John Larroquette Says He Auditioned for a Role as TV’s Most Famous Bartender
It's hard to imagine anyone else in this iconic role.
You already know about the bar where everybody knows your name. Now imagine somebody else other than Ted Danson pouring the drinks and delivering the jokes.
John Larroquette tells Parade that in the early 1980s, he auditioned for the role of iconic womanizing baseball pitcher-turned-Boston bartender Sam Malone in the 1982-93 NBC sitcom Cheers.
“I just walked in and did a cold reading along with every other 32-year-old actor at the time,” he says. (Read the full interview in this week’s Parade e-edition cover story.)
Related: John Larroquette Confirms He Got Paid in Weed for One of His Early Roles
At the time, the New Orleans native says he considered himself a journeyman actor and was searching for any gig to assist his actress-wife, Elizabeth, and their three young kids. “I needed to make money to help pay the rent and support my family and be a responsible member of society,” he says. He had also recently completed rehab after taking a few years off to do “extremely heaving drinking.”
“After I got sober and realized I wasn’t going to die, I thought, “What am I going to do?” he adds. “I had been in a pretty big [1981] movie called Stripes with Bill Murray. And I read for Ted Danson’s role in Cheers.”
Related: Dan Fielding Returns! Night Court Reboot Cast, Premiere Date, Trailer and How to Watch
Though Larroquette lost out to Danson, he soon auditioned for another NBC comedy. This one was called Night Court. First he read for the part of goofy judge Harry T. Stone, which ultimately went to Harry Anderson. Then producers asked him to try for smarmy attorney Dan Fielding. “I said, ‘Sure,’’” he recalls. “Even if I hated the role, I would have taken it. It was luck that I really liked it. Then I got lucky again when NBC picked up the show as a mid-season replacement.” It aired from 1984-92.
The actor won four consecutive Emmys playing Fielding—and he’s reprising the role in the new NBC Night Court reboot (which premieres Jan. 17). As for Danson? The star won two Emmys for his work on Cheers and has 18 nominations in all.
