Episode 171 - Ted Danson

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

Lemonada Media

Society & Culture, Film Interviews, Tv & Film

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 May 2020

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A self-described “contract player”, Ted Danson has been a staple on television for the past 40 years. Cheers. Becker. Bored to Death. Damages. Curb Your Enthusiasm. In that time he's been, at least for me, a stabilizing force. A welcomed, recurring presence. On the heels of The Good Place's final season, Danson takes this unusual moment of ours to slow down and reflect. We discuss how his love of basketball translated into his love of acting; his memories of making Body Heat; the enduring influence of James Burrows; his evolving relationship with Sam Malone and Cheers; and the long, winding journey to stop “pretending to be Ted and tell the truth.”

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Pushkin. I think it took me a long time to not work really hard to be Ted.
0:23.8	You know, I worked really hard to be Ted and it was exhausting.
0:27.4	And the Ted would have looked very similar to this.
0:30.3	It wasn't that the silhouette was there, and it different than this you would say oh yeah I see that I think I was always a little bit that way
0:38.0	You know until I really started to examine myself
0:42.0	Luckily when I was like 40 or something I finally kind of
0:45.6	matured and was willing to tell the truth and look at myself and all of that.
0:52.4	That was Ted Danson. I'm Sam Fregoso and this is Talk Easy. Welcome to the show. Hey everyone.
1:23.7	Since the 80s Ted Danson has been a great source of comfort.
1:29.0	You can't say that about every artist, but I can think of no better way to describe Danson's effect on me as a viewer.
1:38.0	His decade-long performance as smooth-talking bartender Sam Malone is still something I return to.
1:45.6	In fact, I want to credit Cheers while we're here. It has been a trusty
1:50.9	quarantine companion throughout this madness. Of course, Danson's career went on long
1:58.6	after the Lights at Cheers went out. You've seen him in shows like Becker, bored to death, and curb your
2:05.8	enthusiasm. And indie films like The One I Love and Hearts Beat Loud. Most recently,
2:12.1	Dancing completed the final season of The Good Place, the hit
2:16.4	NBC sitcom created by Michael Schur. Set in the After Life or it, it's an unconventional sitcom, one mostly interested
2:27.5	in dealing with moral matters.
2:29.8	What it means to be a good person and how that goodness, virtue, is relative.
2:36.5	Through four seasons the show contemplated heady ideas of right and wrong with a sense of
2:42.1	humor. It showed characters including Michael
2:45.2	Danson's angel demon architect grappling with their own deficiencies and
	...

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