Woodrow Tiberius "Woody" Boyd is a loveable albeit simple minded character on the American
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
show
CheersCheers is an American situation comedy television series that ran for eleven seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions in association with Paramount Television for NBC, having been created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles...
, portrayed by
Woody HarrelsonWoodrow Tracy "Woody" Harrelson is an American actor.Harrelson's breakthrough role came in the television sitcom Cheers as bartender Woody Boyd...
. Woody came to Cheers at the beginning of the fourth season of
Cheers in 1985.
Woody appeared in 198 episodes of
Cheers between 1985-1993. He also made a guest appearance in
Frasier in the episode "
The Show Where Woody Shows Up."
Woody hails from
Hanover, IndianaHanover is a town in Hanover Township, Jefferson County, Indiana, along the Ohio River. The population was 2,834 at the 2000 census. The United States Census Bureau estimates that, as of 2008, Hanover's population is 3,873. Hanover is the home of Hanover College, a small Presbyterian liberal arts...
, where he was voted the smartest student in school.
Woodrow Tiberius "Woody" Boyd is a loveable albeit simple minded character on the American
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
show
CheersCheers is an American situation comedy television series that ran for eleven seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions in association with Paramount Television for NBC, having been created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles...
, portrayed by
Woody HarrelsonWoodrow Tracy "Woody" Harrelson is an American actor.Harrelson's breakthrough role came in the television sitcom Cheers as bartender Woody Boyd...
. Woody came to Cheers at the beginning of the fourth season of
Cheers in 1985.
Woody appeared in 198 episodes of
Cheers between 1985-1993. He also made a guest appearance in
Frasier in the episode "
The Show Where Woody Shows Up."
Biography
Woody hails from
Hanover, IndianaHanover is a town in Hanover Township, Jefferson County, Indiana, along the Ohio River. The population was 2,834 at the 2000 census. The United States Census Bureau estimates that, as of 2008, Hanover's population is 3,873. Hanover is the home of Hanover College, a small Presbyterian liberal arts...
, where he was voted the smartest student in school. He and his childhood sweetheart, Beth Curtis, were also voted "Couple Most Likely to Explode," as they were both obese at the time. It was later revealed that they always ate, to excess, around one another due to their palpable
sexual tensionSexual tension is the occurrence between two people in which two or more of the individuals sexually long for one another, but the consummation is postponed or never occurs...
.
Woody followed in
Coach'sErnie "Coach" Pantusso was a fictional character on the American television show Cheers, portrayed by Nicholas Colasanto for the first three seasons.Coach appeared in 70 episodes of Cheers between 1982-1985.-Character overview:...
footsteps in many ways, failing to understand the most obvious jokes, concepts, and situations. Woody was essentially a
straight manA double act, also known as a comedy duo, is a comic device in which humor is derived from the uneven relationship between two partners, usually of the same gender, age, ethnic origin and profession, but drastically different personalities or behavior...
for all of
Cheers, though his humor stemmed from his misunderstandings. Woody once told Dr. Crane he was the smartest man he knew, apart from
Cliff ClavinClifford C. Clavin, Jr. is a character on the American television show Cheers, co-created and portrayed by John Ratzenberger.-Background:...
.
Woody seemed to have an off-center mentality, misunderstanding others' comments much as Coach had done. When
Bill MedleyWilliam Thomas "Bill" Medley is an American singer and songwriter, best known as one half of The Righteous Brothers singing duo.-Biography:...
of the Righteous Brothers appears and starts singing "You've Lost That Loving Feeling", Woody asks him, "How come you changed your name from Righteous?"
Woody arrived at Cheers expecting to meet his "penpal" Coach (with whom he exchanged pens, instead of letters). Upon learning of his death, he filled the open bartender position, and was quickly accepted by the staff and regulars. He also developed a "big brother/little brother" relationship with
Sam MaloneSam "Mayday" Malone is a character on the American television show Cheers, portrayed by Ted Danson. The central character of the series, Sam was a former relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox Major League Baseball team who owned Cheers and tended bar there. He was a recovering alcoholic and...
, the owner of Cheers. In the coming years, he filled the void left by Coach and eventually married the wealthy
Kelly GainesKelly Gaines Boyd is a character on the American television show Cheers, portrayed by Jackie Swanson. Kelly joined Cheers in the middle of the seventh season as Woody Boyd’s love interest. She appeared in 24 episodes....
(
Jackie SwansonJackie Swanson is an American actress. She is best known for her role on the American sitcom Cheers as Kelly Gaines, the rich and simple love interest of Woody Boyd.-Early life:Swanson was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan...
), overcoming her father's objections to Woody's lowly station in life.
In the final season,
Frasier CraneDr. Frasier Winslow Crane, M.D., Ph.D., A.P.A. is a fictional character on American television sitcoms Frasier and Cheers. He was played by Kelsey Grammer for twenty years, tying the record for the longest-running character on prime-time American television, which was set by James Arness, who...
orchestrated an experiment that went awry and resulted in Woody's election to the Boston City Council. He and Kelly were expecting their first child when
Cheers ended. Frasier extrapolates on Woody's interest in a political career to the point that Woody becomes
President of the United StatesThe President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in the United States by influence and recognition...
and shows his displeasure with another country by using "The Bomb" (illustrated twice in Frasier's imagination as a
mushroom cloudA mushroom cloud is a distinctive pyrocumulus mushroom-shaped cloud of condensed water vapor or debris resulting from a very large explosion. They are most commonly associated with nuclear explosions, but any sufficiently large blast will produce the same sort of effect. They can be caused by...
).
Appearance on Frasier
Woody would later make an appearance on
FrasierFrasier is an American sitcom broadcast on NBC for eleven seasons, from September 16, 1993 to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee in association with Paramount Television.A spin-off from Cheers, Frasier stars Kelsey Grammer as psychiatrist...
, the
spin-offA spin-off is a new organization or entity formed by a split from a larger one, such as television series based on a pre-existing one, or a new company formed from a university research group or business incubator...
show from
Cheers, in which during a visit to Seattle he reconnected with Frasier Crane, who had since moved there from Boston. After a one-night reunion, the two began to spend a great deal of time with each other - which gradually turned into an ordeal for both, as they quickly realised they had moved on from their past and settled into new lives (with, ironically, neither man seeing the other's life as being particularly fulfilling). The two men decided to part company on good terms, after sharing a final drink with each other. Although not shown, this episode references Woody singing, "What Kind of Fool Am I?"
In the episode, "The Show Where Sam Comes Back", it is revealed that Kelly and Woody's first child was a baby boy. In the episode, "The Show Where Woody Comes Back", it is revealed that Kelly and Woody had another child, this time a girl.
Woody's political career was not mentioned in
Frasier. It is implied (though not directly stated) that Woody has returned to work at Cheers. Since Woody married into wealth, it is possible he returned to work to Cheers out of pleasure rather than a need for work.
According to Frasier in "Cheerful Goodbyes," at his going away party at the bar, Woody grabbed onto his legs and begged him not to go.