from Beacon Street
Cheers was filmed on Stage 25 at Paramount Studios in Hollywood. The audience bleachers sat 200. The set, designed by Richard Sylbert, was patterned on the Bull & Finch but built much larger. A hinge down the middle let the right half of the bar swing round to reveal Sam’s office.
The bar is shut. Every scene in the office stopped production while the set was swung round.
Warm 3.2 beer was on tap; the jukebox did not work but the piano did; the wooden Indian at the front door was called Techumsa. Frasier was made on the same lot, in the same soundstage where Cheers held forth for 11 years.
A working studio. See it on a guided tour from the Tour Center: two hours, daily, $71; ages over 10; photo ID for adults.
5515 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood · 2 hours, daily · $71 · parking $20
A guided walk round the lot where Cheers and Frasier were made: the Tour Center, the prop warehouse, the New York backlot, the Bronson Gate and the soundstages. Ages over 10; adults need photo ID.
Book the tourThe 7000 block of Hollywood Boulevard
Ted Danson’s star, the 2,148th on the walk, was laid in November 1999 in front of the Galaxy Theatre and the Hollywood Entertainment Museum, then home to the Cheers set.
Three stars under the dust. Polish each one three times.
Kelsey Grammer, Kirstie Alley and George Wendt were among the 300 people there; Alley said she was happy he got his star four years after she got hers.
On the pavement, free, at any hour. Danson and Grammer are on the north side of the block, Alley on the south.
Frasier · Seattle · 8 and 9 September 1997
Frasier left the bar for Seattle and his own show, made on the same Hollywood lot. For the 100th episode the cast went to Seattle for the first time. Walk the Crane brothers across town.
1 · Pioneer Square
The brothers’ first walking scene, for Café Nervosa, is shot in Pioneer Square.
An open public square at any hour; the iron pergola stands at its north end.
2 · Pike Place Market
At Pike Place Market a fish grazes Niles and his coffee goes over Frasier’s shoes.
Seven days a week from 7am for produce and seafood; shops 9am–7pm. Closed Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.
3 · The Space Needle
For Frasier’s 1,000th broadcast the brothers head for a ceremony at the Space Needle, where Seattle’s real mayor, Norm Rice, declares Frasier Day.
Open daily, from 9am at weekends and 10.30am on weekdays; general admission $35–55.
Stop 1 of 3: Pioneer Square.
400 Broad Street, Seattle · General admission $35–55 · open daily
The view Frasier’s apartment pretended to have, and the destination of the 100th episode’s walk across Seattle.
Plan a visitAfter the last episode Frasier has moved back to his home in Seattle to pursue a career in radio psychology.
Frasier was filmed on the Paramount lot in the same soundstage as Cheers, and had never shot on location in the Northwest before 1997.
Seattle Times: Seattle’s a bit player (Chuck Taylor, 27 April 1997)
The regulars, as themselves
Ted Danson
Sam Malone
Sam, the ex-Red Sox pitcher who owns the bar; his star went down on Hollywood Boulevard in 1999.
Photograph: Ted Danson at the Emmy Awards, September 1990.
The Television Academy lists Ted Danson as Sam Malone, Shelley Long as Diane Chambers, Rhea Perlman as Carla Tortelli, Woody Harrelson as Woody Boyd, George Wendt as Norm Peterson, Kirstie Alley as Rebecca Howe and Kelsey Grammer as Dr Frasier Crane.
Diane’s on-again, off-again relationship with Sam ran through the first five years; Nicholas Colasanto died in 1985; Woody came to Cheers in 1986 to meet Coach.
Kirstie Alley replaced Shelley Long in 1987, with her character managing the bar.
Kelsey Grammer played Frasier for 20 years, in Cheers and then in Frasier.
Rhea Perlman, Ted Danson, George Wendt and Kelsey Grammer were among the cast at the Hampshire House on the night of the finale.
Ted Danson’s star was dedicated on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in November 1999.
Last call
10 places you can visit, in Boston, Hollywood and Seattle. Paramount is a working studio, seen on its tour. The Hampshire House, upstairs from the pub, opens only for private events, so it shares the pub’s pin.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Opens daily at 11am (closed Christmas Day). No reservations. Children until 10pm, then 21 and over.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Free and open every day. Cross Beacon Street from the bar’s steps.
84 Beacon Street, opposite the Public Garden
Founded in 1969 as the Bull & Finch Pub, it became the original inspiration for the setting of Cheers.
Opens daily at 11am (closed Christmas Day). No reservations. Children until 10pm, then 21 and over.
Across Beacon Street from the bar; 4 Charles Street
Cheers sits across the road from the Public Garden.
