In its sixth season, Cheers introduced its second major--and most significant--cast change. Following the events of season 5, Sam (Ted Danson) returns from his aborted around-the-world boat trip to find the old gang gone, Carla (Rhea Perlman) and Woody (Woody Harrelson) wearing uniforms more fit for a barbershop quartet, and a tough new boss who reportedly "eats live sharks for breakfast." The new boss, Rebecca (Kirstie Alley, probably best known at the time for her appearance in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and later to anchor such series as Veronica's Closet and Fat Actress), grudgingly hires back Sam, but has him positively befuddled with her resistance to his masculine wiles. She's not as tough as she seems, however, getting weak in the knees at the thought or sight of her corporate boss, Evan Drake (Tom Skerritt).

After the Diane debacle, the irony of the sixth season is that wedding bells are in the air. Carla is on the verge of hitching up with her Boston Bruins boyfried, Eddie LeBec (Jay Thomas), until a string of bad luck threatens to tear apart the "two most superstitious people in the world." Then Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) is the victim of a prank that turns serious when he decides to dump live-in psychologist-lover Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth) in order to "pursue the fair Rebecca." Other events of the season include Sam as a rapping sportscaster, Sam and Woody being sold in a charity auction, Woody entering a romance with an older woman while dressed up as Mark Twain, and another showdown with Gary's Old Town Tavern. Cheers missed Shelley Long, but it remained a high-quality show; her career missed Cheers infinitely more. --David Horiuchi