Cheers Title Card
Cheers was a sister series to Wings, sharing the same cinematic universe.
History[]
Cheers was an American sitcom television series that ran on NBC for eleven seasons (275 half-hour episodes in total) from September 30, 1982 to May 20, 1993. The series focused on a bar ("where everybody knows your name") named "Cheers" in Boston and on the lives of the employees and patrons who meet there to drink, relax, and socialize.
Although not a spin off, Wings and Cheers are considered sister series as they share a cinematic universe. The co-creators of Wings David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee spent several years working together on Cheers before creating Wings.
During Wings' first four seasons, characters from Cheers would periodically appear as special guest stars in episodes of Wings (but no characters from Wings ever appeared in Cheers).
Cheers Characters Appearing in Wings[]
- Cliff Clavin in The Story of Joe
- Norm Peterson in The Story of Joe
- Dr. Frasier Crane in Planes, Trains, and Visiting Cranes
- Dr. Lilith Sternin-Crane in Planes, Trains, and Visiting Cranes
- Rebecca Howe in I Love Brian
Trivia[]
- Wings is sometimes mistakenly referred to as a spin off of Cheers, but Wings was actually a wholly originally concept created with no preexisting characters. However, Wings does occur in the same cinematic universe as Cheers making them sister series.
- Because Wings shares a cinematic universe with Cheers, it also occurs in the same universe as Cheers' spin offs Frasier and The Tortellis.
- For his performance in Planes, Trains, and Visiting Cranes, Kelsey Grammer was nominated in 1992 for an "Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series" Emmy. This nomination has made Grammer the only actor to be Emmy nominated for the same role (that of Dr. Frasier Crane) on three different series (Cheers, Wings, and Frasier). Grammer had already been nominated twice for his performance in Cheers and went on to win four "Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series" Emmys for his work on Frasier.