-Hello! -Hi.
-This is a very -- It's been a very exciting few weeks for me
because I've seen you a couple of times.
-Yeah. -I saw you at the Emmys.
You were nominated at the Emmys. -[ Coughs ] Loser.
-You were a loser. [ Laughter ]
I'm glad you said it... -Yes.
-...so I didn't have to fill everybody in.
[ Laughter ]
But I want to ask, because I think people are very,
at the Emmys, proper.
And then at parties, people are so excited to see Ted Danson.
Who were you excited to see? Were there people --
-Ooh, yeah. A lot, actually.
-Okay. -Yeah. Starting with Phoebe.
-Phoebe Waller-Bridge from "Fleabag."
We actually -- -Whoo!
-Here's a photo of you meeting her.
We actually -- It was, like, a grab.
Photographic evidence of you meeting Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
-Can I have that? -Yeah.
[ Laughter ]
I also want to show how you -- how handsome you are
and how beautiful Mary looked. -Mary!
Look at my wife. [ Cheers and applause ]
Look at her!
-So, Phoebe. Who else you got?
Who else were you excited to see?
-Jodie. -Jodie Comer from "Killing Eve."
-Whew! -Great.
-Really one of the best performance I've --
-Really outstanding. And I will say, the night --
the Emmys itself can get a little long,
but, genuinely, the nicest thing about it
is when you get to see people you've never met.
and go over and genuinely say -- -Summer camp for actors.
-Yeah. -A little small one.
-And just say, "You were great in that."
-Yeah. -And I'm sure you --
-"Schitt's Creek." -"Schitt's Creek."
-I know you just played off it a little earlier.
-But "Schitt's Creek" is genuinely fantastic, yeah.
-When CNN makes me throw things I --
-You like to go to "Schitt's Creek."
[ Laughter ]
-So, this is bittersweet that this is the last season
of "The Good Place."
You finished filming this summer, yeah?
-Yeah. -Do you feel good?
Are you confident with how it ended?
-Very, very. -Yeah.
-And it was so elegant because usually you get canceled
when you think you're going back.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-And it's, like, last-minute. You didn't say goodbye.
And it's like, Ugh!" It's real abrupt.
This was lovely 'cause we knew the whole time we were shooting
the last season, we knew it was our last.
because Mike Schur, creator, who you know,
friend of yours... -Yes.
-...felt like he had -- will have told his story.
This is how the universe works, maybe?
-Uh-huh, yeah. -You know, and why pad it?
So. it was really lovely. We got to be in the moment,
enjoying each other, knowing it was coming to an end.
-You obviously have been a part of some long-running shows
before that have come to an end. "Cheers," I guess 11 seasons?
I think "Becker" was 6. -Yeah.
-Did this feel as emotional, being a shorter season --
-More, more. Way more.
-More emotional? -Because prior to this,
prior to meeting my wife, Mary, my way of dealing with endings
was to blow up my personal life...
-Okay. [ Laughter ]
-...in such shatters that I really don't even --
It took me a year or two to realize "Cheers" was over.
-Oh, gotcha. Nobody...
-No. -You would just watch reruns
and be like, "Is that a new episode?"
Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-"Oh, look, I'm in the 'National Enquirer.'"
[ Laughter ]
-I know that Mike Schur took this very seriously,
and he took sort of the philosophy of the show
and the ethics of the show very serious,
and there would be a professor in the writers room.
Did you ever spend any time with these professors of ethics?
-No, but I have -- I did meet them.
They were -- It was the real deal.
-Yeah. -Notre Dame has a class
being taught on the ethics as shown through "The Good Place."
-That's fantastic. -It really was about --
is about what it is to be decent,
to live a purposeful life,
that your actions have consequences.
All really good things to talk about like this.
-Yeah. And I would say --
I've heard from a lot of people that their teenage kids
really love the show. -Yeah.
-Because it talks about things -- big ideas that I feel,
like, are never given to them in a digestible way.
-Right. Because it's wrapped
in a kind of 9-year-old fart sense of humor.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
Very helpful. -Yeah.
-"Cheers" -- all these years later,
"Cheers" never taught a college class about "Cheers."
Yeah, no, they never -- [ Laughter ]
The ethics of "Cheers" has never been --
I guess they assume if you're going to college,
you're basically getting what happens in "Cheers."
-Yes. That is -- That is "Cheers."
-It was basically, like, everyone's minor.