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[youreneverjustanythingtomescully]

One Sam and Diane Moment Per Episode 3x22 Cheerio Cheers

[mchalesmcavoy]

THAT’S MY GIRL

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[smdcs]

“You know our passions always overcome our intentions. We say it’s over, and yet we still end up in each other’s arms.”

[smdcs]

[rocktheholygrail]

Cheers || The Good Place

[emmynominees]

shelley long as diane chambers in season one of cheers

primetime emmy award winner for outstanding lead actress in a comedy series

[blairwarner]

diane chambers requested by @janecurtin

[chambersandmalone]

“‘You couldn’t put out the sparks between those two with a dozen steam rollers. There is a special chemistry between Shelley and Ted, in character and out, that provides so much electricity it’s unnecessary to write it into the script.

'We are truly blessed with that special casting.’”

– Cheers co-creator/director James Burrows on Ted Danson and Shelley Long, excerpt from Vernon Scott, “Cheers Remodeled”, UPI, August 9, 1984.

Scott goes on to add:

“Shelley and Ted are happily married to other people. While they get along famously on the set, they are not close friends in their private lives and rarely see each other away from work.”

“… so don’t even go there.” LOL

[givemeebutterflies]

BEST FRIENDS.

[chambersandmalone]

“In the scene where we said goodbye, some real emotion crept in.”

[chambersandmalone]

– Ted Danson, as quoted by Aljean Harmetz in “Change in Cheers Lineup Sparks Nervousness On Set”, The Sun-Sentinel, September 27,1987.

Beyond the whole Sam and Diane implosion, the really tough part of the goodbye scene is being able to see the effect it is having on Ted and Shelley.  

Ted shines through in these scenes as much as Sam.  His voice is very different– raw and quiet and like his heart is in his throat.  His posture is broken and he looks vaguely ill throughout.  We’ve never seen Sam so serious before or since, and it is disconcerting.  

Diane is supposed to be the true believer here, cheerleading her return in six months, but Shelley creeps in and there are tears in every smile and she almost falls apart entirely at “Okay.  That’s better.”  

It just seems like it had to be an emotional meat grinder for all concerned, but I guess that’s what makes “I Do and Adieu” such a powerful episode.  As George Wendt put it in the same article, “It’s kinda like when someone dies and you don’t believe it.”

[oldschoolteenflicks]

Shelley Long as Kathy in Losin’t It (1983) dir. by Curtis Hanson

[missbostonbarmaid]

Moments of beauty

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[missbostonbarmaid]

“Not a day goes by when I don’t miss him terribly.” 

[shelleyalldaylong]

Crazy about her.

[chambersandmalone]

“I think Shelley, in those early years– well actually, her whole stay on the show– I’d be hard-pressed to think of a more gifted comedic actress on television.  She rode a thin line between caricature and a real person, and rode it perfectly.  I never believed that she wasn’t that character… that she was just playing a part.  I believed that that was an actual human being there.  And man, she could wring a joke out of a straight line.  She could get a laugh out of a glance.  She was a joy to work with.  And smart.  Smart.”  

[chambersandmalone]

— Archive of American Television Interview with Cheers writer/producer David Lee, July 9, 2010.