George Wendt's Norm From Cheers Shows Up In More TV Shows Than You Might Expect

Even more than four decades after its premiere, "Cheers" remains one of the best sitcoms of all time. The initial premise of the series was twofold: first, the show would focus on the denizens of the eponymous Boston sports bar and their daily foibles, and second, there would be a burgeoning romance between the bar's owner and the newly hired barmaid, Sam Malone (Ted Danson) and Diane Chambers (Shelley Long), respectively. The first season alone of "Cheers" is a master class not only in incisive and hilarious comedy writing, but also in the ability to maintain 22 episodes' worth of stories without ever leaving the bar itself. (Starting with the second season, the show began setting scenes outside of the bar.) Within that first season, a slew of characters who were both familiar archetypes and somehow fresh-seeming were established. Aside from the lothario Sam and the well-read and extremely intelligent Diane, there was the sassy barmaid Carla Tortelli (Rhea Perlman), the kindly but not-very-bright barback Coach (Nicholas Colasanto), the faux-know-it-all mailman Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger), and the well-worn barfly Norm Peterson.

Played by George Wendt, Norm was a household name from the moment he walked into Cheers in the show's pilot episode. That, of course, was by design; every time Norm entered the bar, everyone would greet him by shouting his name jovially, and he would inevitably retort with some sly one-liner. (Check out this video from Peacock of every entrance of his across 11 seasons.) Although "Cheers" almost crashed and burned on NBC in its first season, it would become extremely popular over the course of its first few years on the air. Indeed, one way for us now to look back on the success of "Cheers" is to think through all the shows in which Wendt appeared as Norm, because ...well, it's a lot more than just "Cheers" and its most famous spin-off, "Frasier."

First, let's get it out of the way. How many shows did George Wendt appear in as Norm Peterson? Why, that would be a whopping seven! Unless, of course, you want to know the full count of how many shows and one-off specials Wendt played Norm in, because that answer is 10 such shows and specials. There's the obvious two, mentioned above: "Cheers" (natch) and "Frasier," though it's a funny twist of fate that Wendt only showed up as Norm very late on the latter in a Season 9 fittingly titled "Cheerful Goodbyes." That episode featured not just Wendt as Norm but also Rhea Perlman as Carla and John Ratzenberger as Cliff, both appearing for the first time as well. Oddly enough, the episode doesn't take place in Cheers itself, but at a bar at the Boston airport as Frasier (Kelsey Grammer), his brother Niles (David Hyde Pierce), his father Martin (John Mahoney), and health-care worker Daphne (Jane Leeves) happen to run into the old gang as they send Cliff off to Florida for his retirement. Fans of both shows will know it comes as no surprise that Norm quickly makes friends with Martin, each of whom are never truly at home without some of their favorite beer on tap.

But only the true die-hard fans of the "Cheers" universe, such as it is, know that the 11-season series spawned three shows (in a way), with "Frasier" being the last of them. The second-most well-known would be the NBC sitcom "Wings," set at a small airport near Nantucket run by two rough-and-tumble brothers (played by Tim Daly and Steven Weber). Although none of the regular cast of the show were straight from "Cheers," making "Wings" more of an unofficial spin-off, many of its cast members would pop up on "Wings" from time to time. (Fun fact: one of the show's only Emmy nominations went to Grammer for his turn as Frasier in an early episode. Oddly enough, the Emmys instituted a rule just for that year in which regular and guest actors competed in the same category, meaning that Grammer was technically nominated for Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.) And yes, one of those cast members was Wendt; in a Season 2 episode of "Wings," Norm and Cliff popped by ostensibly to go fishing, only to end up drinking at a local bar instead. (Try not to be too surprised.)

But Wendt had already showed up as Norm on two other regular shows before he ever appeared on "Wings." In fact, the first time Wendt played Norm outside of "Cheers," he wasn't even appearing in a sitcom. In fact, he showed up in a 1985 episode of the pioneering medical drama "St. Elsewhere" in an episode titled — wait for it — "Cheers." Although the medical drama did have some lighthearted moments, it was odd enough for the series' Season 3 finale to take place partially inside of the bar we all know and love. In the episode, characters like Carla and Cliff appear, adopting their traditional personalities as they interact with the doctors from St. Eligius. Norm, an accountant by trade, gets chewed out by one of the doctors for his bad financial advice to boot. After that appearance, it would be a couple years before Wendt played Norm outside of "Cheers," and that time would be for the other "Cheers" spin-off, "The Tortellis." This short-lived show, set in Las Vegas, focused on Carla's loutish ex-husband Nick (Dan Hedaya) as he attempted to start up a TV-repair business while reconciling with his second wife. Though Norm and Cliff each showed up in one of the show's 13 episodes, the series as a whole was widely panned and quickly canceled in the spring of 1987.

Norm Peterson has also appeared on two separate animated TV series from Fox: "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy." The former show makes perfect sense, seeing as Grammer has been a recurring mainstay in Springfield as the murderous Sideshow Bob. But in the Season 6 episode "Fear of Flying," there's a gag in a side plot in which Homer is looking for a new pub to frequent and stumbles into Cheers itself. Wendt does appear as Norm, of course, and he's joined by Perlman, Ratzenberger, Woody Harrelson as Woody, and Danson. (In a bit of a in-joke, we see Frasier but don't hear him speak — because then you'd have two characters in the "Simpsons" universe voiced by Grammer.) It's a quick joke that mostly plays on the dark side of a guy who's a barfly, with this Norm being a lot less cheerful and a lot more of an angry drunk. On "Family Guy," Wendt's played Norm on two separate occasions in the mid-2000s, once during a riff on Stephen King's "Stand By Me" and another time in an episode that also gleefully references the MGM musical "Anchors Aweigh." (Because...well, why not.)

But don't forget the three separate TV specials in which Wendt played Norm. Two of those were Disney-themed; back in the 1980s and 1990s, there was a lot more willingness to have characters underneath one studio's umbrella interact with characters from another studio. To wit, in November of 1988, Wendt was one of many, many people to show up in a 60th anniversary special intended to "wish" Mickey Mouse a happy birthday. What it amounted to was a massive crossover among most of the biggest hits from NBC at the time (no matter what studio produced those shows), including "Family Ties," "L.A. Law," and, of course, "Cheers." That would also explain why Wendt showed up as Norm two years later on a similar Disney special, celebrating the 35th anniversary of Disneyland. Both of these specials are on YouTube, and Wendt aside, they are both fascinating cultural time capsules and the type of thing Disney would absolutely not allow anymore.

Finally, Wendt showed up along with an even bigger cast in "The Earth Day Special" on April 22, 1990. This was a truly rare occurrence as it's the only time during the run of "Cheers" that Wendt played Norm on a non-NBC network. This two-hour special aired on ABC and was intended to promote environmentalism on the very important Earth Day. Now, primarily, what it amounted to was a lot of speechifying about the value of saving the planet (no doubt a noble quest), but from a vast array of actors in character, from Wendt and the cast of "Cheers" to Christopher Lloyd as Doc Emmet Brown from "Back to the Future" to E.T. and Kermit the Frog. This, too, is on YouTube, in case you're curious.

So, when you think of the biggest shows on TV today, think about how basically none of them can say they were ever quite as big as "Cheers." Because, if nothing else, how many current TV shows feature characters who have popped up on multiple networks, in multiple mediums, and on 10 different series across decades? George Wendt seemed unassuming as Norm Peterson, but this barfly had range beyond belief.