Frasier (1993) s07e18 – Hot Pursuit

Hot Pursuit is the second of two season seven “Frasier” episodes credited to writer Charlie Hauck. Considering the job he got on this one, it’s understandable he wouldn’t be back. It doesn’t seem fair to give a new writer an episode about Kelsey Grammer and Peri Gilpin wondering if maybe they ought to just get it over with and jump the shark and sleep together. It’s not a bad idea for an episode. It’s executed poorly here, but it’s not necessarily a bad idea. It’s just too basic, which is a surprise since the other half of the episode is a subtle delight.

The episode opens with Grammer returning from a week in Boston to visit son Freddy and, consequently, ex-wife Lilith. And, consequently, her late twenties stud boyfriend. No cameos, just exposition and some mid-life crisis facial hair for Grammer. He’s only home for a scene before Gilpin shows up at the door to pick him up for their broadcasting conference. While they rush out, Saul Rubinek—Jane Leeves’s fiancé, only in the episode for this one scene—tries to hire John Mahoney to do some light surveillance. Mahoney’s enthusiastic, but David Hyde Pierce makes him promise not to do it.

Oh, in addition to the Rubinek bit, Hyde Pierce is around long enough for he and Grammer to make fun of Gilpin being jealous of blondes. It’s a nasty bit for everyone; it’s intentionally bad for Gilpin, but it also makes all three regular male cast members come off like assholes when they tease her about it. It’ll be back later. It’s Chekhov’s reductive female character trait.

Half the episode will be Hyde Pierce and Mahoney doing a bonding arc, while the other half is a single-set comedy of offscreen errors to get Grammer and Gilpin alone together and having big singles sads. They also talk about how long they’ve been working together—seven seasons, sorry, years—and how it makes them one another’s most successful opposite-sex partnership.

If the writing were great, if it were some kind of very special episode (maybe Gilpin directing, at least Grammer), there might be something there. Instead, it’s an awkward kicking of the show’s tires, trying to decide how desperate they are to gin up a new twist. Except, of course, they were one of the last nineties sitcoms not to have made a similar move, which… just makes it seem more desperate.

The resolution is okay but not good.

The Hyde Pierce and Mahoney arc, however, is sublime. It’s heartfelt, funny, and incredibly well-acted. Grammer and Gilpin try in their arc, but there’s nothing to work with. Sure, they’ve been playing these characters for seven years, but Grammer’s been hung up about Lilith’s never seen new boyfriend for twelve minutes, while Gilpin’s been jealous of blondes her whole life for eleven. It’s nowhere near enough ado about nothing.

Sigh.

Frasier (1993) s07e14 – Big Crane on Campus

Oh, “Frasier: Season Seven,” why do you continue to taunt me? This episode has Jane Leeves and David Hyde Pierce cooking together and being adorable for the first time since Leeves found out about Hyde Pierce crushing on her. It’s a good scene, with Hyde Pierce getting to more fully participate—previously and problematically, these scenes have been from Leeves’s perspective (way to get a big subplot: it’s entirely in service of the dude). Sheldon Epps directs the episode and knows how to make it work. It’s a regular “Frasier” scene, only a little different; Hyde Pierce isn’t the awkward one; now it’s Leeves.

If I’d been watching this episode in February 2000, I’d have been fully committed to the idea of them getting together. Best thing for the show.

Whoops.

Otherwise, the episode’s a Kelsey Grammer-centric episode. He’s just happened to meet his high school crush (a hilarious, brassy Jean Smart) and can’t believe she’s being nice to him. Once they actually start seeing each other (there are some great scenes with Smart teasing a blubbering Hyde Pierce), Grammer discovers she’s a little too brassy for his tastes. Except he can’t give up the prom queen, not with their high school reunion just around the corner.

Outside Leeves and Hyde Pierce’s kitchen moment, everything in the episode’s in support of Grammer (and Smart). She’s a relatively featured guest star, getting a lot more complicated scenes than Grammer’s girlfriends usually get. Peri Gilpin’s around to talk Grammer through dating for the wrong reasons; she gets a classic literature book club C plot, which comes back in the end credits sequence as a way to be shitty. It’s an unfortunate finish to a strong episode.

First and foremost, it’s an excellent showcase for Smart, who was only a few years from starting to be appreciated in 2000. Or closer to it than “Designing Women.” It’s also proof they can do a mythology moment well for Leeves and Hyde Pierce. Mark Reisman, another new-to-the-show-this-season writer, gets the credit. And, finally, it’s a solid outing for Grammer. It treads somewhat familiar territory but with a fresh enough angle. He tends to be really good with his guest stars, and Smart’s no different.

So, another good episode to convince me everything’s fine and we’re not driving toward a cliff in a Winnebago.

Frasier (1993) s07e03 – Radio Wars

It’s another new-to-“Frasier” writer credit this episode: welcome, Sam Johnson and Chris Marcil. I just realized the title, Radio Wars, might be a nod to the annual Bar Wars episodes of “Cheers.” There’s not much warring, though, mostly just Kelsey Grammer getting pranked.

