The Cheers Sweaters, 1988 - 1992
I’ve been revisiting the tv series “Cheers” online lately and, being a nerd, I started to notice some sneakily amazing sweaters on the cast. I blogged the first one but quickly found a second and third.
(A quick sidebar: I did become obsessed with the sweater extravaganza but I want to make sure to mention that the writing and cast on Cheers were solid for a full 10 years. Totally worth a re-viewing. Also, Kelsey Grammer is hot.)
I did a web search thinking maybe this was a known part of the show that I was the last to discover. The only thing I could find was a Linkedin profile which led me to Helen R. Litt. I sent Helen an email and she was kind enough to give me some info!
“Well Moxie you should be a private detective for a living…. yes indeed I did design many of the sweaters you see on the cast back in those days. I had my own sweater design company based out of Los Angeles, ‘Vitruvian Design Ltd’ from 1987 through 1992.
I was dating a fellow who every Thursday night would leave me to hang with his pals to watch ‘Cheers.’ As a designer of men’s sweaters I thought ‘I have got to get my product on that show’… and here you are years later reflecting on what I created. That’s incredibly flattering!”
I sent Helen a couple of the sweaters I captured. Some were hers, some not. Helen said
“The first sweater Frasier is wearing is mine. It had a golf motif on the back (that all looks so dated to me now but was popular back then).”
“I believe we sold them over a period of three seasons or possibly more.. I can’t recall it was so long ago. We tried to sell the ‘Cosby Show’ but they leaned more toward the Coogi look. I did sell ‘All My Children’ for quite a while as a good friend of mine was the wardrobe designer. Back then shows actually bought your product wholesale. Today I understand they get many things free.”
Since writing Helen, I went Cheers-sweater hunting. They can all be found on Flickr. I dig the golf one above, dated or not. Here’s another I like very much:
I haven’t had Helen check through the photos yet but I’ll update them when I know more. Here are two that she identified earlier:
Helen sent me this image she saved from back in the day, saying
“I don’t have too many photos - didn’t realize they’d be of any ‘archival’ interest! Here is one of Ted Danson on the Cheers set. I believe he kept that sweater for is own personal use as well.”
What is Helen up to these days? Aside from being extremely patient with a retro-sweater-obsessed-newbie like me she said,
“I’m semi-retired now but still keep my hand in as a freelance sweater designer. You’re welcome to view some of the styles I’ve created on my FB business site; Vitruvian Design Studio.”
—-
Hey Internet! If you know who should get credit for any of these knitted wonder garments, let me know, ok?
The Cheers Sweaters on Flickr
