It’s a great episode because it allowed Shelley to return as Diane later on in episodes of both Cheers and Frasier. So, when Shelley told the producers that she wouldn’t be returning for the show’s sixth season they put together an elaborate send-off for her character where she and Sam would put their relationship on hold so that she could focus on her writing. The producers also felt that the bar was always meant to be Sam’s one true love and, over the course of those first five seasons, Sam’s relationship with the bar had taken a bit of a back seat. Apparently, the ongoing fun of married life isn’t quite as entertaining as watching the highs and lows of a courtship in the making. Television audiences are notorious for losing interest in a show after the two main characters tie the knot. Preparing for her character send-off CHEERS - “The Proposal” Episode 1 - Pictured: (l-r) Shelley Long as Diane Chambers, Ted Danson as Sam Malone - Photo by: NBCU Photo Bank/Getty ImagesĬouple that with the fact that the producers of the show were concerned about how the culmination of the Sam and Diane romance would play out. As you can guess that led to a bit of a separation between Shelley and the rest of the cast members who had grown quite close. While others wanted to joke around and goof off a bit in between takes, Long, on the other hand, preferred to focus on the task at hand, preparing for the next scene often by herself away from the other cast members. The problem, from everything that I can tell through extensive research, is that Shelley wasn’t all that much fun on set. RELATED: Shedding Light On The Secret Original Lyrics To ‘Cheers’ Theme

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