
It’s a reunion as John Ratzenberger (aka Cliff Clavin) drops in on his Cheers colleagues Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson! John shares about how he pitched his know-it-all Cheers character, being on crew at the original Woodstock, his perspective on the now legendary hooky boat ride, and various near-death experiences. Like watching your podcasts? Visit http://youtube.com/teamcoco to see full episodes.
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Ted Danson
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Woody Harrelson
Tremphiradio.Com and I remember thinking tomorrow's papers are going to say Cliff kills cast of Cheers.
John Ratzenberger
Welcome back to where everybody knows your name with me, Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson sometimes. Big day today. Woody's with me for this episode and we're talking with a treasured Cheers colleague, John Ratzenberger, who played the mail carrier Cliff Clavin on all 11 seasons of Cheers. John is a bright and talented guy who's led such an interesting life beyond acting, and I'm very grateful that Woody and I got to share this time with him after so many years. So without further ado, let's welcome our longtime friend, Johnny. Okay. Emmy nominee, a voice actor In 22 Pixar movies, a storied act. Please don't interrupt. This is you.
Woody Harrelson
I just realized that I thought we were talking about Woody.
John Ratzenberger
No, no, no. A storied acting in TV and film spanning nearly five decades. Perhaps his most famous role was on Cheers as the garrulous. You can quarrel with the word garrulous Mail carrier Cliff Clavin, please welcome to the show our longtime friend Johnny. John Ratzenberg.
Woody Harrelson
Gentlemen, so good to see you again. Once again, great to see you, dude. I want to come back here every day now.
John Ratzenberger
You, you.
Woody Harrelson
I get such a fuzzy feeling. Warm and fuzzy. See you.
John Ratzenberger
Wait till we get going.
Woody Harrelson
Okay.
George Wendt
I haven't seen it. Like, I literally. You're the only person from Cheers I haven't seen since the day we wrapped.
Woody Harrelson
I've been trying to avoid you.
George Wendt
Yeah, that's what I was going to ask.
Woody Harrelson
Ducking around corners. There he is. So, no, I've been out and about. I. I just finished a 4,000 mile driving trip. I just took this spirit of the moment, so I, I don't spend a lot of time here.
George Wendt
Where'd you go from where to where?
Woody Harrelson
Oh, from Rancho Mirage out in the desert to Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Washington state, Oregon, and then back down here. Oh, my God. In what? I didn't walk.
George Wendt
Yeah, no, but he thought.
Woody Harrelson
Wondered if you're taking the motorcycle question. Huh?
George Wendt
He wondered if you were taking a motorcycle.
Woody Harrelson
Right. Oh, no. My daughter wanted me on motorcycles anymore. Motorcycles.
John Ratzenberger
But what.
George Wendt
But what kind?
Woody Harrelson
I got a pickup truck.
John Ratzenberger
Nice.
Woody Harrelson
It's red.
John Ratzenberger
By yourself? Was it just you?
Woody Harrelson
Yeah. Wow. What do you do when you pull.
John Ratzenberger
Into a town and.
Woody Harrelson
Well, I bring one of my friends that I stopped to see. He ex vinter winery guy who just sold his winery, but he's got a big property up in Montana and his thing is trap and skeet. So I brought a couple of shotguns with me and so we did some trap and skeet shooting. And then I got friends in Oregon. We went down the Rogue river, you know, one of those boats, the rapids and all that stuff. And, you know, I never have an agenda. This one I did. The first stop was for with in Pueblo, Colorado. I gave a talk there and I've been doing quite a bit of that speechifying.
George Wendt
And what are you speechifying about?
Woody Harrelson
Well, what I actually, what I bent your ear about all those years ago to get kids shop classes. To get shop classes reinstated because the. We're. We're literally running out of people that know how to use tools. Literally. The airlines, we're running out of pilots of all things. Railroads. You know, the railroads falling off of, you know, the tracks. That's because they don't have enough people to fix what's going wrong.
John Ratzenberger
And Are you raising the alarm or are you.
Woody Harrelson
I've been trying for. I spoke in front of Congress twice already and brought in witnesses from construction firms who said they have to close down because they can't find a simple Carpenters and bricklayers and I don't know if you remember, I don't know if you're talking about. I was a carpenter before I got into this acting game. Yeah.
George Wendt
No, I. Because, you know, they, they give you. Even though we hung out a thousand hours. Well, more, you know, you look at. I, I. There's a thing in here that. You were at Woodstock as one of the crew.
Woody Harrelson
Yeah.
George Wendt
Now, you must have told me that, but I forgot about that. I don't.
John Ratzenberger
I never heard that either.
Woody Harrelson
Isn't that amazing? Yeah, well, I, you know, I guess I don't know.
George Wendt
Well, what were you. So what were you doing?
Woody Harrelson
I was a carpenter. I was living up in in the area up in Bearsville. I was building a studio for a mime, giving mime lessons. So I traded my carpentry skills for mime lessons and breakfast and a bed. The great businessman. And then the word went out in town that there's some kind of festival going on. They're looking for people. So I trundled on down there and stood in line and the guy says, can you drive a tractor? I said, yeah. I never. Never in my life. So there's a. Here. The keys at the. So whenever it started up, as they went, I almost flipped it. But then. So I was doing heavy equipment operation and pounded nails at the stage.
John Ratzenberger
Yeah. And did you have to leave after you built it before the festival?
Woody Harrelson
No, no, I was there right through the festival.
John Ratzenberger
Oh, my God, that's.
Woody Harrelson
I was there like a week and a half before the festival, during the festival, and about a week after the festival.
John Ratzenberger
Did you have any idea that. Oh, this is huge. This is big. Or. No, I.
Woody Harrelson
My first thought was, we're in big trouble when these idiots take over the country.
John Ratzenberger
Johnny. Johnny.
Woody Harrelson
It's like, wow, these people are idiots. They're college educated, but they're idiots.
John Ratzenberger
The crowd.
Woody Harrelson
The crowd.
John Ratzenberger
Oh, the crowd. Yeah. All right, all right.
Woody Harrelson
Well, who did you think I was talking about?
John Ratzenberger
Musicians?
Woody Harrelson
All right.
John Ratzenberger
Okay.
Woody Harrelson
No, I. I didn't get to hear a lot of music.
John Ratzenberger
Yeah.
Woody Harrelson
No. So, yeah. But I was wandering, you know, this on the road kind of thing.
John Ratzenberger
Hey, can we back up a second? We've been talking about. Because we've all known each other, but we knew each other while we were rehearsing and laughing and giggling. So I had no idea what Woody was like when he was the 7, 8, 9, 12, whatever year old. What was that age? What were you doing at that age? What was your life like? Were you running out the door and coming back and, you know, at. That was a nice sound. Nice sound.
Woody Harrelson
That was me running out the door.
John Ratzenberger
No, Johnny, come back. Yeah. What was that like?
