Then he tries to seduce Diane's replacement, Rebecca Howe (Kirstie Alley), who frequently rejects his advances.Sam also appears in "The Show Where Sam Shows Up", a crossover episode of the spin-off Frasier. Producers decided to give Danson the role for primarily his scenes with Shelley Long as Diane.Although his baseball career is not highly detailed throughout the series, Sam was at times a good-to-very-good pitcher (stories of him retiring star batters occur during the series) but not a great one.Sam's baseball career declined when he became an alcoholic.
They try to rekindle their relationship, but just before they fly off together to California, Sam and Diane begin to have doubts about their future together, and they re-separate.Over time, Sam's role as a bartender turns him into the "resident ringleader for an assortment of poor souls and wanna-be's".Throughout the series, Sam has had casual female partners, usually one-dimensional or sexually very available, and sometimes takes them along in his red Chevrolet Corvette.In the three-part episode "Strange Bedfellows" (episodes 93–95, 1986), Sam dates an intelligent, attractive politician Janet Eldridge (Kate Mulgrew), who eventually ends the relationship because of Sam's visible feelings for Diane.Throughout the fifth season (1986–87), Sam cyclically proposes to Diane, but she rejects every proposal until, in "Chambers vs.