Glen and Les Charles

Last updated
Glen Charles
Born
Glen Gerald Charles

(1943-02-18) February 18, 1943 (age 81)
Education University of Redlands
Occupation(s)Screenwriter and producer
Known for Cheers
Awards Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series and Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Episodic Comedy (Cheers episode "Give Me a Ring Sometime")
Les Charles
Born (1948-03-25) March 25, 1948 (age 76)
EducationUniversity of Redlands
Occupation(s)Screenwriter, producer
Known for Cheers
AwardsPrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series and Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Episodic Comedy (Cheers episode "Give Me a Ring Sometime")

Brothers Glen Gerald Charles (born February 18, 1943) and Les Charles (born March 25, 1948) are American screenwriters and television producers, best known for working on Taxi and co-creating Cheers . [1] [2]

Contents

Early lives and careers

The Charles brothers attended University of Redlands. Glen graduated in 1965, and Les graduated in 1971. [3] Glen began his professional life as an advertising copywriter but moved into television. Both Glen and Les began their television careers together as writers for M*A*S*H . They later wrote for The Mary Tyler Moore Show , Phyllis and The Bob Newhart Show , and were head writers and producers on the TV series Taxi . They then formed the Charles-Burrows-Charles production company with James Burrows, and created and produced the television series Cheers . The brothers also co-wrote the screenplay for the 1999 film Pushing Tin . Both were credited in every episode of Frasier as the creators of the "Frasier Crane" character from Cheers.

Cheers

Cheers is a sitcom that ran on NBC from September 30, 1982, to May 20, 1993, with a total of 275 half-hour episodes for eleven seasons. The show was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions in association with Paramount Network Television. The show is set in a bar named Cheers in Boston, Massachusetts, where a group of locals meet to drink, relax, and socialize. The Cheers finale aired on May 20, 1993, and was watched in an estimated 42.4 million households across the country. [4]

Filmography

Television

Writing credits
SeriesEpisodeAir date
M*A*S*H "The Late Captain Pierce"October 3, 1975
Doc "Doc, Heal Thyself"November 8, 1975
Phyllis "Paging Dr. Lindstrom"December 22, 1975
"Phyllis in Love"January 19, 1976
"Crazy Mama"January 26, 1976
"Sonny Boy"February 16, 1976
"The Triangle"March 1, 1976
"Phyllis Cries Wolf"October 25, 1976
"Out of the Closet"November 1, 1976
"Mother Dexter Cohabitates"November 22, 1976
"Mother Dexter's Wedding"December 6, 1976
"Bess Airs Her Views"December 20, 1976
"Broken Hearted Bess"January 30, 1977
"Dan's Ex"February 13, 1977
"And Baby Makes Six"March 13, 1977
The Mary Tyler Moore Show "Mary and the Sexagenarian"February 12, 1977
The Bob Newhart Show "Bob's Change of Life"September 24, 1977
"Who Was That Masked Man?"October 15, 1977
"Happy Trails to You"April 1, 1978
The Betty White Show "Goodnight Sweet Fletch"October 31, 1977
Taxi "Come As You Aren't"October 10, 1978
"Paper Marriage"October 31, 1978
"Sugar Mama"January 16, 1979
"Elaine and the Lame Duck"February 13, 1979
"Mama Gravas"February 27, 1979
"Hollywood Calling"May 8, 1979
"Honor Thy Father"September 18, 1979
"Reverend Jim: A Space Odyssey"September 25, 1979
"Latka's Revolting"November 27, 1979
"Art Work"March 4, 1980
"Going Home"December 17, 1980
"Latka's Cookies"February 5, 1981
"Zen and the Art of Cab Driving"March 19, 1981
"Latka the Playboy"May 21, 1981
"Of Mice and Tony"December 10, 1981
"I Wanna Be Around"January 7, 1982
"Bobby Doesn't Live Here Anymore"January 14, 1982
Cheers "Give Me a Ring Sometime"September 30, 1982
"Sam at Eleven"October 21, 1982
"Showdown": Part 1March 24, 1983
"Showdown": Part 2March 31, 1983
"Power Play"September 29, 1983
"I'll Be Seeing You": Part 1May 3, 1984
"I'll Be Seeing You": Part 2May 10, 1984
"Rebound": Part 1September 27, 1984
"Rebound": Part 2October 4, 1984
"I Do, Adieu"May 7, 1987
"Home Is the Sailor"September 24, 1987
"One for the Road"May 20, 1993
All Is Forgiven "With Child"March 20, 1986

Film

Personal lives

They were raised in Henderson, Nevada, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. [5] [6]

Related Research Articles

<i>Cheers</i> American television sitcom (1982–1993)

Cheers is an American sitcom television series that aired on NBC from September 30, 1982, to May 20, 1993, with a total of 275 episodes across eleven seasons. The show was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions in association with Paramount Network Television and was created by the team of James Burrows and Glen and Les Charles. The show is set in the titular bar in Boston, where a group of locals meet to drink, relax, socialize, and escape from their day to day issues.