Woody Harrelson
Oh, Bridgeport, which is a factory town, but we grew up right on the water. But there was nothing sumptuous about it. Say we grew up on the water. Yeah. But there was a shipyard right across the street and one down the end of the street. One down the end of this street. So it was mostly utilitarian water things.
John Ratzenberger
Right.
Woody Harrelson
So I was around people, you know, building boats, repairing boats, buying boats, selling boats. At what, age zero? Right on.
George Wendt
That's where you learned the carpentry skills, working on boats?
Woody Harrelson
Yeah, well, that's where I was, I guess. I in thinking about that's probably where my interest started. But then when I got to middle school where they actually had shop classes and Mr. Banny said, oh no, here, use a cross cut saw for that or a rip saw. And you started learning about tools and you tried to do it right too, because he had really bad breath. So when he was leaning over your shoulder, he goes, your eyes would water. So he wanted to do it right. But I always enjoyed that. When I went to England, I don't know how old I was 20, but that's how I made a living over there as a carpenter. I go to different building sites.
John Ratzenberger
Was that before you got bitten by the acting bug or the comedy or whatever? How did that fit in? Because I know you traveled around the acting bug.
Woody Harrelson
I had done some in college, but I never thought you could make a living at this stuff. And in England, a buddy of mine from college, Ray Hassett, who went on later years to become a very, well, highly decorated sheriff policeman in New Haven, Connecticut. But he and I toured Europe.
George Wendt
Oh, this is the sow's meat market.
Woody Harrelson
Sow's meat market. And so we kind of pretty good reputation. The Monty Python guys had come to our shows and remember Bob Hoskins? You know, he'd always be in our audience, guys like that. And. But then I came over here. Ray went another direction. But I mean he's, he's a movie, that guy. Undercover stuff and. Yeah, but you know, then Cheers.
John Ratzenberger
But before that you also did every, you played every American soldier in every war movie known to man.
Woody Harrelson
Well, because the dollar was very strong against the pound when I was over there. So they were making a lot of American movies. So I was the right height, weight, size, look to fit into a uniform. So every movie I did the 30 something movies over there and everyone was a uniform. Like Ragtime, I was a fireman, Bridge Too Far, Gandhi, yada yada yada. Was always a uniform of some kind. Yeah.
George Wendt
But then the ultimate uniform, the mailman.
Woody Harrelson
The garrulous mailman.
George Wendt
The garrulous.
John Ratzenberger
That's not fair. He was way more than Gerald.
George Wendt
Yeah, Gerald is interesting. Yeah, but, but I, I love the way your audition went because then you come in and audition for the George part, for Norm part.
Woody Harrelson
I, I don't know, I. Or different, I guess. Yeah, I just. Because I never auditioned. I'd been working 10 years straight in Europe non stop. Not once did I ever audition. And I didn't go to acting school, so I didn't know what taught me. I was supposed to do So I walked into the office. Remember, there was Jimmy, Les and Glenn, couple other people, and. But, you know, they're sitting there like that. You know, like, show me your stuff. And I remember thinking, oh, that's probably why they gave me these scripts. So I did a horrible job, you know. So I was walking out the door, literally walking out the door. And I don't know whether this is my fantasy or it happened in reality, but I could have sworn that my 8 by 10 was going like this into the wastebasket. But I stopped. I said, do you have a bar? Know it all? But that was the writer part of me asking. And it was glad. What are you talking about? I said, every bar that I've ever been in, in New England anyway has some horse's ass who pretends to know everything, but everybody defers to that person anyway. And because, you know, when I go find my dad, tell him dinner was ready, you know, there's always one guy in the bar, and my father's was this guy named Sarge. Hey, Sarge, what's the length of a whale's intestine? Baleen or blue? And even as a kid, I thought that was hysterical. So, yeah, so I just picked up on that kind of character. And I think I used a ballpoint pen from the desk in there and explained why the Bic pen was originally called a bitch pen and why they had to take the H off, which is a true story, by the way. No brothers. Two brothers, French brothers, the bitch brothers. B, I, C, H. And somebody said. So they started a pen company, and somebody goes, you know, you might want to. You might want to take the H off of that.
John Ratzenberger
Okay, now you have to raise your hand. Is this a true story? All right, all right. Wow.
Woody Harrelson
I remember.
John Ratzenberger
That's a great story.
Woody Harrelson
Yeah, well, I've always been a. A collector of arcane thoughts and facts, so I get a kick out of it.
John Ratzenberger
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Nick Leal
Meet Flip. She's one half of a Flip Flop. That's me who got left behind at Celebration Key, Carnival's exclusive paradise in Grand Bahama.
Woody Harrelson
Uh, I chose to stay here. It really is paradise.
Nick Leal
So now Flip spends her time lounging on the beach, swimming in the lagoon and eating.
Ted Danson
The only thing more impressive than my appetite are all the dining options.
Nick Leal
Yeah. Have you tried food service to your cabana?
George Wendt
Ooh, yum.
Woody Harrelson
Flip.
Nick Leal
Where'd she go? Book your cruise. Vacation to Carnival. Celebration Key. A paradise you'll want to lose yourself in. Ships registry, the Bahamas and Panama.
George Wendt
When you did the audition, you're leaving and then you go. Then you say the thing about the bar. Know it all. So what was their response?
Woody Harrelson
Oh, well, they were laughing. That was the only reason I did that, because, again, I had. I had a great career going in in Europe and, you know, big audiences and, you know, I was toast to the town out back there. But I didn't want to leave that office, have him think I Was some kind of momo, you know, just some. Some. Some. Some guy, some actor. Because I knew what I was doing. But I needed to make them laugh before I left to regain my dignity. Because at the. It was just in shatters all over their carpet from my audition. So that's the only reason I did it. Two days later, I get a call. Did.
John Ratzenberger
Wait. But did you get laugh? Did they laugh?
Woody Harrelson
Oh, yeah, yeah.
John Ratzenberger
So you knew you.
Woody Harrelson
Well, I went into a whole character.
John Ratzenberger
Yeah.
Woody Harrelson
Because it's those characters always, you know, the eyebrows go. You know. You know, you got the. There's all kinds of convoluted motion that goes with it. And there's a cop who's a father of a buddy of mine growing up, and he was like that too. And I always used to make fun of him. And so, you know, mixed them all up and bum, bum, bum, Johnny.
John Ratzenberger
It was a brilliant character. It truly was. You made me laugh so hard. I can go back and reruns and you make me laugh.
Woody Harrelson
I just. I love those types of that, you know, it's sort of a pompous individual. Everybody knows he's full of it, but yet. Okay, let's listen to him and pretend he's right now.
John Ratzenberger
Another influence. Because you told me this and you actually got me to start watching his movie, Jacques Tati.
Woody Harrelson
Oh, Jacques Tati. Yeah.
