Cheers is one of the longest-running and most popular sitcoms ever produced. Despite nearly being canceled during its very first season, it eventually worked its way up to becoming must-see TV. It ultimately ran for eleven seasons, earned 28 Primetime Emmy Awards, and inspired the spin-off, Frasier, which ran until 2004.
It’s no surprise that over it’s impressive and successful run, many patrons passed through the eponymous Cheers bar. The show’s history is studded with celebrity cameos or minor roles for famous actors. Even though everybody knows their name, here are ten stars you might have forgotten appeared on Cheers.
Corey Feldman
In Episode 8 of Season 2, Coach Ernie, one of the bartenders at Cheers, offers to manage a little league baseball team as a favor to a friend of Sam’s. As Coach used to be a professional baseball coach himself, you’d think it would be a piece of cake to handle a bunch of kids. Diane is worried for him, however, and her fears end up being validated when the team quickly unravels.
Corey Feldman makes an appearance as one of the kids on the team. A well-known child actor in the 80s, with roles in The Goonies and Stand By Me, here Feldman plays Moose, one of the kids who wants to tell Coach that they’re quitting the team.
Jennifer Tilly
Horror icon Jennifer Tilly, best known for her portrayal of Tiffany Valentine in the Child’s Play franchise, made an appearance in Season 4. Episode seventeen, “Second Time Around,” introduced Tilly as Candi Pearson. Sam sets Frasier up with Candi and the two end up getting along very well. After only 16 hours, in fact, the two announce their plans to get married.
It wasn’t meant to be, though. By the end of the episode the two had agreed to postpone their wedding, and Candi never made another appearance on the show.
Alex Trebek
Cliff, a postal worker and regular patron of Cheers, was known to impart a great deal of facts and trivia to the other characters. These facts tended to be wrong more often than not, which made him a good foil for his best friend, the practical accountant Norm. However, in the fourteenth episode of Season 8, “What Is… Cliff Clavin,” Cliff gets a chance to use his trivia knowledge on an episode of Jeopardy!
In a surprising twist, he almost wins it all, but gambles all his winnings on the Final Jeopardy question. After losing $22,000, Cliff verbally attacks host Alex Trebek. There are no hard feelings, though; Trebek (as himself) swings by Cheers to pay Cliff a visit and clear up any bad blood.
Marcia Cross
After Diane left the show in Season Six, she was replaced by the character of Rebecca, played by Kirstie Alley. In Season Seven, viewers learned more about Rebecca’s backstory, and were introduced to her sister Susan, portrayed by Marcia Cross. Unfortunately, the two aren’t close. When they were younger, Susan used to steal all of Rebecca’s boyfriends. Sam does his best to reconcile the two in the episode “Sisterly Love.”
Marcia Cross began her acting career on daytime soap operas. She is perhaps best known for the role of Bree Van de Kamp on Desperate Housewives, which earned her three Golden Globe nominations as well as an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.
Carol Kane
Carol Kane first became known in the 1970s and 80s for films such as Hester Street and Annie Hall. Most recently, she played Lillian Kaushtupper in the Netflix original series The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
In Season Three of Cheers, Sam picks up a girl named Amanda (played by Kane) at a bar, against the wishes of Diane. Amanda turns out to be bad news and obsessively stalks Sam when he tries to dump her. He eventually has to go so far as to fake his own death to get rid of her.
Thomas Haden Church
Carla’s husband Eddie LeBec was killed off in Season Eight. After Eddie was killed by a zamboni, it came to light that he’d been living a secret second life, married to another woman. The second Mrs. LeBec, Gloria, spent the episode competing over where Eddie’s true loyalties lay.
That is, until a baby-faced Thomas Haden Church arrived on the scene and revealed that all Eddie’s life insurance went to Carla, with nothing for “the other Mrs. LeBec.” Following his appearance on Cheers, Church co-starred in the 90s sitcom Wings, as well as playing Sandman in Spider-Man 3 and the villainous Lyle van de Groot in George of the Jungle.
Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Lloyd, best known as Emmett “Doc” Brown in the Back To The Future franchise, appeared on Cheers at the end of Season Two. The arrival of his character, Phillip Semenko, had big repercussions for Sam and Diane’s off-again-on-again relationship.
After finally kissing in the Season One finale, Sam and Diane’s relationship was dangerously fraught throughout the entirety of Season Two. It all came to a head when Semenko painted a portrait of Diane. She and Sam broke up (not for the last time) over it at the end of the finale, “I’ll Be Seeing You.”
Kate Mulgrew
Kate Mulgrew will be immediately recognizable to many as Captain Janeway of Star Trek: Voyager. She appeared in Cheers’ three-part Season Four finale.
She played local politician Janet Eldridge, who nearly got engaged to Sam. However, Janet correctly guessed that Sam still had feelings for Diane, and so the two broke it off. This prompted the first of Sam’s marriage proposals to Diane in the beginning of Season Five.
John Cleese
Successful English comedian John Cleese, co-founder of the Monty Python comedy troupe, played an old buddy of Frasier’s in Season Five. He happened to be a marriage counselor and appeared shortly before Sam and Diane’s wedding, and so Frasier decided to pay for a counseling session as a wedding present.
However, following a declaration that Sam and Diane were so incompatible that they should never see each other again, as well as a $1,500 fee, Frasier told the couple to bully the man until he gave in.
Emma Thompson
Finally, Emma Thompson, one of the UK’s most acclaimed actresses, played Frasier’s first wife Nanette Guzman. She was mentioned for the first time in Season 10. They had been married when Frasier was only 20, both of them hippies, and wrote music and poetry together. Long before his move to Boston, they divorced and lost touch. She makes a reappearance in his life when Sam surprises him and his family with tickets to a concert for famous children’s entertainer Nanny G.
Nanette recognizes Frasier in the crowd immediately and stopped the show to kiss him, unaware he was there with his current wife Lilith. Lilith was understandably upset, and to make it up to her, Nanette offers to perform for her son Frederick’s birthday free of charge. While supposedly performing for the children, Nanette sings a love song directed at Frasier, and Lilith physically attacks her. The character also appears on Frasier, but Emma Thompson didn’t reappear in the role.