yankran t1_iucyjoe wrote on October 30, 2022 at 11:47 AM

Her leaving Cheers was the best thing ever for Cheers. They got a reboot. In my opinion; Cheers was two different shows : (1) 5 yrs of will they or won't they with Sam & Diane & (2) six years of more of an ensemble show.

1Land_1Keep t1_iuebf5e wrote on October 30, 2022 at 6:02 PM

MASH is like this too. The show with Trapper and Henry and the show after them are totally different. And then again when Frank left.

methodwriter85 t1_iug81gv wrote on October 31, 2022 at 2:06 AM

I've found that any show that goes beyond a 5th/6th season tends to change in tone wildly, especially because that's usually when the core cast members start to leave.

LittleRudiger t1_iuggrgz wrote on October 31, 2022 at 3:18 AM

That and just like .. at that many years, you start to get into larger stylistic shifts in television.

E.R. comes to mind, eventually you run so long that you can see the shift from early-90's to 00's in tone, lighting, *feel*, and the original cast is so long gone that you sort of forget why the show was as big as it was in the first place.

methodwriter85 t1_iugyu1k wrote on October 31, 2022 at 6:56 AM

The Facts of Life is a pretty good example. The show evolved from the late 70's and really changed by 1985-86 season when filming and color palettes were just completely different from what they were in 1979-80.

Latter_Feeling2656 t1_iuda5ou wrote on October 30, 2022 at 1:40 PM

I've often thought that they could have syndicated it as two different shows.

brk1 t1_iudbb8r wrote on October 30, 2022 at 1:49 PM

I like to refer to the two different iterations of cheers as w/P and wo/P. (with Paul and without Paul)