Ted Danson, Woody Harrelson and the Cast of “Cheers ”Once Played 'Hooky' with an 'Extraordinary Amount of Mushrooms'

Looking back on the experience, Danson called the trip from taking drugs "the worst four hours of my life"

<p>Jesse Grant/Getty, Hoda Davaine/Dave Benett/Getty, Timothy Hiatt/Getty</p> From left: Ted Danson; Woody Harrelson; George Wendt

Jesse Grant/Getty, Hoda Davaine/Dave Benett/Getty, Timothy Hiatt/Getty

From left: Ted Danson; Woody Harrelson; George Wendt

Ted Danson's one and only experience with mushrooms did not exactly go to plan.

Danson and Woody Harrelson had their former Cheers costar George Wendt as a guest on their podcast, Where Everybody Knows Your Name, on Aug. 14, and the trio recalled a day where they played "hooky" from the show – and Danson, 76, experimented with some hallucinogenics.

John Ratzenburger, who played Cliff Clavin, had just bought a boat so the cast decided to spend the day sailing to Catalina Island, prompting Harrelson, 63, to offer Danson some drugs – and all the while, Kelsey Grammer was in a bunk sleeping.

"Woody turns to me and goes, 'Have you ever had mushrooms?' I go, 'No. No, I haven't.' And he said, 'Well, this will be a good time. We have nothing to do. We'll be on a boat,'" Danson recalled. "We hadn't had breakfast, so I was fairly hungry and ate, I think, an extraordinary amount of mushrooms."

Related: Will Arnett and Woody Harrelson Joke Ted Danson Had 'BDE' on Cheers (Exclusive)

At first, the actor, who played Sam Malone on the '80s sitcom, said it was going "alright" as they began sailing from the California coast to Catalina Island, but what the group wasn't accounting for was "the leftover waves from a hurricane in Mexico."

"There was still a huge swell. So people not on mushrooms would be seasick, pretty much. But I sat there getting more and more and more freaked out in whatever it is you get – stoned or whatever it is – on mushrooms," Danson continued. "And I look at you, Woody, and you’re stretched out on a bunk, and I think, 'Oh, he's so used to this that he's just cooling and relaxing. I am panicking. I'm having trouble breathing. I'll go up top.'"

<p>NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty</p> Woody Harrelson as Woody Boyd, Ted Danson as Sam Malone, John Ratzenberger as Cliff Clavin, Rhea Perlman as Carla Tortelli, George Wendt as Norm Peterson on 'Cheers' in 1985

NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

Woody Harrelson as Woody Boyd, Ted Danson as Sam Malone, John Ratzenberger as Cliff Clavin, Rhea Perlman as Carla Tortelli, George Wendt as Norm Peterson on 'Cheers' in 1985

Danson said he would "literally forget to breathe" and felt like he was "dying" during the trip. When Harrelson came to sit beside him on the upper deck of the boat, he recalled his costar looking "skeletal."

"You looked like Woody the skeleton in my eyes. That was my only kind of visual buzz from mushrooms," he recalled.

Related: Kelsey Grammer Talks 'Rewarding' Cheers Emmys Reunion, Says Cast Are 'Still in Each Other's Lives' (Exclusive)

Wendt, 75, said he did not partake in the drugs, but was "seasick" on the way back anyway from how rough the ocean waves were.

Harrelson, who played Woody Boyd on Cheers, said that Danson looked "like a hologram of [him]self," adding, "I thought you really – you just weren't breathing at all."

Danson then declared the trip "the worst four hours of my life."

<p>NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty</p> Ted Danson as Sam Malone, Woody Harrelson as Woody Boyd on 'Cheers'

NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

Ted Danson as Sam Malone, Woody Harrelson as Woody Boyd on 'Cheers'

Wendt, who played Norm Peterson, recalled that the cast "were in such trouble" afterwards for playing hooky. "I didn't think anyone would give a s---," he said.

"They called us in, one at a time, to give a s--- the next day," Danson said.

In retrospect, Harrelson said that was a "fair" response. "We shouldn’t have done that," he acknowledged.

"But we’d been perfect for six, seven years," Danson said. "Their complaint was, ‘You should have told us. We would have let you.' And it was like – that's not hooky!"

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