Diane Chambers

DIANE CHAMBERS

Though bright and witty, Diane Chambers was also often pretentious, snobbish and woefully lacking in street-smarts. Prior to her arrival at "Cheers," Diane spent much of her time attending college (it is implied in various episodes that she goes to Boston University), and studying a wide range of disciplines at the graduate level. She changed her major numerous times, though she tended to focus on literature, social studies, and history. At one point, she claims to only be one credit away from getting a master's degree in any one of 37 different disciplines. Diane had an affair with Sumner Sloan, one of her literature professors—he was the cad who dumped her by leaving her at Cheers' the night they were supposed to fly out of town and get married. Stranded at the bar, and unwilling to return to the life of a perpetual grad student, Diane took a job as a waitress at "Cheers" after admitting that she had no marketable skills and was unqualified for any other sort of work but has an excellent memory for drink orders, although it is also strongly implied that she stayed at "Cheers" due to her sexual attraction to "Cheers" owner/bartender Sam Malone. Working at "Cheers," she seemed amusingly out of place in comparison to the bar's general clientele and staff. Perhaps due to the stress of waitressing, Diane also suffered from an occasional nervous facial tic, and from obsessive-compulsive disorder. This is hinted at in various episodes; Diane demands that the pencils and pens in her pocket be in very precise order. In the episode "Power Play," it is revealed that Diane obsessively hoards stuffed animals. Her most complex relationship at "Cheers" was with bartender Malone. Diane found Sam's rugged and rather obvious charms by turns repulsive and magnetic. Sam was in turn both maddened and drawn by Diane's ambivalence toward him. Often at loggerheads during Season 1, by Season 2 they were a couple whose very rocky relationship was based more on mutual lust than any actual personal compatibility. After a dramatically bad break up with Sam, Diane was admitted to Goldenbrook Psychiatric Hospital, between seasons 2 and 3, for extreme depression. It was there that she met Dr. Frasier Crane. She returned to working at the bar and, after a romance with Frasier (which she later admits was a "bit of fun," and that she strung him along), she left him at the altar in Italy at the end of Season 3. After having a number of sexual affairs throughout Europe, Diane tried to atone for her behavior by working at a Boston area convent. However, she went back to "Cheers" again after a visit from Sam in the Season 4 opener. Although Sam and Diane said they were only friends, sexual tension ensued between them for much of Season 4, and Sam eventually proposed to Diane over the phone in the season finale. Diane wanted to be proposed to in a more romantic fashion, and so she didn't give him an answer. Sam proposed again on a moonlit boat ride during the premiere of Season 5—only to have Diane say no because she thought that Sam was "on the rebound" from his break-up with Boston city councilwoman Janet Eldridge. Diane later changed her mind, but found that Sam was not willing to propose again. After she began to cry, Sam did propose, but Diane said no for the third time, fearing that he was only reacting to emotional blackmail. Sam chased her out of "Cheers," and Diane fled, causing her to fall and injure herself. Diane pressed charges against Sam for assault and battery. However, in the courtroom, Sam proposed again, at the judge's behest, and Diane finally accepted. While Diane did not hold Sam to the proposal since it was made under duress, he affirmed that he still wanted to marry her. Diane was written out of "Cheers" following Shelley Long's decision to leave the show after Season 5. In the season finale, Diane was given the opportunity to finish a book she had started prior to working at "Cheers" ("Jocasta's Conundrum"), and to have it published. Ironically, this opportunity was engineered for her by none other than Sumner Sloane, the man who originally brought her to "Cheers." Diane wanted to marry Sam before writing the book, but Sam (who knew that Diane was going to resent him for keeping her from her dreams) talked her out of it. Diane received a hefty advance for her manuscript, and left Sam to complete it. Promising to be back in six months to marry him, Diane left Boston. Knowing Diane would not return, Sam told her, "Have a nice life." In one episode, Woody Boyd mentions that the last the "Cheers" staff had heard, Diane had ended up in Hollywood writing for television. However, no other details were offered about Diane's actual fate until Long reprised her role in the "Cheers" series finale. In this episode, it was revealed that Diane's novel never came together, but that she had rebounded and was a successful writer of a made-for-TV movie called "The Heart Held Hostage". The movie, loosely based on Diane's memories of the life of fellow "Cheers" waitress Carla Tortelli, won Diane a Cable ACE Award for best writing in a "TV Movie or Mini-Series." After a Comedy of Errors, the romantic spark soon rekindled, and Diane and Sam made plans to run off to California together. However, while sitting in the plane waiting for take off they both had second thoughts and decided to once more call it off and say goodbye.

SHELLEY LONG

Shelley Lee Long was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana. After studying drama at Northwestern University, Long left before graduating to pursue a career in acting and modelling. Her first break as an actress occurred when she began doing commercials in the Chicago area for a furniture company called Homemakers. In Chicago, she joined "The Second City" comedy troupe. She began writing, producing, and co-hosting the television program "Sorting It Out." The local NBC broadcast went on to win three Emmy Awards for Best Entertainment Show. Her first notable role came in the television movie "The Cracker Factory," in which she portrayed a psychiatric inmate, opposite Natalie Wood. Long appeared in "A Small Circle of Friends" with Brad Davis and Karen Allen. The film about social unrest at Harvard University was a critical success. Next, she played the role of Tala in the Ringo Starr film "Caveman," starring opposite Dennis Quaid. She was also featured as Belinda in Ron Howard's comedy "Night Shift," co-starring Henry Winkler and Michael Keaton, about life working on the night shift at a city morgue, and starred with Tom Cruise in the comedy film, "Losin' It." Although she had been in feature films, Long became famous as the character Diane Chambers in the long-running television sitcom "Cheers." During the first season of "Cheers," Long was honored with an Emmy for "Outstanding Leas Actress in a Comedy Series." Although the show was slow to capture an audience, it eventually became one of the most popular on the air and made Long a sought-after actress for films. Long was nominated for a "Best Leading Actress" Golden Globe for her performance in "Irreconcilable Differences." She then appeared in a series of comedies, such as "The Money Pit" (starring Tom Hanks), "Outrageous Fortune" with (Bette Midler and Peter Coyote) and "Hello Again" (with Corbin Bernsen). At the height of her fame yet amid much controversy that is still strongly attached to the show, Long left "Cheers" after five seasons. In the "Cheers" biography documentary, costar Ted Danson admitted there was tension between them but "never at a personal level and always at a work level" due to their different modes of working. He also stated that Long was much more like her character than she would like to admit, but also said that her performances often "carried the show." Long said in later interviews that in her decision to leave, it did not occur to her that she was going to 'sabotage a show' and she felt confident that the rest of the cast could continue without her. Her first post-"Cheers" project was "Troop Beverly Hills," a comedy in which she played a housewife who starts a "Wilderness Girl" troop to distract herself from divorce proceedings. Long took several roles, such as "Don't Tell Her It's Me" and "Frozen Assets," that turned out to be commercially unsuccessful. Long achieved her greatest success in some time as Carol Brady in the hit film "The Brady Bunch Movie," a campy take on the popular television show. She reprised her role in "A Very Brady Sequel," which had a more modest success. Her Birthday is August 23rd.