Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes) - John Ratzenberger

Episode Date: January 8, 2025

It’s a reunion as John Ratzenberger (aka Cliff Clavin) drops in on his Cheers colleagues Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson! John shares about how he pitched his know-it-all Cheers character, being on crew at the original Woodstock, his perspective on the now legendary hooky boat ride, and various near-death experiences.  Like watching your podcasts? Visit http://youtube.com/teamcoco to see full episodes. 

And I remember thinking, tomorrow's paper's gonna say, Cliff Kills, cast of Cheers. Right. [♪ Music Playing. Welcome back to Where Everybody Knows Your Name with me, Ted Danson, and Woody Harrelson. Sometimes.

Big day today, Woody's with me for this episode, and we're talking with a treasured Cheers colleague, John Ratzenberger, who played the male carrier, Cliff Clavin, on all 11 seasons of Cheers. John is a bright and talented guy who's led such an interesting life beyond acting, and I'm very grateful that Woody and I got to share this time with him after so many years.

So without further ado, let's welcome our longtime friend, Johnny. Okay, Emmy nominee, a voice actor in 22 Pixar movies, a storied actor. Please don't interrupt. This is you. I just realized that. I thought we were talking about Woody. No, no, no. A storied acting career in TV and film

spanning nearly five decades. Perhaps his most famous role was on Cheers as the garrulous, you can quarrel with the word garrulous, male carrier, Cliff Claven. Please welcome to the show our longtime friend, Johnny, John Ratzenberg. Gentlemen, so good to see you again, once again. Great to see you, dude. I want to come back here every day now.

You, you, you. I get such a fuzzy feeling, warm and fuzzy seeing you. Where do we get going? I haven't seen you, like I literally, you're the only person from Cheers I haven't seen since the day we wrapped. I've been trying to avoid you. Yeah, that from Cheers I haven't seen since the day we wrapped. I've been trying to avoid you.

Yeah, that's what I was going to ask. Duck in the wrong quarters. There he is. I've been out and about. I just finished a 4,000 mile driving trip. I just took this spear of the moment. So I don't spend a lot of time here. Where'd you go from where to where?

Oh, from Rancho Mirage on the desert to Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Washington State, Oregon, and then back down here. Oh my God. In what? A car. Well, I didn't walk. Yeah, no, but he thought wondered if you're taking a motorcycle. This is a valid question.

He wondered if you were taking a motorcycle, right? Oh no, my daughter won't want me on motorcycles anymore. No more motorcycles. Yeah, no. But what kind of vehicle was it? I got a pickup truck. Nice. It's red.

By yourself? Was it just you pickup truck. Nice. It's red. By yourself? Was it just you? Yeah. Wow. What do you do when you pull into a town? Well, I bring... One of my friends that I stopped to see, he's an ex-vinter winery guy, he just sold his

winery, but he's got a big property up in Montana. His thing is trapping ski. I brought a couple of shotguns with me, and so we did some trapping ski shooting. Then I got friends in Oregon, we went down the Rogue River, one of those boats, the rapids and all that stuff.

I never have an agenda. This one I did, the first stop was in Pueblo, Colorado. I gave a talk there. I've been doing quite a bit of that speechifying. What are you speechifying about? Well, actually what I'd bet you here about all those years ago, to get kids shop classes, to get shop classes reinstated because

we're literally running out of people that know how to use tools. Literally, the airlines were running out of pilots of all things. The railroads falling off the tracks, that's because they don't have enough people to fix what's going wrong. Are you raising the alarm or are you- I've been trying for three. I spoke in front of Congress twice already,

and brought in witnesses from construction firms who said they have to close down because they can't find simple carpenters and bricklayers. I don't know if you remember, I was a carpenter before I got into this acting game. Yeah. No, because they give you, even though we hung out a thousand hours or more, there's a thing in here that you were at Woodstock as one of the crew. Yeah. You must have told me that, but I forgot about it. I never heard that either. Isn't that amazing? Yeah.

I guess, I don't know. What were you doing? I was a carpenter. I was living up in the area, up in Bearsville. I was building a studio for a mine, giving mine lessons. So I traded my carpentry skills for mine lessons and breakfast in a bed. The great businessman.

Then the word went out in town, there was some festival going on, they're looking for people. So I trundled on down there and stood in line, and the guy says, can you drive a tractor? I said, yeah. Never in my life. He hears the keys and started up and he went, I almost flipped it.

But then, so I was doing heavy equipment operation and pound pounding nails at the stage. Did you have to leave after you built it before the festival? No, I was there right through the festival. Oh my God. I was there like a week and a half before the festival, during the festival, and about a week after the festival. Did you have any idea that,

oh, this is huge, this is big or no? My first thought was, we're in big trouble when these idiots take over the country. Johnny, Johnny. I'm sorry. I mean, he said, wow, these people are idiots. They're college educated, but they're idiots.