John Ratzenberger
Tell me first a little bit about him.
Woody Harrelson
Oh, it's just after Second World War, he started making movies. But he's the reason that I had the wardrobe guy. Cheers. Lift up my pant. Like the cuffs. You can see the white socks. It's because of Jacques Tati. Jacques Tati. And a lot of his. He didn't. Not only talked, but he just walked across the room. And just his body language and the way he looked. Other people would stare and, you know, Chad, he actually would start. I could knock, you know, drink down on the dog and the dog and just the whole. It'd be chaos.
John Ratzenberger
Yeah.
Woody Harrelson
And all he had to do was walk. Walk through a room. I just thought how brilliant that is. But as a matter of fact, I was thinking about him last night. I've been to this hotel up here in Hollywood, and they got all these knobs and buttons, and I couldn't turn off the light. I was like, what the hell? But Jacques Tati did a movie called Monon. It's all that. Just all these modern doodads and squiggles and spigots and. But it's funny you mentioned that. I was just thinking about that last night.
John Ratzenberger
We haven't talked a lot about. I mean, we have talked a lot about Cheers, but these are some silly questions like, do you have favorite moments? Do you have favorite episodes? Do you have anything.
Woody Harrelson
Oh, Cheers.
John Ratzenberger
Yeah.
Woody Harrelson
I can't think of a time that a day that wasn't favorite. It just seemed like it just got better and better. I really enjoyed the read through of the scripts. Like they would send us the script, what, on Friday or the weekend so that we would have it in front of us Monday. I never opened it. I would go in to work with you guys, not having read the script and so I could just. So every time you turn the page, it was like a little Christmas present.
John Ratzenberger
Yeah.
Woody Harrelson
Because I love the way the writing, you never saw it coming.
John Ratzenberger
Yeah.
Woody Harrelson
Whereas most sitcoms, you can see it a mile away, you know what's going to happen. But with Cheers, you just. You didn't see it coming.
John Ratzenberger
Yeah.
Woody Harrelson
And so I just thought I got kicked out of that. But that was one of my favorite moments. Every week was going to tell you.
John Ratzenberger
Some of my favorite moments. Squeaky shoes.
George Wendt
Oh, thinking about that.
Woody Harrelson
Yeah, that was one. Yeah, that was directed. That I did.
George Wendt
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Woody Harrelson
But that was one of my favorites too. Yeah.
John Ratzenberger
An entire bar walking around looking at their feet with squeaker. Little handheld squeakers to make the shoe.
Woody Harrelson
Yeah. I had the prop guy cut the squeakers out of toys. So each actor had his own octave. Because I know if they did it in post production, it'd be the same octave, the same sound, not funny, but would have with the actors were in charge. If you look at the right hands of all you guys, you'll see some people squeezing it.
John Ratzenberger
What else did you direct?
Woody Harrelson
Oh, about a half hour. Yeah, about a half hour. And then I made the great career move of moving my family up to an island in Washington state. Yeah, the agents didn't like that because I was getting a lot of offers to direct. I made a lot. And so I was with William Morris at the time. I said, well, I'm gonna moving my family up to start a little farm up in Washington on an island. He said, what? Well, yeah, I mean, just call me, I'll come down. And you know, I thought it was easy, you know, just call. Oh, okay, yeah, I'll be there. It doesn't work like that. You actually have to talk to people. But so that's kind of. When.
John Ratzenberger
What did you do though, up there? Did you. Were you farming? Were you?
Woody Harrelson
Well, like I said, I grew up in and around boats. So we always had boats. And my son And I remember the first fish he caught. We were, isn't this a boat? Cape Cod cat boat I had built. Anyway, he's reeling it in. Reeling. He looks over and it's a shark, but it's like a sand shark, not a big deal. And he was like five, six. He was dead. It's a shark. And I remember that scene from Bambi where Bambi's father's. Get up, Bambi, where the fire's coming. You can do it, son. You can. That's what I did with my son, son. Reel it in, Jim. You can do it. He wanted me to reel it in for him, but I remember the look of pride on his face when he reeled it in himself and held it up like that. So that's the reason I went. Because you can't do that here.
John Ratzenberger
Yeah, yeah.
Woody Harrelson
And I got this set of skills that don't translate to raising children here. So I had to bring them to a place that I knew, you know, like crabbing, sailing, and, you know. Oh. I remember going to pick up my kids at school and Jim jumps in the car and where's Nina? Said, I don't know. I look and about 20 yards away, there's a huge pine tree with a lot of kids under the pine tree looking up. And I said, I think I know where she is. She was at the. It was like 80ft in the air. Nina, just four or five years old. This is a climb to pine tree, you know. But that's the reason.
John Ratzenberger
Yeah. That's to expose them to that.
Woody Harrelson
Just. There it is. Go do it.
John Ratzenberger
Hey, now that we're talking boats a little bit and we have the major culprit sitting next to me, Woody Harrelson. Come on, let's revisit the story just one more time.
George Wendt
I don't know from Johnny's perspective, but it was irritated.
John Ratzenberger
We were dying and you were irritated.
Woody Harrelson
I was a little afraid.
John Ratzenberger
Well, let us back up just for a second. We decided. All the boys at Cheers decided to play hooky. First bad thing we'd ever done. And it was like, I think our fifth year or something like that. And we weren't heavy in the script. It was Shelly and Rhea. And we called Rhea that night and said, heads up, we're going to play hooky. And we all decided to meet down.
Woody Harrelson
This is Long beach where the boat was.
John Ratzenberger
Yeah. And it was a Boston Whaler that you had or something.
Woody Harrelson
No, no, Boston Wheeler is a little. This is a Grand Banks.
John Ratzenberger
Wow.
Woody Harrelson
It's a 42 foot trawler.
John Ratzenberger
Yeah. It was very impressive. So we go there. I think Woody and I are stoned already on marijuana. And we stopped by to pick up Kelsey, who had been up all night. And then we all piled to the dock. We got to a telephone booth and we called Jimmy Burroughs, the director, and said, jimmy, I'm not feeling good. I'm not coming in. Hold on one second. Then you pass it to the next guy in line. He was not amused. And then we got on the boat. By now having no breakfast, I'm hungry. And Woody says, have you ever had mushrooms? Would you like some mushrooms? And I thought, yeah, I mean, we're going to be on a boat. We're not answerable to anybody. Yes. And in my kind of hunger, I remember it was two or three handfuls that tasted pretty good. Hard cut through, I don't know. A half hour later. And we were at the tail end of weather that had come up from Mexico. Right.
Woody Harrelson
That was on the way back.
John Ratzenberger
Oh, but it was, well.
George Wendt
Oh, that was on the way back.
John Ratzenberger
It was bumpy. Not bumpy. No, the way you were, like, it was okay. My mushrooms were bumping. Let me put it that way.
