Oh that's only the start. Remember as soon as the show did gain good raitings, poor Nick Collaonto (The Coach) passed away. and then a couple of years later Shelley left. it's back story is probably more interesting than the show itself. Not many shows has that many back story complication and still survived longer than even the producers thought.

Not to mention its spinoff, 'Frasier' , which lasted another 11 years after Cheers. That has to be the only time that a back-to-back transition from series to spinoff was so successful.

I don't think it would have lasted as long with Shelley as a regular but I wish she had returned for guest stints over the years. I remember they touted the 200th episode as the return of Shelley Long, and then it turned out she was just sitting on a panel for a clip show. It was heavily implied that she was returning as Diane, so I thought it a dirty trick to play.

After seeing how fabulous she really was in her return in that last episode, I wished it had happened a little more often. Not every season, but maybe 3 or 4 episodes from 87-93.

Damn, John Ratzenberger and Ted Danson need to lay off the tanning bed.

Check this out- Cali Timmins as "Maryanne" in a spoof of Cheers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug-vwMEEe7E

I don't think it would have lasted as long with Shelley as a regular but I wish she had returned for guest stints over the years. I remember they touted the 200th episode as the return of Shelley Long, and then it turned out she was just sitting on a panel for a clip show. It was heavily implied that she was returning as Diane, so I thought it a dirty trick to play.

After seeing how fabulous she really was in her return in that last episode, I wished it had happened a little more often. Not every season, but maybe 3 or 4 episodes from 87-93.

Yes it would have been fun to see her actually come back in "six months' like she promised and see how Cheers had changed. how the world didn't end when she left the bar. How Rebecca was now running things and Sam being just a bartender. She would have gloated that after she left him his life fell apart.

She would have loved John Allen Hill, especially when he tried to turn Cheers into a Melville's lounge. Sam even said, "He's turning this place into something Diane would have liked."