Real 'Cheers' Bartender Laid Off

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 10, 2009 2:14 PM CDT
Real 'Cheers' Bartender Laid Off
A tourist exits the Bull & Finch bar August 13, 2001 in Boston, Mass. The bar was the inspiration for the popular television sitcom 'Cheers.'   (Getty Images)

For 35 years, Eddie Doyle has been the most famous bartender at Boston’s most famous bar, pouring drinks, signing autographs, and raising more than $1 million for charity along the way. Now, he’s unemployed. Cheers, the bar that inspired the TV show of the same name, has laid Doyle off, the Boston Globe reports. "I'm a casualty of the economic situation that we're in," he says.

“He's as important as George Washington to this city,” said one former Boston mayor. “They say it’s a bar where everybody knows your name, but it’s really a bar where everybody knows Eddie Doyle.” Doyle started working the bar in the early 70s. He met his wife there, started a softball team, and organized fishing trips for the regulars. “We had a community,” he says. Then he adds, “I’ll still be around. I’m not dead.” (More Boston stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X