George Wendt
Something was bumpy.
John Ratzenberger
Yeah.
Woody Harrelson
Yeah. They're called waves. The ocean has them a lot.
John Ratzenberger
Yeah, so you should have told me that before I gone. Anyway, I look at Woody and Woody stretches out and I think, oh, my God, he's so used to this. He stretches out in a bunk and I am dying. I have trouble breathing, and I am just dying. So I go up to where you and George went. Were sitting, you were piloting, and you both looked at me and went, oh, fuck. You know, what did you do? Some mushrooms. And I sat next to George and every 30 seconds he would go tap me and go, breathe. And I go. Because I would forget.
George Wendt
You'd just be holding your breath. I remember that you were, like, holding your breath for long periods and I.
John Ratzenberger
Thought you were fine, but you finally came up because you were afraid you were contemplating jumping off the back of the boat. Anyway, woof. Never had a mushroom again.
Woody Harrelson
Yeah, good.
John Ratzenberger
Worst, worst experience.
Woody Harrelson
And Kelsey was down below. He was. He was wrecked.
John Ratzenberger
Yeah, he was sound asleep.
Woody Harrelson
He was sound asleep.
George Wendt
Catching some Z's.
Woody Harrelson
So you two, George, Kelsey and me.
John Ratzenberger
Yeah.
Woody Harrelson
Going to Catalina.
John Ratzenberger
Yeah. I enjoyed the ride back. The ride back was fun. Not for you because you were fighting.
Woody Harrelson
Some weather, but this. Yeah. Coming back. I remember we were on Catalina and I had my radio. Carry my radio, so I knew there was weather coming. I just wanted to keep an eye on it. Here's and when they said, yeah, it's turning and it's going to be coming right down the channel, I said to you guys. I remember we're at a Mexican restaurant. I don't know if you're.
John Ratzenberger
Yeah, yeah.
Woody Harrelson
I said, look, we got to stay the night just to be safe.
John Ratzenberger
Now, you're gonna make this next part up, I can tell, but go on. You laying this on me?
Woody Harrelson
No, I was. I wasn't going to do that.
George Wendt
Oh, thank you.
Woody Harrelson
And one of the members said, oh, no, I gotta get back because I gotta go to a wedding and my wife's gonna come by. And then it was a whole litany of. I said, all right, we gotta leave right this second. So we scurried down to the tender that took us out to the boat, started the engines, and got underway. And it was horrible because the weather was coming broadside to the boat. And as a captain, what you do is you go this way, the way the waves are going. So I said, well, we can put into, you know, go up to Ventura or Oxnard or. Just because that's where the wind's blowing us. And it's. That's safer because then you're just going like that. That's fine. Because that boat would take it. It's built for heavy weather. And no, couldn't. Cars were there in Long beach, but. So the boats. I remember the props cavitating. That it was because there's two engines, two props, and the boats. And you can hear the prop spinning out of the water. And I remember thinking, tomorrow's papers are going to say, cliff kills cast of Cheers. We're going under. And we obviously made it back, but.
George Wendt
That was something good. Good navigating.
John Ratzenberger
Well, you asked me to sit up in the prow.
Woody Harrelson
Well, yeah, towards the end there when we were coming in, just to keep an eye out for buoys and things for make sure we were in the right spot. And. Yeah. Yeah, that was. Oh, and one of the members of the crew had opened the refrigerator but forgot to latch it.
John Ratzenberger
Woody, was that you?
Woody Harrelson
Was it Woody? I forget who it was, but when the boat pitched everything, everything went on. All the bottles broke, Beer bottles. So there's now got glass and broken glass and beer like this. And so I'm stuck at the wheel. And so if anything happened, I can't even walk. It's all broken glass slushing behind me.
John Ratzenberger
We're a mess.
Woody Harrelson
It was something. It was different.
John Ratzenberger
I think it was the last time you invited us on any of your boats.
Woody Harrelson
Oh, absolutely. Yeah.
Nick Leal
Amazing.
Woody Harrelson
Deals on activewear for all the ways you move are at Nordstrom Rack stores now. How did I not know Rack has Adidas? Oh, I love these new Nikes. I always score at Rack. Stock up on new gear from the best brands in the game, starting at just $40. Great brands, great prices. That's why you Rack. Cheers to a great day and this ice cold Corona.
John Ratzenberger
You know what would make this day even better?
Woody Harrelson
My grandma's carne asada.
Nick Leal
Throw in some music, we can watch the game.
John Ratzenberger
Or we could keep it simple.
Joanna Samuel
Corona la Vida Masvina. Get your corona@ordercorna.com or like response the corn Extra beer imported by Crowning Port Chicago, Illinois.
John Ratzenberger
Have you ever been scared for your life on a boat?
Woody Harrelson
Oh, yeah.
John Ratzenberger
Tell me.
Woody Harrelson
Well, there's once I, I the one that comes to mind. When I was a deckhand on a oyster boat and went out, it's like farming oysters. You got the small oysters in the air, you dredge them up and you put them somewhere else. But it was in the winter and there was a storm and I had to go out on the outside of the boat to open up what's called the scuppers. And you rinse the oysters out. Anyway, my hand missed the thing and I was going. I had my full oilers on the raincoat, rain gear and boots. So I was like this. And my entire life flashed in front of me. I had never.
John Ratzenberger
You're about to fall off the side.
Woody Harrelson
Knowing that because it was winter, it was a storm, it was just me and the skipper on the boat. And he couldn't hear me because of the engine. So I could yell and scream all I wanted, but there's no way. It'd take like half hour until he says, where the hell is that guy, you know, that he, you know, would be able to find me. But I was going, I was dead. Because I knew as soon as I hit the water, I knew enough that. Because with what I had on it, I'd sink like a stone. Cold water, all that. But God in his wisdom sent a wave on the other side of the boat that tipped the boat more my way. And I was able to grab the boat. But it's like God's hand tipped the boat just enough for me to grab on. And then I went down below just to sit on a bunk. And the skipper came, this old grumpy guy said, what the hell you doing? Oh, my God. Because apparently I was white as that sheet of paper.
John Ratzenberger
Yeah.
Woody Harrelson
So he poured me a shot of whiskey and I knocked it Back and. But that. Yeah, I was almost gone then. That happened a few times. Different scenarios. Roof of a building and stuff like that.
John Ratzenberger
Motorcycles.
Woody Harrelson
Motorcycle crash. Yeah.
George Wendt
Tell us about the motorcycle crash.
Woody Harrelson
Well, I drove a Harley here in Los Angeles, and Harley. And I wasn't really a biker, just something to do. And I was asked by a fellow who became a good friend of mine, Butch Starnes down in Florida. He was a president of the NOM Nights. Vietnam veterans on Harleys, basically. They were having a big fundraiser to raise money for diabetes research. And as you may or may not know, I was a big part of that nationwide. And so then he picked me up at the airport and he says, you want to go out for a drink or something? Yeah. Oh, sure. I didn't know it, but he had owned like six strip clubs and his Porpor Life. So we had to go to each one. And anyway, it wasn't until the fourth.
