Television Cheers

[Bucklecroft Rudy]

Been watching cheers back to back for the last few days and loving it. My enjoyment would be complete if it werent for one turd in the punchbowl - Miss Mona Perpetuem herself Diane Chambers.
It isn't just her self absorption her egoism that shrill whining cadence in her voice the cross eyed stare when she goes into those interminable intellectual transports. Its her self righteousness - in every situation she claims her inalienable right to the moral highroad. Most of her moral stands are completely inconsequential leading to an unforgivable amount of dead air. Someone should calculate just how much time is devoted to Diane and her pathological need to be at attention central.
She represents a particular caste. She belongs to a race of people who use the word proleteriat and plebiean. Whose company is rarely painful but always torture.
Perhaps there isnt actually a reason why I cannot stand her. Perhaps its everything and nothing. Perhaps its the fact that she doesn't belong in cheers. Either way though she makes me entertain thoughts that Attila the Hun would quail from something about her is compelling. I just love to hate her.

 

[L2R]

then she did her job well. she's the fall-guy, the straight. although what you wrote is true, everyone took the piss out on her expense.

good show

 

[ForEverAfter]

Perhaps its the fact that she doesn't belong in cheers.

Intellectual neurosis is a recurring theme in both Cheers and Frasier. Diane and Frasier are intentionally "out of place" in Cheers. Just as Martin "doesn't belong" in Frasier. Martin Crane is like Sam Malone; he is the polar opposite of an intellectual. Cheers uses the same framework as Frasier, it just flips it round the other way. In Frasier, there is a reason for Martin to start living with his son. In Cheers, you're right, it doesn't make that much sense that Diane works at the bar; they didn't bother to come up with a good back story for the situation part of the sitcom. For that reason, and many others, Frasier is a much better show.

I like Diane, though. She's one of the more versatile characters. The Fraiser episodes and the Diane episodes are among the best. Cliff, Norm and Carla are not well-rounded characters; they're like cartoons. All we ever see of Norm is him drinking beer and making wisecracks. Cliff constantly says insane shit. Carla is a tough little woman who doesn't take any shit from anybody.

Diane is complex. She has dreams, flaws, insecurities. She's arrogant and elitist. And she's smart enough to see herself, to some extent. She is semi-conscious of her mistakes and her limitations. She is, arguably, the most important character on the show; when she left and that fat bitch from Look Who's Talking took over, the show went downhill rapidly.

 

[NINDY]

one of the truly great comedies. Brilliant ensemble, favourite character: Norm! favourite bit character: Always Lilith, but must admit a soft spot for Carla's husband, Eddie. Greatest line in Cheers ever: the day Frasier decided to civilise the bar by reading Tale of Two Cities. After he commences "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times......." Gets to "the age of reason..." when Cliff says: "Boy, this Dickens has trouble making up his mind."