In 1987 Rebecca Howe, played by the late Kirstie Alley, joined the cast of Cheers. As expected, Sam (Ted Danson) moved swiftly and tried to hit on her. Alley’s character, however, was not quite like Shelley Long‘s Diane and was more of a hard nut to crack during her tenure at the bar. In fact, you could say that she gave Sam a much harder time than Diane ever did. But that’s definitely up for debate, especially among die-hard Diane fans. Altogether, Rebecca gradually became a vital part of the show after a while and would have been just as hard to let go. Here are a few of her best moments from the show.
5. Scary place
It’s funny how people pick up on a conversation and can say the exact wrong thing when they really get going. Woody (Woody Harrelson) wasn’t too bright but he did have a way of speaking up when his advice and his input just weren’t needed all that much. Rebecca might not have been a complete coward but she didn’t like being alone in big, spooky places, especially after having watched a horror movie about that same subject. Of course, Woody never really had a filter between his brain and his mouth that kept him from voicing what he thought was common knowledge and something everyone should know.
4. Too stupid to live
You could say that Rebecca was a little high-strung at times. Having to run the bar wasn’t always easy with the clientele she had and the people she had to work with. There were definitely moments when she seemed on the verge of a nervous breakdown and others when she was the iron-fisted tyrant. But in those moments when she was laid emotionally bare she really tended to lose it. Kirstie Alley’s performance as Rebecca Howe on Cheers didn’t always have a medium setting, at least not one that she used. She was either in control or slowly falling apart.
3. Cat gets lost
You can say one thing for Rebecca, or rather you can say a lot of things, but one thing you can’t say is she wasn’t funny. Or rather, her character facilitated a lot of funny moments. In this classic scene, Rebecca’s displeasure at having a dog in the bar is humanized by a story about how she lost her cat. While Fraiser (Kelsey Grammer) delivered the punchline, Rebecca sells the disbelief in a way that makes this scene an all-timer.
2. Woody tries to kiss Rebecca
Just imagine all that she had to put up with in this place, especially from the employees. The lot of them had so many hangups and character quirks that it made for an interesting and funny show, but in a real working environment, these folks would have driven just about anyone up the wall. The fact that Rebecca Howe held Cheers together was kind of a testament to how strong-willed she was supposed to be and the hard case she had to be. She had to deal with each individual employee on a completely different level, which if you know anything about being a boss is just about impossible when you have this many people with these many issues.
1. Living with Sam
There was a seriously messed up relationship between Rebecca and Sam throughout the show. Now granted, this clip above is all in Rebecca’s imagination, but can you really see the two of them together without them coming to an impasse of sorts? Rebecca wanted nothing but a family that she could love and cherish while Sam was always too much of a playboy to let anything or anyone tie him down. The two of them getting together in this capacity just didn’t seem possible without a huge fight happening every so often and a lot of misery coming Rebecca’s way. This scene did a great job of conveying that.
Rebecca Howe was welcomed by a lot of Cheers fans, but a lot of them remained faithful to Diane. While she did win over a great chunk of the audience it still took a lot of people a decent amount of time to get used to her. Her comedic quality was good enough for the show and her character was a good foil for her costars, and honestly, she seems like the best choice overall, better than Diane in many regards.
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