Cheers Loses Legendary Bartender
Legendary Boston bartender, Eddie Doyle (pictured at right), who has worked at the bar Cheers, which inspired the 1980s sitcom of the same name, is now one of many Americans that qualify for unemployment. After 35 years of service at the Beantown watering hole, Doyle has handed in his bottle opener and said goodbye to the local institution.
Over the course of several decade Doyle became a national celebrity to fans of the show, and a local philanthropic hero, hosting various auctions and charity events at Cheers that helped to raise over $1 million for organizations such as Globe Santa, The Jimmy Fund, The Cam Neely Foundation for Cancer Care, Friends of Floating Hospital, and The Massachusetts Soldiers Legacy Fund.
Known as the bartender that – you guessed it – knows everybody’s name (and drink!), in 1982, Doyle’s life and the reputation of Cheers, which was at one point the Bull & Finch, tranformed overnight after “Cheers” starring Ted Danson as the Everyman’s Bartender debuted on NBC. Doyle told The Boston Globe, “It could have been any bar in the US,” said Doyle. “But in the end, they did capture the whole thing – with their crew of misfits and eclectic collection of customers that fit but didn’t fit.”
Not surprisingly, Doyle is yet another victim of our country economic turmoil and the decision to let him go was not easy for owner Ted Kershaw, who called the decision to terminate the employment of his friend of 40 years “a disaster.”
“It’s the end of an era,” said Bill “Spaceman” Lee, to The Boston Globe. “That must mean in these tough economic times everybody’s going to be sober in Boston.”
Added former Boston mayor Raymond Flynn, “He’s as important as George Washington to this city; he’s that well known. They say it’s a bar where everybody knows your name but it’s really a bar where everybody knows Eddie Doyle.”
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