Frasier (1993) s05e05 – The 1000th Show

I glazed over the director credit—I knew it was David Lee, but David Lee turns in particularly distinctive episodes, usually just competent ones. But this time he gets to do something special—half the episode is shot on location in Seattle (the only time in the series, apparently), with David Hyde Pierce and Kesley Grammer walking around landmarks and doing their bits as they try to get to the Space Needle.

See, it’s “Frasier Crane Day” in Seattle, celebrating the thousandth episode of the radio show (which seems low for five plus years—yes, it means they take off like sixty days a year). The opening, studio-shot material has Grammer pish-poshing the idea of a celebration, so when Peri Gilpin takes him at his word and gets it shut down, he’s got to reverse course.

The script—credited to Christopher Lloyd and Joe Keenan—sets up some eventual pay-offs in the studio material, with Hyde Pierce getting more and more jealous of Grammer as the anniversary approaches and Jane Leeves getting a seemingly busywork subplot about renewing her passport only for it to eventually involve a very special guest star (on location).

Meanwhile, John Mahoney’s got a speech to give for the event, only he didn’t write it and it’s not funny. It’s a strange episode in how well Grammer and Hyde Pierce do while out and about in single camera location shooting land, but how badly the show does by Mahoney and Gilpin on location. Leeves comes out best of the supporting players, thanks to that pay-off cameo.

But Hyde Pierce and Grammer doing their bickering schtick while in the Public Market or on the monorail—or when we get to see them do their Crane Boys run on location—it’s a delight. Even as the episode showcases the differences between multi-camera and single camera, studio and location (there are a few times where the timing is all wrong, even though it’s a sturdy enough joke), it’s a delight.

The opening attempts at serious situational stuff—Grammer wanting praise, Hyde Pierce being jealous—don’t succeed, but when the episode actually works to a more dramatic conclusion… it’s good. The episode’s able to find a more appropriate balance.

The opening material doesn’t wow, but the location material is enough to make up for it. Though it does just make you wish they’d been able to do a whole episode with the full cast out and about.

Michael Hayes (1997) s01e11 – Retribution

In addition to the omnipresent Christmas theme, the episode also showcases a bunch of new second unit location shooting of New York—including, possibly, even David Caruso and guest star Helen Slater on location there. Maybe they filled in somewhere else. It’s fairly convincing, especially since every other time there’s a suggested street scene it doesn’t happen, instead cutting right to interiors.

The Christmas stuff—decorations everywhere, constant diegetic and non-diegetic sound—is a little much until the episode resolution, where it becomes a wonderful, reassuring, albeit depressing cushion for the action. It’s a different kind of episode—Gardner Stern gets solo writing credit—because for the first time, Caruso’s got an equal. Slater’s an assistant district attorney who he wants to swap cases with so he can get mob boss Seth Jaffe, but they have a dating history. We’ve rarely gotten to see Caruso as outwardly self-reflective as in this episode and even then… not to this degree. It initially seems like they’re spinning their wheels with Slater’s presence in the plot, but it really works out by the end.

The A plot is the Jaffe case, which has first Castulo Guerra wearing a wire, then Richard C. Sarafian. It’s a decent guest star turn for Sarafian. It’s not too deep a role, he’s playing a caricature (even after some character reveals), but it’s decent. Slater overshadows him—the episode’s got a bunch of guest stars, including Gregg Henry hanging out to talk Caruso’s permanent appointment to his U.S. Attorney job, which barely gets any attention—and it feels imbalanced until the end.

But the supporting regulars—Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Rebecca Rigg, Peter Outerbridge—they all do the A plot. The B plot is Hillary Danner’s ableist, classist arc about a wanna-be cult leader (Sherman Howard) who uses religious freedom to con women into prostitution. Sincerely held religious belief after all. It’s a bad subplot, however, because Stern’s script is shitty to the victims—Jenna Byrne and Michelle Beaudoin, who it presents as too stupid or too uneducated to realize Howard’s exploiting them. Part of the plot is Danner getting called on the classism, but it doesn’t add up to anything. Maybe there’s a disconnect between Stern’s script, Danner, and Fred Gerber’s direction, maybe it’s just a bad story arc.