The crowd. The crowd. Oh, the crowd. Yeah, all right. What did you think I was talking about? The musicians. All right. Well, who'd you think I was talking about? The musicians. All right. Okay, them too. No, I didn't get to hear a lot of music.

So yeah, but I was wandering, just on the road kind of thing. Hey, can we back up a second? We've been talking about, because we've all known each other but we knew each other while we were rehearsing and laughing and so I had no idea what Woody was like when he was the seven eight nine twelve whatever year old. What was that age? What were you doing at that age? What was your life like? Were you

running out the door and coming back and, you know, that was a nice sound, nice sound. That was me running out the door. No. Johnny, come back. Yeah, what was that like? Oh, I know. You live in Bridgeport.

Which is a factory town, but we grew up right under the water, but there was nothing sumptuous about it. They would say we grew up under under the water, but there was nothing sumptuous about it. They would say we grew up under water, yeah. But there was a shipyard right across the street, and one down the end of the street, one down the end of this street. So it was mostly utilitarian water things.

So I was around people building boats, repairing boats, buying boats, selling boats. At what age? Zero right on. That's where you learned the carpentry skills, working on boats? Yeah. Well, that's where I guess I'm thinking about. That's probably where my interest started.

But then when I got to middle school, we actually had shop classes. Mr. Banny said, oh no, you use a cross-cut saw for that or a rip saw. Then you started learning about tools. Right. You tried to do it right too because he had really bad breath. He was leaning over your shoulder,

your eyes in water. He wanted to do it right. But I always enjoyed that when I went to England, I don't know how old I was, 20, but that's how I made a living over there. It was a carpet yard. I got different building sites. Was that before you got bitten by the acting bug or comedy or whatever?

How did that fit in? Because I know you traveled around. The acting bug, I had done some in college, but I never thought you could make a living at this stuff. In England, a buddy of mine from college, Ray Hassett, who went on later years to become a very highly-decorated sheriff, policeman in New Haven, Connecticut.

But he and I toured Europe. This is the Sal's Meat Market. Sal's Meat Market. Yeah. So we got a pretty good reputation, the Monty Python guys who come to our shows, and remember Bob Hoskins. He'd always be in our audience, guys like that.

But then I came over here, Ray went another direction. But I mean, he's a movie, that guy. Undercover stuff. And yeah, but cheers. But before that, you also did every, you played every American soldier. Oh yeah.

In every war movie known to man. Well, because the dollar was very strong against the pound. When I was over there, so they're making a lot of American movies. So I was the right height, weight, size, look to fit into a uniform. So every movie, I did the 30-something movies over there and everyone was a uniform. Ragtime, I was a fireman,

British too far, Gandhi, yada, yada, yada. I was always in uniform of some kind, yeah. But then the ultimate uniform, the mailman. The garrulous mailman. The garrulous, that's not fair. He was way more than garrulous. Yeah, garrulous is interesting. But I love the way your audition went

because then you come in and audition for the George part, for Norm part. I guess, yeah, because I never auditioned. I'd been working 10 years straight in Europe, non-stop. Not once did I ever audition. I didn't go to acting school, so no one taught me what I was supposed to do. So I walked into the office,

remember there was Jimmy, Les and Glenn, a couple other people. But they're sitting there like that, they show me your stuff and I remember thinking, oh, that's probably why they gave me these scripts. go, that's probably why they gave me these scripts. So I did a horrible job. So I was walking out the door, literally walking out the door.

I don't know whether this is my fantasy or it happened in reality but I could have sworn that my eight by 10 was going like this into the waste basket. But I stopped and said, do you have a bar know it all? But that was the writer part of me asking. It was Glenn who said, what are you talking about? I said, every bar that I've ever been in, in New England anyway,

has some horse's ass who pretends to know everything, but everybody defers to that person anyway. Because when I go find my dad, tell him the dinner was ready, there's always one guy in the bar. My father's was this guy named Sarge. Hey, Sarge, what's the length of a whale's intestine? Baleen or blue? And he was a kid I thought that was hysterical.

So I just picked up on that kind of character and I think I used a ballpoint pen from the desk in there and explained why the big pen was originally called a bitch pen and why they had to take the H off and which is a true story by the way no there's two brothers French brothers the bitch brothers BICH-H. So they started a pen company and somebody goes, you might want to take the H off of that. Okay. Now you have to raise your hand. Is this true story? All right. All right.

