Rebecca Howe is a fictional character seen in passing during Brian Hackett's encounter with entertainer Clint Black. She was played by actress Kirstie Alley, having originated the role on the TV-series, "Cheers."
Bio[]
Rebecca Howe is a resident of Boston who for several years worked as the manager of the Boston pub and gathering hole known as Cheers. Smart, intelligent and savvy, she tends to gravitate toward men of great success and influence while at times exhibiting signs of great insecurity. She was born one of four children in San Diego, California to Navy Captain Franklin Howe; her mother like Helen Chapel was a concert cellist. Only one of sisters, Susan, has been identified, who Rebecca reveals is an actress and former Miss San Diego. Growing up, Rebecca hated Susan for stealing her past boyfriends. However, this might not have had such an impact on her life because while she was attending the University of Connecticut, Rebecca established a reputation as a promiscuous party girl, earning the nick-name "Backseat Becky."
Possibly majoring in business, Rebecca later landed a job at the Lillian Corporation as an accountant, moving through the ranks of the company and later earning the position of manager for Cheers, am acquisition of the company in 1987, converting it into more of a tavern and eliminating its sports bar image. When Sam Malone, the former Boston Celtics pitcher who had owned the bar, returned hoping to reacquire it, the corporation recommended she re-hire him as a good business decision.
Initially, Rebecca comes across as calm, cool and collected, having developed a cold emotionless persona in the corporation. However, Sam started endlessly chasing after her as a sexual conquest while Rebecca held on to a one-sided love affair with Evan Drake, her boss. Through Sam's pursuit, she goes to great lengths to get his attention, all to no avail. Eventually, Rebecca fell in love with wealthy British financier Robin Colcourt, who actually returned her affection. In the meantime, she ends up dismissed as manager by the corporation as the bar did better under Sam's control than hers. Sam, however, gets Rebecca hired back as manager so he can better run the bar without the corporation regulations. Unfortunately, in 1990, while seeing Robin, she discovers that he has been surreptitiously collecting files from the Lillian Corporation through her company account in order to prepare for a hostile takeover.
Out of sympathy, Sam hired Rebecca to help him run the bar, and during this period, they gradually become more than friends, even once trying to have a child with him. When Robin is released from prison, Rebecca tries to resume their relationship, but having lost all of his money, Robin turns out to be not as attractive to her as he was before.
In 1992, Rebecca starts smoking again and nearly burns down Cheers, causing some dissension with Sam that eventually abates. Her father also shows up trying to take her back to San Diego, but Rebecca resists to stay in Boston.
Having come to accept Sam as a friend than a boyfriend, Rebecca eventually meets and marries a plumber named Don Santry, having been counseled by Dr. Frasier Crane to look for love rather than status. It's possible she continues working at Cheers, even go as far as trying to get Clint Black to the bar after claiming to know him.
It is later revealed that Don and Rebecca's marriage doesn't last after he makes money on a toilet he has designed, but it's not revealed on whose part the relationship ends. In 2002, it is revealed she has married Air Force officer Will Stanton, a relative of bar regular Cliff Clavin, and even sometimes turning up in Cheers as a regular patron.
Trivia[]
- Rebecca Howe also has a bio on the "Cheers" Fandom Wiki.
- Although the Rebecca Howe character appears on "Wings," she doesn't make an appearance on the "Frasier" TV-series with the other "Cheers" characters due to Kirstie Alley's personal beliefs about psychiatry.
- During her brief cameo, Rebecca comments that she "(doesn't) know where any us are going to be next year," a veiled homage to the "Cheers" TV-series being in its final season in 1993 when the "Wings" episode aired.