Lots of good acting from Caruso, who’s on display—Slater is convinced there’s something behind the choir boy and seems to have the receipts, whereas everyone else in the show just gets the choir boy. Drawing attention to the lack of projected personality—the show even opens with Henry trying to get Caruso to make a statement on personal beliefs about abortion and gets shut down with a “it’s the law” (Caruso as old man Rorschach as Judge Dredd, though one assumes his “CSI: Miami” money keeps him having to work)—it just ends up showing, thanks to Slater’s subtle influence on their scenes, the humanity in the performance.

It’s good. The episode seems like a bit of a misfire throughout—none of the problems of a John Romano episode, but also not the heights of a Haggis or Anne Keanney one—but the end really delivers.

Hopefully they’re able to keep Slater around.

Frasier (1993) s05e04 – The Kid

This episode picks up the morning after last episode, with Kelsey Grammer having to apologize to Peri Gilpin—who’s already decided she’s keeping the baby—for telling a party full of strangers about it. Grammer’s supportive, but thinks Gilpin needs to tell the dad.

Skip ahead to the apartment and David Hyde Pierce is also apologizing—him for being blotto at the party and making absurd accusations—before Gilpin comes over for dinner. There’s a short running gag about the Crane boys making Jane Leeves answer the door even though she’s cooking them dinner and a little about John Mahoney freaking out over Gilpin being unmarried, but pretty soon the supporting cast is out of the episode and it’s all Gilpin and Grammer.

Specifically it’s Gilpin, who’s got to tell the completely unawares dad-to-be (guest star Todd Babcock), with Grammer around for support. Babcock doesn’t react particularly well, which leads to some dramatics before the episode gets to a solid resolution. It’s easily the most Gilpin-focused episode of the series so far (fifth season and she had to get pregnant, but at least it’s not a disappointing Gilpin-emphasis episode like before).

The episode handles the friendship between Gilpin and Babcock exceedingly well, enough to make up for Grammer’s sort of baby steps into the dramatics of being a supportive friend. Grammer handles the parenting-to-be conversations fine (including a solid Lilith joke), though getting there isn’t easy. There’s an awkward eavesdropping on Gilpin and Babcock at the cafe sequence involving Mahoney; it’s actually a repeated gag from earlier (where it’s done a lot better).

The other big highlight is Gilpin getting to prank Dan Butler, which starts iffy but ends up glorious.

It’s an excellent episode for Gilpin, dramatically speaking, it’d just be nice to see her get a more comedically minded showcase as well.

The script credit is to Jeffrey Richman and Suzanne Martin (who got solo credit on the first episode in the pair); Jeff Melman directs. Not flashy direction from Melman but good and thoughtful, sort of like the script. The episode handles the seriousness of the situations well, even if they’ve rife with comedic potential (like what makes Babcock a peculiarity in Gilpin’s dating life), and emphasizes the character work first.

It’s a very successful episode. Even if it makes Mahoney seem way too old fashioned with the “getting herself a husband” stuff.

Frasier (1993) s05e03 – Halloween

Halloween buries the lede. The episode opens with David Hyde Pierce arriving at the apartment and talking with John Mahoney about costume problems. Hyde Pierce is throwing a costume party and isn’t having any luck finding Mahoney a Sherlock Holmes outfit. From background to foreground come Kelsey Grammer and Jane Leeves, who are giggling as Grammer does a Chaucer impression (preparing for the party). Hyde Pierce dislikes the convivial mood between Grammer and Leeves, especially when it turns out they’ve been on a microbrewery tour together.

Most of these elements will be important later.

Suzanne Martin’s script—outside multiple racist Native American jokes for Edward Hibbert (but we’re supposed to be laughing at him not with him)—is really well-constructed. It’s a subplots on four burners simultaneously type episode, with them all boiling over in precise unison.

The main plot comes in when Grammer gets to work to discover Peri Gilpin’s having a very off day. After very unprofessionally screaming at her to accuse her of being unprofessional (even the late nineties remain a trip), Gilpin breaks down and tells Grammer she’s having a pregnancy scare. She’s just waiting to hear back from the doctor.

