Ted Danson is clearing the air about his relationship with his “Cheers” co-star Kelsey Grammer.
The “A Man on the Inside” star, 77, addressed his 30-year-long rift with Grammer, 70, on a recent episode of Howie Mandel’s “Howie Mandel Does Stuff” podcast, attempting to clarify his previous remarks on the subject.
On an episode of his and fellow “Cheers” actor Woody Harrelson’s “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” podcast last October, Danson spoke with Grammer and told him,”I missed out on the last 30 years of Kelsey Grammer, and I feel like it’s my bad, my doing, and I almost feel like apologizing to you.”
Referring to the conversation, Mandel told Grammer, “I didn’t know that you were on the outs with Kelsey.”
Danson was quick to reply, “I wasn’t.”
He added, “You know what — sorry. How far do I wanna go?” the “Good Place” star paused and asked himself.
“Go all the way,” Mandel insisted.
“I wasn’t,” Danson repeated. The Emmy-winner explained that his relationship with his co-star became strained towards the end of their run on “Cheers” after he and the cast staged an intervention for Grammer because of how heavily he was using drugs and alcohol at the time.
But after the intervention, he and Grammer — who has since been sober for years — had a tense exchange.
“Finally I went up to his dressing room and I said, ‘I’ve told you how much I love you […] but I have not told you how f—king pissed off I am at you. I’m so angry at you and I felt the need to say that to be real,’” Danson recalled telling Grammer.
The “Boss” actor “took it well and all of that but it was a moment,” Danson said. “And then … Life went on.”
Danson added that after “Cheers” ended, the pair saw each “here or there” but “very rarely.”
He explained, “It felt like probably because I hadn’t completed that moment. And I had walked away without it being really complete. So maybe that’s why I didn’t reach out to him or whatever. I don’t know. So it was very simple. In our podcast, it was a very simple conversation.”
Reflecting on his conversation with Grammer in October, Danson said, “I think what happened to me was in the room, talking to him, it was like, ‘Oh, my God, I’m really having the best time talking to you.’”
“It was — it was so much fun to be around Kelsey that I went, ‘Oh shoot, I’ve wasted these 30 years of no Kelsey,’” Danson confessed.
“So it really wasn’t like I was saying, ‘Boy, was I pissed at you and I held a grudge and all of that.’ That’s not what happened. It really was: ‘I’m having so much fun. I wish I hadn’t let these years go by without reaching out.’”
Danson also shared that though Grammer asked him “several times over the years” to guest star on “Frasier,” he frequently said no because he didn’t know how to play his “Cheers” character Sam Malone in his 60s or 70s.
“It’s amusing to be an aging adolescent when you’re in your 30s, 40s, but not when you in your 70s,” Danson said. “So I thought, I don’t know know how do that.”
The decision was “not because I was angry at Kelsey or anything,” he pointed out.
Danson did make one appearance on “Frasier,” popping up in an episode during Season 2 in 1995.
The show ended its run in 2004 but was revived by Paramount+ in 2023 for 2 more seasons before being cancelled in January. Grammer is currently looking to find “Frasier” a home for another season. Should he be successful, Danson would now happily reprise his role as Malone.
“If he came back and he asked me to do an episode or something, yeah, I would,” Danson said.
Danson’s recent comments would align with Grammer, who exclusively revealed to the Post why they had their fallout years ago.
“It got a little blown out of proportion. There really wasn’t an argument. It was at a time in my life when I was actually going through a lot of self-doubt, self-loathing, honestly,” he said in January. “It was when I was drinking a lot. Ted had just come up and said, ‘You know, I’m kind of mad at you that sometimes you don’t show up ready to go.’ And I said, ‘OK, I respect that.’ And that actually was sort of it. Now, maybe what happened for Ted was he stepped away from what might have been a better friendship. Maybe he just had to protect himself. I don’t really know. But, I said, ‘Thanks.’ We were fine with that.”