John Ratzenberger
Or fifth one that you caught on.
Woody Harrelson
No, it wasn't until, you know, when the sun was coming up. I was just getting to bed. And then he wakes me up a couple hours later. It's okay, we're gonna go pick up your bike. Because they had rented one identical to the one I drove here. For me to lead off this. Yeah, okay, sure. You know, I didn't want to say, I want to sleep. Okay. And got on the bike and my head is still spinning. I shouldn't have been on a bike at all. But we get on the highway and he takes off. He had to be going 125, him and some other guy. And I'll catch up to him. And I came around and go and hit the gravel, bumping a bump, bumping a bump. And I remember thinking of my kids. My last thought was just a picture of both of my kids. I'll never see him again. Anyway, so now I'm laying down and I gotta make it to the side. Cause there's traffic coming behind me. And I make it to the little grass area. And a woman, who I think someone told me later that she was a nurse, she'd come over and she looked down at me and see if she could help. And she came this far from my face, went.
John Ratzenberger
Oh, wow. Encouraging.
George Wendt
That's not what you want.
Woody Harrelson
And I remember saying to her, thanks for stopping by, Bamboo. I'll take it from here. So anyway, my friend Butch, he had seen my bike up in the air in his rearview mirror. And so he circled back around, and then ambulance showed up. And he said, and they're putting me on the stretcher. And one of them looks down to the other guy. You know who this is? And now they're talking about favorite Cheers episodes, right? I'm this close to bleeding to death, right? So Butch, God bless him, said, you know, put him in the ambulance, get him out of here, and then butcher where you take him? They said, we're taking them to County. Now, county is where, you know, they use old rusty can openers. And you don't want to go to county anywhere in the world. Don't. And he says, no, take him to Orlando Regional. And the guy said, don't tell me what to do. We're taking him to County. It's closer. And I wasn't in any shape to argue. So they shut the doors and we're going down the highway. And the radio crackles. It's the chief of the fire department saying, where are you taking them? They said, county. And then the Chief says, Didn't Mr. Starnes tell you to take him to Orlando Regional?
John Ratzenberger
Oh, wow.
Woody Harrelson
He says, yesterday he did. He says, will you do whatever Mr. Starnes tells you? So we go across the verge again. And I was so lucky. Again. The hand of God was there with me that there was a symposium or a convention of the top ankle surgeons in the state or in the country. And so I had top people working on my knees because my foot was. If I hadn't been wearing boots laced up, I would have lost my foot. So they patched it all together and went down to the hardware store, got some metal and bolts and stuff. So, yeah, I was in the hospital for a while.
John Ratzenberger
Let me back up again. I'm jumping around. Who do you think had the most impact on you from growing up? Your father, your parents, whoever, to make you be this John Ratzenberger, if you could.
Woody Harrelson
Wow. I never been asked that before. That's a big question. You know, later on in life, you learn, you know, it's not the falling down, it's how you get back up. And I think in my time in Europe, because there was no. Except for my buddy Ray and his girlfriend at the time, there was no backup. There was no, you're on your own. There's no going home and get your laundry done. You're completely on your own. And that goes a long way in forming somebody.
George Wendt
But Ray from the Sows Meat market.
Woody Harrelson
Yeah.
John Ratzenberger
Yeah.
Woody Harrelson
Because he had already been over there working as a social worker, but also growing up again. It's after World War II, and a lot of these guys, my father included, came back with ptsd, but nobody knew because they didn't call it ptsd. They called it shell shock. And you were supposed to just get over it, like, just shake it off, right? Well, I remember stepping over friends, fathers in the bars on the way to school in the morning. I remember one who sprayed across the curb just as you got to the crosswalk. And kids are stepping over him, you know, to go to school. But most of the fathers in the neighborhood were. Yeah, I mean, that's. The bar was their clubhouse. And so he had a, you know, that forms your personality, you know, dealing with that. And it was the kind of time you kind of had to have eyes in the back of your head, you know, and the nuns. I remember seeing a nun knock a kid out. But it's just. She came up from her toes in an uppercut, and this kid went over a desk. But he deserved it. He really did deserve it. I saw the whole thing. So did you grow up? Yeah. Well, okay, so he got knocked out. That's no big deal. But I don't know how to answer that.
John Ratzenberger
Was your mother a big ingredient in all of that, in your life?
Woody Harrelson
Well, yeah, she was a cuddly one. But what she would do, she'd buy old radios or appliances. What do they call it back then? White elephant sails or something. Cut off the electrical cord given to me, and I'm four years old, five years old, couple of screwdrivers, parts, take it apart.
John Ratzenberger
This is your mom. That's incredible.
Woody Harrelson
And that was just so. To me, that was a toy that I graduated to Erector sets, and I was always fascinated with that. But again, it was a background and stuff that I probably should have been an engineer because I could do all that stuff. But I didn't know what an engineer was. Always the guy who drove a train. But there's nobody in the whole school system said, you know what? You should be an engineer. I wouldn't have known what the hell they're talking about. My guidance counselor in high school, though, I'll never forget that. I walk in her office and she said, what do you want? Guidance counselor. I guess I must have been a senior, junior. I said, well, I just wondered, you know, after high school what I should be doing. And there was pamphlets and it was Tufts University and, you know, Princeton. I said, I'm not sure, you know, whether I should be going to Tufts or be a doctor or Princeton. And I'm just busting her chops because I. I know I'm not going to Tufts. So she said, get out of my office. She's. Now she's screaming and she's standing up and she had veins. Vice president running in. What's a better. Anyway, that's what it was. But there was a new university opening up nearby and they needed butts for seats. So I applied there and got in. I think as long as your socks matched, you know, I mean, it's a big deal university now. They actually did it right. It's a very well known place. But my, I forget year, what year it was maybe my junior year. My. One of my professors had to go do something family related out of state. He said, john, will you take over my class for a couple of weeks? And because, I mean, after all was said and done, once I dusted everything off, I had a brain. So he said, will you take over my class for a couple weeks? I said, sure. So I remember going out and getting a three piece suit and a briefcase and now I was going to be a college professor. Oh, this is after I graduated. That's right. So I think the suitcase had a bologna sandwich in it. That was like. And so walk in the amphitheater. I stood at the podium and I looked down and there's my high school guidance counselor.
John Ratzenberger
Oh, wow.
Woody Harrelson
Who told me, Ratzenberger, get a job in some factory, find somebody to marry you if you can and try to stay out of jail. That was my guidance. Seriously, that's my guidance.
George Wendt
Those are three good guide posts.
