From start to finish of her role as Diane on Cheers, Shelley Long was consistently uniquely brilliant. So in this stellar ensemble cast, no need to be jealous of any other actor.
@@FactsVerse Hard to say, throughout the series run all were at such a (pun alert:) high-bar level of unique comic entertainment. But (as myself au fond and at times a Diane Chambers, persnickety Platonic princess litterateur type) I especially appreciated Shelley Long's brilliantly nuanced, yet on call tour de force creation and full realization of that sui generis romantic heroine. Her dramatic chemistry with her "mighty opposite" character actors Ted Danson as Sam, and Rhea Perlman as her deflationary "Bronx hitter" nemesis foil Carla, was superb. As were the interplays of all the other secondary and tertiary lead and local color, chorus character cast. An Olympian plateau.
@@JudgeJulieLit As a ratio of unearned smugness to actual intelligence dressed in a transparent attempt to impress with word salad, you're still in the decimals
The "Diane " era was far superior to the "Rebecca" era. Shelley's insecurities, while possibly real to her... were misplaced. To me, she was the most talented of the all of the series' stars.
Mike Ziegler, I couldn't agree more! Shelley Long was brilliant 👏 in the role and, I believe, was nominated for an Emmy for each of her five seasons on the show --- with one win. She undoubtedly would have won more Emmys had she chosen to stay. Ted Danson has said on more than one occasion that Shelley Long "put the show on the map." And boy was he right! And James Burrows, I believe it was, said that Shelley Long was right in character from day one! She understood exactly where she was going with her character. Also, I don't think the cast could have disliked her since they were upset that she left the show. Plus, I never heard her say anything negative about any of the cast members in interviews. In fact, there is an interview with her up on RU-vid somewhere where she is very complimentary of her fellow cast members. True, she disliked the Frazier character, but It does not necessarily follow that she disliked Kelsey Grammer because she disliked his character. And I couldn't agree more! The Diane Chambers' episodes were far superior and funnier than the Rebecca episodes that came later. I think most die-hard fans of the show --- of which I am one --- would agree with this. I have the first five seasons --- the Shelley Long years --- on DVD because they are the finest and funniest years of Cheers. Now for a bit of trivia: By the end of its 11th Season, Cheers had received 179 Primetime Emmy nominations and had won a total of 28 Emmys --- and with good reason! This doesn't happen without brilliant writing, brilliant directing, and a brilliant cast! 👏
She was not the problem. Literally every single producer, writer on Cheers has clearly stated: YES, she was difficult to work with, in the sense that she ask more questions, she rehearsed more, she wanted to be more involved in the process because she ADORED her character and believed the project deserved 100% of her effort. NEVER was she EVER rude or disrespectful to ANYONE. Her process was different and that’s OKAY. The issue with Kelsey was that he literally based his opinions on Shelley on pure rumors! The writers have stated that she NEVER asked them to take him off the show or reduce his screen time. They would never tolerate that. Shelley stated also that she wishes Kelsey would’ve confronted her about it because she would’ve explained it to him thoroughly. Sorry for the long comment, but it is just so clear that Shelley Long was mistreated and villianized by Hollywood and it sucks that people still feed onto it. She’s extremely talented and down to earth, she deserves better.
There are numerous videos/interviews where Ted Danson credits her with not only getting him hired (as they were paired together during the audition process) but also with the success of the show at the beginning. Nobody ever acknowledges that she fulfilled her five year contract and that at the conclusion of those five years she had a husband and a toddler that she wanted to spend more time with. Enough is enough. It’s 2022. Let her live in peace!
…exactly. Shelley studied drama at Northwestern and then was in the Second City improv group, so she was perfectly positioned to workshop the show on its feet and get it ready for the audience. Bringing in Grammer to occupy the same snobby/erudite space in the scripts as the leading lady would be a justifiable concern for her - not just for personal reasons but for the sake of the show. Everything I’ve read leads me to believe she worked hard, in that same way Bette Davis did, to get things right - and some people didn’t always like that.