Wow. I remember that's a great story. Yeah. I've always been a collector of arcane thoughts and facts. And so I get a kick out of it. ["The Bar of No at All"] When you did the audition, you're leaving, and then you say the thing about the bar of no at all,

so what was their response? Well, they were laughing. That was the only reason I did that because, again, I had a great career going in Europe, big audiences and I was toast to the town back there. But I didn't want to leave that office, have them think I was some kind of Momo, just some guy, some actor,

because I knew what I was doing, but I needed to make them laugh before I left, to regain my dignity because it was just shatters all over the carpet from my audition. So that's the only reason I did it two days later, I get a call. Did you get laugh? Did they laugh? Oh, yeah.

So you knew you left on a high. Well, I went into a whole character because it's those characters, the eyebrows go, you know. You got the convoluted motion that goes with it. And there's a cop who's a father of a buddy of mine growing up. And he was like that too. And I always used to make fun of him. And so, you know, mixed them all up.

And boom, bada boom. Johnny, it was a brilliant character. It truly was. You made me laugh so hard. I can go back and reruns and you make me laugh. I just, I love those types of that. It's sort of the pompous individual. Everybody knows he's full of it. But yet, okay, let's listen to him and pretend he's right.

Now, another influence because you told me this and you actually got me to start watching his movies, Jacques Tati. Oh, Jacques Tati, yeah. Tell me first a little bit about him. Well, it's just after Second World War, I started making movies. But he's the reason that I had the wardrobe guy at Cheers lift up my pant like the cuffs. You could see the white socks.

It's because of Jacques Tati. Jacques Tati, and a lot of his, he didn't, I only talked. But he just walked across the room and just his body language and the way he looked at other people would stare and You know, Jamie actually started like a knock, you know drink down on the dog and the dog And just a whole big chaos. Yeah, and all he had to do is walk walk through a room I just how brilliant that is. But as a matter of fact, I was thinking about him last night. I've been to this hotel up here in Hollywood, and they got all these knobs and buttons,

and I couldn't turn off the light. I was like, what the hell? But Jacques Tati did a movie called Mon Onc. It's all that, all these modern doodads and squiggles and spigots. But it's funny you've mentioned that, I was just thinking about that last night. We haven't talked a lot about, I mean we have talked a lot about Cheers,

but these are some silly questions. Like, do you have favorite moments? Do you have favorite episodes? Do you have anything? Oh, the Cheers? Yeah. I can't think of a time that a day that wasn't favorite. It just seemed like it just got better and better.

I really enjoyed the read-through of the scripts. David sent us a script about on Friday or the weekend, so that we would have it in front of us Monday. I never opened it. I would go in to work with you guys not having read the script. Every time you turned the page, it was like a little Christmas present. Yeah.

Because I loved the way the writing. You never saw it coming. Yeah. Whereas most sitcoms, you can see it coming. Yeah. Whereas most sitcoms, you can see it a mile away, you know what's going to happen. But with Cheers, you just didn't see it coming. Yeah.

So I just thought I got kicked out of that. But that was one of my favorite moments every week was that. I'm going to tell you some of my favorite ones, squeaky shoes. Oh, I was thinking about that too. Yeah. That was one, yeah. You directed that. I did, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. But that was one of my favorites too. Yeah. An entire bar walking around looking at their feet with squeaker, little hand held squeakers to make the shoe look. Yeah, I had the prop guy cut the squeakers out of toys, so each actor had his own octave. Because I know if they did it in post-production,

it'd be the same octave, the same sound. Not funny, but with the actors who are in charge, if you look at the right hands of all you guys, you'll see some people squeezing it. What else did you direct? Oh, a lot of half hour? Yeah, a lot of half hour. Then I made the great career move of moving

my family up to an island in Washington State. Yeah. The agents didn't like that because I was getting a lot of offers to direct. I made a lot. So I was with William Morris at the time. I said, well, I'm going to move my family up to start a little farm up in Washington on an island. He said, what? Well, yeah, just call me. I'll come down. I thought it was easy. Just call me. Okay, yeah, I mean just call me I'll come down You know, I thought It was easy. You know just call. Oh, okay. Yeah, I'll be there

But doesn't work like that. They actually have to talk to people But so that's kind of what what did you do though up there? Did you were you farming were you? Well, that's like I said, I grew up in and around boats, so we always had boats. My son and I, I remember the first fish he caught, we were in a boat, Cape Cod cat boat I had built. Anyway, he's reeling it in, he looks over and it's a shark.

It's like a sand shark, not a big deal. He was like five, six. He was dead. It's a shark. I remember that scene from Bambi, where Bambi's father's, get up Bambi, when the fire's coming. You can do it son. That's what I did with my son. I said, reel it in Jim, you can do it.

