I just rewatched the season two finale which featured Christopher Lloyd as the eccentric painter Semenko who did Diane Chamber's soulful portrait and I was wondering who actually did the painting for the show. I haven't had any luck.
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Ugh! I hated that episode. What was really stupid, was seeing Diane dressed up like a Victorian or Edwardian beauty, complete with outfit and hairstyle. I was totally expecting him to paint her in that. One of Shelley Long's best assets was her Classical Beauty. She had large eyes and delicate features, something that looks good in many different time periods.
And yet what does the asshole artist paint? A hideous blocking of colors, with her not smiling, and wearing a 1970s helmet-like hairstyle and ugly 70s shirt. It didn't even look like her!
Dad tried waving it off as symbolic, that the artist was painting her "feelings" rather than a realistic representation of her. I called BS on that. Any artist who does crap work like that, and yet is treated like a god in the artistic sphere, obviously has greater talent in getting attention than they do in their actual craft.
It was an awful painting. Given it caused them to break up, I would have thought it would have been better if she decided to pose nude for the artist and the painting was realistic. That would have made more sense and would have suited Diane's pretentious ways as well as making Sam pissed off that she undressed for someone else.
shareThe truth was, Diane and Sam really weren't meant for each other. Diane was an educated idiot from a rich family, and Sam was a womanizing dumbass whose sole purpose in life was to run a bar and chase skirts. When they were sleeping together, things were toxic, and when they broke up, both of them lost it and had to get professional help. And then the writers, not knowing what to do, shove them back together! It's like, they aren't as "made for each other" as the show would like to pretend, and yet can't get over each other at the same time! Over and over again, the writers had them try to grow up and have an adult relationship, only to rip them apart again over something stupid.
I'd had enough of that stupidity when Diane, for no real reason at all, turns down Sam's marriage proposal on the boat, and he makes her jump out. I read that they came very close to getting married for real, but then Diane left Sam at the altar, and she was never seen on the show again; next season, psycho Kirsti Alley's character shows up. To be fair, it wasn't that great of a show to me, and binge-watching it instead of watching it from one week to the next kinda ruins the original appeal the show had for 1980s people.
Sam also slept with far better looking women than Diane, she just became a challenge and curiosity to him. For her I imagine he was also a challenge a "fixer 'er upper". That seems the usual cliche in sitcoms. I really couldn't see them playing house and having kids!
I think she turned him down because she always knew it was wrong and came to her senses. And then again leaving him at the alter.
A lot of those old shows aren't great to binge watch they are pretty light on story line and interesting characters. They were made to be watched in small doses once a week. Even newer shows like Big Bang Theory aren't great for binge watching for similar reasons.
They finish and you feel like you wasted your time.
I pointed out to mom that Diane could have easily gotten a very well-paying job being a translator for some international company. The only reason she was working as a high-paid barmaid in this show was to make drama; and she was too dumb to realize her potential.
shareAs an intellectual she was pretty average too so I think she wanted to feel superior around people who were not as educated or pretentious as she was. She could have got an office job, waitress in a swanky restaurant, she would have had many opportunities. But I guess she wanted to slum it and yes cause some drama which often backfired on her.
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I thought that led to an intense break-up scene between Sam and Diane. For a few minutes, it ceased to be a comedy and became a drama. Danson and Long worked beautifully together.
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