Cheers Bar Goes for More Than Beer Money

The bar that the Cheers cast bellied up to for 11 seasons has a new owner. Heritage Auctions in Dallas said the winning bid was $675,000, CBS News reports. The bar was the star of the almost 1,000 TV sets, props, and costumes auctioned off from James Comisar's collection over the weekend, and it drew the highest bid. He decided to sell it all after giving up on his plan to establish a museum for his collection, per the AP. Comisar said the names of the Cheers cast are carved into the bar; the deal included the "burgundy leatherette barstools." When he first found the bar, Comisar said, it was in studio storage with a dead skunk in it.

All told, Comisar's pieces brought in more than $5 million. "The auction’s success confirmed what I have always known: that television characters are cherished members of our extended family and that their stories and our own are inseparable," Comisar said in a statement. The Batman and Robin costumes from the 1960s series brought in nearly as much—$615,000. Heritage reported that the Tonight Show set where Johnny Carson long reigned sold for $275,000. (More Cheers stories.)