George Wendt as Norm Peterson in classic sitcom Cheers. Image: Maximum Film / Alamy
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George Wendt has died aged 76. The actor starred in Cheers from 1982 to 1993, appearing as Norm Peterson in all 275 episodes of the finest sitcom of the era.
As Norm, he was an inspiration to millions. Here was an aspirational figure we could actually relate to.
If the 1980s and early 1990s were all about aspiration, as Margaret Thatcher over here and Ronald Reagan over there espoused a politics of individualism and pushed a narratives of winners and losers, then Norm presented a much-needed alternative.
Norm was someone who found something much more valuable than individual wealth – he found true belonging in the place he loved the most. Who wouldn’t want to know they could go to their favourite bar, any day, and always find the warmest of welcomes?
The theme tune of Cheers, always so evocative, spoke to that need to connect. Gary Pontnoy’s plaintive crooning matched the words. “Sometimes you wanna go / where everybody knows your name / and they’re always glad you came.”
A beautiful song. A beautiful sentiment. And the perfect summation of everything Cheers – and Norm – represented.
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Clockwise from Norm: George Wendt as Norm, Rhea Pelman as Carla, John Ratzenberger as Cliff, Nicholas Colasanto as Coach, Ted Danson as Sam and Shelley Long as Diane. Image: NBC Universal
So it was that every episode, Norm would arrive in the bar – dishevilled, beaten down by the outside world. And he would be greeted by a chorus of ‘Norm!’
Through the years, he would be welcomed by proprietor Sam Malone (Ted Danson), waitress Carla (Rhea Perlman), bartenders Diane (Shelley Long), Coach (Nicholas Colasanto) and Woody (Woody Harrelson), plus his fellow regulars Cliff (John Ratzenberger) and Frasier (Kelsey Grammer).
A brief greeting, an observation – short, sharp, perfectly delivered – and he’d be on his regular stool, drinking his usual beer. And all would be well with the world.
Wendt played it beautifully. As Norm he was instantly funny and grew into a classic sitcom character by stealth, by repetition, by fully inhabiting this all-American archetype.
It’s scarcely believable that the actor was only 33 when the series first aired. So completely did he capture this man, this drinker, the ultimate pub regular.
In 2012, Wendt spoke to Big Issue about the incredible legacy of his Cheers character.
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Asked whether he’d had to buy his own drink in a bar since originating the role of Norm in 1982, he told us: “I’ve bought myself plenty of drinks in bars. However, I do get offered a lot of free beer.
“Early on, I used to be sheepish about it and say, ‘Oh, no, don’t be silly.’ Their faces would go sour. I realised they really want to say that they bought me a beer. So now I just say, ‘Yeah, thanks.’
“I had a hard time believing my good fortune, going into an audition for a role of a guy who looked like he wanted to have a beer. A lifetime of preparation went into that.”
Since his death, stories of George Wendt’s kindness, plus his happy habit of turning up in unlikely places and receiving the warmest of welcomes (from, among others, Dinosaur Jr singer J Mascis at a Buffalo Tom concert in the early 1990s, plus everyone backstage at Reading Festival in 1997) have been shared.
At a Buffalo Tom gig at Town & Country in London in the '90s, J Mascis was hanging w/us in the dressing room in his typically laconic way. But then George Wendt popped his head in to say hello, J rose out of his chair and exclaimed, “NORM!” I've never seen him as animated before or since. RIP NORM!
American psychologist Abraham Maslow did not live to see Cheers. He died in 1970. But Maslow’s famous ‘hierarchy of needs’ – a theory of innate human requirements – had love and belonging as the third of our basic needs after physiological (breathing, food, water etc) and safety.
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Norm knew this. And so did Cheers fans, who aspired to being a Norm figure – in their local pub or any place people gather and socialise. This is no joke. Loneliness can be a killer and an increasing number of older people in particular find themselves isolated. Pubs can help combat this – providing a place of connection.
I got close to feeling that the Norm conquest had been achieved a few times. Joyous years when you could walk in to a pub alone but be in no doubt that you’d know someone, welcomed by a familiar face behind the bar, and able to drink in your usual spot, safe in the knowledge that you were in the right place.
So, in my mind, I’m raising a pint to Norm in Browns on the Lower Precinct in Coventry (1994-96). And another one in the Dublin Castle in Camden (1996-2002). One more in Madness in Dresden (2003-06). And I’ll have a quick one in the Sparkle Horse in Glasgow (2013-15).
Norm was a man who walked into a bar and always belonged. Cheers, Norm. Cheers, George Wendt…
