During Cheers, Rhea Perlman was speaking out about childcare needs

On Cheers, Rhea Perlman was no stranger to children. Her character, Carla, had eight children over the course of the series. While Perlman and her real-life husband, Danny DeVito, had three children at the time of a 1988 interview with The Chapel Hill News.

And according to Perlman, adapting to motherhood while maintaining a career was a major adjustment.

Like many women, Perlman said in the interview that she didn’t give much thought to childcare before having her first child. She admitted that after giving birth, she found herself thinking: "Now what am I going to do?"

Luckily for Perlman, she had the security of an acting career, but for mothers like her character on Cheers, the idea of childcare — especially affordable childcare — was daunting. As Perlman began exploring her options, she was shocked by the lack of quality childcare services.

"I feel like it’s very important for a mother to be with her kid at the beginning of his life," Perlman said. "If you’re not going to be with them, what’s the sense of having them?"

Perlman became involved in childcare advocacy because of her own experience wanting to be there for her children while struggling to find reliable services.

See Also

The Love Boat's Ted Lange once wrote a rock musical

According to the interview, she and DeVito became co-chairs of Care for the Children, an education and lobbying organization. She was also instrumental in establishing Paramount’s Studio Child Care Center, the first day care center on a major studio lot.

"Historically, it was something people didn’t realize they had to care about," Perlman said. "It was everybody’s personal problem. Everybody felt, 'I have a child, that’s my child, it’s my problem.' They weren’t going to go to their boss and say, 'You’ve got to help me with my kid.' They didn’t realize they could do that. They didn’t realize how many people were in the same spot.”

Perlman also said that many people believed women should not be working which was a notion she defied. She appeared on Cheers for all 11 seasons, spanning 10 years, and went on to build an iconic Hollywood career with DeVito by her side.

She acknowledged that day care wasn’t perfect, saying children would rather be with their parents, but for many families, especially single mothers, there was no other option.

Perlman worked to improve childcare services for herself, for mothers everywhere, and especially for those in Carla’s position on Cheers.