The episode begins with Grammer asleep in bed, a phone call waking him. The Academy of Radio Psychiatrists (or some such organization) is calling to ask why he hasn’t gotten back to them about the statue they’re making in his honor. It starts as an award; they add the statue when the show cuts from Grammer to the radio station, where the new comedy guys are pranking him.

Bryan Callen and John Ennis play the pranksters. They’re both fine but entirely incidental. The script keeps pretending Peri Gilpin’s got her eye on Callen but never even puts them near each other in a scene. Their scenes are just setups for Grammer’s great reactions when he figures out the prank.

Grammer emerges from his room, humiliated and outraged, only to discover both Jane Leeves and John Mahoney think it’s hilarious. Apparently, they were listening to the radio at six in the morning for this new radio show.

David Hyde Pierce will figure into some of the later antics, occasionally laughing at Grammer’s credulity, but he’s generally more sympathetic to Grammer’s plight. Especially once Mahoney tells Grammer he’s partially inviting the bullying, which leads to a fantastic sequence where they talk about Grammer and Hyde Pierce pretending to be John Steed from “The Avengers” as kids.

It also leads to a great joke for Hyde Pierce regarding Leeves; this episode’s less chaste about Hyde Pierce’s attraction than the season’s been so far. They at least allow the joke. And the script’s full of good “Frasier” jokes; it’s an enthusiastic script, really flexing the cast. There aren’t any subplots, but everyone gets a little something to do, with Hyde Pierce and Leeves getting the least. Since it’s a work plot, Gilpin gets more than usual, though it’s all bits, no story.

Tom McGowan shows up for a couple scenes as the station boss, which distracts from no one else at the station putting in an appearance. The episode also glides over Grammer and Gilpin not having any scenes during the radio show; everything happens off-screen, but the script knows how to use the constraints for good setups.

It’s a good episode, with some excellent laughs; it’s a little “by the numbers,” but not too much. It’s a solid first showing for Johnson and Marcil, with strong performances from the cast. It’s a bit of a Grammer showcase, but everyone gets at least two good spotlights.

Frasier (1993) s06e11 – Good Samaritan

This episode is transphobic garbage and shouldn’t be aired with a content warning, it should be shoved into a hole and only pulled out for academics trying to catalog nineties transphobia as it intersects with classism and general misogyny. Or for writers Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck to figure out how to attempt to atone for putting this reprehensible trash into the world.

I usually don’t—maybe I never have—made any of the credited writers possessive of the episode because there are writers rooms and writer’s guilds, and there’s a whole thing to how sitcoms are written and so on. But Gregory and Huyck were executive story editors on the show, so if they hadn’t wanted their names on this episode, they could’ve done something about it.

The transphobia doesn’t come into the episode until about halfway through. There’s nothing significant in the first half. Still, there are the occasional promises—Kelsey Grammer is trying to be a Good Samaritan, and everyone’s taking advantage or shitting on him for it. There’s a moderately amusing radio station sequence where he has both Ron Howard and William H. Macy as callers; in the end, it just means Howard and Macy guested on this transphobic trash episode.

Also, the radio station sequence is misogynist as Grammer and the episode crap on single mom Peri Gilpin trying to save herself some time as she works at one a.m. because Grammer’s a sucker.

The reason the episode’s got promise is Trevor Einhorn is in town as Grammer’s son. After missing the Christmas episode, Einhorn’s just here to take the stakes up a notch as fair as Grammer’s eventual public disgrace. Einhorn’s function in the episode isn’t actually bad and could have at least bandaged the hemorrhaging garbage, but instead, it turns out the episode’s got one last kick of transphobia left in it, right up until the end. With, of course, a healthy sprinkling of misogyny and classism.

Grammer’s most involved in the utter trash section, which has him picking up a damsel in distress to find out she’s a sex worker (and rude to him about the misunderstanding because he thought she might want a lift at 1:30 a.m. in pouring rain), only for the further gotcha to be she’s a trans woman. As Grammer navigates the misunderstanding—he doesn’t have any panic, which almost humanizes him against the other characters’ enthusiastic transphobia—mostly David Hyde Pierce, with John Mahoney getting instead reminiscing about taking out urges on South Korean girls during the war–only to chuck Grammer’s very slim less reprehensible edge to have him get in on it too through peer pressure.

Jane Leeves’s participation is the least odious—and maybe not at all; any motion is going to fling shit—but the episode rolls its eyes at her, so it’s not like a plus.

I paid attention to the writing after seeing their names. I wondered if Peter Huyck is related to American Graffiti co-writer Willard Huyck; apparently not, thank goodness. But there’s not some subtle shift to the shit, they smack you on the cheek with the misogyny, then the transphobia’s a punch in the nose. Just when the swelling is going down—and Einhorn is confronting Grammer about whether or not one should strive for an ideal—there’s the final jab. Turns out it was all a daydream, and Grammer’s just terrified of someone thinking he might be nice to a trans woman. Then it turns out… the woman in the rain? Not a sex worker, not a trans woman. Just some fellow rich lady who lives in his building.

Gross.

Good Samaritan is mortifying and loathsome stuff and shows popular entertainment wasn’t problematic so much as often repugnant in the late 1990s.

