She completed her contract and left the show after five years and that is a pretty long time to play ONE character! She
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Shelley Long
freddie73 — 9 years ago(June 27, 2016 07:54 PM)
She completed her contract and left the show after five years and that is a pretty long time to play ONE character! She wanted to go out and do different things and she got destroyed for it! It would have been completely boring for her after a while to keep playing Diane Chambers for ten years! Five years was a good run, and Cheers was better for her leaving because they went as far as they needed to go with Sam and Diane anyway. What was left? They get married and become boring, or keep repeating the same story over and over and get boring. I loved Diane, but Shelly Long as an actress earned the right to challenge her talent not get bashed and black listed for it!
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Deenglow — 9 years ago(December 11, 2016 04:04 AM)
Cheers was already repeating Sam and Diane storylines by the time she left. Her final season was exhausting, as they'd made Diane a psychopath by that point. She saved Cheers by leaving it, as the Sam and Diane stuff just wasn't cute anymore - their relationship was getting toxic and creepy.