John Ratzenberger Reveals He Saved His DoomedCheersAudition by Pitching His 'Bar Know-It-All' Character on the Spot

Mar. 15, 2025

John Ratzenberger as Cliff Clavin on ‘Cheers’ in the 1980s.Photo:NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

Cheerswouldn’t have been the same without Cliff Clavin — and the beloved character wouldn’t exist withoutJohn Ratzenberger’s quick thinking, according to the actor.

“So I was walking out the door, literally walking out the door — and I don’t know whether this is my fantasy or it happened in reality — but I could have sworn that my 8x10 [headshot] was going like this into the wastebasket,” Ratzenberger recalled of the fateful audition.

Fearing the worst, he decided to create his own character, drawing on his own experiences in bars like the titular establishment and pitching it to the show’s creators, Glen and Les Charles James Burrows, on the spot.

“So I stopped, I said, ‘Do you have a bar know-it-all?’ That was the writer part of me asking,” Ratzenberger told the podcast hosts. “And it was Glen who said, ‘What are you talking about?’ I said, ‘Every bar that I’ve ever been in — in New England anyway — has some horse’s ass who pretends to know everything, but everybody defers to that person anyway.’

Ratzenberger then explained that for him, this archetype can be traced to a man named Sarge, whom he encountered often at his dad’s go-to bar growing up.

John Ratzenberger in 2022.Eric Charbonneau/Getty

Eric Charbonneau/Getty

Modeling the kinds of interactions patrons would have with the “know-it-all” regular, he said: “ ‘Hey, Sarge, what’s the length of a whale’s intestine?’ And he responds, ‘Baleen or blue?’ — and as a kid, I thought that was hysterical.”

Thus, the foundation for his “know-it-all” mailman character was laid, according to Ratzenberger, who would go on to spew trivia at Cheers patrons as Cliff for years to come.

He played Cliff on all 11 seasons ofCheers, which ran from 1982 to 1993,  alongside Danson, who portrayed Cheers owner Sam Malone. Harrelson, meanwhile, joined in season 4 as bartender Woody Boyd.

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Rhea Perlman, John Ratzenberger and George Wendt on ‘Cheers’ in 1984.NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

Recently, Ratzenberger also reunited with another one of hisCheerscostars, George Wendt, who portrayed series regular Norm Peterson.

Reflecting on visiting the set prop one final time, Wendt told news outletWHDH 7, “It was fantastic, so great to see the bar.”

“Preserving this … that’s a big deal,” Ratzenberger said at the time. “That’s a real big deal because all these things are part of our lives.”

source: people.com