Editing Cheers (section)

===Original main characters===
[[File:Cheers original cast 1982-86 (1983).jpg|thumb|Cast of seasons one through three, ''left to right'': ''(top)'' [[Shelley Long]], [[Ted Danson]]; ''(middle)'' [[Rhea Perlman]], [[Nicholas Colasanto]]; ''(bottom)'' [[George Wendt]], [[John Ratzenberger]]{{efn|Ratzenberger joined the main cast in season two after frequently appearing in his recurring role in season one.}} |alt=Background is the bar setting. Top row has a businesswoman and a handsome bartender. Middle row has a brunette perm waitress and an old bartender. Bottom row has a suit-dressed man and a mailman.]]

* [[Ted Danson]] as [[Sam Malone]]: A [[bartender]] and proprietor of Cheers, Sam is also a [[lothario]]. Before the series began, he was a baseball [[relief pitcher]] for the [[Boston Red Sox]] nicknamed "Mayday Malone" until he became an alcoholic, harming his career. He has an [[on-again, off-again relationship]] with [[Sam and Diane|Diane Chambers]], his class opposite, in the first five seasons (1982–1987). During their off-times, Sam has flings with many not-so-bright "sexy women"<ref name=honey264/> yet fails to pursue a meaningful relationship.<ref name=honey264/> After Diane is written out of the series, he tries to pursue Rebecca Howe, with varying results. At the end of the series, he is still unmarried and faces his [[sexual addiction]] with the help of Dr. Robert Sutton's ([[Gilbert Lewis (actor)|Gilbert Lewis]]) group meetings, advised by Frasier.
* [[Shelley Long]] as [[Diane Chambers]]: An academic, sophisticated graduate student attending Boston University.<ref name=scott1982/> In the pilot, Diane is abandoned by her fiancé, leaving her without a job, a man or money. Realizing that one of her few practical skills is memorization, which comes in handy when dealing with drink orders, she reluctantly becomes a barmaid. Later, she becomes a close friend of Coach<ref name=10anniversary/> and [[Sam and Diane|has an on-and-off relationship with bartender Sam Malone]], her class opposite. During their off-relationship times, Diane dates men who fit her upper-class ideals, such as Frasier Crane. Diane returns to Cheers while dating Frasier to help cure Sam of his drinking addiction with help from Dr. Crane. Diane's biggest enemy is Carla, who frequently insults her, but Diane's lack of retaliation serves to annoy Carla even more. In 1987, Diane leaves Boston and Sam to pursue a [[screenwriting]] career in California. She promises Sam she will return to Boston to marry him but does not do so.
* [[Nicholas Colasanto]] as [[Coach Ernie Pantusso|"Coach" Ernie Pantusso]]: <br/>A "borderline senile"<ref name=honey264/> co-bartender, widower and retired baseball coach. Coach is also a friend of Sam and a close friend of Diane. He has a daughter, [[Lisa Pantusso|Lisa]] ([[Allyce Beasley]]). Coach listens to people's problems and solves them. However, other people also help resolve his own problems. In 1985, Coach died without explicit explanation, as Colasanto died of a heart attack.<ref name=colasantodeath/>
* [[Rhea Perlman]] as [[Carla Tortelli]]: A "wisecracking, cynical"<ref name=scott1982/> cocktail waitress, who treats customers badly. When the series premieres, she is the mother of five children by her ex-husband [[Nick Tortelli]] ([[Dan Hedaya]]). Over the course of the series, she bears three more, the depiction of which incorporated Perlman's real-life pregnancies.<ref name=top10preggerstime>"[https://web.archive.org/web/20090214175706/http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1878293_1878320_1878375,00.html Top 10 Pregnant Performers: Where Everybody Knows You're Pregnant (or Not)]." ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]''. Web. June 2, 2012.</ref> All of her children are ill behaved, except Ludlow, whose father is a prominent academic. She flirts with men, including ones who are not flattered by her ways, and believes in [[superstition]]s. Later, she marries [[Eddie LeBec]], an [[ice hockey]] player, who later becomes a penguin mascot for ice shows. After he dies in an ice show accident by an [[ice resurfacer]], Carla later discovers that Eddie had committed [[bigamy]] with another woman, whom he had gotten pregnant. Carla sleeps with Sam's enemy, John Allen Hill, to Sam's annoyance and anger.
* [[George Wendt]] as [[Norm Peterson]]: A bar regular and occasionally employed accountant. A recurrent joke on the show, especially in the earlier seasons, is that the character was such a popular and constant fixture at the bar that anytime he entered through the front door, everyone present would yell out his name ("NORM!") in greeting (when present in the scene Diane would be heard saying "Norman!" moments later); usually, this cry would be followed by one of the present bartenders asking Norm how he was, usually receiving a sardonic response and a request for a beer. ("It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear.") He has infrequent accounting jobs and a troubled marriage with (but is still in love with and married to) Vera, an [[unseen character]], though she is occasionally heard. Later in the series, he becomes a [[house painter]] and an [[interior decorator]]. Even later in the series, Norm secures his dream job, tasting beer at a brewery. The character was not originally intended to be a main cast role;<ref name=112wendt114/> Wendt auditioned for a minor role of George for the [[Give Me a Ring Sometime|pilot episode]]. The role was only to be Diane Chambers' first customer and had only one word: "Beer!"<ref>Wendt 2009, p. 112.</ref> After he was cast in a more permanent role, the character was renamed Norm.<ref>Wendt 2009, p. 113.</ref>