Woody Harrelson
That's. That was fun. That was my high school. Okay. It wasn't like, you know, you're going to be great out there and yeah, you know, you know. But there she is now and I'm her teacher in college. So I say, hey, mister, so how you doing? And she looked up, her eyes got wide. I think she started to sweat and maybe cry. But she never saw her again. She didn't come back to another class.
George Wendt
So when did you find out? Like along the way, like high school or whatever. When did you find out you were funny? Like, were you ever like the class clown or.
Woody Harrelson
Yeah, but I was surrounded by guys like that. Bobby Garamella, Bill Zawatsky. It's just I, I mean even in high school we. Before the teacher came in, make up stuff, I said to one of the guys, go downstairs, third floor, go down to the parking lot, get on top of the car and splay yourself like you jumped out of the window onto the car. So he did. Teacher comes in and there's a bunch of us at the window going, oh my God. He jumped. Oh my God. She looked, what? And she looked down and she screamed, ah, runs down out how? Got the principal and says, hey, come on. So he jumped off and came back up another stairway and. Yeah, just stuff like that. It seemed harmless. Hey, might as well. Something to do, sort of, you know, just stuff.
John Ratzenberger
I love you are a bundle, like we all are. But one thing that I love is I always. Because sometimes we're so, so different in many ways. I, I did not. I, I had an easier upbringing, you know, I think in some way.
Woody Harrelson
Well, your father was an archaeologist, right?
John Ratzenberger
Right. Yeah. And all of that stuff. But what I'm driving is whenever I, whenever I see you and I haven't seen you for a while, there's that. I mean, I grab you, I hug you, and we both laugh and giggle over just all the fun we had on Cheers and all the memories. You've got that soft giggler inside of you.
Woody Harrelson
Oh, yeah.
John Ratzenberger
Which I love. I mean, you're a cream puff.
Woody Harrelson
Even raising kids, I would look for ways to embarrass them in public. I would.
John Ratzenberger
Just to make them laugh. Just to make yourself laugh.
Woody Harrelson
Well, just to. Well, they deserve this. I'm picking up my daughter from high school. The door to the high school's like that wall. Everyone's coming out of there. So I pull the car up right here. I'm no more than 25ft. I get out of the car, stand there, everyone's coming out. My daughter with her friends right there. I was trying. I go, buddy, honey, I'm over here. I'm right here. There's no other parent anywhere. And there's no way she can miss me. Honey, can you see? I'm here? I'm here by the car. You see the car come on. And she just, she'd go like this.
John Ratzenberger
Oh, no, that's my fault.
Woody Harrelson
But her friends would go, they'd be hysterical laughing. I really enjoyed that.
John Ratzenberger
I noticed with my grandkids, all my silly jokes that worked great when they're five, six.
Woody Harrelson
Yeah.
John Ratzenberger
So, phew. Man, I can't get the 11 year old to laugh at any of my stupid jokes anymore.
Woody Harrelson
Male or female?
John Ratzenberger
Female. I'll find another way, don't worry.
Woody Harrelson
But the embarrassing them at school helps.
John Ratzenberger
I'll try that.
Woody Harrelson
Try it.
George Wendt
I embarrass my daughter all the time. She's sitting right over there. She's 17. Yeah.
Woody Harrelson
I'm one of your dad's old buddies from the old days. We were in the army.
George Wendt
But she really, she has done some serious eye rolling for me, like many times. I've given her eyes immense amount of exercise. I don't know, I embarrass her, but not intentionally.
Woody Harrelson
You know, I always do it intentionally. I think they need it.
John Ratzenberger
Mary follows behind me in life going, he was kidding. That was a joke. He was kidding. What he meant was, you know, because you do love to kind of push the envelope and say the most slightly inappropriate thing you can find in this situation.
Woody Harrelson
Well, yeah, that's true.
John Ratzenberger
That's a good point.
Woody Harrelson
I remember picking my daughter up. So she was in a. It was a high end middle school where the kids are picked up. It's either by the chauffeurs picking them up or a maid or limousine or. I mean, it was high end stuff. Well, I was putting in a basketball court at our house and I decided to take the truck that I had, the. What do you call it? Bobcat, little small bulldozer. So it's a big diesel flatbed. So I picked her up between that from school. She still remembers Mercedes, Porsche, blah, blah, blah, diesel truck. And she just looked at him.
John Ratzenberger
Oh, dad.
Woody Harrelson
But she jumped up, you know, rode home in it. I think at the end of the day they were kind of. They liked it.
John Ratzenberger
Yeah.
George Wendt
Let me switch gears one second because I want to talk about Pixar. You've just had an astounding kind of run with Pixar. How do you, I mean, how do you feel about all that?
Woody Harrelson
Well, it's just I, you know, showed up and, and did it and, and became good friends with them. So they asked me to do everyone.
George Wendt
And you like their good luck? Your talisman for them?
Woody Harrelson
Not anymore. I don't work with Pixar anymore.
George Wendt
Oh, really?
Woody Harrelson
I think because once you made them big, they just. Yeah, who needs a lucky charm? No, I think, well, because it was a change of hierarchy and I guess the new guys didn't want the lucky charm. But I still work with John Lasseter over at Sky Dance. Yeah, that's the company that makes Jack Reacher, Mission Impossible and all that stuff. So they have an animation wing and John's running that wing. So I work with them there, just doing voices.
John Ratzenberger
I cannot get arrested in any kind of voiceover work. I'll come in and audition. They go, that's great, man. You should be doing this a lot then. I never hear from them. It's kind of, I kind of love it because it feels like I'm starting over in one area, but I cannot get arrested.
Woody Harrelson
See, I find that strange.
John Ratzenberger
Thank you.
George Wendt
She's got a great voice, doesn't it?
John Ratzenberger
Great voice.
Woody Harrelson
Yeah. Well, yeah, both of you. I'll Put a word in, please.
George Wendt
Would you talk to John? Now, what about the. I remember when you were first doing the Sizzle Pack.
Woody Harrelson
Oh, my. Yeah, let's talk about that.
John Ratzenberger
That's great.
George Wendt
That thing that, that. And then I saw it everywhere. I still see it everywhere.
Woody Harrelson
Oh, it's all over the world.
George Wendt
Yeah.
John Ratzenberger
Sizzle Pack. Describe it. It's instead of Styrofoam and all that horrible stuff that doesn't go away.
George Wendt
You can describe it better.
Woody Harrelson
No, it's the same paper. That paper bag is made from craft paper. You take a strip of it and then fold it back on itself, accordionize it and papers. The memory wants to get back to its original shape. You put a lot of them together, they interlock, so it's perfect medium for shipping fragile items. And I started that company up in Seattle and then sold, but that included.
John Ratzenberger
Like, a factory making all this.
Woody Harrelson
So Walk made the machines even.
John Ratzenberger
You helped design the machines.
Woody Harrelson
Oh, yeah.
