Jason Eifling

In 1993, Cheers star Ted Danson was earning a whopping $450,000 per episode — that's over $883,000 in today's dollars. But Danson, who was then 45 and had been playing bar owner Sam Malone for eleven years, had grown tired of playing the same character for so long, and wanted out so that he could do other things. So he told the producers he would not be back for another season. Now, Cheers, unlike many long-running sitcoms, was still just as popular as it had ever been, and the producers wanted to keep it going, even without Danson. Their idea was to have bartender Woody (Woody Harrelson) take over the bar from Sam. What they probably didn't anticipate was that Harrelson would refuse — because he didn't want to continue doing the show without Danson. And as it turned out, neither did the rest of the cast. And so, Cheers was cancelled after 11 seasons. Some people blame Danson for the show's cancellation — I answered a question on here awhile back asking why Danson “decided” to end Cheers — but the simple fact is that you could just as easily blame Harrelson, George Wendt, John Ratzenberger, and the rest of the cast for its cancellation (although the show would admittedly not have been the same without Sam). Personally, I admire them for their refusal to continue without the guy who had been the heart of the show since its premiere. They could have made a lot more money if they'd wanted to. In addition to that, I think it was better for a show as great as Cheers to go out while it was still a quality series, rather than continuing until the ratings sank and it ended on a low note. But anyway, that's how Ted Danson indirectly contributed to the cancellation of one of the most beloved American sitcoms of all time.