Absolutely! I love Davis. I thought Long was brilliant on Cheers. I also remember her from the Homemakers commercials in the 1970s, and her earlier television work. Her performance of Carol Brady was amazing.
Are we going to ignore that Kelsey also had MASSIVE substance abuse issues? He was great, but he couldn’t have been an easy scene partner. There’s always more story. Also, Outrageous Fortune, The Money Pit, and The Brady Bunch were all hits. I’m not saying she’s Meryl Streep huge on the big screen, but neither is Ted, Kirsty, Rhea, Kelsey, Bebe, John, or George.
@Daphne Van Zant …Frasier is one of my favorite shows. Kelsey’s massively talented, and I’m glad he turned his life around. But, this video lays all of the on-set difficulty on Shelley. But during the production of Cheers and Frasier, producers had to deal with his multiple DUI arrests, cocaine possession, court time, jail time, and on and on. This behavior goes back to him getting kicked out of Juilliard. He had some very tough hands dealt him, and I’m glad it all seems to have worked out for him.
@Daphne Van Zant …absolutely, but here’s the thing about Shelley. She studied drama at Northwestern, and was in the Second City improv group - so she knew drama and comedy from the inside out. Cheers, like Taxi before it, like The Mary Tyler More Show before that was a very strict structure. Everyone occupied a different space with the humor. Like Danny Devito’s character in Taxi, Rhea/Carla was mean-funny, Coach was dumb-funny, Sam was shallow-funny, And Diane was erudite, snobby-funny. When dumb-funny Coach died, Woody was naive-funny, which was essentially the same thing. Cliff was blow-hard/know-it-all-funny. When Frasier was brought in, he occupied a very similar erudite/snobby space as Diane. So if Shelley (the leading lady who shared top billing with Danson) saw that, she was right. She was so right that when they replaced her essentially with Kirstie, they had Kirstie playing type A/neurotic-funny, because if she was another Bostonian snob (with Frasier AND sometimes Lilith) it wouldn’t have worked.
I prefer to dismiss the rumors and appreciate Shelly for playing her part so well. We tend to forget that much of what we see is written for her and directed. What she added contributed greatly to the success of the show. Who knows when the time is right to move on. You got to make it while you're hot. Sometimes it's more courageous to jump than to stay put.
@@RobinSk8s the fourth was a surprise cameo not even the network knew about until it was aired . To keep that a secret. THAT MIGHT explain if she was not credited for the fourth. But she was. And she did it to support him and his show. Debunk the badmouthing bs
@@marisleuk I think that was the third but I did read about how it was kept secret from everybody, which is pretty cool. The fourth is designated as credit only on IMDb. It may have been a full hour episode and then was broken up into two half hour episodes? I’m not 100% sure but I watched the four episodes recently and there was one that she didn’t appear in. I also read that everybody who was part of the main cast of Cheers (who was alive) did guest star on Frasier with one exception, Kirstie, supposedly b/c Scientology doesn’t believe in psychiatry…but nobody talks about that.
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Apparently, Long had a very high IQ, which I assume would have led to Long having an intellectual snobbery amongst her co-workers. For the main point, I found Long was a delightful and fully flawed character on Cheers. And for the whole, Cheers will always have that special place in most people's hearts.
Growing up in Chicagoland in the 70-80’s, we were treated to frequent TV commercial s for Homemaker’s Furniture store, starring Shelley Long. So, to us, she went from local TV ads to Primetime.
This really was an unfair criticism of Longs career. One that created a memorable, funny and often touching role on Cheers. Anyone associated at FV should be so fortunate to have even an inkling of the success that Long achieved..
