Where Everybody Knows Your Name Where Everybody Knows Your Name "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" is the theme song from the 1980s television sitcom "Cheers". The song was written by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo and performed by Gary Portnoy. Shortly after the premiere of "Cheers", Portnoy went back into the studio to record a longer version of the song that made the US and British pop charts. However, it failed to reach the Top 40 in either of those 2. The full-length version was made available on Portnoy's 2004 album "Keeper". In January 2013, Argentum Records released a five-song EP to iTunes entitled
Where Everybody Knows Your Name for a new musical he was producing. On a whim, Hart, who had never written a song, approached Portnoy, who had never written for the theater. Together they set out to compose the words and music for the musical named "Preppies". In the spring of 1982, Judy, now using her full married name of Judy Hart Angelo, sent a tape of "Preppies"' opening number "People Like Us" to a friend in California, who then passed it on to television producers Glen and Les Charles. Upon hearing it they each felt that with a lyric re-write "People Like Us" would be