"Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got;
Taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot.
Wouldn't you like to get away? ...
Be glad there's one place in the world where everybody knows your name,
And they're always glad you came;
You want to go where people know people are all the same;
You want to go where everybody knows your name. "
from Cheers Theme Song
Tourists in search of the fictional 'Cheers' pub where Norm had his beer, Cliff Claven impressed them with those 'little known facts' and Red Sox baseball star Sam Malone tended bar will have a new 'Cheers' pub to visit in Boston -- one that actually replicates the Hollywood set.
The Bull & Finch, the real pub on Beacon Street that inspired the 11-year long Emmy award winning television show, disappoints many of the 900,000 tourists who drop in each year expecting to see Hollywood's version instead of the much smaller, quaint setting.
So Tom Kershaw, the owner of the Bull & Finch, decided to expand his business enterprise and build a new Cheers' pub 'where everybody knows your name' just a mile away.
The new pub and its two restaurants will open this month at Faneuil Hall Marketplace, a tourist destination that already attracts 13 million tourists a year. Kershaw says there will be a two-floor restaurant and two full bars.
The pub will feature a central island bar, Tiffany lamps, a Wurlitzer jukebox, TV lighting and a catwalk, which will make you feel like you are on the television set. Sports fan can watch DirecTVs broadcasting sports from around the country. Memorabilia and costumes worn by the Cheers cast will be on display.
The story of how a little Boston pub became so well-known to millions of people worldwide goes like this: When Jim Burrows and Glen and Les Charles, the producers of Cheers, needed an American neighborhood bar in which to place their new sitcom, they decided to go to Boston, to find a local watering hole where sports and politics are hot issues.
The producers dropped in to the Bull & Finch and enjoyed their experience with bartender Eddie Doyle, who is now the city's best-known pubmaster. They scouted other locations but came back and took pictures, had the set built, filmed a pilot and sold the show, which was first broadcast on September 30, 1982. The show has been in syndication since it went off the air in 1993.
Pat Rioux
