In a new episode of Sirius XM’s Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast, Cheers stars Ted Danson, Woody Harrelson, and George Wendt recalled a day when some of the male cast members decided to play hooky from the show, leading to what Danson described as an adventure involving “an extraordinary amount of mushrooms.”
The day off came about due to a “very female-heavy” shooting schedule, which meant that the male cast members weren’t as needed. “So we felt like we could maybe [play hooky],” Wendt explained. Cheers co-star John Ratzenberger had just bought a boat, and according to Wendt, “he was anxious to show it off, so we cooked up this little getaway.”
“We called into the producers to claim we weren’t feeling well,” Wendt admitted, adding that he was “peer pressured” into making the call too. Once on board, Harrelson asked Danson if he’d ever tried mushrooms. When Danson replied that he hadn’t, Harrelson suggested, “Well, this will be a good time. We have nothing to do. We’ll be out on a boat.” And, so, Danson tried them… But it didn’t go as well.
Danson remembers he ‘freaked out’ during the trip
As the boat headed toward Catalina Island, things quickly went downhill. The water was choppy, with “leftover waves from a hurricane in Mexico” causing a rough and bumpy ride. And Danson, now feeling the full effects of the mushrooms, began to panic. “I sat there getting more and more and more freaked out,” he recalled. Looking at Harrelson, who appeared calm and relaxed, Danson said he thought, “Oh, he’s so used to this that he’s just cooling it and relaxing. I am panicking.”
Seeking refuge, Danson joined Wendt at the top of the boat. “I came and sat down next to you and you looked at me and you went, ‘You’re high on something, aren’t you?’ and I kind of nodded sheepishly and John was like, ‘Oh, for crying out loud,'” he said.
According to his accound, Wendt kept Danson calm, reminding him to “breathe” as he struugled. Danson later described Wendt as his “lifesaver” during the trip. However, Danson still experienced hallucinations, including seeing Harrelson as “Woody the skeleton.”
“That was my one kind of visual, you know, I looked at you and you looked skeletal. He looked like Woody the skeleton in my eyes. That was my only kind of visual buzz from mushrooms,” Danson said.
Reflecting on the chaotic day, Danson described it as “the worst four hours” of his life but surprisingly expressed a willingness to try mushrooms again. “I think I’m ready to do mushrooms again because it is a good thing, right? Mushrooms?” he asked his co-stars. Harrelson, with his signature humor, replied, “Well, I guess it depends on the setting, but definitely in the middle of a hurricane in the Pacific Ocean.”
