The front door from the TV sitcom bar Cheers will be auctioned next month. The prop is expected to sell for as much as $150,000.
Cheers is one of the US’s longest running and most successful sitcoms.
It debuted in 1982 and 275 episodes and 12 seasons later its final edition had an estimated 93 million viewers, around 40% of the American population in 1992. The spun-off show, Frasier, also lasted 11 seasons and has recently been revived.
The show was filmed live and almost entirely on a single, barroom set that is achingly familiar to its fans.
Left to right, Kelsey Grammer as Dr Frasier Crane, Ted Danson as Sam Malone (Cheers’ owner), and Kirstie Alley as Rebecca Howe in front of the iconic door. Image courtesy of Julien’s Auctions.
Chief among the landmarks of that interior landscape were this door, complete with the bar’s logo, through which a cast of familiar characters and some starry guests walked.
Julien’s Auctions have added the door to their Channel Surfing: Broadcast to Binge auction on May 7 to May 8 in Los Angeles.
It has immediately shot to the top of the price list.
You’ll need to table an opening bid of $30,000 to try to win the door that is expected to realise between $125,000 and $150,000.
In 2023, the bar from the show realised $675,000 at an auction sale in Dallas. It was comfortably the most valuable item in a 1,000-lot sale of TV props and memorabilia.
The Conner family sofa from Roseanne is another iconic piece of sitcom furniture in the sale. Image courtesy of Julien’s Auctions.
Other highly valued items in the Los Angeles sale are Wonder Woman costumes (a bodysuit carries a $200,000 high estimate); the coach from Roseanne (with a $60,000 top prediction); and a feather headdress worn by Cher that is expected to reach $45,000.
These Wonder Woman boots are expected to make $30,000. Image courtesy of Julien’s Auctions.
Julien’s describe the door as: “The emblematic “Cheers” logo bar front door used on the set during all eleven seasons of the hit comedy television series Cheers (Paramount Television, 1982- 1993).
“The wooden door features a vertical slat design and an upper-third acrylic window with an applied “Cheers” graphic on one side. The vertical woodgrain is hand-painted by studio artists and its unique pattern—like a fingerprint—is noticeable from episode to episode, season after season, across the 275 episode run of the series.”
Saturday Night Live, Letterman, Batman, Gunsmoke and Bewitched are among the other classic shows featured in the sale that is open for bids online now.