Yes, a Cheers' producer DID say Shelley Long could be difficult to work with, but this is only HALF of what he said. The reason this producer said she could be difficult is because she was constantly questioning WHY Diane said something and questioning WHAT Diane was feeling when she said certain lines. She was detail oriented. This producer did say this could be a pain, BUT THEN ADDED that when he saw what she produced on the screen, IT WAS MORE THAN WORTH IT! Ted Danson said of Shelley Long in two separate interviews --- one of which is up on RU-vid --- that Shelley Long "put Cheers on the map!" Cheers' writer Ken Levine on his blog wrote the following about Shelley Long: "Recently, I caught a first year episode of CHEERS and was reminded all over again of just how brilliant Shelley Long was. Diane Chambers was a role fraught with danger. Without just the perfect actress you could reeeeally hate that character. But Shelley managed to make her likeable and vulnerable and hysterically funny while still keeping the edge and condescension that “Diane” required. Not easy to do. Kinda like walking a tightrope in a typhoon. "It’s been 25 years, there have been a lot of shows since, many with really gifted comediennes, but I’ve never seen anyone better . . . " I and most Cheers' fans would agree 💯 percent with this! We LOVE ❤️ Shelley Long!
I would like to think that Shelley Long maintained a certain personal distance from the rest of the cast in order to foster the aloof intellectual and cultural character her role as Diane required. I would like to think Shelley left the show after 5 seasons because the Diane/Sam relationship had become repetitive, was clearly a star-crossed relationship inexorably going nowhere. There was no significant development left for the character Diane to pursue. I thought Shelley played the Diane character brilliantly for those 5 years. I never picked up on her alleged jealousy regarding other cast members.
Shelly did a scene in Night Shift, in her underwear that stands out in my memory as her best scene, TV and Cinema. "She gave my eyes a heart attack." Henry Winkler.
How did Shelley tire of her character? Sam & Diane were the one of the greatest romantic twosomes of ALL-TIME! And Diane was a character like no other!
It doesn't matter how they felt about each other because when they were performing they did their job I personally love the show Cheers and I watched it faithfully. So this is how you know they're good and doing their jobs if they didn't like each other but they got along during their performances they were true actors.
Shelley was so busy busting her behind being brilliant that she didn't have time to let her hair down enough to develop friendships with the other cast members. Regardless, it's the results that matter, and it's the reason why I'm on my fifth tour of duty through the first 5 seasons of the show. Her performances were stellar.
I like Kirsty Allie but I've never thought the character they put her in was right. The other cast members carried much more of the show than the Ted and Kirsty story lines did, after Shelley left. If you think of how they replaced Coach with Woody Harrelson, I think they should've followed that example/ideal in replacing Shelley. Different, but with common ground. The whole corporate gaga they invented just didn't work for the storyline directions. I have the whole series on DVD and have binged on it. When a person does this, two different shows clearly come into view. I will say, the addition of Lilleth was brilliant. Imagine if she would've replaced Shelley instead of Kirsty! I don't think she was the right face, but that character would've opened up a whole new level of hilarious unbelievability with Sam had they chosen to go that way.
@@harperstacey9604 The show went from literally near the bottom of ALL shows in its first season to # 3 show on tv while Shelley was on it. It was already a massive success before Shelley left. That's why they offered a contract extension to Shelley - because Cheers was incredibly successful while she was on it.
Oh brother, wish this garbage didn't come up in my feed. The Kelsey thing was debunked ages ago. She had made a comment that he was getting all her funny lines and her character was losing its humour and becoming the annoying character that every producer and writer said she was brilliant at avoiding. The writing for her character was sucking, and the fact is that very few casts of TV shows are all buddies. She was an outsider on the show, and in acting that contributes to being an outsider on set. Ted Dansons character didn't age so well, hers actually is more relevant today than its been in awhile. But the idea she tried to have him fired is just stupid. I've heard several actors talk about how as an actor you NEVER walk away from a successful show or NOBODY in Hollywood will forgive you for it or trust you. And that kind of makes sense because basically it means if you will walk away from a successful show, you really can't be bought. So nobody has anything they can hold over you. But I'm not sure there was any intentional attempt to blacklist her, the fact is celebrity is a fickle business. Once you are out of the public eye, essentially you aren't a product any more. So when she tried films, its not like she was OWED a career, there are VERY few leading ladies in comedy. She did a sitcom that didn't last, sitcoms are also a shot in the dark. But of course anything out of Hollywood has to be drama, everybody has to 'hate' one another or love another, they can't just work together and soemtimes get along and sometimes not, like what of course happens.
