Frasier (1993) s07e15 – Out with Dad

As usual, I regret not keeping better track of writing credits. Joe Keenan gets the credit this episode; he’s been writing “Frasier” since season two with numerous big successes, but based on Out with Dad, I’d have thought him a newbie. The episode picks and chooses plot points from outstanding—and memorable—episodes and mixes them a bit. Dad John Mahoney tells Mary Louise Wilson he’s gay, so she’ll stop flirting with him, and she sets him up with her… well, wait, Brian Bedford’s English.

So maybe her brother-in-law? Anyway, Bedford is Marg Helgenberger’s uncle, which is important because Kelsey Grammer’s interested in Helgenberger. Only Bedford’s interested in Mahoney, so Mahoney has to pretend he’s gay for the evening, except gay and unavailable. He can’t come clean about being straight because it’ll mess up Grammer.

People being confused about Mahoney being gay goes back to season one. And the family pretending they’re something other than cishet WASPs most memorably happened in the “let’s pretend we’re Jewish” episode, but I’ll bet there have been more. Out just stirs them together a little differently.

Oddly, it’s a Valentine’s Day episode too. Grammer ropes Mahoney into going to the opera because otherwise, Mahoney would be at home watching chick flicks with Jane Leeves and Peri Gilpin. David Hyde Pierce was supposed to go with Grammer, but Jane Adams (who doesn’t appear) stayed in town special for him. Grammer doesn’t want to give up his seat (to Adams to go with Hyde Pierce) because he’s got the hots for Helgenberger, another opera-goer. When he and Mahoney get there, Mahoney waves at Helgenberger to be extra, but Wilson thinks he’s spotted her. Confusion and hijinks ensue, including Mahoney drafting an unlikely person as his romantic interest.

It’s an amusing episode; it’s just entirely redundant. There are some good laughs (and nice human moments, eventually, for Mahoney), but it’s an adequate episode for a sitcom in its seventh season, nothing more. And Helgenberger makes almost no impression, with first Wilson, then Bedford running all her scenes.

Solid direction from David Lee probably helps a lot. Again… fine, with asterisks.

Frasier (1993) s07e13 – They’re Playing Our Song

I’m feeling a little like the boy who cried wolf, on the lookout for “Frasier”’s inevitable, impending fall; the show’s two episodes away from the “mythology” two-parter, and those two episodes have been excellent. This one’s all about Kelsey Grammer going overboard while composing a theme song for his show. Station manager Tom McGowan wants something simple, a catchy jingle. So, of course, Grammer’s got a full orchestra, choir, and David Hyde Pierce on hand to perform some spoken word. All on Sunday overtime.

It’s mostly a Grammer episode. There’s some ensemble work in the build-up, with Hyde Pierce helping Grammer with the initial composition, dad John Mahoney offering a much better idea and being ignored, and then Jane Leeves finally going after the icky old chair with a super-powered vacuum. Peri Gilpin gets to hang around at the beginning since it’s a radio episode. Eventually, she’s just in the audience, too; everyone’s there to watch whatever Grammer’s going to do.

There’s a lot of good banter—the script credit goes to David Lloyd, who’s had his name on numerous great “Frasier” episodes—and the finale even brings it around to Mahoney and Grammer having a father and son moment. Mahoney, Leeves, and Gilpin all get a little in their audience portion of the episode. Gilpin’s latest boyfriend is an unemployed musician, Leeves knows Mahoney’s song is good, and Mahoney’s confused about the free donuts. Then Hyde Pierce gets a lot of material, but it’s all in reaction to Grammer and his magnum opus writing. There are lots of smaller guest parts (the orchestra members) who only interact with Grammer, usually with excellent banter.

It’s also nice for McGowan to get a little more than usual. He sticks around for most of the plot this episode, whereas he usually gets a scene and then disappears.

David Lee does a fine job directing. It’s just a really good episode. If I’d been watching it at the time, I’d have thought they had their impending big changes all figured out. Little would I have known….

Frasier (1993) s07e02 – Father of the Bride

This episode’s very funny, but often in a “the less you think about it” way. The script’s credited to Mark Reisman (his first credit on the show), and it very impressively gives almost everyone in the main cast a story thread. Except for John Mahoney, who gets a couple hilarious bits but not a thread, and Peri Gilpin’s is tacked onto Jane Leeves’s.