John Ratzenberger
Thank you, Mom. Thank you, Mom.
Woody Harrelson
But it was just, you know, then I sold the company, and then they sold the company and they sold. So it's. Somebody is. I don't know who's in charge now, but it's. Yeah, it's worldwide now.
John Ratzenberger
Yeah, yeah, it was brilliant. I remember that. Yeah.
Woody Harrelson
Yeah. I don't get paid a cent anymore, so whatever work you guys can throw my way, I appreciate it.
John Ratzenberger
We are.
George Wendt
We're.
Woody Harrelson
Now.
George Wendt
You know, when the. The other thing you taught me that I. I'll never forget was one day you came in and you were saying that you'd been up north or something and. And. Or in Montana or somewhere, and you said, you know, that those national parks have like a scenic strip that's maybe a hundred yards and the rest is just fricking clear cut, and that they were clear cutting our national forest.
Woody Harrelson
Remember? Oregon?
George Wendt
Yeah, Oregon. And. And I was like, I. Well, nobody wanted to believe that. None of us wanted to believe that. But then I went up there and I was like, oh, my freaking God.
John Ratzenberger
Is that when you sat in a tree for a week or something? Didn't you do that?
Woody Harrelson
He climbed the Golden Gate Bridge.
George Wendt
Yeah, well, that was. Yeah, that was for the redwoods, but.
Woody Harrelson
But.
George Wendt
But I had never. I'd never. I mean, you. You can't even imagine that the United States government is selling for, like, I don't know, $8 a tree, these giant, beautiful, amazing fucking trees to the big companies. And, you know, you can go into the guy's office and I went into the office of one of the guy who was the head of the interior. Anyway, there's like a message from Reagan saying, congratulations on cutting so many bored feet out of the forest. You know, And I'm like, you know, it's just everything.
John Ratzenberger
And it didn't create that sale of jobs. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think a lot of wood then got shipped to be milled overseas.
Woody Harrelson
Right, Right. The law was you can't ship a whole tree. It has to be milled. So what they would do to get around that law, they just cut this wide of a patch down the side of the tree. So now legally you can ship it. And they would ship it to Japanese building ships just out off the coast here. After the 12 mile, they would turn it into wooden boards and sell it back to us.
John Ratzenberger
Yeah. So we were creating no jobs. Except for the.
Woody Harrelson
No.
George Wendt
And one other thing I wanted to mention. You said that you got the place in out or out near Palm Springs? Mirage.
Woody Harrelson
Rancho Mirage.
George Wendt
Rancho Mirage. And why did you say you wanted to get that place?
Woody Harrelson
Yeah. So when they come to visit. He's not answering. Look at him. What's that smell?
John Ratzenberger
Oh, that's.
Woody Harrelson
Yeah. So somebody find the body. Otherwise I'll be there for months.
George Wendt
I love that morbid humor.
Woody Harrelson
Just stick it up the place. Yeah. No, it's important because it's just. Because I was just with my daughter and two granddaughters this weekend. They came out to a hotel I was staying at out in Westlake. And it's just, you know, it's the best. Just watching them and listening to them. And them at night going out on the balcony, pretending they were dogs, you know, barking at the people in the swimming pool. It's great. That's what they should do. Yeah. And oh, also my daughter, she was saying how much she enjoyed your Christmas cards. Oh, you danced. Remember this? We sent out the cards that he and Mary and the family dressed as a dance troupe.
John Ratzenberger
We didn't actually dance. We did dance poses.
Woody Harrelson
Right.
John Ratzenberger
That's what we were famous for.
Woody Harrelson
And then the next year, you set out to CD of the back story.
John Ratzenberger
This is my wife, Mary. We actually had full on wardrobe department and catering for that particular shoot.
Woody Harrelson
Well, yeah, Nina said the thank you. She got a big kick out of that.
John Ratzenberger
I am so appreciative of that compliment. Please tell her thank you. Now tell the truth on this one. Do you ever watch Cheers episodes?
Woody Harrelson
Not when we were making them, no. Now if I can find them. Why do they do that? Why do they have our show on at 4 in the morning? And they got King of Queens and Everybody loves Raymond, you know, friends, bum, bum, bum all day long, one run after the other. But for us, it's 4:30 in the morning.
George Wendt
Is that why I ain't been seeing any residuals on this Delio?
Woody Harrelson
Probably, yeah, probably. But really, that's because again, you know, I just did 4,000 miles and hotels and stuff. There's no chairs anywhere but all those other ones, you know, So I was. I always wondered that.
John Ratzenberger
Why I think you can still find it, but it's. It's getting hard.
Woody Harrelson
But you shouldn't have to search that hard for it.
John Ratzenberger
I agree.
Woody Harrelson
Well, I was wondering why they did that. If there was a reason, you would know.
John Ratzenberger
I think that's when that age group gets up to pee and they're hoping the TV will be on and they'll notice.
Woody Harrelson
Oh, probably.
John Ratzenberger
Oh, look, there I am. Johnny, much love.
George Wendt
Yeah.
John Ratzenberger
Much appreciation.
Woody Harrelson
God bless you both.
John Ratzenberger
Cannot tell you how many times you've made me laugh since. I mean, just watching old episodes. You are one funny, funny man.
Woody Harrelson
Funny man.
John Ratzenberger
That was the great John Ratzenberger. Thank you, John, so much for spending that time with me and Woody. We appreciate you so much. That's it for this episode. Thanks to our friends at Team Coco. Once again, you can subscribe to our show on your favorite podcast app and you can give us a great rating and review on Apple podcasts if you have some time. If you don't have time, don't. And if you like watching your podcast, don't forget you can watch this episode in its entirety on YouTube. See you right back here next week. Where everybody knows your name.
Nick Leal
You've been listening to where everybody knows your name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson. Sometimes the show is produced by me, Nick Leal. Executive producers are Adam Sachs, Colin Anderson, Jeff Ross and myself. Sarah Fedorovich is our supervising producer. Our senior producer is Matt Apodaca. Our engineering and mixing by Joanna Samuel with support from Eduardo Perez. Research by Alyssa Grohl. Talent booking by Paula Davis and Gina Bautista. Our theme music is by Woody Harrelson, Antony Genn, Mary Steenburgen and John Osborne. Special thanks to Willie Navarre. We'll have more for you next time. Where everybody knows your name. I won't let my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis symptoms define me.
Ted Danson
Emerge as you. In two clinical studies, Trimfaia gusoquumab taken by injection provides provided 90% clearer skin at 16 weeks in 7 out of 10 adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. In a study, nearly 7 out of 10 patients with 90% clearer skin at 16 weeks were still clearer at 5 years. At 1 year and thereafter, patients and healthcare providers knew that Tremphya was being used. This may have increased results. Results may vary.
Joanna Samuel
Serious allergic reactions may occur. Tremphya may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. Before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms of infection, including fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough. Tell your doctor if you had a vaccine or plan to emerge.