What better way to take her mind of it than going to Hyde Pierce’s party—and now all subplots are in place on the stovetop—plus Dan Butler popping in to announce he’s also going to the party.

The party is going to be Hyde Pierce getting drunker and drunker—Maris has called and said she won’t be able to attend (he’s still in his apartment, complete with Baby the bird, their reconciliation seemingly stalled compared to its trajectory at the end of last season)—and getting very confused about who’s pregnant and who’s the father. He speaks with such authority, he gets Mahoney worked up (and confused), all while Gilpin’s waiting on a call from the doctor, Grammer’s hitting on a fetching fellow party-goer (then wife Camille Grammer, which is cute even if Grammer plays it too horndog), and Leeves is bouncing between the subplots.

Before it’s all over, there will be a marriage proposal, trick-or-treaters, those racist jokes from Hibbert—oh, then just a generally ableist joke regarding another guest because even though Martin’s got a bunch of solid one-liners, she’s got some big whiffs too.

The episode, which ostensibly is about Gilpin waiting for her possibly momentous news, instead of becomes a showcase for madcap Hyde Pierce and it is glorious. There’s a “To Be Continued” tag too, so it’s not like they’re abdicating the narrative responsibility on that arc, it’s just a lot more fun to have Hyde Pierce act a major fool in a fantastic situation.

Hype Pierce, Gilpin, and Leeves are the standouts. Grammer’s good and funny but he’s pretty thin when he’s ignoring everyone’s actual problems. Mahoney’s really funny but all support.

Only the end credits tag—and the shitty jokes, and then a stinker of a recurring joke where the joke is it’s a stinker of a recurring jokes—drag it down.

Excellent Pamela Fryman direction too.

Frasier (1993) s05e02 – The Gift Horse

The Gift Horse is from a one-time writer (Ron Darian), which might explain the soft retcon regarding John Mahoney’s birthdays on the show. This episode turns the gift giving into a competition between Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce, as each tries to out do the other on the gift, leading to Grammer going all out with a big screen TV only to discover Hyde Pierce still has him beat. Then there’s a lot of nice character stuff for Mahoney at the end with his eventual gift.

But the show’s had Mahoney birthday episodes every year and they’re never anywhere near as happy of events as this episode. And not just because Marsha Mason’s around trying to make sure Mahoney’s got the best “sexty-fifth" birthday party ever. Mason’s mostly in scenes with Jane Leeves, assigning her party-related grunt work; it very much does not seem any of them would be in Leeves’s job responsibilities. But whatever, it’s fine. Leeves gets to be there for some of the TV stuff and even gets a quick moment opposite Peri Gilpin, which is too rare.

Speaking of Gilpin, she doesn’t get much to do but she’s got the great opening when she’s trying to convince Grammer to help her make an ex jealous. The punchline involves Hyde Pierce and is a particular excellent one. Darian’s script might not do the continuity—I mean, it’s a sitcom—but he’s got some good jokes and his Grammer and Hyde Pierce competitiveness stuff is outstanding.

The Pamela Fryman direction is good throughout but it really shines in the finale, when Mahoney gets to do some more dramatic stuff related to the birthday and his gift. While there are some laughs in it, the scene is mostly just character development material for Mahoney who does some fine work.

There’s also a reference to Mahoney having a perm in his youth—old pictures for the birthday are a thing, though we only get descriptions—and I’m fairly sure… Mahoney did have close to a perm in at least a couple movies (Say Anything and Tin Men). It’s neat to be able to accurately imagine thanks to actual recall.

It’s a funny and good episode—the continuity “errors” are only because no one ever intended home video marathons of the show—and the end tag has a decent (albeit slightly unbelievable) resolve to a hanging plot threads. There’s also a nice character arc for Grammer and Hyde Pierce with their competitiveness.

Makes me wish Darian had come back to write more.

Frasier (1993) s05e01 – Frasier’s Imaginary Friend

There’s very little as satisfying as the season premiere immediately addressing my problems with the previous season’s finale and remedying them. That episode ended with Kelsey Grammer, lovelorn, following a woman (Lisa Guerrero) onto an airplane and pretending he was always on her flight. This episode opens with Guerrero getting very creeped out by Grammer’s behavior and moving to another seat.