He wanted me to reel it in for him. But I remember the look of pride on his face when he reeled it in himself, and held it up like that. So that's the reason I went, because you can't do that here. Yeah. I've got this set of skills that don't translate to raising children here. So I had to bring them to a place that I knew well,

like crabbing and sailing. I remember going to pick up my kids at school and Jim jumps in the car and says, where's Nina? I don't know. I look and about 20 yards away, there's a huge pine tree with a lot of kids under the pine tree looking up. I said, I think I know where she is. She was like 80 feet in the air. Wow.

Just four or five years old. This is the side of the climb to pine tree. But that's the reason. Yeah. To expose's the reason. Yeah. To expose them to that. Just, yeah, there it is. Go do it. Hey, now that we're talking boats a little bit

and we have the major culprit sitting next to me, Woody Harrelson, come on, let's revisit the story just one more time. I don't know from Johnny's perspective, but he was ble from Johnny's perspective. He was completely irritated. We were dying and you were irritated. So I was a little afraid. Let us back up just for a second.

We decided, all the boys at Cheers decided to play hooky. First bad thing we'd ever done. And it was like I think our fifth year or something like that. We weren't heavy in the script, it was Shelly and Rhea. We called Rhea that night and said, heads up, we're going to play hooky. We all decided to meet down.

This is Long Beach, where the boat was. Yeah. It was a Boston Whaler that you had or something? No, no, Boston Whaler was a little, this is a Grand Banks. Wow. It's a 42 foot trawler. Yeah, it was very impressive. So we go there, I think Woody and I are stoned already

on marijuana and we stopped by to pick up Kelsey, who had been up all night and then we all pil to pick up Kelsey, who had been up all night. And then we all piled to the dock. We got to a telephone booth and we called Jimmy Burroughs, the director, and said, Jimmy, I'm not feeling good. I'm not coming in. Hold on one second. Then he'd pass it to the next guy in line.

He was not amused. And then we got on the boat. By now, having no breakfast, I'm hungry. And Woody says, have you ever had mushrooms? Would you like some mushrooms? And I thought, yeah. I mean, we're gonna be on a boat? We're not answerable to anybody?

Yes. And in my kind of hunger, I remember, it was two or three handfuls that tasted pretty good. Hard cut to, I don't know, half hour later. And we were at the tail end of weather that had come up from Mexico, right? That was on the way back. Oh, but it was, well, it wasn't bumpy. I thought it was bumpy. Not bumpy. No, the way over there was just... Okay, my mushrooms were bumpy. Let me put it that way. Something was bumpy. Yeah.

They're called waves. The ocean has them a lot. Yeah, so you should have told me that before I got on. Anyway, I look at Woody and Woody stretches out and I think, oh my God, he's so used to this. He stretches out in a bunk and I am dying. I have trouble

breathing and I am just dying. So I go up to where you and George went, were sitting, you were piloting. And you both looked at me and went, oh fuck. You know, what did you do? I had some mushrooms. And I sat next to George and every 30 seconds he would go, pat me and go, breathe.

And I go, because I would forget. You'd just be holding your breath. I remember that. You were like holding your breath for long periods. And I thought you were fine, but you finally came up because you were afraid you were contemplating jumping off the boat. Anyway, woof, never had a mushroom again.

Worst experience. And Kelsey was down below. He was sound asleep. Catching some Z's. So you two, George, Kelsey and me. Going to Catalina. Yeah. I enjoyed the ride back.

The ride back was fun. Not for you, because you were fighting some weather. But yeah, coming back, I remember we were on Catalina and I had my radio, carried my radio, so I knew there was weather coming. I just wanted to keep an eye on it and here's. When they said it's turning and it's going to be coming right down the channel

I that's I said to you guys remember we're Mexican restaurant. Yeah. Yeah as look we got a State of night Just to be safe now you're gonna make this next part up I can tell but go on You laying this on me. No, I wasn't going to do that. Oh, thank you. One of the members said, oh no, I got to get back because I got to go to a wedding.

My wife's going to get back. There was a whole litany of, I said, all right, we got to leave right this second. So we scurried down to the tender that took us out to the boat, started the engines, and got underway. It was horrible because the weather was coming broadside to the boat. As a captain, what you do is you go this way, the way the waves are going.

So I said, well, we can go up to Ventura or Oxnard, or just because that's where the wind's blowing us and it's safer. Because then you just go like that, that's fine because that boat would take it. It's built for heavy weather. And no, because the cars were there in Long Beach. But so the boats, I remember the props cavitating there. It was, because there's two engines, two props, and the boats, and you can hear the props spinning out of the water. And I remember thinking, tomorrow's Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

And I remember thinking tomorrow's papers is going to say Cliff Kills cast of cheers. Right. Navigating well, you asked me to sit up in the prowl. Well, yeah towards the end there we're coming in on just to keep an eye out for buoys and things for make sure we were in the right spot and Yeah, yeah that was oh and One of the members of the crew had opened the refrigerator, but forgot to latch it.

