One Sam And Carla Moment In Cheers Had Shelley Long Breaking Down Behind The Scenes
"Cheers" dominated the TV landscape in the 1980s. Viewers were caught up in the relationship between bartender/bar owner Sam Malone (Ted Danson) and the barmaid who felt like she was too good for the job, Diane Chambers (Shelley Long). Would she unbend enough actually to have fun with Sam? Could he manage to stand how pretentious she was? Hanging out with Sam, Diane, and the bar denizens of "Cheers" was like visiting old friends, gossiping about their lives, and getting invested in relationships that we weren't part of.
As it turns out, Shelley Long was as invested as fans were in the Sam and Diane storyline. In fact, there was an episode early on that had the actor breaking down behind the scenes, according to a 25th-anniversary feature in The Hollywood Reporter from 2018. That episode involved a moment between Sam and Carla Tortelli (Rhea Perlman) that Diane wasn't even there for. Watching it now, let's just say it doesn't make Sam look very good, and as annoying as Diane's character is, you kind of get why she's absolutely in the right here.
Getting really into your character
It's obvious from the picture above that I'm talking about the episode where Sam and Carla kiss. It's season 2, episode 13, "Battle of the Exes." Carla's ex-husband Nick (Dan Hedaya) and father of most of her children is getting married to a woman named Loretta (Jean Kasem). Carla has been invited to their wedding but she doesn't have a date. Sam goes with her as her fake boyfriend, giving Carla the confidence to push Nick away when he says he wants her back.
However, after the wedding, Carla gets upset, realizing that, while her side of things was fake, Nick actually had someone real. As Sam comforts her, they have a moment and end up kissing. They decide that they're better off as friends, though this happens as Diane is coming over to the bar with her luggage for a vacation with Sam. Of course, Sam doesn't tell her what just happened. They make jokes with each other and head off for vacation like he didn't just lock lips with someone else. Shelley Long was upset for her character and took it very personally.
'We'd never confronted anything like that before'
In the THR article, Glen Charles (who created the series with Les Charles and James Burrows) spoke about how deeply Shelley Long felt about this betrayal of Diane. He said:
"Shelley got into the character more than any actor I've worked with. Whenever there was a new script she'd come in and talk about 'Where am I?' this week. Not Diane. She personalized it. There was an episode early on when Sam and Carla had a playful kiss and Shelley came into our office and broke down."
I'm not sure how playful I'd say that kiss was, having rewatched the scene in question. Still, breaking down over something that happened to your character is pretty extreme. Les Charles added: "She said Diane would be destroyed by this. We said Diane isn't in the scene and never hears about it and Shelley said, 'Yes, but I know.' We'd never confronted anything like that before."
As annoying as Diane was (I was never a fan of her character, which I think is pretty obvious), Long was clearly committed to her role and she was brilliant at it. If we as fans get upset by things that happen to the characters we love, it's got to be so much more personal when you're the one wearing that character's shoes.
"Cheers" is currently streaming on Hulu.