Looks like my comment was removed, which is infuriating (as was this video). This video portrayed false rumors (that have since been debunked) as facts. This video is not only unfair to the actors mentioned, but also to the people watching it who believe it. I don't understand why after all this time people still feel the need to attack her - especially when what's being said isn't even true. How dare the poster call themselves a fan of the show and then make a whole video of lies that disparages the actress credited (by her costars!) as having "put (them) on the map!"
Took every word of this video with a grain of thought. Skipped to the Comments and am just enjoying reading all these passionate positions about characters in a show that ended almost 30 years ago. Just a classic sit-com.
I think Shelley was a casualty of Hollywood sexism in the 80s and 90s. She's a brilliant comedic actress and should have been in way more movies. And Troop Beverly Hills is a classic. So many movies with male leads bomb and the lead gets chance after chance.
I loved Cheers and owe the success of the show entirely to Shelly Long. After she left the show was never as good and I stopped watching it shortly after.
Well you are certainly entitled to your opinion. I have nothing against Shelly Long but as an avid Cheers fan I thought Kirsty Ally and Rhea Perlman were much funnier and had better rapport with the other characters. And she was nowhere near as good as Kelsey Grammar. His monopoly skit with Woody, Norm and Cliff is perhaps the funniest thing I have ever seen on a sitcom. His timing and delivery were impecable. I'm not ragging on her.I think Shelly nailed the Brady Bunch character but Cheers? Nah! Rebecca and Lillith were much funnier.
@Draper Scott yea that was a good one. Another classic was her and Frazier arguing about Freud and her belittling Frazier about hypnotism and he mentions cheese and she takes off her shoe. Later Carla asks what is she ? Brie cheese and she takes the other shoe off. LMFAO! HAHA! Gold, pure gold.
@@FactsVerse there are 2 that really stand out. 1. The afore mentioned episode of Frazier,Woody,Cliff and Norm playing monopoly to teach Woody about finance. 2. Cliff hiring an aversion therapy expert to shock him every time he says something condescending. Lol! I also remember the last episode with Rebecca announcing she's going to marry a plumber. Since she always was looking to find a sugar daddy she exclaims "Can you believe it? I'm going to marry a common plumber. And here's the thing, HE'S TOO GOOD FOR ME. Haha!
There was a hilarious moment on the show after Shelley Long departed. Cliff, Norm, Frasier and Woody are watching one of the Godzilla films and bring up how one of the stars left midway through the franchise. Then Woody says, "I don't understand. Why would an actress leave right in the middle of a successful series?" There's some light laughter from the audience at first, but then it crescendos as more people pick up on the joke. Classic!
Shelly did a lot of unsuccessful movies because she signed a very lucrative contract with Disney. So don't feel bad, most pilots never get picked up, and most series get cancelled after one year. No one really thinks they'll be playing the same character for a decade, and that gets on some people. I never get upset when somone decides they want to move on. It's their life.
Diane dating Frasier was a very funny story. It was a mistake to leave a show like ‘Cheers’. Shelly Long never again found artistic success. Yes, she made a few movies, but her Diane character was a once in a lifetime opportunity. ‘Cheers’ was never the same without her. The perfect role is a very rare occurrence.
Frasier added a whole new dimension to Cheers. Like Diane he was intelligent but nowhere near as neurotic. That whole Sam and Diane relationship was not believable to me. It seem contrived. A woman as intelligent and good looking as Diane was would never be content with simple minded Sam Malone.
