The coronavirus pandemic has forced countless businesses to close their doors due to a sudden lack of income. Unfortunately, that list now includes the replica bar from Cheers in Boston, Massachusetts.
Cheers sits inside Faneuil Hall Marketplace as an exact replica of the NBC sitcom’s joint. The spinoff location first opened in 2001 to immediate praise and has since become a constant fixture in both the city’s bar scene and its tourism industry.
Tom Kershaw, the founder of the Cheers bar, said he tried everything he could to salvage the spot. “I have faced, and pulled through, many kinds of downturns and upticks in the economy within the last 20 years Cheers Replica Bar at Faneuil Hall Marketplace has been in business,” he said in a press release. “Sadly, the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with no assistance from our landlord has made this current challenge insurmountable.”
Thankfully, the original bar in which Cheers was filmed is still surviving over in Beacon Hill. When the show originally aired from 1982 to 1993, it received 117 Emmy nominations and won 28 Emmys. Since then, countless cast members — Ted Danson, Rhea Pearlman, John Ratzenberger, Kirstie Alley — have gone on to enjoy successful careers in the industry.
The coronavirus pandemic is rapidly changing the ways in which the entertainment industry functions. Film sets have to take extreme precautions now, most TV shows can’t continue being created solely from home, and movie theaters continue delaying their scheduled reopening dates. All in all, it looks like the industry is set to lose over $20 billion from COVID-19-related losses, at minimum.
Editor’s Note: Stay safe by picking up one of our custom face masks. A portion of the proceeds will benefit MusiCares’ COVID-19 Artist Relief fund supporting independent musicians.
