Ted Danson says he'd grab himself 'periodically in the nuts' to make his “Cheers” character seem like an athlete

"Athletes, for some reason, touched themselves a lot."

Talk about channeling a ballplayer.

Cheers star Ted Danson is revealing some audacious advice he got from series co-creator and director James Burrows on how to convincingly portray his character, the smooth-talking barkeep Sam Malone, as a former major-league pitcher.

"Jimmy Burrows helped me really by saying, and it got me a lot of close-ups too, 'Just reach down and grab yourself periodically in the nuts,'" the actor recalled on Wednesday's episode of the new Cheers podcast Where Everybody Knows Your Name. "Athletes, for some reason, touched themselves a lot."

Related: Cheers star George Wendt says nephew Jason Sudeikis is 'such a great kid'

"Did he really?" the episode's guest star, Will Arnett, asked.

"He did say that, yeah," Danson replied.

Cheers castmate and podcast cohost Woody Harrelson then interrupted to ask if Arnett or Danson had ever heard the term "BDE," which stands for "big dick energy."

"I don't know if you're able to say things like that," Harrelson acknowledged, before pointing to Danson and stating that "he has that in spades. He's a real leading man."

"He had that BDE for sure on that show," Arnett quipped, "and I have BSE, which is 'big snuggle energy.'"

Related: Cheers stars Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson to reunite to share tales from sitcom, interview celebs

Danson led the Emmy-winning sitcom for all 11 seasons, from 1982 until 1993, while Harrelson joined in season 4 as the lovably dimwitted bartender Woody Boyd. Last month, ahead of their podcast launch, Danson teased that he was looking forward to sitting down with the show's guests "for a deep, uninterrupted conversation" with his "dear friend" Harrelson.

The pair have reunited to discuss Cheers several times over the last years, including a recent reunion with castmates Kelsey Grammer, Rhea Perlman, and John Ratzenberger at the 2023 Emmy Awards.

Watch Danson discuss his, ahem, ballsy acting in the clip above.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.