The Desperate Last-Minute Improv That Created The Cheers Character Cliff
Once upon a time in Boston, there was a bar where everybody knew your name. That bar was the setting for the NBC series "Cheers," which ran for 11 seasons from 1982-1993. Behind this bar was bartender/owner Sam Malone (Ted Danson), a former baseball player and alcoholic who had an on-again-off-again romance with the more cultured (at least she thought so) barmaid Diane Chambers (Shelley Long). Psychiatrist Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) started his TV life here, later going on to have his own show, with a revival currently running on Paramount+. George Wendt played the accountant Norm, whose name was yelled every time he walked through the door. Rhea Perlman was Carla, the acerbic cocktail waitress. The show had so many incredible characters, but my favorite was always Cliff Clavin.
Played by John Ratzenberger, Cliff Clavin was a mailman who frequented the bar and always had a string of lovable/annoying fun facts that drove everyone around him a little bit batty despite their affection for him. The character was only going to show up for seven episodes in the first season, but Cliff ended up being a mainstay on the show.
Viewers fell in love with him; however, for Ratzenberger, life as Cliff could have ended at the door of the room he auditioned in, according to GQ's 2012 oral history of the show. If not for a bit of improv right before he left, "Cheers" could have looked very different.
'Do you have a bar know-it-all?'
Ratzenberger told the publication that he'd been writing and performing comedy for a decade in London. When he got the scenes from "Cheers," he thought he was supposed to be talking to the people in the room about the show before auditioning, "because in England, that's what you do." However, that wasn't the case here. Ratzenberger explained:
"So I walk in, and I'm looking around, and Jimmy Burrows [who created the series along with Glen and Les Charles] said, 'What are you looking at? You're not here to have a conversation; you're here to audition.' At that second, I felt all the blood rush out of my body. I did a horrible job.
"As I was leaving, the casting director says, 'Thank you, John,' and my eight-by-ten [a "headshot" or photo] was already in a wastebasket. But the writer part of me turned around and said, 'Do you have a bar know-it-all?' Because in the bars in my neighborhood where my father hung out, there was always a bar know-it-all. Glen said, 'What are you talking about?' I just launched into an improvisation of what [became Cliff]."
Though I cannot claim to have made a full study of barflies, I think most frequently gathered groups of people have a know-it-all like Ratzenberger describes (and plays in the show). You know, book clubs, bands, brunch buddies ... there's always that one person who provides constant fun facts, whether it's asked for or not. It's crazy to think about this series without Ratzenberger, who based this character on someone he knew in real life.
'He loves the respect he gets'
In 1985, Ratzenberger told the Connecticut newspaper The Day that the character was primarily based on a police officer he knew from where he grew up. He said:
"He was a nice guy but a know-it-all. All people who wear uniforms and have keys hanging from their belts tend to be that way [...] Cliff is the kind of guy who wishes he'd been a combat Marine. but maybe he was nearsighted or had flat feet and becomes a mailman. He loves the respect he gets."
Can't you just hear Cliff about to give out a fun fact about Marines or tell us everything he knows about flat feet? If you're a fan of fun facts and you're doing a rewatch of "Cheers," make sure you check out season 8, episode 14, "What is... Cliff Clavin?' which has our know-it-all hero appearing as a contestant on the quiz show "Jeopardy."
The first season of "Cheers" is currently streaming for free on Prime Video.