As pointed out by the Daily Times, by the end of its 11-season run, “Cheers” had already played host to several politicians and public figures, including former House Speaker Tip O’Neill and ex-Senator Gary Hart. While hosting the former Speaker of the House was surely an indication of the show’s reputation, landing the President was set to be its finest moment.
As series co-creator and executive producer Les Charles explained to Variety ahead of the show wrapping up, Bill Clinton sent “a communiqué that he wanted to appear in the final episode.” Of course, the “Cheers” team wasn’t going to turn down the President, who had been sworn into office in January of ’93. So, the show’s writers crafted an entire segment that would see Clinton visiting the bar. In fact, according to co-creator and executive producer Glen Charles, who spoke to The Hollywood Reporter for a “Cheers” retrospective in 2018, the President was due to take up a full 15 minutes of program time with his cameo. The plan was for Clinton to stop by the set “on his way to Vancouver to meet with Gorbachev.” But as Glen Charles went on to explain, things didn’t work out as planned:
“We set up everything and then, in the last minute, we got word he wasn’t going to be able to do it. So, we had to rewrite it.”