When Grammer tries his luck with the next available female passenger (Kimberly Oja), he soon finds himself hunting for another seat himself.

It turns out to be for the best because then he meets zoologist Ph.D. candidate and supermodel, Sela Ward, who thinks he’s swell. They hit it off so well, they become secret boyfriend and girlfriend while away; she’s going through a messy breakup from a football player and doesn’t want anyone to know she’s already started seeing someone else.

So when Grammer gets back home and everyone thinks he’s struck out on his impulsive trip to Mexico… it doesn’t take long before he starts bragging about her. Only no one believes him—with David Hyde Pierce and John Mahoney quickly going from amused to concerned (while Jane Leeves stays firmly amused, with some great one-liners)–and every time Ward has a moment for Grammer, she gets called away.

Eventually everything gets resolved (with half the same plot point as “Schitt’s Creek” would use decades later), after some amazing ranting from Grammer and great comedic acting from Ward. She’s mostly in the opening and closing of the episode—with a brief scene in between—and she’s really good at the comedy. It always seems like network drama actors were more impressive in the sitcoms.

There are some great scenes for Grammer as he tries to prove the relationship and not realize how absurd he sounds—though there are also a few shades of toxic masculinity about the secret ex-boyfriend football player—and both Mahoney and Hyde Pierce get some good moments as well. Rob Greenberg’s the credited writer and the script’s the best he’s had his name on so far. It’s such a convoluted, layered premise, there isn’t room for a lot of easy jokes. And the whole thing does play like a repudiation of the cringe-inducing previous season closer. Odd Greenberg’s doing it.

Solid direction from David Lee. Nothing earth shattering but just a good sitcom; he focuses well on having Ward guest starring. In fact, the episode doesn’t have any subplots—other than the supporting cast trying to figure out if Grammer’s full of it–it’s very focused.

It’s an excellent season premiere.

Frasier (1993) s04e23 – Odd Man Out

It’s not a great season finale. Not a good season finale. I’m low fine on it? So adequate. Not inadequate. Odd Man Out is a not inadequate season finale.

But this season has been great. It’s been the best season of “Frasier” so far; long stretches of consistence excellence. It didn’t even start falling apart until the last few. And the season finale really could’ve saved it; hence the low fine.

The problem is there isn’t an arc to the season. The episode—script credit to Suzanne Martin, who’s had better script credits on the show—is about Kelsey Grammer realizing he’s “single,” not “recently divorced,” which hasn’t really been an issue for him before this episode. The show often goes on about Grammer being miserably lonely and not having had dates in ages but he’s had dates every second or third episode this season. It’s worse now because David Hyde Pierce is back with unseen Maris, which sort of coincides when the season started having its big stumbles, and Hyde Pierce can’t be Grammer’s backup for Grammer’s surprise birthday dinner for Peri Gilpin who has plans because it was a surprise and can’t go. Jane Leeves can’t go because she has a date with some other unseen love interest, ditto John Mahoney because he’s got Marsha Mason (though she’s not in the episode). So it’s Grammer alone at dinner.

Where a little kid (Miles Marsico) befriends him because Grammer looks so lonely. Especially once everyone around him starts showing off their couples-based happiness.

It’s mildly amusing but… it’s pretty thin stuff.

The episode’s eventually going to hinge on a mystery caller leaving messages on the answering machine—she thinks it’s someone else, someone who needs to pick her up from the airport. Will Grammer eventually go to the airport and will it be kismet? I don’t think they say spontaneity ever in the episode; Grammer’s had “I need to be spontaneous” arcs twice this season. Here he’s got a moping arc. Looks like “Frasier” might actually be on an inverted Star Trek schedule with the season finales; first excellent, second blah, third good, fourth blah.

The episode being so unimpressive is immaterial and annoying, with a lot of the annoying coming from it being unimpressive immaterial to the show over all.