The A-plot is Kelsey Grammer inadvertently taking over Leeves’s wedding planning. Well, wait; he very intentionally takes over the wedding planning, but he inadvertently puts himself in that situation. The episode uses audial gags three times, always to strong effect, with the first being a bad case of hiccups leading Leeves to believe Grammer wants to pay for her entire wedding. She’s frustrated with her interfering mum in the U.K. and is so relieved Grammer’s saving the day, he can’t find a way to back out. The “paying for the wedding” plot goes unresolved; once Grammer starts taking over the wedding, auditioning harpists, caterers, and ministers, it’s the raucous center of attention.

The B-plot is David Hyde Pierce’s new girlfriend, Loryn Locklin, being a high-priced escort. Not because they met somewhere, and he doesn’t know, but rather because he doesn’t know the dating service he’s using is actually an escort service. So, his mistake entirely. Grammer finds out about it from Saul Rubinek, who does his one requisite guest scene as Leeves’s fiancé. The escort thing is an aside for later; otherwise, Rubinek’s there to make things even more awkward for Grammer backing out of his wedding funding commitments.

There are some great scenes for Grammer, who gets more and more obsessed with throwing the perfect wedding, and a few excellent ones for Leeves. Hyde Pierce has some excellent deliveries, but the jokes immediately start molding. See, Locklin doesn’t know Hyde Pierce doesn’t know she’s an escort, which means he’s just being an asshole. So it’s a mistaken identity bit, only an unnecessarily mean-spirited one.

Locklin’s lack of characterization also brings attention to Leeves and Gilpin’s plots, which are of the “decorate and be decorative” nature. Leeves wants to do the decorating, and Gilpin’s upset about Leeves’s wanting to decorate her in an ugly bridesmaid dress. They pass Bechdel for a few scant moments before failing it again.

Sure, it’s an episode in Leeves’s long-going marriage arc, so they will be talking about her marrying dude Rubinek and male boss Grammer interfering, but the dynamics play out a little weird.

Though often very funny. From the first scene, there are a lot of laughs, and they don’t slow down. The episode’s got some actually inspired jokes and bits throughout (a little broad at times but still), and there’s even time for some father and son time for Grammer and Mahoney. Director David Lee maintains great momentum, and the structure’s phenomenal.

It’s just some of the themes are thin and easy.

Frasier (1993) s06e21 – When a Man Loves Two Women

Credited writers Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck wrote the shittiest episode of “Frasier” ever (thus far) earlier this season, and so I was dreading this one. Especially since the logline seems primed for a bad episode—Kelsey Grammer hooks up with not one but two women (consecutively, not concurrently) and has to pick the one he wants to pursue a relationship with. It stands out because the women are returning guest stars—Virginia Madsen and Amy Brenneman—and it’s rare for the one-episode guest stars to come back. They maybe never have; definitely not the love interests.

Madsen is the breathy coworker from the Valentine’s Day episode where Grammer could never figure out if she was romantically interested. Brenneman was in the Christmas episode where the family had to pretend they were Jewish for her mom’s sake. The episode starts with Grammer and Madsen together, then he runs into Brenneman and ends up with her, then starts fretting over the right choice.

Brenneman’s obviously the right choice because she’s nicer to Jane Leeves, who Madsen treats like crap. John Mahoney votes for Madsen because she’s breathy and not too intelligent and opinionated like Brenneman (seriously, Mahoney needs to get a recurring subplot besides being an amiable pig). David Hyde Pierce abstains from choosing but does try to help Grammer with the decision-making. Also, the writing’s really thin on Madsen, so she’s just annoying, whereas the episode’s eventually going to give Brenneman the most agency a love interest has gotten to this point. With the caveat, there’s a narrative device in play the show’s rarely used before and never let anyone but Grammer in on.

It works out, too; Brenneman’s excellent. Madsen’s a low okay. She’s really unlikeable, so it’s an uphill battle, and she was also a lot better last time. One of the problems with bringing actors back is when they’re not better or as good on the return.

