Coach Ernie Pantusso
fictional character in the series Cheers
Ernie Pantusso (or Pantuso), commonly known as "Coach", is a fictional character on the American television show Cheers, portrayed by Nicholas Colasanto from 1982 to 1985. Coach is Sam Malone's former baseball coach, who becomes a bartender at Cheers under Sam's ownership. He is not "worldly wise" but has some shred of wit. He had a daughter, Lisa, who appeared in the episode "Coach's Daughter", by his late wife, Angela.
While he last appeared in the cold opening of "Rescue Me", Colasanto's last filmed appearance as Coach was in the episode "Cheerio, Cheers". When Colasanto died in 1985, Coach was written out as deceased without cause of death stated. Woody Harrelson joined the cast as Woody Boyd, a pen pal of Coach's who would end up replacing him as a bartender at Cheers for the remainder of the series.
Casting
Former umpire Ron Luciano auditioned for Coach Ernie Pantusso (or Pantuso), but he failed to get the part because producers "wanted an experienced actor". Robert Prosky, who later appeared in the eleventh-season episode "Daddy's Little Middle-Aged Girl" (1992) as the father of character Rebecca Howe, was originally offered the role of Coach, but he turned down the role. John Madden was also offered the role, but also turned it down.
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This entry incorporates text from “Coach Ernie Pantusso” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.