Woody, is that you? Was it Woody? I forget who it was. But when the boat pitched. Everything. Everything, all the bottles broke, beer bottles. So there's now broken you got glass, broken glass and beer. Boom, boom.

Like this. So I'm stuck at the wheel. So if anything happens, I can't even walk. It's all broken glass sloshing behind me. We're a mess. It was something. It was different. I think it was the last time you invited us on any of your boat. Oh, absolutely.

Have you ever been scared for your life on a boat? Oh yeah. Tell me. Well there's one side I, one that comes to mind when I was a deckhand on a oyster boat and uh went out it's like farming oysters you got the small oysters in the end you dredge them up and you put them somewhere else but it was in the winter there was a storm and I had to go out on the outside of the boat to open up what's called the scuppers that you know that you and you rinse this the oysters out anyway my hand missed the thing and uh I was going I had my full oilers on the rain rain gear boots so I was like this and my entire life flashed in front of me. I never. You're about to fall off the side. Knowing that because it was winter, it was a storm. It was just me and the skipper on the boat and

he couldn't hear me because of the engine. So I could yell and scream all I wanted but there's no way it'd take like half hour until he says, where the hell is that guy? you know that he you know would be able to find me but I Was going I was dead Because I knew as soon as I hit the water I knew enough that because with what I had on it I'd sink like a stone Cold water all that But God and his wisdom Cold water all that

But God and his wisdom Sent a wave on the other side of the boat that tipped the boat more my way and I was able to grab The boat but it's like guys. He had tipped the boat just enough for me to grab on And then I went down below just to set sit on a bunkhouse And the skipper came this old grumpy guy. He said, what the hell are you doing? Oh my God. Because apparently I was white as that sheet of paper. Yeah.

So he poured me a shot of whiskey and I knocked it back. But yeah, I was almost gone then. I had happened a few times different scenarios, roof of a building and stuff like that. I had happened a few times different scenarios, roof of a building and stuff like that. Motorcycles. Motorcycle crash, yeah. Tell us about the motorcycle crash.

Well, I drove a Harley here in Los Angeles, and I wasn't really a biker, just something to do. I was asked by a fellow who became a good friend of mine, Butch Starnes down in Florida. He was the president of the Vietnam Veterans on Harleys, basically. They were having a big fundraiser to raise money for diabetes research and as you may or may not know I was a big part of that nationwide and so he picked me up

at the airport and he says you want to go out for a drink or something? He said, yeah, sure. I didn't know it, but he had owned like six strip clubs in his former life. So we had to go to each one. Anyway, it wasn't until. The fourth or fifth one that you caught on. No, it wasn't until when the sun was coming up, I was just getting to bed and then he wakes me up a couple hours later. He said, okay, we're going to go pick up your bike.

Because they had rented one identical to the one I drove here, for me to lead off this procession. I said, yeah, okay, sure. I didn't want to say, I want to sleep. Okay, and got on the bike and my head is still spinning. I shouldn't have been on a bike at all. We get on the highway and he takes off. He had to be going 125,

him and some other guy and I'll catch up to him and I came around Going hits gravel Bumper bumper bumper bum and I remember thinking of my kids my last thought was Just a picture of both of my kids. I'll never see him again Just a picture of both of my kids. I'll never see him again

anyway, so now I'm laying down and I got to make it to the side because there's traffic coming behind me and I make it to the little grass area and Oh I think someone told me later that she was a nurse she'd come over and she looked down at me and You know see if she could help and she came and this far from my face went, oh wow, encouraging. That's not what you want. I remember saying to her,

thanks for stopping by, man. I'll take it from here. So anyway, my friend Bush had seen my bike up in the air, there's a rear view mirror, and so he circled back around and then Andulans showed up. And he said, and they're foot meeting on the stretcher, and one of them looks down to the other guy,

you know who this is? And now they're talking about favorite Cheers episodes. Right. I'm just close to bleeding to death. So Butch, God bless him, put him in the ambulance, get him out of here. Then what's the way you take him? They said, we'll take him to county.

Now county is where they use old rusty can openers. You don't want to go to county. Now county is where you know they use old rusty can openers and you don't want to go to county anywhere in the world. And he says no take him to Orlando regional and the guy said don't tell me what to do. I'm they were taking him to county it's closer and I wasn't in any shape to argue so they shut the doors and were going down a highway and the radio crackles It's the chief of the fire department Said where you taking them? They said County and then the chief says did mr Starnes tell you to take him to read around the regional? Oh, wow Yes, sir. He did. Will you do whatever mr. Starnes tells you?

30 days is, will you do whatever Mr. Starnes tells you? So we go across the verge again. I was so lucky again, the hand of God was there with me, that there was a symposium or a convention of the top ankle surgeons in the state or the country. So I had top people working on my good. If I hadn't been wearing a boots laced up, I would have lost my foot.

