The Spanish Version Of Cheers That Didn’t Last Longer Than A Season

The series had a very similar set, premise, and theme song. The American theme song, of course, was “Where Everybody Knows Your Name,” performed by Gary Portnoy. The Spanish version was “Donde la Gente se Divierte,” recorded by Dani Martín, former singer of the pop group El Canto del Loco. There were also similar old-timey opening credits pictures. The show was set in an unnamed Spanish town in an Irish bar named “Cheers.” In an article from Telemanía.es, script coordinator Carols Martin said of the series: 

“‘Cheers’ follows the format of the original series and the creative team’s adaptation work was fundamentally centered around dialogues, which they fill with Spanish idiosyncrasies and the socioeconomic reality of our country, trying to ‘improve what is already brilliant.'”

Alberto San Juan played Nicolás “Nico” Arnedo, the Sam character, a former footballer and womanizer whose drinking ended his sports career. Alexandra Jiménez played Rebeca Santaolalla, a Diane/Rebecca hybrid whose wealthy father went bankrupt, forcing her to work at the bar. Chiqui Fernández played Dolores “Lola” Mendoza, who was similar to Carla, with Joan Pera playing Pedro “Míster” Panero, a Coach analog. A version of Norm, Blas Román, was played by Pepón Nieto, and Cliff’s version was Ricardo Rodero, played by Luis Bermejo. We even got a Woody in Yuri Semionov, played by Adam Jezierski. 

It’s interesting to note that the first season of the American version of the series didn’t do well right off the bat. In fact, according to Uproxx (via Mental Floss), the show’s first season ended up at 77 out of 100 shows in the Nielsen ratings. Maybe 18 years was too long to wait for a new version. Perhaps it just didn’t translate well. Either way, it just didn’t last.