A Cheers Fan Once Threatened Kelsey Grammer Over Frasier And Diane
When "Cheers" premiered in 1982 on NBC, fans became immediately invested in the Sam Malone (Ted Danson) and Diane Chambers (Shelley Long) romance. First, there was the will they/won't they dynamic, and then they got together. However, these very mismatched love birds broke up at the end of the second season. Enter her new psychologist, Dr. Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer). We didn't know it at the time, but this very pretentious boyfriend was going to have not one, but two series set around him. I never did get his appeal during the run of "Cheers." I really hated his character ... and yet somehow found myself watching his NBC spinoff "Frasier." Yes, I bought into the tossed salad and scrambled eggs of it all like the rest of the world. Well, most of the rest of the world.
According to a 2018 feature in The Hollywood Reporter to celebrate 25 years since the end of "Cheers," Frasier Crane was hated by audience members at the beginning. That included one rather die-hard fan of the show who actually threatened Grammer for messing with the characters they were shipping. And here we thought that anger over fictional film and TV romances was a product of the social media age.
Grammer came between a beloved couple
Frasier Crane seemed to be exactly what Diane Chambers wanted. In fact, Glen Charles, who created the series with Les Charles and James Burrows, said in the THR article, "Frasier represented everything Diane always said she wanted: brilliant, erudite, cosmopolitan." Diane was full of herself, constantly bragging about her intelligence and learnedness, generally putting herself above everyone else. All she did was imply that she was better than everyone, including Sam, and that she was lowering herself to be there. So, she got what she wanted in Frasier ... but it wasn't necessarily what she needed. Of course, that led to some pretty great comedy. For Grammer, however, it led to a bit of an incident. Les Charles explained:
"Frasier was the most hated character on TV. No one wanted to see someone come between Sam and Diane. After that season, he took a cross-country car trip by himself. He stopped in a bar filled with rough characters to get a beer. A big guy comes up behind him with long stringy hair and sleeves cut off, showing his tattoos. He taps Kelsey on the shoulder and Kelsey turns around and the guy says, 'You're that pencil-necked son of a b**** trying to break up Sam and Diane!'"
I'm quietly raising my hand to be counted as someone who did want someone to come between Sam and Diane, but your mileage may vary.
But Frasier came out on top
I think I find this funny, not because I want anything to have happened to Kelsey Grammer, who is a very good actor playing well-written roles. I find it funny because that is the last person I'd have expected to be invested in Sam and Diane. It just shows the pretty universal appeal of this show (and also that I should never make assumptions about what people like). There were fewer choices back then, but still, it was a pretty great show, no matter how I felt about Diane.
To be clear, Shelley Long is wonderful and she did an amazing job playing Diane. Everyone on that show was great. I mean, there is a reason it lasted for 11 seasons. My friends and I were just as invested in the show as little kids as this sleeveless tattoo guy. We just had different opinions about who Sam should have been with.
The first four seasons of "Cheers" are currently streaming on Hulu. The original "Frasier" series is streaming on Prime Video. The new "Frasier" series is streaming on Paramount+.