Cheers for low-concept, high-quality comedies

(This is the “Raymond”/”Cheers” over view that was written previously. Now CBS has set a rerun of the “Everybody Loves Raymond” reunion for 9 p.m. Nov. 28.)
When Les Moonves took over CBS, he was in a hurry.
The network’s only top-15 show was “60 Minutes.” He needed something that would make a quick impact.
“I was told he wanted high-profile shows with big stars,” Phil Rosenthal recalled in his memoir. “What chance did we have?”
He had a semi-known star (Ray Romano), in a show that was mostly family members talking. But Moonves liked it and audiences gradually agreed. From 8-9:30 p.m. Monday (Nov. 24), CBS will celebrate the 30th anniversary of “Everybody Loves Raymond.”
That same night, “TV We Love” (9-10 p.m. Nov. 24 on CW) will celebrate “Cheers,” a show in a similar mode: It started with no stars (Sid Caesar and William Devane auditioned unsuccessfully) and an unflashy format; it scored big.
Both fit the style Rosenthal loves and TV sometimes forgets. These were “shows like ‘The Honeymooners,’ ‘Dick Van Dyke,’ ‘All in the Family,’ ‘Mary Tyler Moore,’ ‘The Odd Couple,’ Taxi’ …. The humor came from character (and) there was a story — beginning, middle and end,” he wrote in “You’re Lucky You’re Funny” (Viking, 2006).
That’s the same approach the Charles brothers (Glen and Les) took with the “Cheers” pilot script.
“I told them, ‘You brought radio back to television!'” director/producer James Burrows wrote in “Directed by James Burrows” (Ballantine, 2022), “It was smart and literate. We knew that if the story felt real and real characters were introduced, the jokes would come.”
The format for “Cheers” was simple, he wrote. “We described it as a light-beer commercial.”
And the “Raymond” format was even simpler: It was Ray Romano.
On a late-night show, Rosenthal wrote, Romano had done a stand-up bit about his everyday life. “From that one, six-minute appearance, David Letterman said, ‘There should be a show for this guy.'”
Rosenthal met with him and found a likable guy who “was nervous about Hollywood and seemed nervous about people in general.”
They had different ethnicities — one Italian Catholic, the other Jewish — but similar lives. Both grew up in New York, with warmly eccentric parents. Both had families that provided fresh humor for the pilot script. “I had enough real life in there to make it feel like real life,” Rosenthal wrote.
Romano really did live next to his parents; he really did have a brother who was a policeman and once muttered “everybody loves Raymond.”
Rosenthal planned to cast a shorter actor who would literally look up to Romano. Then lumbering in was the 6-foot-8 Brad Garrett, who had just been the voice of sad-sack Eeyore in a videogame; he was perfect.
The parents were played by Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts, two people who had interesting lives — John Lennon was best man at Boyle’s wedding — who could play ordinary souls. For Ray’s wife, Rosenthal cast Patricia Heaton — after rejecting a better-known actress Moonves had suggested.
That sort of casting was also true of “Cheers.” For the starring role of a former baseball star, Burrows auditioned Devane, former football star Fred Dryer and Ted Danson. He chose Danson, who wasn’t famous (like Devane) or an athlete (like Dryer); in fact, he’d never been to a baseball game.
Danson was a skilled actor who could fake being a sports star. Romano, however, was not yet an actor. He had been cast as a “NewsRadio” regular, then fired and replaced by Joe Rogan.
At first, Romano refused to have his character drink coffee (or something that looked like coffee) because he didn’t do that in real life. When he was told, a few episodes later, that it was neccesay, Rosenthal said, Romano replied: “At some point, I have to start acting, I guess.”
Both men fit good-guy roles. Romano is “a warm, affable, ‘regular’ guy,” Rosenthal wrote. Danson is “the sweetest guy in the world,” Burrows wrote.
But with no big stars and no high concept, would either show be discovered? “Raymond” started weakly, then spurted after Moonves moved it from Fridays to Mondays; “Cheers” floundered on Thursday’s for two years, sometimes getting less than one-fifth of the TV audience.
Brandon Tartikoff, NBC’s programming chief, sent Burrows encouraging notes. One asked: “Would you want to live in a world where ‘Cheers’ only gets a 19 share?”
Even Tartikoff wobbled. He was unsure about renewing “Cheers,” Burrows wrote, when his boss (Grant Tinker) asked: “Do you have anything better?”
He didn’t, so “Cheers” was renewed — with two new, reality-based comedies in front of it. That year, “The Cosby Show,” “Family Ties” and “Cheers” finished No. 3, 5 and 12 in the Nielsen ratings.
By the next season, “Cosby” was No. 1 and “Cheers” was top-5. Eventually, it even passed “Cosby” for the top spot.
“Raymond” also caught on.It lasted nine seasons and drew seven Emmy nominations for best comedy series, winning twice.
Earlier, “Cheers” lasted 11 seasons and drew a best-comedy nomination each year, winning four times.
Both shows left while still on the to. They had proven that shows with no gimmicks and (at first) no stars can prosper with great characters and writing. And now both will be celebrated, decades later.