There’s also a bunch of great physical comedy from Mahoney, Leeves, and Hyde Pierce. Like director David Lee (his best-directed episode in ages, if not ever) really wanted to have fun with the sequences. Leeves also gets to do a great American impression in the spotlight, which seems to have been meant to make up for her being the punchline for a guest star. And Peri Gilpin has some good moments as she counsels Grammer with his unexpected romantic dilemma. It’s a packed episode.

And rather successful, given it’s about Grammer gaslighting his love interests while he inspects their proverbial teeth. Not enough to make up for Gregory and Huyck’s last outing, but a very solid entry.

Frasier (1993) s06e19 – IQ

What I can’t figure out with episode director David Lee, whose name I’ve come to dread this season, is the obviously uneven enthusiasm. This episode’s got a couple literal set pieces—there’s an auction scene and a restaurant scene (in addition to the apartment)—and there’s a lot of detail during those sequences but the blandest three-camera sitcom. Maybe the answer’s simple, and the unbilled extras in the episode had more imagination than Lee, but this episode’s got all the right pieces to be tremendous, and Lee doesn’t put them together.

I missed the writer credits while watching, keeping them for a surprise until now (when I can also look up their track record). The credit goes to Rob Hanning and Jay Kogen, who’ve gotten solo credit before, with Kogen on better episodes than Hanning, but Hanning no slouch. It’s a Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce competitiveness episode, starting from the opening joke, with Hyde Pierce bragging about his new cufflinks. It’d be gauche for both of them to be wearing silver, Hyde Pierce best wear the gold. Then, they’re off to a silent auction with a recurring gag and delayed punchline as to the associated charity’s purpose, and there’s room for the whole cast.

Peri Gilpin gets to go along because one of the auction items is getting to sit in the booth with her during an episode of she and Grammer’s radio show. But, of course, it’s been a very long time since they’ve been to the studio, and this auction item becomes a nothing plot point just to get Gilpin into the episode.

The auction scene has Grammer and Hyde Pierce fighting over who should get to have lunch with geniuses, John Mahoney trying to con his way into a new grill, and Gilpin trying to get someone besides stalker co-worker Patrick Kerr from winning the show sit-in. It’s a lot of good acting—with one particularly good shot from Lee, finally seeming to get the potential for the scene—but the writing’s a little thin on everything for Gilpin and Mahoney. The stuff with Grammer and Hyde Pierce is good, though, and it’s going to be the A plot for the rest of the episode.

See, when they were kids—sadly no flashback—Grammer and Hyde Pierce took IQ tests, and their parents never told them the scores, just they were close. Now they’re adults and want to know the results. The episode glazes over how unlikely it seems neither had their IQs tested since, and it quickly becomes an absurd competition again, with only a few hours before their individual intelligence will be put to the test.

Hyde Pierce and Grammer both get a fair amount of physical comedy to do. More for Hyde Pierce, but thanks to Lee’s direction, the audience doesn’t get to see some of the best of it. Mahoney’s got some good moments, both conniving for a grill and being an exasperated dad. Jane Leeves gets a great monologue recounting her weird family, which is just tacked on to the episode to give her something to do, but it’s doesn’t matter because it’s excellent. Though, again, Lee could’ve done better with it.

IQ’s a pretty good brother vs. brother episode, but it should’ve been better.

Frasier (1993) s06e18 – Taps at the Montana

Sometimes marathoning “hurts” a traditional broadcast show. They were meant to be watched weeks or months apart, with commercial breaks distracting and obfuscating tropes. They’re not meant to be strung together. But even with those caveats, it’s kind of weird “Frasier” did an episode about a dinner party right after doing an episode called The Dinner Party. Okay, this episode’s party is a cocktail party. However, it still involves Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce lying to Peri Gilpin to get her to attend to perform menial labor.

It’s also another “Frasier” familiar episode with a script credit for David Lloyd. He wasn’t on the last episode, but he did a riff on a series classic a couple ago. In this episode, he goes more general—though I swear parties going wrong at Hyde Pierce’s swank condo have happened before; there’s also a ridiculous screwball gag amping up one they used towards the beginning of the season… when Hyde Pierce was having a different party. So it’s a riff on a riff on a riff, and everyone seems appropriately resigned to it.

