9 TV Stars Who Horribly Botched Their Big Leap Into Films

6. Shelley Long

Cheers was one of the highest-rated television series when its fifth season ended in 1987. It was at that point that lead actress Shelley Long decided to leave the series. Cheers would go on to run six more seasons to critical acclaim and huge ratings. As for Shelley Long? She had a budding movie career while she starred on Cheers, appearing in the popular comedies Irreconcilable Differences, The Money Pit, Outrageous Fortune, and Hello Again, which explains why she thought leaving the show was a good move. However, after leaving Cheers Long turned down a number of high profile movie roles she was offered, including the lead role in the box office hit Working Girl. Her first post-Cheers film, Troop Beverly Hills, failed at the box office and she did not appear in a hit until 1995's The Brady Bunch Movie. The Brady Bunch sequel was not as big of a success, and a second sequel ended up airing on television, like most of Long's other movies. Long reprised her Cheers role in the series finale and appeared in four episodes of the spinoff Frasier. While Long has worked steadily in made-for-television movies, she never landed the movie stardom she expected after leaving Cheers.