On-screen the Cheers gang always seemed to have a good time, but off-screen, things got even wilder. A couple of castmates decided to skip work and get high instead on magic mushrooms.
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Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson confessed to partaking in the psychedelics during a break away from Cheers. Their co-star John Ratzenberger had bought a boat that he wanted to show off to the rest of the cast. Meanwhile, Harrelson brought mushrooms. Danson and Harrelson ended up getting high before meeting Ratzenberger.
"I remember we all met at his boat. Woody and I, by then, were already stoned. And we got on the phone at a pay phone and... called into the show saying... 'I'm not feeling too good. I can't come in' and then hand the phone to the next person," Danson explained on their Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast.
Their ruse didn't fool anyone. It's clear that the cast was just ditching for the day. "It was clear that we were playing hooky. Somebody said, yeah, I'm 'seasick,'... I got peer pressured," George Wendt added.
'Cheers' Stars Hit The Water
Danson says Harrelson is the one who introduced him to the mushrooms.
"Woody turns to me and goes, 'Have you ever had mushrooms?' I go, 'No, no, I haven't.' And he said, 'Well, this will be a good time. We have nothing to do. We'll be on a boat,'" Danson shared. "We hadn't had breakfast. So, I was fairly hungry and ate, I think an extraordinary amount of mushrooms... and then I'm thinking, 'This is all right.'"
However, Danson's good times soon turned into bad times. While on the boat, Danson said that he began to freak out and started having a panic attack.
"People not on mushrooms would be seasick pretty much," Danson added. "But I sat there getting more and more and more freaked out and whatever it is - you get stoned or whatever it is on mushrooms - and I look at you, Woody, and you['re] stretched out on a bunk, and I think, 'Oh, he's so used to this that he's just cooling it and relaxing.'"
"I am panicking," Danson added. "I'm having trouble breathing... feel like I was dying."
Fortunately, Wendt, who didn't eat any mushrooms, managed to calm his friend down. Danson considers it one of the worst four hours he ever had.