The ending doesn’t age well either; after the show’s prostrated itself to portray Grammer as a tragic, earnest, almost romantic figure, he does something shitty and predatory because it was the nineties and lying to women to get them into bed was the hero move. There’s even more to unpack with it, further contributing to the annoying.

Good enough performance from the surprise guest star but it didn’t need to be a guest star.

Not to mention the entire supporting cast is around to support Grammer on this lukewarm character arc. There’s a really well-acted apartment scene with full apartment cast (so minus Gilpin) but it’s purely functional to ease Grammer along.

For the trite emotional resolution, there are much better things they could’ve done. It’s not so much they thought it was gold but it was bronze… they didn’t even try for bronze. If it weren’t “Frasier,” it’d be troubling.

Frasier (1993) s04e22 – Ask Me No Questions

Dan Cohen and F.J. Pratt wrote another episode (a really good one) but I didn’t recognize their names when the writing credit came up here. I don’t think if I’d remembered it would’ve led to a more generous viewing. This episode’s first swing and miss is in the first thirty seconds and it’s a big swing and a bigger miss. The sadder part is director Jeff Melman can’t even get traction and he’s done some really good work this season. Now he gets to do this very desperate miss of a concept episode.

It begins, as “Frasier” often does, with a title card. This one is “The Question.” The question (in question, wokka wokka) is David Hyde Pierce—now reconciling (off screen obviously) with estranged wife Maris—asking Kelsey Grammer if he, Grammer, thinks they’re meant to be together. Portentous fade to black, fade in at apartment, where Jane Leeves and John Mahoney kick off their okay but it’s a bickering time filler subplot about Leeves making Mahoney a sweater as a present and Mahoney not wanting to take it with out paying. It’s an occasionally funny subplot with a much better performance from Leeves than Mahoney, who’s getting the “old man yells at cloud” motivations a little too often lately. Putting the breaks on character development is a bad move, even if the character development isn’t going the way you want.

Anyway.

So while Hyde Pierce occasionally checks in to let Grammer know how couples counseling is going (off screen), Grammer obsesses over how to answer the posed question. It’s going to lead to a couple very low points, though I suppose only one of them would be worth Alan Smithee’ing the director credit. They do a bait and switch with a reveal on Maris, which is the most desperate move I can think of the show making to this point. Then they do a Grammer walking the streets haunted by voiceovers; Meet John Doe it ain’t. If it weren’t for the former, the latter wouldn’t be so bad. But if it were just the former, it’d still be bad. Especially since it gets a reference later too, like they’re proud of the desperation. Even worse, it’s not like Grammer’s particularly good. It’s a thin plot, poorly realized and executed, and there’s nothing for Grammer to work with.

Hyde Pierce does pretty well with very little—actually, everyone who has to deal with Grammer while he frets kind of does a better job (so Hyde Pierce, Mahoney, and Peri Gilpin). They don’t have to make believe the consternation is real, they just have to make believe Grammer’s being annoying about it.

There’s also an iffy scene where Grammer complains to a date (Cindy Katz) about it, which leads to a standard misunderstanding joke; Katz gets through it okay, albeit ingloriously.

Irene Olga López’s back as Hyde Pierce’s maid; she’s at least hilarious, even if problematically included.

Given the plot—even without the reveal gimmick, but just on the existential fretting—this episode was going to soar or fizzle.

Soar, it does not.

Frasier (1993) s04e21 – Are You Being Served?

When I saw William Lucas Walker on the script credit, I figured there were going to be some easy, probably sexist jokes and Walker does not disappoint in hitting his standards, but it’s a successful episode overall. The eventual plot—after getting through the intro where Kelsey Grammer thinks only riff-raff hug each other (not sure why anyone would go to him as a therapist)—is really good and gives Grammer and David Hyde Pierce a great Brothers Crane outing. Good direction too (from Gordon Hunt, who only did two episodes of the series, this one being his last).

So after the opening where Grammer implies the only reason Peri Gilpin’s comfortable hugging people is because she’s a slut, the episode moves on to Grammer and Hyde Pierce at the café, where they’re combination misogynist, fatphobic, and classist. The scene ends with a process server giving Hyde Pierce his divorce papers (he’d just been telling Grammer he was suggesting couples counseling and the papers are the estranged wife’s reaction).