It is believable. Opposites can and often do attract. 2 good looking people being attracted to each other is common. I think their incompatibility was shown and played up in the series as a "will they or won't they" drama.
@@deirdrekiely6187 Of course there are no absolutes when it comes to human relationships. As a 60+ year native of San Francisco, I've encountered some pretty bizarre match ups. I'm just giving my opinion on the characters Sam and Diane, not Ted and Shelly. I also don't believe Sam would be happy with Diane in the long run because she's exceptionally bright. It would work on his self-esteem and continually reiterate his shortcomings. Bright people tend to enjoy the company of other bright people. It keeps them focused and sharp. I was married twice. My first wife was exceptionally attractive but not very bright. My second wife was the opposite and I was so much happier. Brighter people tend to have better communication skills which can make a huge difference when it comes to growing close. Communication, or probably more like the lack of it is one of the factors that breaks up relationships. This is just my opinion and you can tell me I'm full of it. People tell me that all day on RU-vid.
I wish Shelly was given a chance to do some serious work that leveraged her skills. Remember that Tom Hanks was not always the iconic actor he is. In the 80s, he largely a goof in mediocre (Dragnet, Big) to terrible movies (Joe versus the Volcano, Bonfire of the Vanities) and even lightweight in better films like Splash, Nothing in Common). Shelly did not get a shot at a game changing role like Tom did In Philadelphia - had that happened, perhaps we would have been blessed with another great actress
My favorite was the "voice" episode, where Diane was allergic to Frasier's puppy. Too bad Shelly's transition to motion pictures wasn't a success. Her ability to not get along with other casts on the series probably contributed to this lack of success in movies. Nobody likes working with prima donnas, but Hollywood is full of them. I've always liked Shelly Long. I hope for better things for her.
Diane Chambers was the Major Burns of Cheers. There really wasn't much else for her to do once the character arc played itself out. Once she left Cheers, it sort of rebalanced the whole show, as it became more of a starring vehicle for Ted Danson, but gave everyone else an ensemble cast setting, and each character ending up having more of a chance to establish itself. And when she left, Ted Danson seems like such a likeable guy (other than the Whoopi Goldberg year or two) along with Woody Harrelson, etc .. she seemed like the antagonist, even though she had fulfilled her original contact. it didn't help matters when the show succeeded while she stumbled a bit out of the gate. Lastly, Shelley never had the writing to back up her acting chops once she left Cheers. Not saying she would have succeeded either way, but someone like Christopher Lloyd, who also had success in movies after a hit ensemble TV show, seemed better able to handle the lesser material. Then again, he wasn't really TRYING to be the major star in cinema. Sometimes there are actors and actresses that are better suited for starring in TV, as opposed to being a 'movie star'. John Ritter is one that really comes to mind for me.
When Cheers left the air in 1993 TV Guide did an article on the show's final episode and was on hand to observe how the cast acted. When Danson came out for his curtain call he turned and hugged Shelly, apparently putting their past issues to rest. However, TV Guide did mention that as most of the other cast members also hugged Shelly, one in particular did not: Rhea Perlman. So clearly Shelly alienated more than just Kelsey and Ted.
Rhea has always had some type of problem with Shelley for no apparent reason. To this day she can’t even say a kind/respectful word about Shelley and it’s honestly so annoying. You’d think she’d be able to be a bit more professional or kind-hearted. As if Shelley wasn’t the one who helped make the show a success!!!
@@missmakebyjoanna "For no apparent reason?" And how would you know that? Have you spoken to Rhea? Shelly had issues with more than Rhea, she had issues with Ted Danson also and BTW he's regarded as one of the nicest actors in the business. Ditto Kelsey Grammer, he went on to much success on Frazier for about 11 years and his castmates all spoke well of him. Shelly was the problem on Cheers from many reports, not Rhea. Yes, the Sam/Diane dynamic made the show an initial success. But the fact is the show continued to be hugely successful after Shelly left. Give credit to the others and Kirstie Alley who stepped in as a completely different character and more than filled the void after Shelly left.
