To state it plainly, when it comes to matters of spirituality and politics, I agreed with Kirstie Alley on almost nothing. Okay, check that. I agreed with Kirstie Alley on absolutely nothing. And perhaps there will be articles out there that go into her history of Scientology and her love of all things conservative, but that’s not what I’m here for. I’d prefer to talk about her work.
Make no mistake, while Alley’s career was prolific and at times significant, the list of great projects she was a part of is not long. I first encountered her back in 1982 as a supporting character in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (still the best Trekkie film with the original cast, if not the best ever). I also have a soft spot for the silly robot spider movie she made with Tom Selleck and Gene Simmons two years later, Runaway. A film that has a cult, but I’m not sure that it deserves one, even if I’m a card-carrying member.
Over the next three years, Alley’s career sputtered along. She kept busy, but in little of note. Then, in 1987, she joined the cast of Cheers as what was ostensibly a replacement for Shelley Long, who left the show after a wildly successful six year run as Diane, the stuffy, somewhat snobby, opposites-attract love interest of Sam Malone (a terrific Ted Danson), the bar owner and tender of Cheers, a popular Boston watering hole with an eccentric customer base. It should not be underestimated what a mean feat it was for Alley to step into the place of Shelley Long. Over her six-year run, Long had scored three Emmy nominations – winning once. The show’s popularity was peaking, and the “will they/won’t they” (although they mostly willed) chemistry of Sam and Diane was the key instrument in the series that kept the masses tuning in.
Remarkably, and pretty much immediately, Alley took ownership of the bar (well, her character Rebecca Howe did) and every scene she was in. As Sam’s nemesis and later semi-reluctant lover, Alley’s characterization was a true force of nature performance. Her comic timing was exquisite, and her more aggressive personality made it clear that Rebecca and Sam was in no way a repeat of Diane and Sam.
Cheers not only sustained its popularity, it grew it. Something no one at NBC or anywhere else would have predicted. For her stellar work on the show from her debut in ’87 until the show’s final episode in 1993, Alley was nominated for five Emmys, winning one.
While Alley remained active from 1987 to 2020, nothing she was a part of after touched the success of Cheers. The Look Who’s Talking trilogy (lord, there was a trilogy) made the turnstiles spin at the theater, and the sitcom Veronica’s Closet, which ran from 1997-2000 and earned Alley her eighth Emmy nomination, were high points, but in her later years, Alley became known more for her tweets than her acting.
Sadly, I’m not so sure that fact will change after today. It’s too bad, really. Because for seven golden years on television, she may have been the funniest person working in the medium.
Kirstie Alley died today. She was 71 years old.
