It was the last generation of writers [ the Cheers] that had grown up reading books instead of watching TV. So you weren't getting anything that was derivative of I Love Lucy or Happy Days. You were getting real characters [like those] they read in P.G. Wodehouse or Dickens or somewhere along the line, because they had all grown up with a love of literature.

Really, improv is all about creating for what's around you, in the moment, so it fits in a way that you can't see the seams. It's like a great jazz combo. I still do it.

I'd never been to acting school, so I never thought I'd get this far.

I always played a soldier, sailor, or policemen.

Maybe, I got a sense when [Star Wars] came out, and there were always these lines around the block. We didn't understand the popularity of Cheers until maybe five years into the series.

I don't know that I ever did see Star Wars as any different. I was certainly proud that I did it.

It appalls me that the people who decide what Americans will be watching on the tube have never been to the United States. Not the real United States.