More people saw me in one episode of 'Cheers' than would ever see me in a play.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I was kind of like the Rhea Perlman of the bar. I was like Carla on 'Cheers.' People were more afraid of me. There was a point where I got a little surly. There were only so many chicken wings I could serve before losing the smile on my face.
Everything I am, everything I've been allowed to do, career-wise, has come out of the opportunity I had with 'Cheers'. I think it's one of the funniest shows ever. They are some of my best friends.
There's one thing about TV that I really think is true. If you find the right cast and the right writers, and you got some chemistry going, even if a show is taking a little while to find an audience, if you keep it there, that audience will find it. Because that's what happened with 'Cheers.'
I don't want to sound hoity-toity, but people told me I should watch 'Cheers' because it's very funny. So I watched it, and I just went, 'This is the great show of the universe?' To me, acting is making characters believable, not just doing jokes.
You might as well play at the show everyone else is playing at.
I've had people come up to me in the past and say they enjoyed whatever show I've been in.
Every show I play, whether it's for an audience of 15,000 or 50, I look at it as a party, and I'm the host.
More people saw the pilot of 'Glee' than saw me in my entire 10-year career on Broadway.
If you take 'Cheers' and 'Seinfeld' and watch the early shows, they're kind of awkward. It took a while for the writers and everything to gel.
More people saw me in 'Love Actually' than had seen me in everything else I had ever done up to that point.