The TV show Ted Danson wanted nothing to do with: “I don’t know how to do that”
Most actors would admit they didn’t get into the business with dreams of being a TV guy, but it’s worked out pretty well for Ted Danson, despite movie stardom having forever eluded him.
He’s been in a few memorable films, like Lawrence Kasdan’s Body Heat and Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, but the fact that Three Men and a Baby still hasn’t been dislodged after four decades as the definitive entry in his feature-length filmography where he plays a leading role says it all, really.
That doesn’t mean he hasn’t had a great career. Quite the opposite, in fact; he’s had a great one. Danson started off in an era where actors who made a name for themselves on the big screen saw television as a step down and something that was beneath them, but he’s weathered that evolution to remain a fixture of the airwaves from Cheers until today.
He’s won two Primetime Emmys from 18 nominations and three Golden Globes from 12, and those accolades span five different TV shows, with the first coming in 1983 and the most recent in 2025, which just goes to show not only how long he’s been around, but how long he’s been doing it in popular shows.
With nostalgia all the rage these days, it was inevitable that something Danson-adjacent would be dusted off and brought back for the modern era eventually. When it did happen, Kelsey Grammer got the nod for a Frasier revival, and the producers repeatedly inquired if he’d be interested in playing Cheers’ Sam Malone one more time.
He wasn’t, but it didn’t have anything to do with the lingering tension between him and the series’ lead. “Not because I was angry at Kelsey or anything,” he explained. “Mostly because I didn’t know how to… How the fuck do you play Sam Malone in his 60s, or now 70s?”
It’s a pertinent question, and since he hadn’t played the role for such a long time, he didn’t have a fucking clue. “It’s amusing to be an aging adolescent when you’re in your 30s, 40s, but now when you’re in your 70s,” he elaborated. “So I thought, ‘I don’t know how to do that’. I would have felt at sea. I wouldn’t know how to do it. That’s why I said no.”
He did eventually change his mind, only for there to be a cruel sting in the tail. Having declined an appearance in the first and second seasons of the Frasier reboot, Danson’s stance softened. “Ask me, and I will come do it,” he said at the time. “Because I felt like I not only owed it to him, but I wanted to.”
With his Grammer rift healed, he was finally open to bringing Sam back, only for Paramount to cancel the show in January 2025. It was offered to other streamers in an effort to save the day, but nobody was willing to give Frasier a third lease of life, and the opportunity slipped through Danson’s fingers.
