• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, June 7, 2023

The bar from “Cheers” -- including stools, brass railings, cash register and many other items from the beloved show’s original set -- drew the highest bid at an auction earlier this week of nearly 1,000 props, costumes and entire sets from the history of television.

The “Cheers” bar ensemble, pictured above, sold for $675,000 in the auction, which was conducted by Dallas-based Heritage Auctions.

The bar set was used in every episode of “Cheers” for all 11 seasons. It was the highest-selling item in the auction, but other lots also drew astonishing six-figure winning bids, according to the auction house.

In second place was a collection of superhero ensembles worn by Batman and Robin in the “Batman” TV series of the 1960s. The winning bid for the Dynamic Duo's duds: $615,000, Heritage said.

Separately, the last-surviving Bat-Shield from “Batman” -- which was used only twice on the show -- was sold for a high bid of $100,000.

The set used by Johnny Carson and his guests for his final decade as host of “The Tonight Show” fetched a winning bid of $275,000.

A 1980s set from NBC’s “Late Night” hosted by David Letterman, including his desk and New York City skyline backdrop, sold for $100,000.

Winning bids for some other items were stunning. A pair of chairs that sat in Archie and Edith Bunker's living room in the ninth and final season of “All in the Family” and subsequently in “Archie’s Place,” went for $250,000, Heritage said.

The entire front room of the Bunker house -- with dining area and stairway -- was sold for $125,000.

Elsewhere, a directional sign, which was one of the most conspicuous props seen on the 4077th set of “M*A*S*H,” sold for $150,000.

Other big sellers were: A rare Superman tunic worn by George Reeves in “The Adventures of Superman,” $150,000; a submarine miniature from “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” $100,000; Nichelle Nichols’ Starfleet uniform from “Star Trek,” including boots, $62,500; and one of “Skipper” Alan Hale Jr.'s hats from “Gilligan’s Island,” $62,500.

In all, the auction raked in $5,351,696, the auction house said. It was held both online and in-person in Dallas from June 2 through June 4.

Heritage said more than 4,700 bidders worldwide participated in the auction, but unfortunately, the auction house did not divulge the names of the winning bidders who paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for these pieces of TV history.

The items up for auction represent just a fraction of the TV memorabilia holdings of super-collector James Comisar, 58.

He has said that he is divesting of his collection because his efforts, over a period of many years, to find backers for a museum to house the collection, have failed to come to fruition.

The TV Blog first wrote about the auction early last month.