In The Good Place season 2 finale, Ted Danson was back where everyone knows his name, but it turns out that the Cheers alum was “horrified” to do so.
The cast and creator of The Good Place stopped by EW’s Comic-Con panel in San Diego on Saturday, where they briefly talked season 3 (Eleanor and company are on Earth) but mostly looked back on the season 2 finale, which included Michael (Danson) intervening in Eleanor’s (Kristen Bell) life back on Earth by posing as a bartender. The idea to see Danson, who starred for 11 seasons on Cheers, once again serving drinks was a dream come true for Michael Schur.
“We had this idea that Michael needed to go to Earth and intervene in Eleanor’s life in a place where Eleanor might need to talk to a stranger and the obvious thing was a bar,” the show’s creator told EW’s Sam Highfill. “So I kind of asked Ted for his permission a little bit. I felt that it wouldn’t be fair to just throw Ted Danson behind a bar. I kind of asked and he said, of course, yes, it was great. Personally for me, seeing Ted throw a towel over his shoulder… I actually wrote it in the script. In the stage direction, it said you were cutting limes because in my memory…” Danson interjected, “That’s all I did — cut limes and drink soda.”
And while it might have been wish fulfillment for Schur, it was a nightmare for Danson. “It was horrifying for me,” revealed the 70-year-old actor. “For some reason I just started to… It took me so long to get used to being the bartender on Cheers and being cool and all that stuff that it just horrified me to go back and I felt all thumbs. It turned out great, but it was horrifying.”
