Just curious.
According to the IMDB, the credited writers (and creators) were…
Glen Charles, and
who seem to have mostly done Will and Grace, Frasier and Frasier, respectively.
Will & Grace - Interesting- I wonder if you would need to actually *be * gay to write “gay man” conversational dialog accurately, or is a good ear enough?
There were other writers too. A friend of mine knew one of them, a guy named Phoef Sutton, who did some writing of episodes about the time Woodu Harrelson first came onboard. IMDB says he did a few more shows after that, and is working on 'Boston Legal."
Legend has it around these parts that they got a lot of the ideas for “Cheers” while they were in college at the University of Redlands, where they hung out at a pizza parlor called “Gay 90’s.” A real dive, but full of characters.
David Angell joined the writing staff of “Cheers,” helped develope “Fraiser” and died on 9/11 on flight 11.
Sam Simon wrote for Cheers and went on to co-develop The Simpsons and write for The Drew Carey Show.
James Burrows, btw, is the son of the late Abe Burrows, who was a legendary comedy writer from the “Golden Era” of radio, and later, Broadway. Abe’s work still gets laughs from modern audiences that attend revivals and local productions of the musicals *Guys and Dolls * and How to Succeed…, among other shows.
His biography is titled “Honest Abe.” I read a chapter; it was great.
One of them ended up at Sacred Heart hospital in an episode of Scrubs. “Norm!”
That wasn’t a real writer, the character’s name was Charles James, which was kind of a reference to Glen and Les Charles.
And James Burrows.
Burrows was interviewed by Terry Gross of “Fresh Air” a few months back. In addition to “Frasier” and “Will and Grace” Burrows also did writing for Lisa Kudrow’s HBO show, which I believe was canceled. Prior to “Cheers” he had worked on the “Bob Newhart Show” and the “Mary Tyler Moore” show.