According to an interview with the Television Academy, when Greenberg got in contact with Alley’s agent, he discovered he wasn’t the first to come calling. Undaunted, and without dropping the name of the series, he asked if Alley would be interested in doing television. According to Greenberg, the agent said, “Well, I’ll tell you that all the networks want Kirstie for a TV series. She doesn’t want to do a TV series. Let me talk to her.” Greenberg didn’t have to wait long for a reply. “He calls back, says, ‘She still doesn’t want to do a TV series, but she’d love to do ‘Cheers.””
Having cleared the first hurdle, Greenberg introduced Alley to the producers and the cast. This went swimmingly. Per Greenberg:
“She was a vision. They had a great meeting, and we all were optimistic about who she was in terms of the kind of role they were looking for. Then Ted Danson had lunch with Kirstie, and they clicked.”
They then arranged an audition where Alley read with Danson and Rhea Perlman. Again, not a single hitch. Alley belonged on “Cheers.” There was just one problem: they didn’t shoot the audition. So when they met with NBC executives to tell them Alley was absolute perfection, they had nothing to show.
#Kirstie #Alleys #Cheers #Casting #Network #Execs #Hesitant #SlashFilm
