“Cheers” star John Ratzenberger recalled an “odd” fan encounter while filming the hit TV show.
Ratzenberger, who starred as Cliff Clavin, had noticed an audience member fixated on Shelley Long and Ted Danson during a taping of the show.
“Just wherever [Long and Danson] were, he was staring at them, but his eyes were just a little nuts,” the now 77-year-old actor recalled while appearing on the podcast “Still Here Hollywood.” “And I thought, ‘Something’s wrong there,’ because the action of the stage play, ‘Cheers’ going on there, and this guy’s looking where the actors are standing off to the side.”
‘CHEERS’ STAR KELSEY GRAMMER REVEALS WHERE TED DANSON FALLING-OUT CAME FROM AFTER 30 YEARS
Ratzenberger alerted the head of security to the fan in the audience.
“I said, ‘That seem odd to you?'” he said. “So he went and checked it out.”
Security approached the audience member and discovered the fan was concealing a potential weapon.
“He had, under his whatever, a samurai sword with – I think it was Ted and Shelley’s name written on it,” Ratzenberger said. “It was creepy. So they got rid of him.”
LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
Despite the close call, Ratzenberger claimed he “never heard anything else about” the audience member with the sword.
“But that was nuts because they came so close,” the actor recalled. “But he just didn’t seem right. Just, ‘Something’s wrong there.'”
Ratzenberger starred on “Cheers” with Danson, Long, Woody Harrelson, Kirstie Alley, Rhea Pearlman and Kelsey Grammer.
“Cheers” ran from 1982 until 1993.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER
Ratzenberger noted that fan interactions can be annoying.
“There’s annoying parts,” he said. “But that’s gonna happen. See, it goes along with the territory too. You gotta understand. This is the jungle you’re walking through. Now you gotta figure it out.”
He added that he had security in place at his home, but “nobody ever showed up at the door.”
“Nothing like that,” he said. “I always had dogs, anyway, hoping they’d show up.”
