The Simpsons Episode That Featured The Cheers Cast (With A Twist)

“The Simpsons” is arguably the greatest animated series in history. Similarly, “Cheers” is almost certainly one of the greatest live-action sitcoms of all time. But what would happen if these two worlds met? That question was answered briefly (and hilariously) once in 1994 when Homer Simpsons stumbled into the most famous bar in TV history. Yet, during his trek there, a certain voice was notably absent from the proceedings — namely, that of Kelsey Grammer, who has played Sideshow Bob since the earliest days of “The Simpsons.”

Grammer, of course, also played Frasier Crane on “Cheers” before eventually headlining the very successful spin-off “Frasier.” Nevertheless, he didn’t lend his voice to the crossover in question. It happened during the episode “Fear of Flying,” which aired as part of “The Simpsons” season 6. The main plot of the episodes involves Homer being awarded free plane tickets only to discover that Marge has a fear of flying. As such, a therapist is enlisted to help Marge conquer her fear.

The episode opens with Homer being banned from Moe’s, which results in him needing to find a new bar to drink at. His quest takes him to various watering holes, from ritzy establishments to a bar exclusively for pilots, which bridges to the main storyline of the episode. Over the course of his journey, Homer also stumbles into a familiar-looking establishment where everybody knows your name.

“This is a very amazing thing. We were able to get the entire cast of ‘Cheers’ to reunite,” said David Merkin, executive producer and then-showrunner of “The Simpsons,” speaking on the episode’s DVD commentary track. “These are the real actors!”

Indeed, they were the real actors, with Ted Danson (Sam Malone), Woody Harrelson (Woody Boyd), Rhea Perlman (Carla Tortelli), John Ratzenberger (Cliff Clavin), and George Wendt (Norm Peterson) lending their voices to the proceedings. So, why wasn’t Grammer part of it?

At the time, Grammar was in the middle of his long 10 season run on “Frasier.” Despite already being a part of the “Simpsons” family as Sideshow Bob, he was just too busy at the time the episode was being developed to record any lines as Frasier Crane. Because of this, we see Frasier at the bar during Homer’s visit, but he doesn’t actually say anything. As Merkin explains in the episode’s DVD commentary track:

“The odd thing here is that Kelsey Grammer, who does our show many, many, many times as Sideshow Bob Roberts — he’s a fantastic friend of the show, he always says yes when we ask him — we couldn’t quite work out the timing to get him to do Frasier Crane on ‘Cheers.’ He’s the one character that doesn’t speak.”

In any event, the gag worked incredibly well and the episode turned out great. Grammer would also return many more times to “The Simpsons”, even reprising his role as Sideshow Bob as recently as season 36. In other words, it’s not as though there was any bad blood, it was just a matter of bad timing. Still, it might have been fun to see (or hear, rather) Grammer putting his stamp on Frasier in the “Simpsons” universe. Alas, we can only wonder what that might’ve been like.

“The Simpsons” is streaming now on Disney+, or you can grab your favorite season on DVD from Amazon.