Post-Cheers projects (1987–1994)
Long's first post-Cheers project was Hello Again, a comedy about a housewife who is brought back from the dead. This was followed by Troop Beverly Hills, a comedy about another housewife who takes leadership of a 'Wilderness Girl' troop to bond with her daughter and distract herself from divorce proceedings. Neither film was successful with critics or at the box office. Up to this day, Troop Beverly Hills has since acquired a cult following as a 1980s children's film.
In 1990, Long returned to television for the fact-based miniseries Voices Within: The Lives of Truddi Chase. She received critical praise for the role, which required her to portray nearly 20 personalities. This introduced her to more dramatic roles in TV films, after which she starred in several more throughout the 1990s.
Major feature film roles followed such as the romantic comedy Don't Tell Her It's Me with Jami Gertz and Steve Guttenberg and Frozen Assets, a comedy about a sperm bank, which reunited her with Hello Again co-star Corbin Bernsen.
In 1992, she starred in Fatal Memories: The Eileen Franklin Story, a television drama about a woman who remembers the childhood trauma of being raped by her father and his cronies, and witnessing him murder her childhood friend to prevent the child from "telling on him," based on a 1989 case. The still-controversial "recovered memories" basis for the prosecution resulted in the conviction and sentencing of life imprisonment of George Franklin, a conviction that was later overturned.
Long starred in the 1992 film A Message from Holly with Lindsay Wagner. Long plays a workaholic who finds out that her best friend has cancer and only six months to live, then stays with her in her last months.
In 1993, the actress returned to Cheers for its series finale, and picked up another Emmy nomination for her return as Diane. She also starred in the sitcom Good Advice with Treat Williams and Teri Garr, a show that lasted two seasons. She later resurfaced as Diane in several episodes of the Kelsey Grammer spinoff series Frasier, for which she was nominated for another Emmy Award.
Both Outrageous Fortune co-star Bette Midler and Paramount studio executive Richard H. Frank, who helped develop Cheers, described Long as being difficult to work with.
