Taking over from Shelley Long no easy task

Press, 21 July 1988, Page 11

Taking over from Shelley Long no easy task

“Big shoes,” she whispers. “I am stepping into big shoes.”

The shoes are none other than Shelley Long’s of “Cheers” and Cinderella is 32-year-old actor Kirstie Alley. She has no easy job replacing Long, who after five years of playing Diane,, earned the respect, if not always the admiration, of her fellow cast members.

“It’s tough for Kirstie,” says Rhea Perlman, who plays acid-tongued Carla on the series. “We all went through this together, and she has to go through it alone. The first week she looked like a nervous wreck. And she was.”

“She is stepping into a meat grinder,” Ted Danson (alias Sam Malone) adds. “With Shelley, it was like stepping in the ring. We put on our gloves, and it was a fair fight. Kirstie is more vulnerable. You want to take her under your wing a little bit.”

Alley says that first week in the hot seat was a living nightmare. “It was horrible, just horrible,” she says. “There was so much insecurity ... Are they going to like me? Are they going to like me more than her? “And then I said to myself, what is the worst thing that could happen? That I was so horrendous

that ‘Cheers’ plunges to 300th in the ratings and that headlines across the world say ‘Kirstie Alley is the Biggest Bozo of All Actresses?’

“On the other hand, it could be good — I could add to the success of the show and the enjoyment of the audience. Who knows?”

Alley is a mix of neurosis and unshakeable courage, which usually takes the form of panic followed by success. She is a survivor who kicked cocaine addiction at the age of 26 and made the decision to become an actor just one month after going “cold turkey.”

A virtual unknown to television audiences before being chosen for “Cheers,” Alley was being promoted into a household name before her first episode had even screened in America.

She had appeared in a TV mini-series, "North and South,” and in feature films "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” and "Summer School,” but the pressure of instant fame initially threatened to engulf the new star. Day one of filming “Cheers” ended in a temper tantrum, according to a Paramount associate. “She was hysterical. She hated the way a photo shoot was turning out, and she locked herself up and refused to come out.”

As new “Cheers” manager, Rebecca Howe, Alley has to radiate a calm and businesslike authority, which drives former owner Sam Malone almost to distraction. It is almost like Diane all over again. But Kirstie Alley is not Shelley Long, and Rebecca is not Diane. The show’s producers are adamant about that. “We didn’t want to do Diane,” says James Burrows, director of “Cheers” and an associate producer. “Shelley was a comedienne, and a great one. We made a conscious choice with Kirstie not to go with another comedienne. We felt having a comedienne would hurt the fact that she is Sam’s boss. We want her to have' frailties but to show those frailties in other ways besides comedic tones.”

Now well into filming her first series, Alley, is in control; relaxed and able to enjoy her work after much scrutiny and speculation.

“I’m not nervous any more, 1 ’ she says. “The ratings didn’t go down. I didn’t get fired. I didn’t get humiliated. Everything I was afraid of didn’t happen.”

Kirstie Alley stars with Ted .Danson, Rhea Perlman and George Wendt in a new series of “Cheers,” beginning on Monday at 8.30 p.m. on Two.