Ted Danson has said he was nearly barred from working with NBC in the 1980s after a senior executive blamed him for an unsuccessful pilot and allegedly circulated a message telling others not to hire him. The episode mattered because it threatened his casting in *Cheers*, the sitcom that became his breakthrough and established him as one of American television’s best-known comic actors.

Danson played former baseball player and bar owner Sam Malone in *Cheers*, which ran from 1982 to 1993. Despite the reported attempt to blacklist him, he was cast in the role and went on to win two Primetime Emmys; the show became a major critical and commercial success.