There was never any doubt in my mind that Sam's "wow" meant the painting had affected him.

"I sort of take his side in the Shelley Long rivalry, because apparently she criticized his take on Sam." Source? I don't remember reading or hearing that anywhere and would like to know what Long said in this regard.

"Season 4 was meh." I'm rewatching S4 right now and liking it more than S3, and about as much as S2.

Another extraordinary bit of acting by Long is the final scene of "Let Me Count the Ways," in which Diane learns the family cat has died. She and Sam are fighting in his office, she's about to storm out, Sam calls her back and sincerely says he's sorry about the cat, and Long's eyes immediately and naturally well up…

In the last episode of S1, Coach refers to sticking with Sam through his divorce. I'm currently rewatching S4, and I'm pretty sure I heard another reference to Sam's divorce recently. Interestingly, when Janet (the councilwoman Sam dates in the last 3 episodes of S4) asks what the longest relationship he'd had was,…

I clicked on the link and found it.

Long was in her early 30s when Cheers debuted, but I took Diane to be more like 26 - 28. There's a bit of discontinuity in the first season in that Diane talks about her father disapproving of the boys she dated (and Diane didn't seem like someone who would have started dating particularly early), but later, her…

I think his wife Casey had recovered from the paralysis by the time he hooked up with Whoopi.

Point taken — though I'm not a fan of the film, finding it kind of a mess. And I don't understand the almost universal praise Lange got for this performance. I've watched the film several times, and I always feel that I'm watching Lange be coy, Lange be outraged, Lange be angry, etc., rather than Frances Farmer. To…

I liked Garr's performance in Tootsie much more than Lange's. To be honest, I've never seen that much difference between Lange's performances in Tootsie and in Frances. They both feel more like Jessica Lange than distinct characters to me. I realize I'm an outlier in holding this opinion. :-)

"Sam Shepard plays Henry York the steadfast admiring lover, the lost opportunity, not a great role. Shepard is basically a sounding board, witness, and empathetic guy …."
who didn't exist in Farmer's real life. I understand that the script-writers wanted a way for the audience to feel closer to Farmer, but the…

Lucky you to have seen that Steppenwolf production!

So sorry for your loss. :-(

The first three seasons are now available on amazon as well, free to Prime subscribers.

Frank Jr. appeared very briefly at the end of one episode, in which the character had run away from home. He was played by Bochco and Bosson's son, Jesse Bochco. What bugged me about Frank Jr. is that he remained the same age (either 6 or 8 years old) for the first three seasons.

Fay Furillo was written out at the start of Season 6.

He was very good in that TV movie about Adam Walsh.

Barbara Bosson has complained that this was not true of the way they dealt with Faye's departure. I don't recall from the time, but one of my obscure cable channels is up to mid-season 5 (2 episodes every Saturday), so I guess I'll find out in about 7 weeks.

Platt played Elder Cunningham in the Chicago production of Book or Mormon when he was like 20 or something and did a fantastic job.

Or, just as the Jennings are blindly wistful about returning "home" to Russia, Oleg is plotting how to get the hell out of there.