{"id":243727,"date":"2026-06-02T06:00:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T06:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/02\/ted-danson-struggled-with-sex-symbol-status-during-cheers-fame\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T06:00:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T06:00:16","slug":"ted-danson-struggled-with-sex-symbol-status-during-cheers-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/02\/ted-danson-struggled-with-sex-symbol-status-during-cheers-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"Ted Danson struggled with sex symbol status during Cheers fame"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"byline\">\n<p>        <time itemprop=\"datePublished\" content=\"2026-06-02\" datetime=\"1780380016\" pubdate=\"\">2 June 2026<\/time>\n    <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.femalefirst.co.uk\/ted-danson\/\" class=\"exposure-link \" data-linktrack=\"LinkTracker,articleExposure,ted-danson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ted Danson<\/a> didn&#8217;t believe his sex symbol status during his time on Cheers.<\/p>\n<p>                            <\/p>\n<p class=\"image-caption landscape\">Ted Danson didn&#8217;t believe his sex symbol status<\/p>\n<p>The 78-year-old actor, who rose to fame as barman Sam Malone in the beloved 80s sitcom, admitted he struggled with the idea that women found him attractive.<\/p>\n<p>During a conversation with Parent Trap&#8217;s Lisa Ann Walter on his Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast, she asked Ted &#8220;what happened when you figured out what a hottie you were&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>He responded: &#8220;I won\u2019t go back too far because it\u2019s not necessary, but I was the guy who literally I would be, the woman would be standing opposite me naked and I\u2019d be going \u2018What?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I\u2019d look over my shoulder and be like, \u2018You mean me?&#8217; Literally, it took me until the second year of Cheers when I decided, &#8216;You know what? Keep your mouth shut, Ted.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nThe Good Place star found himself protesting any time &#8220;somebody would say something&#8221; positive about his looks.<\/p>\n<p>\nHe recalled that when he had a compliment from anyone calling him &#8220;so sexy and so funny&#8221;, he credited it all with Cheers bosses hiring &#8220;very sexy looking women to look at Sam Malone and go, &#8216;Wow, he\u2019s sexy'&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>\nTed added: &#8220;I got that mantle and I finally learned to keep my mouth shut.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nTed, who has recently been seen leading Netflix&#8217;s spy sitcom A Man On The Inside, starred as Sam on Cheers from 1982 to 1993.<\/p>\n<p>\nHe eventually decided to leave the legendary show to pursue other acting opportunities, which prompted TV bosses to end Cheers after 11 seasons.<\/p>\n<p>\nMeanwhile, last month Ted revealed that he is &#8220;doing some things differently&#8221; after a recent mystery health scare.<\/p>\n<p>\nSpeaking on his podcast, he said: &#8220;The last thing that kind of hit me that was very liberating was I had a bit of a health scare.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cI\u2019m totally fine, but it was like, \u2018Oh, well, that\u2019s real.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nTed didn&#8217;t reveal any specifics about the health problems, but insisted he &#8220;hadn&#8217;t f***** up in some way&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>\nHe added: \u201cIt was very humbling and calming, and I\u2019m fine.<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;I think it was the best thing that could have happened to me, and I\u2019m doing some things differently.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nThe health scare has changed Ted in a more profound way too, and given him what he has described as &#8220;the biggest gift of all&#8221;, which is being more interested in those around him.<\/p>\n<p>\nHe said: \u201cYou can be curious about other people. You can listen and you can be supportive, caring. You can witness them&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cAnd I do believe that the rest of my life is to be curious and listen. That\u2019s the best thing I can offer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- Pagination --><\/p>\n<p><!-- playbuzz --><br \/>\n<!-- end playbuzz--><\/p>\n<p><!-- \n\n<div data-cn-project=\"femalefirst\">\n    \n<\/div>\n\n --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><br \/>\n<!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><\/p>\n<p>    <!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><br \/>\n    <!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.femalefirst.co.uk\/celebrity\/ted-danson-struggled-sex-symbol-status-cheers-fame-1445321.html?f=rss\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2 June 2026 Ted Danson didn&#8217;t believe his sex symbol status during his time on Cheers. Ted Danson didn&#8217;t believe his sex symbol status The 78-year-old actor, who rose to fame as barman Sam Malone in the beloved 80s sitcom, admitted he struggled with the idea that women found him attractive. During a conversation with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":243728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[15499,6255],"class_list":{"0":"post-243727","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-make-up","8":"tag-sam-malone","9":"tag-ted-danson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}