2013 Article about the Cheers logo and opening titles cites the Dope

[Knowed_Out]

I’m currently bingeing on Cheers while working from home, and I was curious on how the opening sequence was created. I used my Google Fu and found this article. About 3/4 of the way down, the article paraphrases Chris W. of the SDMB, but the link to the original post no longer works.

Cheers Logo and Opening Titles

So who was Chris W.?

[Andy_L]

Question about opening credits of "Cheers"

Thanks, Threadkiller. Hope you’re getting some sleep. I’ve checked various Cheers sites on the Web, with no luck so far. I don’t really care who the folks are in the photos; I just wanna know why Perlman and Wendt didn’t get the same “face time” as the other characters in the opening credits.

Chris_W was @riserius1

[AHunter3]

[riserius1]

Guest Join Date: Oct 2000
“Face Time” was actually very important in the early days of the series. The story goes that Ted Danson and Shelley Long both considered themselves the star of the series and neither wanted to receive second billing. That is why, if you will look closely you will notice the unique placement of their names(SL, lower right corner, TD upper left corner) allows both to be considered “Top billing”. In other words, if you read from left to right, Shelley Long is the star. However, if you read from top to bottom, Ted Danson is the star.

Chris W.

“This has been another… useless fact !”
–Y. Warner

What he obviously MEANT was that Shelly Long was at UPPER right and Ted Danson was at LOWER left:

Cheers Opening Credits and Theme Song