Who is Diane Chambers in Cheers?

Show

Cheers

Played by

Shelley Long

First episode

“Give Me a Ring Sometime”Season 1, Episode 1, aired September 30, 1982

Role

Main cast

Network

NBC

Occupation

Cocktail waitress and graduate student

Show run

1982 to 1993

Diane Chambers walks into Cheers engaged to her professor and walks out with a job carrying beer to people who have never read Tolstoy. Played by Shelley Long, she is cultured, wordy, and endlessly earnest, and her clashes and romance with Sam Malone defined the show's first five seasons.

On Cheers, Diane Chambers's story runs through Sam Malone (On-and-off love), Frasier Crane (Ex-fiance), Carla Tortelli (Coworker and rival), Norm Peterson (Regular), and Cliff Clavin (Regular).

Who is Diane Chambers?

Diane is a well-read former teaching assistant and graduate student who arrives at Cheers in the pilot with her fiance, a professor named Sumner Sloane. When he leaves her behind at the bar to go back to his ex-wife, she has no money, no plan, and nowhere to go, so she accepts Sam's offer of a waitress job.

She never quite fits in, and that is the point. Diane quotes poets, analyzes everyone's feelings, and treats a working-class Boston bar like a seminar room. The regulars tease her constantly, but over time the bar becomes as much her home as anyone's.

Personality and comedy

Diane's comedy comes from her pretension and her refusal to let a conversation stay simple. She uses three long words when one short one would do, corrects grammar mid-argument, and is sure she understands people better than they understand themselves. Carla in particular can barely stand her, and Carla rarely passes up a chance to insult her.

Shelley Long also gives her real warmth and vulnerability. Diane is idealistic, kind to people in trouble, and genuinely in love with Sam even when she cannot stand him. The show's sharpest scenes are the rapid-fire arguments in Sam's office that end in either a breakup or a kiss.

Key storylines

Sam and Diane spar through season one and finally kiss in the season finale. They date through season two before breaking up badly, and Diane checks into a psychiatric hospital, where she meets Dr. Frasier Crane. She and Frasier fall for each other and travel to Europe to marry at the end of season three, but she leaves him at the altar.

Back at Cheers, Diane and Sam drift together again. In season five he proposes again and again until she accepts in "Chambers vs. Malone." On their wedding day in "I Do, Adieu," Diane gets a chance to pursue her dream of being a writer, so they call off the ceremony and Sam lets her go with a promise that she will be back in six months. She returns only for the 1993 finale, now a successful television writer, for one last attempt at romance with Sam.

Behind the scenes and legacy

Shelley Long won the role over other finalists largely because NBC executives loved her chemistry with Ted Danson. She won the 1983 Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series and two Golden Globes, then left the series in 1987, which led to Kirstie Alley joining as Rebecca Howe.

Diane also turns up on Frasier, most notably in "The Show Where Diane Comes Back" in 1996, when she asks Frasier for help after her career stalls. In 1999, TV Guide ranked her number 33 on its list of the 50 greatest TV characters.

Diane Chambers: frequently asked questions

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