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If you were looking for Frasier's (and later Sam's) dog from Season 3, please see Pavlov.

Diane Chambers

Diane 5

First Appearance
Last Appearance
Episode Count
123 + 3 episodes of Frasier
Seasons
1-5, 11 (1982-1987, 1993)
Occupation
Waitress, Writer
Family Members
Spencer Chambers (Father, deceased)

Helen Chambers (Mother)

Elizabeth (Cat, deceased)
Portrayed by

Diane Chambers is a waitress at Cheers, portrayed by Shelley Long.

After being left stranded in the bar in the first episode, she is hired by Sam Malone as a cocktail waitress. Initially, she loathes the well-meaning Sam, finding his ways with women brutish and disrespectful, but before too long the pair are embroiled in a volatile relationship. The antithesis of the rest of the bar's patrons in practically every way, she is intelligent, witty, snooty and opinionated, often piping up with eloquently put asides that nobody else understands. However, according to Shelly Long, Diane's intelligent appearance was deceiving, as her knowledge was more limited to books and academia rather than the real world.

Sam and Diane decide to break up at the end of season two, putting Diane in a mental institution in the process. At the institution, she meets Dr. Frasier Crane and becomes romantically involved with him. She returns to Cheers to help Sam with his alcohol problem, by offering Sam the service of Frasier. At the end of season three, Diane leaves Frasier at the altar. At the end of season four, Sam proposes to her. After many attempts at making the proposal, Sam and Diane finally agree to get married. At the end of season five, Diane is offered a position in California to get her manuscripts published. Originally she declines the offer, but Sam eventually makes her take the opportunity. She is not seen at Cheers from that point on, until the series finale, when she returns to the bar to marry Sam once again.

Her final appearance as a character is in the Cheers spin-off Frasier, where she visits him in the third season. During this visit, it is revealed she was in an accident in which she accidentally set her co-worker's hair on fire with a branding iron. Shortly afterward, she lost her job, boyfriend, house, and her plays stop selling tickets. Soon afterward, Frasier backs Diane's play, but soon finds out is a thinly-veiled fantasy of the two's adventures at Cheers (with Woody/Coach inexplicably absent). Diane paints herself in a flattering light and debases Frasier. She also turns out to be involved with the actor playing Sam. During this, Frasier reveals his true feelings about being left at the altar, and Diane admits how much he means to her; and the two bid farewell. She also appeared twice as dreams and hallucinations in two more episodes.

Appearances outside of Cheers[]

Frasier: S2E9-Adventures in Paradise: Part 2 (1994), S3E14-The Show Where Diane Comes Back (1996), and S9E2-Don Juan in Hell: Part 2 (2001)

Trivia[]

  • She bares a little resemblance to Taxi character Elaine Nardo, though mainly just in their interest of artistic things and brief mental breakdowns. Unlike Diane, Elaine was a redhead, a divorced single mother, lived below the poverty line, was more willing to prefer casual places for leisure, was more easy to get along with and was not a scholar,
  • Her decision to take up a working class job despite being born into wealth bares resemblance to Taxi character Jim Ignatowski. However, unlike Diane, Jim's brain was greatly damaged from years of drug abuse.
  • She may have been loosely based on aspiring Boston historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, who Shelley Long bore a striking physical resemblance to.
  • A loquacious person, she developed a reputation for never shutting up among the bar staff and patrons.
  • Her personal style is more romantic and preppy than most of the other characters.
  • She admires the fine arts, the theater and intellectual discourse.
  • She seems to be unaware of how her intellectualism alienates her from the rest of Cheers, and so many of her efforts to create camaraderie with the others are disastrous and humorous.
  • During the original concept of the show, Diane was intended to be a businesswoman or executive, but evolved into a pretentious "scholar vs. intellect" to play off Sam's "dumb jock" persona. Instead, it would be Diane's successor Rebecca Howe that would go on to become the businesswoman/executive type.

Gallery[]

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