It seems way too trite to actually name this posting “Norm!” One can only imagine how many times a day poor George Wendt hears it as he goes through his daily routine. But there is simply no better way to remember this actor because George Wendt has become synonymous with this character. Yes he’s done other things, many of them quite cool: My Bodyguard, Fletch, Guilty by Suspicion, Airplane II: The Sequel. But since his day on one of my all-time favorite sitcoms Cheers, where he was one of only three actors to appear in every single episode, there was no cutting ties between George Wendt and his character Norm Peterson.
Subsequently George Wendt would play the same character in the Cheers spinoff The Tortellis, Wings, Frasier, St. Elsewhere, The Simpsons, plus he played a fictionalized version of himself in an episode of Bob Newhart’s Bob (where he was constantly referred to as ‘the guy who played Norm on Cheers‘) Even his appearance in Hot in Cleveland was as a bar denizen named Yoder.
One may expect that George Wendt is much like his Cheers character… but he’s really not. Norm is kind of a downer that likes to sit around a bar all day. George Wendt is just a downer that merely frequents the hotel bar in the evening (at least I was told). And I don’t mean that in a mean way. It’s just that George Wendt the actor seems painfully shy and introverted. Everyone noted that no matter how much they tried to converse with him when he appeared at the HorrorHound show in Cincinnati, Ohio on March 22, 2015, he just wouldn’t open up.
I myself tried to ask him about his wife Bernadette Birkett, and about his appearance in the episode of Bob. He had little to say. Very little. I simply paid my $40 for the autograph and got my free photo with him, and fortunately he was nice enough to do one with Carolyn as well. That was that.
I would have been tempted to ask him “what’s up?” but instead of a clever retort like, “my nipples… it’s freezing out,” he would have likely said something like “not much”. In any case, I got to meet him and now I’m happy. In fact he’s really the only reason I went to this particular event. I’m always looking forward to any Cheers encounter.
Celebrities of the 2015 HorrorHound in Cincinnati will continue…
I sat near George’s table at a New Jersey autograph show, so for several hours I noticed George with the fans. He’s much like you describe him-very quiet but I noticed him taking his time with each individual, he would engage, to some degree about his shows or movies and current projects.
He would also do special inscriptions like character quotes, which I think was nice. He is still relatively new to the autograph scene, one of the bigger names IMO, and what I observed is that he seemed kind of humbled by the adulation. Definitely a nice guy, very quiet, though.
Jason
August 28th, 2015