So they patched it all together and went down to the hardware store, got some metal and bolts and stuff. So yeah, I was in the hospital for a while. Let me back up again. I'm jumping around. Who do you think had the most impact on you from growing up, your father, your parents, whoever, to make you be this John Ratzenberger, if you could? burger if you could?

Oh, never been asked that before. That's a big question. You know, later on in life, you learn it's not the falling down, it's how you get back up. I think in my time in Europe, because there was no, except for my buddy Ray and his girlfriend at the time, there was no backup.

There was no, you're on your own. There's no going home and getting your laundry done. You're completely on your own. And that goes a long way in forming somebody. A Ray from the sales meat market? Yeah. Yeah. Because he had already been over there

working as a social worker. But also growing up, again, it's after world war two. And a lot of these guys, my father included came back with PTSD, but nobody knew because they didn't call it PTSD. They called it shell shock. And you were supposed to just get over it. I just shake it off. Right.

Well, I, I remember stepping over friends' fathers. On the way to school in the morning. I remember one who's sprayed across the curb just as you got to the crosswalk and kids are stepping over to go to school. But most of the fathers in the neighborhood, the bar was their clubhouse. So that forms your personality, dealing with that.

It was a kind of town, you had to have eyes in the back of your head. your head and the nuns. I remember seeing a nun knock a kid out, but she came up from her toes and an uppercut, and this kid went over a desk, but he deserved it. He really did deserve it. That's all the whole thing. So you grow up, I go,

well, okay. So he got knocked out. That's no big deal. But I don't know how to answer that. Was your mother a big ingredient in all of that in your life? Well, yes. She was a cuddly one. But what she would do, she'd buy old radios or appliances, what do they call them back then?

White elephant sails or something. Cut off the electrical cord, give it to me. I'm four years old, five years old. It's called a screwdriver's pliers. Take it apart. This is your mom. That's incredible. Wow. That was just, so to me,

that was a toy that I graduated to Erector Sets and I was always fascinated with that. But again, it was a background and stuff that I probably should have been an engineer, that I can do all that stuff. But I didn't know what an engineer was. I was the guy who drove a train. But there's nobody in the whole school system said,

you know what, you should be an engineer. I wouldn't have known what the hell they're talking about. My guidance concert in high school though, I'll never forget that. I walk in her office and she said, what do you want? This is my guidance counselor. I guess I must have been a senior, junior. I said, well, I just wondered after high school,

what I should be doing. There was pamphlets, Tufts University, and Princeton. I said, I'm not sure whether I should be going to Tufts, or be a doctor, or Princeton. I'm just busting the chops because I know I'm not going to Tufts. So she said, get out of my office. Now she's screaming.

Then she's standing up and she had veins. Vice principal goes running in. What's about it? Anyway, that's what was but. There was a new university opening up nearby and they needed buts for seats. So I applied there and got in. I think as long as your socks matched. I mean, it's a big deal university now. They actually did it right. It's a very well known place but

by I forget you what year it was maybe my junior year by one of my professors I had to go do something family related out of state they said John will you take over my class for a couple of weeks? After all, it was said and done once I dusted everything off. I had a brain. So he said, will you take over my class for a couple of weeks? I said, sure. I remember going out and getting a three piece suit and a briefcase.

Now I was going to be a college professor. This is after I graduated, that's right. So I think the suitcase had a baloney sandwich in it. That was like. And so I walk in the amphitheater, I stood at the podium and I looked down and there's my high school guidance counselor. Oh, wow.

Who told me, Ratz and Berger, get a job in some factory, find somebody to marry you if you can and try to stay out of jail. That was my guidance, seriously. That's my guidance. Those are three good guide posts. That was my guidance. That's a three good guide posts. That was my high school. Okay. It wasn't like,

you're going to be great out there. Yeah. You know, but there she is now, and I'm her teacher in college. So I say, Mrs. Sosa, how are you doing? She looked up, her eyes got wide. I think she started to sweat and maybe cry. But she never saw her again.

She didn't come back to another class. So when did you find out along the way, like high school or whatever, when did you find out you were funny? Were you ever like the class clown or? Yeah, but I was surrounded by guys like that. Bobby Garamella, Gil Zawadsky. Even in high school,

we before the teacher came in, makeup stuff, I said to one of the guys, go downstairs, third floor, go down to the parking lot, get on top of the car and spray yourself like you jumped out of the window of the car. So he did. Teacher comes in and there's a bunch of us that do it, and go, oh my God, he jumped, oh my God. She looked down and she screamed.

