Ted Danson was so great as Sam Malone because he's so unlike his Cheers character in real life

Mel Magazine

"Sam Malone is a guy in real life you ought to hate," says Tim Grierson. "But despite his horndog worldview, he’s a lovely guy — loyal to his friends, a good boss, happy to put people at ease. When Cheers dominated the ratings for years, it was hard to know how much of Sam’s appeal was the writing and how much was the performance. And although the creative team deserves an immense amount of credit, what Danson has done in the nearly 30 years since has proven that what you really loved about Sam was what you came to love in Danson. Television stars are often doomed to be defined by their biggest part, and even now Danson will always be connected to Cheers, no matter the acclaim and Emmy nominations that came afterward. But the actor, who recently turned 73, has managed to transcend that show and, really, anything he does. The ads for his new sitcom Mr. Mayor, about a retired businessman who becomes the unlikely mayor of L.A., use a simple tagline: 'New house. Same Ted.' Ted Danson is in the Ted Danson business, and has been for a while. But the seeds of Sam Malone are still there."