‘Cheers’: Ted Danson and Shelley Long Beat 2 Other Couples for Sam and Diane Roles

The NBC comedy Cheers was one of the best examples of the classic will they/won’t they dynamic. Bartender Sam Malone (Ted Danson) romanced his waitress Diane Chambers (Shelley Long) for the first five seasons of the show. When Long left, the show found its footing with new cast members too, but Danson and Long had some stiff competition for Sam and Diane in the first place.

Cheers co-creator and director James Burrows was a guest on the Smartless podcast on July 18. Burrows tells lots of his television stories in his book, Directed By James Burrows, but he shared the Cheers casting story on Smartless. Here are the four other people Danson and Long beat out. 

Two other couples auditioned for Sam and Diane on ‘Cheers’

Before 1982, Long had done some notable movies like Night Shift and Caveman. Danson had been on The Doctors and other shows. Any network show is going to test multiple potential leads, and the Cheers competition featured some future stars too.

“There was a final audition for the Diane and Sam [roles] in Cheers,” Burrows said on Smartless. “There were three couples. Fred Dryer, former Los Angeles Ram and Julia Duffy. Billy Devane and Lisa Eichhorn and Ted and Shelley. They were all three different. They were all completely different.”

Who were the actors Ted Danson and Shelley Long beat?

Of the four competitors, Devane had the longest resume with a career going back to the ‘60s, including roles in McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Marathon Man and a lead in Rolling Thunder. He would continue primarily in drama, landing Knots Landing, pun intended, the year after Cheers and appearing on 24, The West Wing and The X-Files.

Eichhorn was just getting started in film and TV when Cheers came along. She would end up guesting on Miami Vice, All My Children, Murder, She Wrote, The Practice, Judging Amy, Cracker, and Mr. Selfridge among many others. 

Dryer would also end up with a drama career on NBC’s Hunter. He would guest on Cheers as sportscaster Dave Richards. Duffy would have the most comedic career of the Cheers runners up as part of the ensemble of Newhart, and joining the cast of Designing Women once that ended. 

Ted Danson and Shelley Long were the obvious choice 

Burrows said it was clear from the auditions that Danson and Long were Sam and Diane. The only glitch was the original script wrote Sam as an ex-wide receiver rather than an ex baseball player. It was easier to change Sam to a baseball player than to give up the chemistry Danson had with Long. 

“Obviously, the best chemistry was Ted and Shelley although when we got up with the network after, two out of the 10 people wanted to hire Fred Dryer because at that point, Sam Malone was a wide receiver for the Patriots,” Burrows said. “We felt Freddy didn’t have the comedic skill to do a full on series although we brought him back as Sam’s friend. The obvious choice was Ted and Shelley.”