R.I.P. Kirstie Alley

[Sabin]

Really surprised by this one. I had no idea she was 71. She had a short battle with cancer and died.

I started watching Cheers with the Rebecca episodes, not the Diane ones, around 1995 or 1996. I was very much a fan of her comic timing and found her very attractive. Career-wise, I have a degree of sympathy for her. She was already forty-plus when Cheers was over (a role she was lucky to get) and roles for women were/are limited. But nothing she did afterwards worked. NBC had a way of hyping up their new post-Seinfeld series and then the minute it failed they would shuttle it off to die on Monday or Wednesday night. Hers was Veronica's Closet, which I recall being especially lousy. I see now it was only on 1997-2000 but it felt longer. With the exception of the fondly remembered Drop Dead Gorgeous, her career was in a tailspin after that. She became more known for her weight problems and eventually her Trump support. But she was capable of being very, very funny and it would be nice if people were able to remember that in measure.