Ted Danson: The Sitcom King Who Almost Quit Comedy

Who Is Ted Danson?

Ted Danson is an actor who is super famous for being in sitcoms. A sitcom (short for "situation comedy") is a funny TV show, often with a live audience laughing in the background.

• He is one of the most important people in modern sitcom history.
• He is linked with laugh-tracks and live studio audiences just like few others.
• He is not exactly Lucille Ball (a comedy legend), but he is pretty close.
• He might even be equal to his hero, Dick Van Dyke.
• He has spent the last four and a half decades (45 years!) doing sitcoms.
• Because of this, people will always think of him first as "a sitcom guy."

Important Point: Ted Danson has given 45 years of his life to sitcoms and is seen as one of the greats of the format.

Why Is He So Famous?

Even if he had stopped acting after a show called Cheers, his name would still be remembered forever.

• On Cheers, he was the top star and played the owner of a bar where "everybody knows your name."
• It was one of the most-watched TV shows of its time.
• He never became a big movie star, so he kept coming back to TV comedies.

What Did He Do After Cheers?

He has been in a LOT of shows. Not all were hits, but here is a simple list:

• Ink (1997): His first comedy after Cheers—cancelled after just one season.
• Becker: Ran for 6 years and almost 130 episodes—a big comeback!
• Curb Your Enthusiasm: He became a regular, even though he first thought the show was bad.
• Bored to Death: Got 3 seasons.
• The Good Place: Got 4 seasons.
• Mr. Mayor: Got 2 seasons.
• A Man on the Inside: Netflix renewed it for a 3rd season recently.

This shows just how much he loves the sitcom world.

The Show That Broke His Heart

One show failed so badly that it made him want to quit comedy forever.

• Name: Help Me Help You
• Premiered: September 2006
• He played Bill Hoffman, a selfish therapist who fixes his own problems as much as his patients’ problems.
• By December 2006, it was taken off the air after only 9 of its 13 episodes aired.
• ABC did not officially cancel it until May 2007.

After this flop, Danson felt terrible about himself. He said:

"It didn’t work out, then it was like, ‘Oh, I’ve stayed at this half-hour party too long.’ I’m no longer funny. I’m not amusing myself. There are people doing really amazing, funny stuff. I’m gonna stop doing this."

How He Got Better

Luckily, this "I quit" moment did not last long.

1. Less than 2.5 years later, Bored to Death started on HBO.
2. After the Help Me Help You failure, he tried drama instead of comedy.
3. He joined Glenn Close’s legal drama Damages as a main character for its first 3 seasons.
4. He said Damages "took the bored out of my butt" and saved his career.
5. Since Help Me Help You ended, he has been in 9 different comedy shows of all kinds.

Important Point: A dramatic role in Damages helped Ted Danson rediscover his love for acting and kept his career going strong.

Summary

Ted Danson is a sitcom legend who spent 45 years making funny TV. After Cheers, he made many shows—some great, some not. His show Help Me Help You failed so hard in 2006 that he almost quit comedy. But a dramatic role in Damages healed him, and he went on to do nine more comedies. Today, he is still a sitcom king.

FAQ

1. Who is Ted Danson?
He is an actor best known for sitcoms like Cheers, The Good Place, and Becker. He has worked in TV comedy for 45 years.

2. What show made Ted Danson want to quit comedy?
Help Me Help You (2006) was cancelled quickly and made him feel like he was not funny anymore.

3. How did he feel better after that failure?
He joined the drama Damages with Glenn Close, which he said "took the bored out of my butt" and saved his career.

4. Is Ted Danson still making sitcoms?
Yes! Netflix recently renewed his show A Man on the Inside for a third season.