CSI star Ted Danson is still keen on comedy.
As CSI: Crime Scene Investigation focuses on murders, you may think Ted Danson, the show’s star, would be used to grisly stuff on set. But that’s not the case.
“Do I feel more familiar around dead bodies? No. And I hope I’m not tested any time soon,” the 66-year-old says with a chuckle.
The show’s returned for a 14th series. Ted only joined in 2011, though, as lead investigator D.B. Russell. Solving gruesome crimes is a far cry from his Cheers persona, Sam Malone.
It may be more than two decades since he last played the cheeky ladies’ man, but the much-loved comedy, which ran from 1982-1993, made Ted a familiar face and he’s happy to embrace the show’s legacy.
“I never would have thought that CSI would be something I would be doing. My standard joke is that I basically play Sam Malone over and over again. I’m just doing ‘Sam Malone sees dead people’,” he quips.
This series sees Ted reunited with his former Cheers co-star John Ratzenberger (who played Cliff Clavin).
“When I start to tell a Cheers story, everybody on the CSI set goes: ‘Here we go, old guy telling stories from his past’. But when John came, they actually let us reminisce,” Ted recalls, smiling. “It was really fun.”
Despite Ted’s easy nature, he doesn’t watch himself on screen.
“I have trouble looking at anything I’m in, until about 10 years have gone by,” he says.
“I’m just now catching up with Cheers episodes. When I watch myself, I become a horrible, judgemental person.”
Ted’s still keen to switch back to comedy.
“Maybe the last year of CSI, we can do CSI: The Comedy, because there must be something,” he teases.
CSI, Channel 5, Tue at 9pm.
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