Mary Steenburgen definitely had the wrong impression of her future husband Ted Danson before they started dating. When they first met, the self-described Cheers fan just assumed Danson must be “slick” like Sam Malone. She was disavowed of that notion after they got together in a romantic way. “My joke is that slick guys don’t say, ‘Gosharooney!’ after making love,” she revealed on a recent episode of Danson’s Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast.

Danson wasn’t expecting that reveal, apologizing to his stepchildren for that intimate look inside their bedroom. “Nice,” he replied. “I wasn’t setting that one up, but that’s great. Sorry, kids.”

But Steenburgen had a good reason to believe Danson had something in common with the preening Malone. The two met when the actress was being considered for a part in the movie Pontiac Moon. She showed up to meet director Peter Madak and Danson,...