Appreciation: How 'Cheers' stars Kirstie Alley and Ted Danson made one of TV's most iconic pairings
Many television series have lost and gained characters across their lifetime, but when Kirstie Alley took over from Shelley Long as the female lead of "Cheers" in 1987, it was something epochal, almost a reboot, a new lease on life. Long's Diane Chambers was a runaway bride, cerebral, willowy, blond, mathematically fated to be mated with Ted Danson's bartender-proprietor Sam Malone — and they were indeed together off and on through her five seasons.
As Rebecca Howe, who came into the series as
