In 1982, NBC invited us to go "where everybody knows your name" with the debut of the long-running sitcom Cheers.

35 years later, it's still one of the most watched sitcoms of all time. I plan to sit down and watch my favorite episodes to celebrate Cheers' anniversary this weekend. Here are my top five in no particular order:

• Sam & Diane's first kiss. It was awkwardly hilarious and set the tone for the next season.
• Dr. Frasier Crane's first appearance. The uptight, over-educated, and under-socialized shrink just wanted to be "one of the guys"SO much. By the end of the run, he'd sort of made it. And then he got his own show (Frasier). Way to go Doc!
• Cliff gets electroshock therapy. When Cliff had his appendix out, not one person from Cheers went to visit him in the hospital. Trying to win over his friends, he subjected himself to an electric shock every time he did something annoying - which was a lot!
• Woody's writes a song for Kelly. Poor Woody fell in love with a girl above his station. When her birthday rolled around, he realized he was out of his financial league, so he poured his heart in a song with a one-word chorus, "Kelly Kelly Kelly Kelly..." You know the rest.
• The one where we get to see Vera. Well, almost. Norm's elusive wife makes an appearance in the fifth season ("Thanksgiving Orphans"), but she's hit in the face with a pie, which means we still don't get to see her!

In September 1985 Betty White, Rue McClanahan, Bea Arthur, and Estelle Getty hit the small screen with a show like no other. It starred four "old ladies", but the show wasn't just for the silver haired set. The Golden Girls was funny, smart, and bawdy. Everyone loved it - young and old.

I never missed an episode. Because of The Golden Girls, I even got a "fancy" VCR that you could program to tape your favorite shows while you were out. I still have some of the tapes up in the attic. And the VCR, too.

My friends and I still watch it (are we Golden Girls ourselves now!?) but we don't watch on my VCR. We all have those new-fangled DVDs or DVRs or D-Something-or-other that our kids had to hook up for us.

In my little circle of friends, each of us can identify with at least one of the Girls. Our little group definitely has a Sophia and a Dorothy. We even have our own "bawdy Blanche" and "rural Rose"...but I'm not telling who's who!

I wonder if Waylon Jennings had a psychic flash when he recorded "Luckenbach Texas" 40 years ago. If he had a vision of the supergroup that would later form. Or if it was all a mistake and we just happen to think of the Highwaymen when we hear that song now. (Or maybe that's just me.)

The Highwaymen were a country supergroup made up of the genre's heaviest hitters: Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson. I remember hearing them on the radio for the first time. I was just knocked out. All that talent in one recording...it was almost too much to take!

The year was 1985 and the song was the title track, "The Highwayman". It charted at #1 and became the group's most popular and well known song. I bought that album and the two that followed, "Highwayman 2" (1990) and "The Road Goes on Forever" (1995).

Sadly, the road didn't go on forever. We lost Waylon in 2002 and Johnny in 2003. But the music lives on. I still have all the old records. I remember the music and the lyrics. I remember the legends who brought it all to life.

I don't pretend to know how these things work, but I like to think they'll all end up together someday. Maybe in a place like Luckenbach because, as Waylon said,

Diana, Princess of Wales was the sort of princess you read about in fairy tales or see in a Disney movie. She was beautiful. She was glamorous. And she was kind to everyone. Whether they were Lords and Ladies or regular folk like you and me, Diana was open, friendly, generous, and kind to everyone she met. Maybe that's not so surprising considering she came from a "regular" working family herself.

Diana Spencer grew up in Norfolk. Her father inherited the title of Earl Spencer in 1975, making Diana a Lady. Before she met the Prince of Wales, Diana worked at a kindergarten in Pimlico, London. (I wonder how many students remember their royal teacher?)

Diana met Prince Charles in 1977 at a garden party, which by itself sounds like a fairytale. But it gets better. Charles was dating Diana's sister at the time! He was playing polo when he spotted Diana watching him - and she spotted him watching her, too. The rest, as they say, is history.

They were married on July 29,1981 in front of 600,000 people who lined the streets in London and about 750 million people worldwide who watched the Royal Wedding on television (I was one of them). Sadly, the Royal Marriage didn't go as well as the wedding. The Prince and Princess of Wales divorced in August of 1996. Just over a year later, on August 31, 1997, Princess Diana died in an automobile accident in Paris.

Yesterday was the 20^th anniversary of her death. Millions of people around the globe remembered her life with tributes, donations to her favorite charities, and personal stories of her kindnesses.

I will always remember her as a beautiful, graceful princess with endless compassion. How she treated everyone, regardless of their station, with the same grace as she would treat a Royal. That's what makes Princess Diana of Wales my favorite (real or made-up) princess of all time.