Cheers (season 1) People", intended to satirize "the lifestyle of old decadent old-money WASPs," but, to meet producers' demands, they rewrote the lyrics to be about "likeable losers" in a Boston bar. The show's producers rejected this song, as well as later songs that Portnoy and Angelo wrote. When Portnoy and Hart Angelo heard that NBC had commissioned thirteen episodes, they created "Where Everybody Knows Your Name", and rewrote the lyrics. "Cheers" was first broadcast at 9:00pm (Eastern) / 8:00pm (Central) on Thursday during fall 1982, which later became NBC's Must See TV, which followed the hour-long musical series "Fame" and preceded another
Gary Portnoy also wrote (with Hart Angelo) and performed the theme song for NBC's Punky Brewster. In 2003, after a hiatus from the music business during the 1990s, Portnoy released the 12-track album "Keeper", which includes the full-length version of "Where Everybody Knows Your Name". In 2007, he followed with the release of the autobiographical 12-track album, "Destiny", which contains a full-length version of the theme song for "Mr. Belvedere" (whose original version was sung by Leon Redbone). In 2010, Portnoy released the 12-track album, "Songs Along The Way", which includes eleven newly penned compositions as well as the demo version of