'Cheers' actor recalls alarming encounter with fan wielding samurai sword with co-stars' names on it

Ratzenberger, who starred as Cliff Clavin, had noticed an audience member fixated on Shelley Long and Ted Danson during a taping of the show.

Ratzenberger alerted the head of security to the fan in the audience.

"I said, 'That seem odd to you?'" he said. "So he went and checked it out."

Security approached the audience member and discovered the fan was concealing a potential weapon.

"He had, under his whatever, a samurai sword with - I think it was Ted and Shelley's name written on it," Ratzenberger said. "It was creepy. So they got rid of him."

Despite the close call, Ratzenberger claimed he "never heard anything else about" the audience member with the sword.

"But that was nuts because they came so close," the actor recalled. "But he just didn't seem right. Just, 'Something's wrong there.'"

Ratzenberger noted that fan interactions can be annoying.

"There's annoying parts," he said. "But that's gonna happen. See, it goes along with the territory too. You gotta understand. This is the jungle you're walking through. Now you gotta figure it out."

He added that he had security in place at his home, but "nobody ever showed up at the door."

"Nothing like that," he said. "I always had dogs, anyway, hoping they'd show up."