page_title: Diane Chambers
section_title: Creation and casting
hierarchical_section_title: Diane Chambers / Development / Creation and casting
caption_attribution_description: English: This photo with Shelley Long at the 1996 Cable ACE Awards. I was a Judge for Comedy at the time with my twin sister Jennie Frankel. The Awards were last presented in 1997.
context_page_description: Diane Chambers is a fictional character in the American television situation comedy show Cheers, portrayed by Shelley Long and created by Glen and Les Charles. After her fiancé Sumner Sloan abandons her in the Cheers bar in the pilot episode, Diane works as a bar waitress. She has an on-off relationship with the womanizing bartender Sam Malone and a one-year relationship with Frasier Crane, who later becomes a main character of the series and Frasier. When Long left the series during the fifth season, the producers wrote her character out. After that, they added her permanent replacement Rebecca Howe, a businesswoman played by Kirstie Alley, in the sixth season. Shelley Long made a special guest appearance in the series finale as Diane in the eleventh and final season. Long also appeared in Frasier as Diane's fantasy counterpart in Frasier's dreams and the actual Diane in a crossover episode "The Show Where Diane Comes Back".
  Other actresses auditioned for the role of Diane Chambers. Producers decided to give Long the role primarily for her scenes with Ted Danson as Sam. Critical reception for the character has been mostly positive.
context_section_description: According to Shelley Long, Diane looks more intelligent than she really is. She uses books and academics to communicate with others, usually unsuccessfully. After a series of events which bring her scorn and ridicule, Diane realizes that she knows little about the real world and the bar, and must learn about the world without using books.
  Wendie Malick auditioned for the role of Diane; she later appeared in Frasier as Ronny Lawrence. Bess Armstrong was offered a role, but she turned it down. Long was initially reluctant to audition, expecting to be offered the role straight out. The producers took a meeting with her and were able to coax her into reading for the part; according to Glen Charles when Long read "that was it, we knew that we wanted her." 
  Before the final decision was made, the list of actresses was narrowed down to three: Long, Lisa Eichhorn, and Julia Duffy. The three actresses were paired with the three finalists for the role of Sam (Long was paired with Ted Danson), and each pair auditioned in front of the producers and NBC executives. The NBC executives praised the test scenes between Long and Danson, so the creators chose Long. Julia Duffy later appeared as one of Diane's friends in "Any Friend of Diane's", a 1982 episode of Cheers.
  Diane is full of gumption and chutzpah, but quite frequently, she doesn't have the vaguest idea [about] what's going on. However, the producers are cooperative, [and] they have agreed Diane will change. One of my fears of television is 'Do I want to play the same character seven, eight, maybe 10 years?' But it wouldn't be that bad because Diane has a lot of room to grow and still be funny. It's because she cares so deeply.
  — Shelley Long, Rome News-Tribune
  When the character was conceived, Diane was to be an executive businesswoman who would have a "love-hate" relationship with ex-baseball player Sam Malone (Ted Danson); their relationship was inspired by the romantic movies of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. Instead, she became a pretentious college student. When Long left the series in 1987, the producers reverted to the original concept for Diane to use with Diane's replacement Rebecca Howe (Kirstie Alley).
caption: Long at the 1996 Cable ACE Awards
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon MF8300C Series", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "iPhoto 9.6", "Image DateTime": "2014:11:08 07:47:04", "Image ExifOffset": "198", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:11:08 07:47:04", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:11:08 07:47:04", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1366", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "902"}