Ted Danson
As you learn more about Tremphya, including important safety information@tremphya.com or call 1-877-578-3527. See our ad in Food and Wine magazine for patients prescribed Tremphaya, cost support may be.
Nick Leal
Hey, I'm Paul Scheer.
Ted Danson
I'm June Diane Rayfield.
Nick Leal
And I'm Jason Manzoukis. And we're the hosts of how did this Get Made? A comedy podcast where we deconstruct, make fun of and celebrate the best worst movies ever made. Have you ever seen a movie that's so bad that it's actually good? Eh, that's what we're talking about.
Woody Harrelson
From blockbuster franchises and made for TV.
Nick Leal
Romances to bonkers 80s action flicks and obscure sci fi musicals, we cover it all. You can find. How did this get Made? Wherever you get your podcasts and don't forget to follow the show so you never miss an episode. Idiot.
Podcast Summary: "Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson"
Episode: John Ratzenberger
Release Date: January 8, 2025
In this heartfelt and humorous episode of "Where Everybody Knows Your Name," hosts Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson reconnect with their longtime friend and "Cheers" co-star, John Ratzenberger. Joined occasionally by fellow "Cheers" alumnus George Wendt, the trio delves deep into their shared past, personal anecdotes, and the enduring bonds formed during their time on the iconic sitcom. Skipping over the usual advertisements and promotional segments, this summary captures the essence of their engaging conversation.
[01:03] Ted Danson:
Ted kicks off the episode by introducing John Ratzenberger, highlighting his role as Cliff Clavin on "Cheers," his Emmy nomination, and his extensive work as a voice actor in 22 Pixar movies. Ted expresses genuine gratitude for the opportunity to reconnect after many years.
[01:44] Woody Harrelson:
Woody playfully confuses John with himself, showcasing the camaraderie and long-standing friendship between the hosts and their guest.
[02:49] Woody Harrelson:
Woody shares details of his recent 4,000-mile driving expedition across the United States, traversing states from Arizona to Oregon. He recounts his spontaneous decision to embrace the moment, emphasizing his lack of a set itinerary.
[04:28] Woody Harrelson:
Woody delves into his activism efforts, particularly his campaign to reinstate shop classes in schools. He passionately discusses the dwindling number of skilled tradespeople, likening it to the shortage of airline pilots and railroad maintenance workers.
Notable Quote:
Woody Harrelson [04:30]:
"We've literally running out of people that know how to use tools. Literally, the airlines, we're running out of pilots of all things. Railroads... the railroads falling off of, you know, the tracks."
[10:53] John Ratzenberger:
John reminisces about Woody's versatile acting roles in Europe before joining "Cheers," noting Woody's frequent portrayals of American soldiers in war films.
[11:02] Woody Harrelson:
Woody humorously explains how his consistent appearance made him a natural fit for uniformed roles, eventually leading to his iconic portrayal of Cliff Clavin.
[14:18] John Ratzenberger:
John challenges Woody's anecdote about the Bic pen's origin story, prompting Woody to confirm its authenticity and share his love for obscure facts.
Notable Quote:
Woody Harrelson [14:23]:
"I've always been a collector of arcane thoughts and facts, so I get a kick out of it."
[25:26] John Ratzenberger:
John asks Woody about his most significant influences growing up, leading Woody to reflect on his time in Europe and the resilience it instilled in him.
[43:11] John Ratzenberger:
John inquires about Woody’s parents, prompting Woody to share touching memories of his mother fostering his love for dismantling and rebuilding things from a young age.
[49:11] John Ratzenberger:
John highlights Woody’s playful and sometimes embarrassing parenting style, sharing stories of Woody's antics during school pickups that amuse the family.
Notable Quote:
Woody Harrelson [51:08]:
"I would look for ways to embarrass them in public. I would... they deserve this."
[27:31] Woody Harrelson:
Woody narrates a harrowing boating experience where accidental mushroom ingestion led to a tumultuous journey back amidst worsening weather. His storytelling captures the intensity and humor of the situation.
[35:23] Woody Harrelson:
Woody recounts a motorcycle crash incident during a fundraising event, detailing the chaos and near-tragic consequences. His tale underscores the unpredictability of adventures and the role of fate in survival.
Notable Quote:
Woody Harrelson [37:08]:
"God in his wisdom sent a wave on the other side of the boat that tipped the boat more my way. And I was able to grab the boat."
[55:39] Woody Harrelson:
Woody discusses his venture, Sizzle Pack, an eco-friendly packaging company designed as a sustainable alternative to Styrofoam. He elaborates on the design and global impact of the product, reflecting his commitment to environmental causes.
[56:34] George Wendt:
George shifts the conversation to Woody's environmental concerns, specifically addressing the rampant clear-cutting of national forests. Woody explains the loopholes exploited by companies to legally ship milled wood overseas, emphasizing the detrimental effects on local ecosystems and employment.
Notable Quote:
Woody Harrelson [58:13]:
"The law was you can't ship a whole tree. It has to be milled. So what they would do is just cut a wide patch down the side of the tree... and they would ship it to Japanese building ships."
[53:11] Woody Harrelson:
Woody touches upon his relationship with Pixar, discussing his extensive work as a voice actor and his continued collaborations, even after moving away from Pixar directly.
[54:23] John Ratzenberger:
John shares his positive experiences with voiceover work, expressing a desire to engage more despite the challenges, and humorously notes his roles are typically non-arrestable characters.
Notable Quote:
Woody Harrelson [54:27]:
"I think because once you made them big, they just... who needs a lucky charm?"
[21:00] Woody Harrelson:
Woody reflects on "Cheers" as an ever-favorite experience, appreciating the spontaneous and unpredictable nature of the show's writing, which kept the cast engaged every week.
[22:18] Woody Harrelson:
He shares behind-the-scenes details, such as directing segments like the "squeaky shoes" episode, showcasing his creative contributions to the show.
Notable Quote:
Woody Harrelson [21:35]:
"Every time you turn the page, it was like a little Christmas present."
As the conversation winds down, Ted, Woody, and John express their mutual appreciation and affection. They share laughs over past memories, discuss the challenges and joys of parenthood, and reminisce about their time on "Cheers." The episode concludes with heartfelt thank-yous and reflections on enduring friendships.
[61:18] John Ratzenberger:
"Cannot tell you how many times you've made me laugh since. I mean, just watching old episodes. You are one funny, funny man."
This episode of "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" serves as a nostalgic journey through the lives of three close friends bound by their shared history on "Cheers." From Woody's activism and adventurous spirit to John's illustrious voice acting career and Ted's steady presence, the conversation is rich with humor, insight, and heartfelt moments. Listeners are treated to an intimate look at the personal and professional lives of these beloved actors, underscored by their enduring camaraderie and mutual respect.