I am not sure who is the bad P:eson and who is the good person in this Feud between Shelly LOng and Rhea Perlman. I know the one person who was nice to her, who lreally liked her in the Cast was the Guy who played the Coach- Nicolas Cosalnato who unfornately died a few seasons into the Show.. He was replaced by Wood Harrelson who did a great job with his character- Woody Boyd and went on to have a Big Movie Career and be a Major Motion Picture Star.. It is interesting on how the show Carla and Diane didn't like each other. I guess life did imitate Art.
@@missmakebyjoanna Rhea was pissed at Shelley for leaving a hit show. She was worried that without Shelley being part of the winning formula, the show would get cancelled.
For me the problem with the show was that the Sam-Diane romance angle was fully played out by Season 4. It had nowhere to go but to the altar, which would have killed the show, so they went for the Frasier triangle arc to spice things up. Grammer was simply a sharper comedic actor than Long, and so got more air time. For the producers, it was all about keeping the show on top. That's capitalism--unforgiving when it comes to the bottom line.
Shelly Long was the real star of Cheers. She elevated many bad ‘dull’ jokes coming from the other cast members to a level of comical euphoria without having to say a word, often just with her facial expressions. She’s just a comedy genius. Kirsty alley had very big shoes to fill and she did extremely well, a superb job but not even close to Shelly’s level. Frasier’s character was a very good runner up to Diane’s, followed by Sam, Rebecca, Coach, Cliff, Woody… …. … and then Norm dead last. 😎
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Shelly played her character well but her character was just annoying. They must have realized pretty quickly it wasn’t so entertaining. Her acting in the money pit was great.
Shelly leaving helped the show get away from Sam and Diane's stagnant love story and allowed so many other characters to blossom and turn the show into a huge hit in my opinion. I loved the entire series and it is my favorite sitcom of all time.
It's a shame about all this behind the scenes drama. I know that to stay in everyones' good graces you have to bite your tongue, take a lot of crap and fake sincerity a lot, and maybe some can't do that so well. I know I couldn't. I'm sensing that was the case with Shelly. In my opinion she may have been under rated and under appreciated, because she was the funniest character on the show, and she obviously felt she was under valued, which she was. They were all very professional and very funny on screen so I think that's what matters most.
I always thought Long thought the entire show was about her. She seemed to think that she could carry a movie career which did not happen. Hollywood ego.
I believe, even though I don’t know her, she was always a professional. Did your job. There’s always jealousies in any profession. And my job is a Podiatrist they were good guys and they were absolute pricks. Maybe I was sometime. But I guess everybody has her good days and bad days
I thought Shelley played her part well although I really like Rebecca Howes character probaymore so. I think the show was more balanced with Shelley, the series lost a little bit when she left but the rest of the cast were pretty good. The show was very enjoyable even if it got a little tired towards the end. Nothing can last forever so the show probably ran it's coarse. Still...very fond memories.
You omitted her work in Outrageous Fortune with Bette Midler which was very successful and critically praised. Sadly after that, not much on the big screen. Too bad. She deserved better
Who got the spin-off? Frazier! There was never a Diane show. Frazier and his wife Lilith were just better characters. Some people are just better TV actors.
I don't think about Shelley Long every time I've ever seen her movie she sucks and not in a good way I don't know what happened to her haven't seen any movies or anything of her so long it's easy just to forget about her she wasn't that great of an actress in cheers she had a attitude problem you could tell it she just wasn't all that
If the producers of Cheers gave Kelsey Grammer a full time role on the show just to annoy Shelly Long I got to say that is a real petty thing to do...and I respect the hell out of them for doing it.
