Cheers — The Original Bull & Finch Pub

The Bull & Finch Pub opened at 84 Beacon Street in 1969, and by the early 1980s its exterior and neighborhood character had caught the attention of television producers Glen Charles, Les Charles, and James Burrows, who adapted its atmosphere and Beacon Hill setting into the pilot of what would become one of the most celebrated American sitcoms ever made. The show premiered on NBC on September 30, 1982, and ran for eleven seasons through 1993, earning 28 Primetime Emmy Awards — including four consecutive Outstanding Comedy Series wins.

Though the interior of the actual bar bore little resemblance to the fictional set built in Burbank, the exterior of the basement entrance at 84 Beacon Street became one of the most recognizable addresses in American television history. The bar was eventually renamed Cheers Beacon Hill to lean into its cultural cachet. It sits directly across the street from the Public Garden, a short walk from the Boston Common Visitor Information Center at the southern anchor of the Freedom Trail.

The sitcom’s fictional Sam Malone ran his bar above a subway entrance in Beacon Hill, and while the geography was compressed for television, the neighborhood’s brick rowhouses, cobblestone alleys, and gas lamps are authentically Boston. The bar remains a working pub and a pilgrimage site for fans of one of television’s longest-running and best-loved comedies.