<i>Frasier</i> American television sitcom (1993–2004)

Frasier is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for 11 seasons. It aired from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee, in association with Grammnet (2004) and Paramount Network Television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frasier Crane</span> Fictional character in the television series Frasier and Cheers

Dr. Frasier Winslow Crane is a fictional character who is both a supporting character on the American television sitcom Cheers and the titular protagonist of its spin-off Frasier and the latter’s 2023 sequel. In all three series, he is portrayed by Kelsey Grammer. The character debuted in the Cheers third-season premiere, "Rebound " (1984), as Diane Chambers's love interest, part of the Sam and Diane story arc. Intended to appear for only a few episodes, Grammer's performance in the role was praised by producers, prompting them to expand his role and increase his prominence. Later in Cheers, Frasier marries Lilith Sternin and has a son, Frederick. After Cheers ended, the character moved to a spin-off series, Frasier, through which the span of his overall television appearances totals 20 years. In the spin-off, Frasier moves back to his birthplace, Seattle, after his divorce from Lilith, who retained custody of Frederick in Boston, and is reunited with a newly created family: his estranged father, Martin, and brother, Niles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam Malone</span> Fictional character in the series Cheers

Samuel "Mayday" Malone is a fictional character on the American television show Cheers, portrayed by Ted Danson and created by Glen and Les Charles. The protagonist of the series, Sam is a former relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox baseball team who owns and tends the bar called "Cheers". He is also a recovering alcoholic and a notorious womanizer. Although his celebrity status was short-lived, Sam retains that standing within the confines of Cheers, where he is beloved by the regular patrons. Along with Carla Tortelli and Norm Peterson, he is one of only three characters to appear in all episodes of Cheers. Sam has an on-again, off-again relationship with the bar waitress Diane Chambers for the series' first five seasons until her departure from the series. Then he tries to seduce Diane's replacement, Rebecca Howe, who frequently rejects his advances. Sam also appears in "The Show Where Sam Shows Up", a crossover episode of the spin-off Frasier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rebecca Howe</span> Fictional character in the series Cheers

Rebecca Howe is a fictional character of the American television sitcom Cheers, portrayed by Kirstie Alley and created by Glen and Les Charles. Rebecca appeared in 147 episodes of Cheers between 1987 and 1993 and in one episode of Wings. She debuts in the season six episode "Home Is the Sailor" after Shelley Long—who played waitress Diane Chambers—left the show to pursue a movie career. Much of the show's humor in previous seasons had been based around the interaction and sexual tension between the womanizing, working-class main character, bartender Sam Malone, and the high-class, snobbish Diane. Rebecca was intended to fill the gap as Sam's new female foil.

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"Give Me a Ring Sometime" is the pilot episode and the first episode of the first season of the American situation comedy Cheers. Written by Glen and Les Charles and directed by James Burrows, the episode first aired September 30, 1982, on NBC in the contiguous United States and on October 14, 1982 in Alaska. The pilot episode introduces the characters at the Cheers bar in Boston: employees Sam Malone, Diane Chambers, Coach Ernie Pantusso, and Carla Tortelli; and regular customers Norm Peterson and Cliff Clavin. In this episode, Diane, brought in by her fiancé, meets the employees and patrons of the bar. When she realizes that her fiancé has left her alone in the bar, Diane accepts Sam's offer to be the bar's waitress to start over.

"One for the Road" is the final episode of the American television series Cheers. It was the 271st episode of the series and the twenty-sixth episode of the eleventh season of the show. It first aired on NBC on May 20, 1993, to an audience of approximately 42.4 million households in a 98-minute version, making it the second-highest-rated series finale of all time behind the series finale of M*A*S*H and the highest-rated episode of the 1992–1993 television season in the United States. The 98-minute version was rebroadcast on May 23, 1993, and an edited 90-minute version aired on August 19, 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam and Diane</span> Fictional couple in the show Cheers

Sam Malone and Diane Chambers, collectively known as Sam and Diane, are fictional characters in the American situation comedy television series Cheers. Sam Malone is a working-class, retired baseball player-turned-bartender played by Ted Danson; Diane Chambers is a college-graduate cocktail waitress played by Shelley Long. Danson appeared on Cheers for its entire run of the series; Long was part of the regular cast from the 1982 series premiere until the fifth-season finale, "I Do, Adieu" (1987). Long returned for a special appearance in the 1993 series finale, "One for the Road."

"I Do, Adieu" is the fifth-season finale of the American television sitcom Cheers, written by Glen and Les Charles and directed by James Burrows. It aired on May 7, 1987, on NBC. During the fifth season, Sam Malone repeatedly proposes to Diane Chambers, and she refuses repeatedly until she accepts engagement in "Chambers vs. Malone" (1987). In the previous episode, "A House Is Not a Home", Sam and Diane bought a house together. Before this episode aired, Ted Danson decided to renew his contract with the show as Sam Malone, while Shelley Long decided to quit the series, which could conclude the on-and-off romance of "Sam and Diane" that went on for the first five years since 1982.

