‘Cheers’ bar sells for $675,000 at Dallas auction of items from classic TV shows
Jun 5, 2023, 12:58 PM | Updated: 1:49 pm
John Ratzenberger, George Wendt, and Kelsey Grammer join Sam Moser, Senior Vice President of Advertising sales for Nickelodeon and Nick at Nite , at the Cheers Bar on stage during the Nick at Nite 2001 Upfront Presentation at Cipriani in New York City on May 14, 2001.Photo by Gabe Palacio/ImageDirect
DALLAS (AP) — The bar from the television series “Cheers” sold for $675,000 at auction over the weekend, garnering the highest bid among the nearly 1,000 props, costumes and sets from classic TV shows offered up from a collection amassed by one man over more than three decades.
Heritage Auctions said that the items sold during its three-day event that wrapped up Sunday in Dallas brought in over $5 million. James Comisar has said that after his dream of creating a museum to house his collection failed to come together, it was time for the pieces to go to fans to enjoy.
#HERITAGELIVE Where everybody knows your name…🍻 Here we present the true star of the 11-season comedy, #Cheers: the beloved bar itself. The bar was the singular artifact that the whole cast gathered around in the 275-episode run. It sold for $675,000! https://t.co/bQ3AlATuwI pic.twitter.com/tRoidHEGXw
— Heritage Auctions (@HeritageAuction) June 4, 2023
“The auction’s success confirmed what I have always known: that television characters are cherished members of our extended family and that their stories and our own are inseparable,” Comisar said in a news release from the auction house.
The Batman and Robin costumes worn by Adam West and Burt Ward in the 1960s television series went for $615,000, while the set where Johnny Carson hosted guests on “The Tonight Show” went for $275,000, Heritage Auctions said.
The set from “All in the Family” — which included Archie and Edith Bunker’s living and dining rooms and stairwell — sold for $125,000, and the auction house said the same buyer also made the winning bid of $250,000 for the chairs used by the TV couple in the show’s ninth season.
Did you catch the Cheers homage at the end of Ted Lasso? This is what Sam Malone did in the last scene of the series finale: straighten the Geronimo picture before he left the bar. pic.twitter.com/AWs2JxwdW9
— Christopher J. Scalia (@cjscalia) June 2, 2023
The couple’s original two chairs from the show reside in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. Comisar said that those thrift shop chairs were given to the museum when it was thought that the show would end after its eighth season, but when it continued for a ninth, replicas were made at great cost. Those replicas — which were the chairs offered at auction — were then used in the show’s last season and in its continuation, “Archie Bunker’s Place.”
