‘Cheers’: Kirstie Alley Once Called Show ‘a Boys’ Club’ and ‘a Dictatorship’
When Kirstie Alley joined the cast of the NBC comedy Cheers in season 6, she was in charge, at least on camera. Rebecca Howe (Alley) was the new boss of Cheers. Sam Malone (Ted Danson) returned after selling the bar to a corporation, but had to work under Howe. They fulfilled the will they/won’t they quotient after the departure of Diane Chambers (Shelley Long), but Howe once said she was not in charge at all.
When the Los Angeles Times reported on the series finale of Cheers in 1993, Alley told it like it was. Here’s why she said Cheers was a “boys’ club” and “dictatorship,” and furthermore why she didn’t mind.
‘Cheers’ cast reported to the people in charge
Glen and Les Charles co-created Cheers with James Burrows. The Charles brothers were the head writers, and the trio were the final word on all things Cheers.
“Cheers is a dictatorship,” Alley told the Los Angeles Times. “It is a boys’ club and they dictate what the girls do and that is the way you do it (laughs). There are no conferences about what your character is or should be. It makes people go unconscious. They just tell you what your character is doing in the script, period.”
Kirstie Alley wasn’t criticizing ‘Cheers’
If it wasn’t clear enough that the L.A. Times indicated Alley was laughing as she said this, Alley also elaborated. Cheers lasted 11 seasons under the Charles’ and Burrows’ leadership. They must have been doing something right.
“But I sort of like that,” Alley continued. “It is sort of refreshing. There is a certain peacefulness in dictatorship because you know there are no other answers and no hashing it through. You don’t have to think about it and you can basically be mindless. There’s a nice inner peace in being mindless (laughs).”
Kirstie Alley gets serious
The end of Cheers was a moment of celebration for everyone involved. In fact, after the series finale aired, the cast appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno inebriated in celebration. By the time Alley joined the cast of Cheers she had already appeared in movies such as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Runaway. By the time it ended she had headlined Look Who’s Talking, Madhouse and Sibling Rivalry. Alley appreciated the well-oiled machine of Cheers.
“In all fairness, it’s rare to just get to be an actor,” Alley said. “I like to walk on the set, say my lines and go home. It is the easiest job in the world. I don’t like to have these meetings of the mind, these powwows, about what your next move as your character is going to be. I would much rather have some brilliant writer write a brilliant script. That is what I would like to continue to do.”
