British remake of sitcom Cheers in development

Original series starred Ted Danson, John Ratzenberger and Rhea Perlman

A British version of the hit American sitcom Cheers is in development, over 30 years after the original concluded.

The classic 11-season series, about a neighborhood bar in Boston run by a retired Boston Red Sox relief pitcher, starred Ted Danson, Woody Harrelson, John Ratzenberger, Rhea Perlman, George Wendt and, in later seasons, Kirstie Alley. It aired on NBC from 1982 to 1993.

The remake is currently being pitched by Big Talk Studios, the producer behind BBC One and Amazon Prime Video’s drama series The Outlaws, according to Deadline.

Should the series be greenlit, British screenwriter Simon Nye, known for his work on Men Behaving Badly and The Durrells, has been tapped as the showrunner.

Whereas the original show was set in a Boston bar, the reboot will take place in a British pub.

Speaking to Deadline about the reason for the remake, Big Talk’s Chief Executive Kenton Allen said: “The British pub is an endangered species, so there’s an answer for the ‘Why now?’ about it.

“The attitudes of Cheers in the ‘80s are very different to the attitudes of today, so there’s a massive amount of work to be done around taking inspiration from the original characters but creating something fresh.”

A British ‘Cheers’ remake is currently in development (AP1988)

Joking that the task of rebooting the iconic sitcom “might be insane,” Allen said it was a “huge honor” to be entrusted with the comedy.

While he acknowledged comedies are more “prone to failure than any other genre,” he explained that the remake is a part of Big Talk’s efforts to branch out amid a rocky time for British scripted shows.

Cheers followed the lives of Sam Malone (Danson), a former MLB relief pitcher who owns and runs a bar, and the regulars who meet there to drink, relax and socialize.

The series also starred Shelley Long as Diane Chambers, an intelligent and somewhat snobby woman forced to work as a waitress at the bar after being abandoned by her fiancé. Although they constantly bicker, Sam and Diane eventually fall in love.

Its series finale, titled “One For The Road,” amassed 80.4 million viewers, making it the second-highest-watched TV ending in history, behind only M*A*S*H’s 1983 finale, which was viewed by 106 million people.

Cheers joins a long list of American shows that have crossed the pond – and vice versa – including The Golden Girls, Married... with Children, That ’70s Show, The Office and The Inbetweeners.