She runs down out, got the principal and said, hey, come on. So he jumped off and came back up another stairway. Yeah, just stuff like that. It just seemed harmless, might as well. Something to do, sort of, you know, just stuff. I love, you are a bundle, like we all are. But one thing that I love is I always,

because sometimes we're so different in many ways. I did not, I had an easier upbringing, you know, I think in some ways. Well, your father was an archeologist, right? Right, yep, and all of that stuff. But what I'm driving at is whenever I see you and I haven't seen you for a while, there's that, I mean, I grab you,

I hug you and we both laugh and giggle over just all the fun we had on chairs and all the memories. You've got that soft giggler inside of you. Oh yeah. Which I love. I mean, you're a cream puff. I will, even raising kids, I would look for ways to embarrass them in public. I would just-

To make them laugh. No. Just to- Make yourself laugh. Well, just to, well, they deserve this. I'm picking up my daughter from high school, and the door to the high school is like that wall. That's the, everyone's coming out of there. So I

pull the car up right here. I'm no more than 25 feet. I get out of the car, stand there, everyone's coming out, my daughter with her friends right there. I go, honey, honey, I'm over here. I'm right here. There's no other parent anywhere. There's no way she can miss me. Honey, can you see? I'm here. I'm here by the car. You see the car? Come on, honey.

She's like this. Oh no. That's my father. But her friends would go, they would be hysterical. Laugh them. I really enjoyed that. I noticed with my grandkids, all my silly jokes that work great when they're five, six. Man, I can't get the 11-year-old to laugh at any of my stupid jokes anymore. Male or female?

Female. I'll find another way. Don't worry. The embarrassing them at school helps. I'll try that. Try it. I embarrass my daughter all the time. How old is she?

Sitting right over there. She's 17. Hi. I'm one of your dad's old buddies from the old days when we were in the army. But she really, she has done some serious eye rolling for me like many a times. I've given her eyes immense amount of exercise. I don't know, I embarrass her, but not intentionally. I always do it intentionally. I embarrass her, but not intentionally. I always do intentionally.

I think they need it. Mary follows behind me in life going, he was kidding. That was a joke. He was kidding. What he meant was, because you do love to push the envelope and say the most slightly inappropriate thing you can find. Well, yeah, that's true. That's a good point. I remember picking my daughter up. So she was in a high-end middle school where the kids are picked up

either by the chauffeurs picking them up or a maid or limousine. I mean, it was high-end stuff. Well, I was putting in a basketball court in our house, and I decided to take the truck that I had there. What do you call it? Bobcat? It was a little small bulldozer. So it's a big diesel flatbed. So I picked her up in that from school. She still remember. Oh, that's right. So, you know, Mercedes, Porsche, blah, blah, blah.

Diesel truck. And she just looked at him, oh, dad. But she jumped up, you know, rode home with it. I think at the end of the day, they were kind of, they liked it. Yeah. Let me switch gears one second because I want to talk about Pixar. You've just had an astounding run with Pixar.

How do you feel about all that? Well, it's just I showed up and did it and became good friends with them. So they asked me to do everyone. You like their good luck, your talisman for them. Not anymore. I don't work with Pixar anymore. Oh, really? I think because- Once you made them big, they just-

Yeah. Who needs a lucky charm? Well, because there was a change of hierarchy, and I guess the new guys didn't want the lucky charm. But I still work with John Lasseter over at Skydance. Yeah. That's the company that makes Jack Reacher, Mission Impossible, and all that stuff. So they have an animation wing,

and John's running that wing. So I work with him there, just doing voices. I cannot get arrested in any kind of voiceover work. I'll come in and audition, they go, that's great, man, you should be doing this a lot and I never hear from them. It's kind of, I kind of love it because it feels like I'm starting over in one area,

but I cannot get arrested. Hi, see I find that strange. Thank you. He's got a great voice. Great voice. Yeah, well, yeah. Both of you. I'll put a word in.

Please. Would you talk to John. Now what about the, I remember when you were first doing the sizzle pack. Oh my. Yeah. Let's talk about that. That's great. That thing, and then I saw it everywhere.

I still see it everywhere. Oh, it's all over the world. Yeah. Sizzle pack, describe it. It's instead of styrofoam and all that horrible stuff that doesn't go away. Little pieces of paper, like little, well, you can describe it better. No, it's the same paper that paper bags made from craft paper. You take a strip of it and then fold it back on itself,

you accordionize it and the memory wants to get back to its original shape, you put a lot of them together, they interlock. So it's perfect medium for shipping fragile items. And I started that company up in Seattle and then sold. But that included like a factory. Oh. Making all this. So Walker's made the machines even.

You helped design the machines? Oh yeah. Thank you mom. Thank you mom. Oh really? Yeah. But it was just, you know, then I sold the company and they sold the company and they sold. So somebody is, I don't know who's in charge now, but it's worldwide now.