Free and open every day. Cross Beacon Street from the bar’s steps.
Stay
A former jail turned hotel, a walk along Charles Street from the bar.
215 Charles Street, Boston
Not a filming location: the former Charles Street Jail, opened as a hotel in 2007, with 298 rooms. It is at the foot of Beacon Hill, a short walk along Charles Street from the bar.
Check roomsGo there
The pub on Beacon Street, the Paramount tour, Fenway, and Frasier’s Seattle.
84 Beacon Street, Boston · Daily from 11am · no reservations · children until 10pm
The pub that inspired the show, on the lower level of 84 Beacon Street: two oak bars, booths, patches on the beams and a Giant Norm Burger on the menu.
Hours and directions5515 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood · 2 hours, daily · $71 · parking $20
A guided walk round the lot where Cheers and Frasier were made: the Tour Center, the prop warehouse, the New York backlot, the Bronson Gate and the soundstages. Ages over 10; adults need photo ID.
Book the tour4 Jersey Street, Boston · Daily, one hour · on game days until three hours before the first pitch
The home of Sam Malone’s old club. An hour round the oldest major league ballpark in the country: the manual scoreboard, the Green Monster seats and the press box.
Tour times400 Broad Street, Seattle · General admission $35–55 · open daily
The view Frasier’s apartment pretended to have, and the destination of the 100th episode’s walk across Seattle.
Plan a visit85 Pike Street, Seattle · Free to walk in · closed Thanksgiving and Christmas Day
Where a fish grazes Niles in 1997. Produce and seafood from 7am, shops 9am–7pm, seven days a week.
Plan a visitBoston
Live marketplace results for Beacon Hill and Boston pub tours that pass the Cheers bar. Check each itinerary for the stops you want.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
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Take it home
The theme on a 1983 single, James Burrows’s memoir, George Wendt’s book and an episode guide.
James Burrows with Eddy Friedfeld
The co-creator and director of Cheers on five decades of television, published by Ballantine in 2022.
Find the bookGeorge Wendt
Norm’s own book, published by Simon & Schuster in 2009.
Find the bookDennis A. Bjorklund
An episode-by-episode reference to the series, published by McFarland in 1997.
Find the bookGary Portnoy · 7-inch single, 1983
Portnoy sings the theme he wrote with Judy Hart Angelo; the B-side is “Jenny”.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
The 1983 single of “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” by Gary Portnoy, with “Jenny” on the B-side.
MusicBrainz: Theme from Cheers (Where Everybody Knows Your Name), Gary Portnoy, 7-inch single, 1983
The Liberty occupies the former Charles Street Jail at 215 Charles Street and has 298 rooms.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
11 of 11 places · 14 of 14 Moments
84 Beacon Street, opposite the Public Garden
Each time Norm Peterson arrives he bellows a greeting to the whole bar and gets a shout of “Norm!” back.
The Bull & Finch’s owner agrees for $1 to let the producers film the pub for establishing shots.
After touring Boston’s bars the producers come back to the Bull & Finch and declare, “This is the place.”
84 Beacon Street, the floors above the pub
On the night of the final episode NBC throws its party upstairs, 500 guests fill bleachers on Beacon Street for a live Tonight Show, and the pub is the green room.
Across Beacon Street from the bar; 4 Charles Street
Quincy Market, by Faneuil Hall
A recreation of the television set’s bar opens at Faneuil Hall Marketplace and closes for good after 20 years.
4 Jersey Street, Fenway–Kenmore
Sam Malone pitched for the Boston Red Sox from 1974 to 1978 before he tended bar.
1 City Hall Square, Government Center
Woody is elected to the Boston City Council and keeps his job behind the bar.
5515 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood
Cheers is filmed on Stage 25 at Paramount, before an audience of 200 on raised bleachers.
The right half of the set’s bar swings round on a hinge to reveal Sam’s office.
At the end of the last episode Sam says “Sorry, we’re closed” and straightens the picture of Geronimo that hung in Nicholas Colasanto’s dressing room.
The 7000 block of Hollywood Boulevard
Ted Danson’s star is laid in front of the museum then holding the Cheers set, with Grammer, Alley and Wendt in the crowd.
400 Broad Street, Seattle Center
For Frasier’s 1,000th broadcast the brothers head for a ceremony at the Space Needle, where Seattle’s real mayor, Norm Rice, declares Frasier Day.
85 Pike Street, Seattle
At Pike Place Market a fish grazes Niles and his coffee goes over Frasier’s shoes.
First Avenue and Yesler Way, Seattle
The brothers’ first walking scene, for Café Nervosa, is shot in Pioneer Square.
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