Back at Grammer’s apartment, Jane Leeves and John Mahoney are busy with subplot involving a junk box Leeves wants to take down to storage but Mahoney wants to leave upstairs. It’s full of his “As Seen on TV” purchases, which leads to some very funny gags—very funny—but doesn’t really fit Mahoney’s technophobe character. Also in the box is an old research journal of Grammer and Hyde Pierce’s mom, which apparently contains observations about the brothers as children, such as Grammer being afraid to hug and Hyde Pierce being scared of women.

Hyde Pierce shows up to tell Grammer he’s sent the divorce papers back unsigned with a letter begging for reconciliation; once they read the journal however, Hyde Pierce decides he’s going to man up, break in, and get that letter back, leading to a hilarious sequence at the house. It’s been a while since we’ve seen Hyde Pierce’s house and it’s such a good set. There are a lot of good foils and laughs along the way; Walker’s really good at antics for Grammer and Hyde Pierce, far better than when he’s doing first act one-liners.

The resolution has an excellent twist and a lot of good laughs.

The episode’s a fine showcase for Grammer and Hyde Pierce’s chemistry and timing together, though Mahoney and Leeves’s subplot is decent too. It’s entirely in support of the main plot and cravenly leverages Eddie the dog being adorable, but there are some decent laughs to it.

I’m not sure if I’ll be less wary of a Walker credit going forward, but maybe. And it’s a bummer Hunt didn’t direct more “Frasier.”

Michael Hayes (1997) s01e10 – The Confidence Man

The curse of the John Romano co-writing credit continues. Otherwise it’s an excellent episode about David Caruso’s old cop partner, Scott Lawrence, coming for help. An FBI informant (a slimy but not too slimy—or not in it enough to be too slimy—Alan Blumenfeld) is threatening fetching bank teller Tracy Douglas over bad checks. Douglas goes to the cops, meeting Lawrence; they get romantically involved.

So while Caruso’s trying to figure out whether or not he can disentangle an active investigation from Blumfield, which brings in a kind of wonderfully tepid Dann Florek as the handler, there’s rising concern for Douglas. And then a subplot about Caruso’s ex-con brother, David Cubitt, pulling jobs to pay off his debt to loan sharks. There’s no B plot exactly, just a bunch of C plots, including Jimmy Galeota’s tenth birthday party, Caruso telling sister-in-law Mary B. Ward how Cubitt thinks they’re lovers, then a weird thing about all the women in the office wanting to do things for Caruso and him being uncomfortable.

Like secretary Jodi Long being willing to pick up his laundry—leading to a weird attempt at a sitcom-esque gag (Long’s so good and has so little to do on the show) but then associate Hillary Danner being willing to date an FBI agent for information.

At least Rebecca Rigg—in her single scene—comes in to tell Caruso not to be stupid and only agrees to his orders under duress and with complaint. No wonder Romano never uses her. The Long and Danner stuff feels very much like what I’d expect from a Romano episode.

The scene with Ward and Caruso has promise but goes nowhere. It at least lingers long enough to give Ward some silent rumination to essay. Dan Lerner’s direction is rather patient, especially with Caruso, who will get his one-liner, then Lerner and editor Elba Sanchez-Short hang on it long enough for Caruso to act a beat. Certainly the best handling of a Romano episode so far.

Unfortunately, the finale is a disaster because it just sets up another cliffhanger in the Cubitt subplot. Cubitt’s real bad this episode… real bad. Maybe even worst ever. It’s particularly grating because the scene before, where Caruso and Lawrence do manly emotional labor for one another, is excellent.

Lawrence is pretty good, even as his character’s stuck in unlikely situations—wait, I just realized real NYPD cops are allowed to rape suspects in custody so never mind. A consensual relationship with a witness and victim is no doubt all good on TV in the nineties.

Decent Ruben Santiago-Hudson investigating material. Some excellent Caruso moments.

If they’d just forgotten to tie up the Cubitt subplot, it’d be a pretty darn good episode. Sadly, thanks to the cliffhanger setup—and Cubitt’s lousy performance—it’s not.