Sure, everybody knows his name. Not to mention his deadpan delivery, his ability to hoist a frothy brew, and the batch of brown curls topping his world-weary head. For 10 seasons, viewers knew George Wendt as plain old Norm, the guy permanently planted on Cheers' corner barstool. But does everybody know that Wendt can actually walk?
''Apparently he has knees that bend, and we're looking forward to using them,'' says Peter Tolan, executive producer of The George Wendt Show, premiering March 8 on CBS. Not that Wendt's new role will be a huge departure from the, um, norm. ''I don't think they're gonna notice much difference other than the fact that I won't have a beer in my hand,'' says Wendt. ''I'm not a chameleonlike character actor. I'm not somebody who comes off differently with each role.'' In other words, Wendt is a Norm-like kind of guy. ''He watches football, likes having a coupla beers and hanging out,'' says Tolan. ''I met him in Chicago and when I asked him where he was staying, he said, 'My mom's house.' ''
Sitting in his trailer at CBS' Radford Studios, dressed in shorts, a black T-shirt, and Nikes, Wendt, 46, describes himself as a prototypical slacker. (He got kicked out of the University of Notre Dame, and his location trailer contains a stash of CDs that includes Pearl Jam, Gutterball, Bob Mould, and Hole.) His voice low, his pace slow, he admits that for a long time after Cheers he had difficulty reading scripts: ''The timing was wrong. It felt like the body wasn't cold yet, or the divorce wasn't final.'' He still isn't completely convinced he should star in another sitcom, but he was overcome by the nagging feeling that it was time to get back to steady work.
Not that he seems exactly comfortable with the attention. Mention the title the network has chosen for his new series and Wendt rolls his eyes. ''That's probably the weirdest thing about all this,'' he says. ''I can't tell you how weird that feels.'' Wendt also has to get used to serving a bigger piece of the sitcom pie. ''Now that he's the star, he has to set the tone,'' says coexecutive producer and former Cheers producer Dan O'Shannon.
The series revolves around two brothers and is loosely based on Tom and Ray Magliozzi and their Boston-based National Public Radio call-in show, Car Talk. After NBC passed on the original pilot in 1994, the show's locale was shifted to Madison, Wis. (Wendt wanted to get away from Boston), the radio angle was played down (it was thought too Frasier-like), and the role of Wendt's brother, originally played by Dan Castellaneta (the voice of Homer Simpson), was recast with TV newcomer Pat Finn, 29. ''We wanted to make this about the relationship between a much younger brother and an older responsible one,'' explains Tolan.
Wendt first saw Finn in Chicago when the young actor was in a Second City production directed by Wendt's wife, Bernadette Birkett. (The couple, who married in 1978, now live in L.A. with their five children -- two from her previous marriage.) Wendt says of his costar: ''He's so funny. He can't not be funny. And although we don't look like each other, we look like we could be brothers.'' That's just the beginning. Both actors hail from the Windy City, have devout Catholic mothers (''I tease him that my mom's holier,'' says Wendt), worked on soda trucks, caddied, and began their acting careers on the Second City stage. When it's suggested that both also lack pretense, Wendt mumbles, ''I would never say that but I might nod.'' The first time Finn went to Wendt's house for dinner, they dined on pizza and watched a Marquette basketball game. ''He's like an older brother,'' says Finn. ''He's the senior and I'm the freshman.''
Despite his easygoing style, Wendt is probably more worried about his new series than he lets on. The flailing CBS hopes for a Wednesday-night ratings boost, but Wendt says he'll be happy if ''the audience can have a laugh and go along for the ride.'' Then again, if the show fails, he adds with a sigh, ''I'll take it as a sign.'' Wendt would probably be just as happy watching TV as starring on TV. So would Norm.
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