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Rebecca Howe
RebeccaHowe Ghost&Mrs.LeBec
Portrayer Kirstie Alley
First seen Home Is The Sailor - Cheers
Last seen One For The Road - Cheers
Duration 1987-1993
Profile
Date of birth -
Occupation Student at University of Connecticut
Manager
Waitress
Model
Bartender
Minority Owner at Cheers
Building Superintendent
Family Sister: Susan Howe-

Rebecca Howe is a fictional character on the American Television television show Cheers, portrayed by Kirstie Alley. She is introduced after Shelley Long, who played overeducated barmaid Diane Chambers, left to pursue a movie career. Much of the show's humor had been based around the interaction and sexual tension between the womanizing, working-class main character, bartender Sam Malone, and the high-class, snobby Diane. Rebecca was intended to fill the gap as Sam's new female. While Diane was known to be intellectual, old-fashioned, and snobbish; Rebecca was portrayed as the "lovable loser" business manager, who was unlucky in her career and relationships.

Rebecca appeared in 147 episodes of Cheers between 1987-1993. She also appeared briefly in the season four Wings episode titled "I Love Brian." With the exception of the late Nicholas Colasanto, Alley is the only Cheers regular cast member who never reprised her role in the spin-off series Frasier.

Character overview[]

Rebecca Howe enters Cheers as the manager assigned by the bar's new corporate owner. Rebecca is eager to please her bosses and move up the corporate ladder, although the atmosphere of the Cheers bar is like purgatory to her. She is initially presented as a tough, no-nonsense corporate type as commented by Carla saying: "This one eats live sharks.". Not long after, her façade soon drops, revealing her neurotic and clumsy tendencies. Over the course of the series, Rebecca becomes close friends with the Cheers gang.

In the episode "Paint Your Office" Rebecca reveals to Sam that she was born in San Diego and is one of the four children of a Navy officer. She mentions in the same episode that one of her two brothers is a surgeon. In the "Last Angry Mailman" we learn that she went to the University of Connecticut where she was viewed as a party girl. She has a sister Susan, played by Marcia Cross, a movie actress. When Susan comes to visit, Sam tries playing each of the women against the other, for his own advantage—until Rebecca and Susan compare notes. They stage a confrontation in the bar's office, in which Rebecca takes a pistol and shoots her sister six times, sending Sam into a state of shock. He gets his comeuppance when the "deceased" Susan, whom he has dragged out into the main bar area, says "I'm dead!" and Carla, Woody, Frasier, Lilith, Cliff, and Norm stand up inside the bar area to witness Sam's humiliation.

Rebecca's time at Lillian was very stressful. There were times that she was fired or demoted or reassigned to Waitress, requiring her to date her bosses. Other times the Bar crew needed to rescue Rebecca, who stowed away while Norm was painting a house.

Arguably, Rebecca's most prominent storyline was throughout seasons 8 & 9, where she dated multi-millionaire Robin Colcord. Robin was often condescending and rude to the rest of the Cheers gang, making him disliked. He even cheated on Rebecca with other women, stating not being able to decide on which one to settle with, but Rebecca stayed loyal because Robin stated she was "in the lead.".

At the end of season 8; Rebecca, Sam, and Norm discover Robin had been dating Rebecca to gain insider information on the Lillian Corporation. After Sam turns Robin in to the police for Rebecca's safety, Lillian rewards him with the Option to Purchase the bar for One Dollar Or Best Offer (85 Cents) as a result of saving the company. When Rebecca discovers this she confronts Sam in his office, and after a heated argument the two make love for the first time. Robin enters the room after they've had sex and Rebecca lies to him assuring him that nothing happened. Robin later pleads guilty for his charges, apparently losing all his money, and goes to prison. They continued to correspond with each other.

Not long after, Rebecca gets fired again by the corporation for the last time. In Rebecca Redux, Sam and Rebecca meet again at her new job as a model for advertisements. Earl agrees to take a new job outside of Cheers, while Rebecca returns as a Waitress, and subsequently asks her to run the day-to-day operation of Cheers. Since the office was overhauled by Lillian, Sam is unable to effectively run the bar anymore. Rebecca becomes manager again, assisting at the office, and occasionally at the bar.

Once Robin is released, he proposes matrimony and she accepts. However, on their wedding day, Rebecca calls off the wedding, telling Robin, "I only loved you for your money!". After hearing this, Robin promptly talks to her. Rebecca's friends and coworkers insisted that Robin is Bad News, thus Robin is unable to change her mind. He pulls his hidden money belt from under the desk full of six million dollars. Robin leaves Rebecca, as she wallows in despair.

After her fiasco with Robin, Rebecca decides to buy back the bar for herself, after John Allen Hill, their upstairs neighbor, becomes the new owner of Melville's Fine Sea Food. Mr. Hill also becomes a rival of Sam Malone, and he obtains half of Cheers, forcing Sam to pay rent in addition to using Cheers as the waiting lounge of Melville's. In Crash Of The Titans, Rebecca receives an allowance from her father and helps Sam buy back half of Cheers, resulting in their co-owning the bar. In Look Before You Sleep, she also becomes the Super of her apartment complex.

Rebecca has many ideas on how to improve Cheers, most of which end poorly. In Cheers Has Chili, she starts a tearoom in her half of the bar. The chili makes her tearoom a success, but Sam misuses the chili cooker, resulting in a huge explosion and a gigantic hole in the wall. She responds by smashing the windows of Sam's Corvette. In License To Hill, she wants to expand counter space by closing the door, which causes the glasses to fall from the ceiling. At the beginning of season 11, in The Little Match Girl, Rebecca's cigarette addiction causes an enormous fire, which results in Rebecca using her life savings to repair Cheers. Around this time Robin returned again, having lost his Six Million Dollars. Rebecca wants to date him again, while the rest look for hidden money. They even accuse the local fireman of stealing it.

Relationship Status[]

Rebecca is known as "Backseat Becky", as far back from University. She also had to date one of her bosses in order to save Sam's job and her job after degrading her boss to his face. Rebecca constantly throws herself at the feet of rich men, first Evan Drake and then Robin Colcord, but she slept with Sam again when the two of them decided to conceive a child together. In the penultimate episode, Rebecca meets a plumber named Don Santry (played by Tom Berenger), whom she marries in the series finale. Later, in an episode of the Cheers spin off Frasier, Sam visits Frasier and tells him that Don left Rebecca after making a fortune on a plumbing-related invention, and that Rebecca was "back at the bar." When Frasier asks if that meant she was working at Cheers again, Sam replies with disapproval, "No, she's just back at the bar.". Eventually Don is apparently killed in an unsafe environment. She married an Air Force Captain soon afterwards. The Captain is named Will Stanton, who is related to Cliff.

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