"Showdown" is the two-part first-season finale of the American television sitcom Cheers, written by Glen and Les Charles and directed by James Burrows. It originally aired on NBC on March 24 and 31, 1983. In the Cheers pilot, college-educated Diane Chambers was neglected by her previous lover and then hired as a waitress by bartender Sam Malone. Since then, they flirted and resisted each other throughout the season. In this two-part episode Sam's more-successful brother Derek becomes Diane's love interest, leaving Diane torn between Derek and Sam. In the end, Sam and Diane passionately embrace in the office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diane Chambers</span> Fictional character in the series Cheers

Diane Chambers is a fictional character in the American television situation comedy show Cheers, portrayed by Shelley Long and created by Glen and Les Charles. After her fiancé Sumner Sloan abandons her in the Cheers bar in the pilot episode, Diane works as a bar waitress. She has an on-off relationship with the womanizing bartender Sam Malone and a one-year relationship with Frasier Crane, who later becomes a main character of the series and Frasier. When Long left the series during the fifth season, the producers wrote her character out. After that, they added her permanent replacement Rebecca Howe, a businesswoman played by Kirstie Alley, in the sixth season. Shelley Long made a special guest appearance as Diane in the series finale, as well as in Frasier as a one-time figment of Frasier's imagination, and as the actual Diane in the crossover episode "The Show Where Diane Comes Back".

<i>Cheers</i> season 1 Season of television series

The first season of the American television sitcom series Cheers premiered on September 30, 1982, and concluded on March 31, 1983. It consisted of 22 episodes, each running approximately 25 minutes at length. The show was created and produced by director James Burrows and writers Glen and Les Charles, who previously worked on Taxi, another sitcom. Cheers was produced by Charles Burrows Charles Productions in association with Paramount Television. The concept and production design of the show were inspired by a public house in Boston, the Bull & Finch, which is now called Cheers Beacon Hill.

<i>Cheers</i> season 2 Season of television series

The second season of Cheers, an American situation comedy television series, originally aired on NBC in the United States between September 29, 1983, and May 10, 1984, with 22 episodes. The show was created by director James Burrows and writers Glen and Les Charles and was produced by Charles Burrows Charles Productions in association with Paramount Television. The second season has been released on DVD as a four-disc set.

<i>Cheers</i> season 3 Season of television series

The third season of Cheers, an American television sitcom, originally aired on NBC in the United States between September 27, 1984, and May 9, 1985. The show was created by director James Burrows and writers Glen and Les Charles under production team Charles Burrows Charles Productions in association with Paramount Television. The third season is available on DVD in a four-disc set.

<i>Cheers</i> season 4 Season of television series

The fourth season of Cheers, an American television sitcom, originally aired on NBC in the United States between September 26, 1985, and May 15, 1986, as part of the network's Thursday lineup. This season marks Woody Harrelson's television debut as Woody Boyd after Nicholas Colasanto, who portrayed Coach Ernie Pantusso, died during the previous season. The show was created by director James Burrows and writers Glen and Les Charles, under production team Charles Burrows Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Television.

<i>Cheers</i> season 5 Season of television series

The fifth season of Cheers, an American television sitcom, originally aired on NBC in the United States between September 25, 1986, and May 7, 1987. This season marks the departure of Shelley Long as Diane Chambers, bringing an end to the Sam and Diane relationship. The show was created by director James Burrows and writers Glen and Les Charles, in association with Paramount Television.

<i>Cheers</i> season 6 Season of television series

The sixth season of Cheers is an American television situation comedy set in a Boston bar called "Cheers". It originally aired on NBC in the United States between September 24, 1987 and May 7, 1988. The show was created by director James Burrows and writers Glen and Les Charles under their production company Charles Burrows Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Television. This season features the debut of Kirstie Alley as Rebecca Howe.

<i>Cheers</i> season 7 Season of television series

The seventh season of Cheers, an American television sitcom, originally aired on NBC in the United States between October 27, 1988, and May 4, 1989. The show was created by director James Burrows and writers Glen and Les Charles under production team Charles Burrows Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Television.

References

  1. Haithman, Diane (January 14, 1988). "Romance, Quality Writing Make 'Cheers' NBC's Happy (Half) Hour". The Los Angeles Times . Retrieved August 3, 2015.
  2. "Glen Charles Interview". Archive of American Television . Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation . Retrieved July 22, 2017.
  3. "Notable Alumni". University of Redlands. Archived from the original on September 18, 2012. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
  4. Harris, Will (2018-05-18). "'Cheers' Team Reflects on Series Finale on 25th Anniversary, Talks Revival Potential". Variety. Retrieved 2019-07-29.
  5. "Splitting Up Takes Nights For Sam, Diane Of 'Cheers'". The Blade . Toledo, OH. The Associated Press. May 3, 1984. p. P6. Retrieved August 3, 2015.
  6. Raftery, Brian (October 2012). "The Best TV Show That's Ever Been". GQ . Retrieved September 27, 2012.