Yeah. Yeah, it was brilliant. I remember that. Yeah. Yeah. I don't get paid a cent anymore. So whatever work you guys can throw my way. I appreciate it No, you know when the the other thing you taught me that I I'll never forget was one day you came in and you were saying that you'd been up north or something and and Or in Montana or somewhere,

and you said, you know, that those national parks have a scenic strip, it's maybe 100 yards and the rest is just freaking clear-cut. And that they were clear-cutting our national forests. Remember? Oregon, yeah. Oregon. And I was like, well, nobody wanted to believe that.

None of us wanted to believe that. But then I went up there and I was like, oh my frickin' God. Is that when you sat in a tree for a week or something? Didn't you do that once? He climbed the Golden Gate Bridge. Yeah, well, that was for the Redwoods. But I had never, I mean, you can't even imagine that the United States government

is selling for like, I don't know, $8 a tree, these giant, beautiful, amazing fucking trees to the big companies. And you can go into the guy's office and I went into the office of one guy who was the head of the interior anyway there's like a message from Reagan saying congratulations on cutting so many bored feet out of the forest you know and I'm like you know it just everything it didn't create jobs correct me if I'm wrong but I think a lot of

that would then got shipped to be milled overseas, right? Right, the law was you can't ship a whole tree, it has to be milled. So what they would do to get around that law, they just cut this wide of a patch down the side of the tree. So now legally, you can ship it. They would ship it to Japanese building ships just off the coast here. After the 12-mile, they would turn it into wooden boards and sell it back to us. Yeah. So we were creating no jobs except for the- No. And one other thing I wanted to mention, you said that you got the place out near Palm Springs, Mirage-

Rancho Mirage. Rancho Mirage. And why did you say you wanted to get that place? Yeah, so when they come to visit, you'll, he's not answering. Look at him, it's that smell. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, so somebody find the body, otherwise I'll be there for months.

I love that morbid humor. Just stick it up to place. Yeah, no, it's important because I was just with my daughter and two granddaughters this weekend. They came out to the hotel, I was staying there out in Westlake, and it's just, you know. It's the best. Just watching them and listening to them, and them at night going out on the balcony pretending they were dogs, you know, barking at the people in the swimming pool.

That's great. It's what they should do. Also, my daughter, she was saying how much she enjoyed your Christmas cards. Remember this, we sent the cards, Ian, Mary and the family dressed as a dance troupe. We didn't actually dance. We did dance poses. Right.

That's what we're famous for. Yeah. Then the next year you sent out the CD of the back story. This is my wife, Mary. We actually had full-on wardrobe department and catering for that particular shoot. Well, yeah. Nina said to thank you. You got a big kick out of that.

I am so appreciative of that compliment. Please tell her thank you. Now, tell the truth, Amos. Would you ever watch Cheers episodes? Not when we were making them. No. Now, if I can find them, why do they do that?

Why do they have our show on at four in the morning? They got King of Queens and everybody loves Raymond, friends, all day long, one right after the other. But for us, it's 4.30 in the morning. Is that why I haven't been seeing any residuals on this dealio? Probably. Yeah. Probably. But really that's, because again, you know,

I just did 4,000 miles and hotels and stuff. There's no chairs anywhere, but all those other ones, so I always wondered that why. I think you can still find it, but it's getting harder. But you shouldn't have to search that hard for it. Yeah. I agree. Well, I was wondering why they did that if there was a reason.

You would know. I think that's when that age group gets up to pee and they're hoping the TV will be on and they'll notice. Oh, hey. Probably. Oh, look, there I am. Johnny, much love. Yeah.

Much appreciation. God bless you both. I cannot tell you how many times you've made me laugh since being on the show. It's my job. I mean, just watching old episodes, you are one funny, funny man. So fucking funny, man. That was the great John Ratzenberger. Thank you, John, so much for spending that time with me and Woody.

We appreciate you so much. That's it for this episode. Thanks to our friends at Team Coco. Once again, you can subscribe to our show on your favorite podcast app, and you can give us a great rating and review on Apple Podcast if you have some time. If you don't have time, don't. If you like watching your podcast, don't forget you can watch this episode in its entirety on YouTube.

See you right back here next week, where everybody knows your name. You've been listening to Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson, sometimes. The show is produced by me, Nick Leal. Executive producers are Adam Sachs, Colin Anderson, Jeff Ross, and myself. Sarah Federovich is our supervising producer. Our senior producer is Matt Apodaca. Engineering and mixing by Joanna Samuel with support from Eduardo Perez.

Research by Alissa Grawl. Talent Booking by Paula Davis and Gina Vagista. Our theme music is by Woody Harrelson, Anthony Genn, Mary Steenburgen, and John Osborne. Special thanks to Willie Navarrete. We'll have more for you next time, where everybody knows your name.