Frasier (1993) s06e05 – First, Do No Harm

Oh, thank goodness, first-time “Frasier” writers Jordan Hawley and William Schifrin never have another credit on an episode. I didn’t recognize their names on the titles and wondered if they would be new regular writers this promising season. No, they are not. Whew.

Twenty-plus years on, “Frasier” has aged pretty well. I remember a few writers whose names regularly turned up on cringe-to-problematic episodes, but usually right in the middle and never too bad. It was the mid-1990s NBC, after all. But this episode stinks. Starting with Kelsey Grammer never finding the right moment to tease new mom Peri Gilpin about her ruffled appearance. Luckily John Mahoney can drive home the point. It’s after a random stranger (Randy Pelish) tells Grammer he’s missed on the airwaves. Only the joke is Pelish is really weird. Then there’s a joke about Mexico.

So it’s ableist, sexist, and racist before the credits are done.

The main story isn’t any better. Grammer starts dating Teri Hatcher, who’s playing the daughter of Mahoney’s best friend. Hatcher’s too hot for Grammer, and he can’t figure out why she’s with him (it’s a big question because they have a soul-crushing lack of chemistry together). She’s also got a lot of mental health issues going on. David Hyde Pierce suggests maybe she’s in it for the free therapy. So then the episode becomes about Grammer weighing good sex and unpaid therapist hours.

Meanwhile, Mahoney’s convinced he’s a great matchmaker, so he starts parading Jane Leeves out on the balcony for his friends to inspect.

In the first scene, the laugh track sounds off, and while there are some laughs thanks to the cast… a bunch of the laugh track laughs aren’t laughs. They’re mocking people with real things going on, including your boss trying to auction you off to a stranger. So it’d be better if they faked a laugh track than they found a studio audience of such terrible people, even in 1998.

Hatcher’s good a couple times but only a couple. She and Grammer have, again, absolutely no chemistry. He’s not even lustful and pervy, and “Frasier” is often about Grammer being lustful and pervy. He clearly does not like working with Hatcher. She’s better at the physical comedy, which is all problematic, than the dialogue. It’s a rough episode.

There’s also this hilarious sequence where Grammer and Hyde Pierce are talking about Hatcher’s mental health problems—as your therapist or therapist boyfriend apparently does—and Hyde Pierce is making microwave popcorn and putting Tabasco on it. Director Sheldon Epps (who I was expecting more from, but maybe he saved the script, who knows) showcases Hyde Pierce’s process, but neither microwave popcorn nor Tabasco sauce fit the character.

Whatever. At least the writers never come back.

Frasier (1993) s05e24 – Sweet Dreams

It’s a season finale but a season finale with a big cliffhanger. Kind of a big swing for the next season. Kelsey Grammer—pissed at himself for abandoning Jane Leeves after getting her in trouble and doing a coward run—decides he’s going to put his foot down when it comes to new commercial reads at the station. It’s a gradual build to Grammer’s breaking points—with Leeves vanishing because it’d be too much trouble to address Grammer’s behavior–until it becomes a work episode. There’s still a little bit with David Hyde Pierce and John Mahoney, but once the episode introduces Tom McGowan as the new station manager… they’re pretty much done save some one-liners.

Hyde Pierce does get to give Grammer a good psychiatry diagnosis and Mahoney’s got a couple strong jokes. It’s a Grammer episode and a rather good one—once you buy his betrayal of Leeves, which involves exterior backlot filming and not strong enough direction from Sheldon Epps to make it work. Epps is all right for the rest of it; the outdoor scene is just a big disappointment. Especially since I can’t remember the last time they shot exteriors during the day (on the lot).

Anyway.

Dan Butler and Edward Hibbert open the episode with an amazing ad read then skedaddle until the plot needs them again. They don’t get a lot to do later on, maybe a joke each—the third act superstar is Marsha Kramer, who plays the station’s story time lady; their opening is great stuff. Though Butler’s objectifying joke about Peri Gilpin’s post-baby body is probably cringe. It’s really fast, with Gilpin instead spending the episode trying to resolve Grammer’s problems with McGowan and then big boss Miguel Sandoval (in a wonderful cameo). But quick or not it’s not a great way of addressing Gilpin’s recent mommyhood; especially since it’s the show’s only acknowledgement of it.

Jay Kogen gets the script credit. It’s a definitely compelling episode, even if it weren’t the season finale. Grammer’s able to sell the fretting over his courageousness and so on. It doesn’t seem like it should work given the character’s a fop, but it does indeed work. It’s good dramatic work from Grammer.

McGowan’s good too, immediately distinguishing himself even though it’s a small role—the script handles the scenes rather well, there are just the occasional plot snags. Though they too might just be Epps’s direction. His competence doesn’t include good pacing.

So it’s a sitcom with a dramatic, potentially show-changing cliffhanger. I don’t know enough about sitcoms know if that’s rare or standard (adjusting for era too); but it’s a first for “Frasier.” They do pretty well with it. Could be a lot worse and you definitely want to tune in next time.

And the end credits sequence is perfect.