“Cheers” actors Ted Danson and George Wendt said they once forced themselves to throw up in solidarity with fellow star Woody Harrelson, who had accidentally consumed pork while maintaining a meat-free diet.
The actors told the story of purging together during the annual ATX Television Festival ahead of the 30th anniversary of the “Cheers” series finale.
“[One night] we had catered Chinese food, and Woody found out after about 20 minutes that he was eating pork,” Wendt recalled, per IndieWire. “And he decided to go purge. So I told him, ‘Out of solidarity, I will purge with you.’ And Ted said, ‘I’ll purge, too.’”
“There were only three stalls in the Stage 25 men’s room,” he continued. “And I’ll tell you this: You don’t want to laugh while puking.”
Harrelson joined the cast during the show’s fourth season. The 61-year-old star played a bartender named Woody on the iconic sitcom.
Danson also discussed how they tried to mess with Harrelson as the new member of the cast.
“We were all, like, 37 when Woody, at age 25, joined us and it was like, ‘Okay, let’s kick his a**,’” Danson said. “So we took him to the basketball court because we fancied ourselves pretty good basketball players — he killed us.”
Danson said Harrelson also beat them at arm wrestling and chess.
The actor recalled how Harrelson’s vegetarian diet came with an unfortunate side effect.
“Woody was a vegetarian, which meant he had horrible gas,” Danson said during the panel. “He would come up to me sometimes during rehearsal and say, ‘Hey, I need your advice. I respect you so much.’ And he’d look me right in the eye, waiting for his fart to reach my nose. He was like a killer — he wanted to see my eyes go out.”
During its heyday, “Cheers” was one of the most popular shows on television. It was nominated for “Outstanding Comedy Series” for all 11 seasons on the air and earned 28 Primetime Emmy Awards with a record of 117 nominations.
Harrelson has reportedly been following a vegan diet for more than 30 years and mostly avoids cooked foods. “I eat vegan, but I eat mostly raw,” the actor told InStyle in 2018. “If I have a cooked meal, I feel my energy drop. So when I first started shifting my diet, it wasn’t as much a moral or an ethical pursuit but an energetic pursuit.”