Shelley Lengthy was noticeably absent when a number of of her Cheers costars reunited on the Emmy Awards in 2024.
Lengthy has all the time had a contentious relationship with the NBC sitcom that made her a family identify. Amid rumors of stress with costar Ted Danson, Lengthy stop Cheers in 1987, even after successful an Emmy and two Golden Globes for enjoying Diane Chambers within the NBC sitcom’s first 5 seasons.
There have been limitless rumors over time about why Lengthy left the present. For his half, Danson admitted on the “Smartless” podcast in 2024 that he and Lengthy genuinely didn’t get alongside when cameras weren’t rolling.
“My first response to Shelley whereas we had been auditioning was, ‘Oh, no. No. That’s a foul, unhealthy thought,’” he recalled.
Recalling that his first interactions with Lengthy had been “horrible,” Danson defined: “I don’t know, we had been so totally different. Our types, our strategy, our every part is admittedly totally different, which is why I feel it labored as a result of it was like this truthful struggle.”
“It was laborious for us generally to be within the room collectively,” he conceded. “However once we began working, it was simply improbable since you’d smack her and he or she’d smack you again more durable. She was simply good.”
Lengthy conceded in a 1995 interview that she was dissatisfied that Cheers — and her exit from the present — generally overshadowed different points of her profession.
Shelly Lengthy, Ted Danson,George Wendt, Rhea Perlman, Nicholas Colasanto, John Ratzenberger in ‘Cheers.’ Everett Assortment
“I’ve by no means regretted the choice [to leave Cheers],” she insisted. “I’ve been irritated by the feedback and the fixed questions of, ‘Do you remorse? Do you ever remorse?’ … I don’t remorse it. I’ve stated it time and again.”
Lengthy defined that her main purpose for leaving Cheers on the top of the present’s recognition was that she “sincerely” needed extra time along with her household.
“I’ll without end treasure [that time with my family],” she added.
Lengthy was married to Ken Solomon early in her profession, earlier than tying the knot with securities dealer Bruce Tyson in 1981. Tyson and Lengthy share one daughter, Juliana, born in March 1985. (Lengthy and Tyson divorced in 2004.)
Lengthy saved busy after leaving Cheers, showing in a string of profitable films with The Cash Pit, Troop Beverly Hills and The Brady Bunch Film into the Nineteen Nineties.
She made recurring appearances in Fashionable Household as Ed O’Neill’s onscreen ex-wife, DeDe Pritchett. Lengthy appeared in eight Fashionable Household episodes over a nine-year interval. Her character was killed off in a memorable 2018 episode as a approach to show “loss of life is a big a part of the household expertise,” in accordance with Fashionable Household cocreator Steve Levitan.
“[DeDe was] instantly concerned with three of our characters and he or she touched all people’s life in some attention-grabbing approach,” the producer defined on the time. “It appeared like the correct character to place all people by way of one thing. She appeared like the correct character as a result of she so instantly impacts so a lot of our characters.”
Talking to ABC Information in 2017, Lengthy mirrored on getting into a brand new part of her profession after taking part in romantic leads for therefore lengthy.
“There simply aren’t quite a lot of roles typically, roles for somebody extra particular to my age,” she famous. “I’m sort of within the center, I don’t precisely seem like a grandmother, however I don’t seem like a number one woman within the extra conventional sense … There are quite a lot of younger grandmothers on the market.”
Shelley Lengthy in November 2017. David Livingston/Getty Photographs
She saved appearing into the 2020s, although Lengthy ultimately retreated from public life following the discharge of her 2021 film The Cleaner.
When Emmy producers organized a Cheers forged reunion on the annual gala in September 2024, Lengthy declined to participate with former costars Danson, Kelsey Grammer, Rhea Perlman, John Ratzenberger and George Wendt. Grammar later admitted to The New York Put up in January 2024 that he was dissatisfied that Lengthy selected to not attend.
“I used to be sorry Shelley didn’t make it,” the Frasier actor stated. “However the different guys, it was nice to see them.”
Lengthy remains to be often noticed by photographers in Los Angeles, however has chosen to stay a quiet life away from the highlight lately.
