The Emmy winner stated that ‘Cheers’ was “a dream come true” and “one of the vital satisfying experiences” of her life. So why did she stroll away?
The NBC sitcom Cheers was a vital and business smash hit, incomes 28 Emmy Awards out of 117 nominations, together with 4 wins for Excellent Comedy Sequence, and spending a number of years within the scores pantheon. It additionally spawned the spinoff sitcom Frasier, starring Kelsey Grammar. He advised Selection not too long ago that he would love for Shelley Lengthy to affix Frasier’s Paramount+ revival. So, why did Shelley Lengthy go away Cheers anyway?
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For the primary 5 seasons of Cheers, Shelley performed Diane Chambers, a graduate scholar who turns into a barmaid on the titular Boston bar and has an on-again off-again relationship with bartender Sam Malone, performed by Ted Danson.
Diane left Sam in Boston on the finish of Season 5 to pursue a writing profession. Shelley, who gained an Emmy and two Golden Globes for the efficiency, reprised the function on Cheers simply as soon as extra, within the sequence finale six seasons later.
Why did Shelley Lengthy go away ‘Cheers’?
Shelley exited Cheers to pursue a movie profession and to spend extra time together with her daughter, Juliana, in keeping with TIME, which declared her departure “in all probability one of many biggest profession stumbles in show-business historical past.”
She starred in just a few well-earning motion pictures, like 1987’s Outrageous Fortune and 1995’s The Brady Bunch Film. However others, together with 1989’s Troop Beverly Hills, 1990’s Don’t Inform Her It’s Me, and 1992’s Frozen Property, weren’t monetary successes.
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Shelley Lengthy and Ted Danson on ‘Cheers’
Shelley returned to tv as a star of the 1993 CBS sitcom Good Recommendation and the 1998 WB sitcom Kelly Kelly, though neither present lasted lengthy.
Since then, Shelley has been a frequent visitor star on TV, showing in episodes of Joan of Arcadia, Boston Authorized, Switched at Beginning, and Trendy Household.
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Shelley additionally wished to “let go” of her Diane Chambers persona, she stated.
Shelley had pressure with Ted and Kelsey and developed a nasty popularity on the Cheers set, in keeping with Leisure Weekly.
“Diane was … a ache within the butt … and I feel the folks of Cheers obtained me confused with that,” she stated in 1993, per EW. “Perhaps I did too, which satisfied me it was time to let go of that persona.”
Even so, Shelley’s Cheers colleagues didn’t need to see her go. “I assume … they felt that I deserted them,” she added.
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However Cheers continued for years, and with Kristie Alley in place as Shelley’s alternative, the present hit No. 1 within the scores in Season 9. “Shelley’s leaving reenergized the bar,” director James Burrows as soon as noticed, per EW.
In an interview on Australian TV, Shelley stated that she wasn’t sorry she left, saying that she “didn’t need to preserve doing the identical episode again and again and the identical story. It had been such a contemporary and very important expertise for me. I didn’t need it to develop into outdated and rancid.”
Shelley did miss her Cheers colleagues, nonetheless. “I missed them very a lot,” she stated. “You realize, working at Cheers was a dream come true. It really was. And it was one of the vital satisfying experiences of my life. So sure, I missed it, however I by no means regretted that call.”