Especially since no one ever gets too much to do. There are plenty of guest stars, but none of them stand out; even when someone’s funny, like Bill Morey as Hyde Pierce’s most irate neighbor, he’s just funny, not really good. Part of the episode is a party game—Murder—and Grammer wants to play detective first. But there’s nothing to it, just a few minutes of filler until the next disaster. Wait, does it rip off an episode of “Fawlty Towers” too? Maybe. Or it rips off an episode “Fawlty” ripped off from someone else. It’s just a series of disasters, sight gags, and bad jokes.

The bad jokes are even a subplot—Hyde Pierce tries punning his way into the angry condo board’s heart.

The main cast is mostly on auto-pilot, particularly Grammer and John Mahoney, but they’ve still got their timing. Similarly, David Lee’s direction is passively nimble. He never tries, never tasks, and it all works out fine, so why bother doing any more.

Of the main cast, Jane Leeves actually gets the closest thing to compelling material, but it cuts away from her scenes before she gets to do anything with them.

“Frasier”’s seemed somewhat listless since Hyde Pierce’s divorce arc finished; this episode seems like they reenacted a combination clip and outtake show, stringing it all together with a skinny, new plotline. The show feels so incredibly lost all of a sudden.

Frasier (1993) s06e17 – The Dinner Party

Turns out I’ve been bullish episodes where Jeffrey Richman gets the script credit. I thought his name was on my unenumerated list of problematic “Frasier” writers. And this episode certainly has a bunch of problematic elements. Lots of misogynistic jokes, some fat-shaming, and I think some other ableism. It’s also a “sitcom as continuous” play episode, with Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce doing one of their bickering brothers’ adventures without actually having an adventure.

David Lee directs. He doesn’t seem as into the concept as the script.

The episode begins with Grammer deciding he’s going to have a dinner party. Hyde Pierce is there, and they agree he will cohost. They want to get a specific couple to hang out with them, which will require wheeling and dealing with the guest list—so lots of jokes about rich white drunkards—finding a caterer, and convincing John Mahoney to move his poker night.

In the background, Peri Gilpin and Jane Leeves are going to a fancy dance, except Leeves can’t find anything to wear, so they keep trying on different dresses and having arguments. Having Gilpin in the apartment means Grammer can involve her in the dinner party, which has him manipulating and lying to her like any good friend and boss would do. There is a very amusing moment where Gilpin gets to comment on Hyde Pierce crushing on Leeves—he stops her in time—but Gilpin being in on that joke has a lot of possibilities.

But Gilpin and Leeves fighting about whether or not a dress is too slutty or whatever? It’s not good. Mahoney popping in and out? Not good. Even if Lee were into the concept of an episode about nothing in real-time, the script doesn’t have enough punch to get it through. There’s not enough drama in the party planning to get halfway, so there’s a voicemail twist thrown in to kill a few more minutes before the Gilpin and Leeves subplot has cooked long enough to help end the episode.

Ostensibly, the episode wants to be about Hyde Pierce hanging out at Grammer’s too much after his divorce, but Hyde Pierce has been hanging out at Grammer’s for almost the entire run of the show. They’ve already had episodes where Hyde Pierce and Grammer spending too much time together was a plot point, and they didn’t resolve with pat, forecasted twists.

Maybe if the acting were better—Grammer and Hyde Pierce are both okay, but Hyde Pierce seems very bored (his two-and-a-half-season character arc with the divorce is not paying dividends), so Grammer’s having to hold it up. Maybe if it were a live episode. As is, it’s a little too tedious, and a little too mean.

Frasier (1993) s06e15 – To Tell the Truth

In terms of "Frasier"'s concept, To Tell the Truth is the most significant episode they've ever done. They've irrevocably changed something about one of the characters. When you watch the show in reruns, there's before and after this episode, six and a half years into the show's run, and resolving a story arc starting in the third season. The divorce of Niles (David Hyde Pierce) and Maris (Maris Crane) is finally resolved, something the show's been boiling on a back burner this entire season and brewing the last two. Started in season three, decides in season six. It's a three-year episode arc.

And they do it in one episode. It's a great episode—I'm guessing director David Lee's best; he's done plenty of the larger scale episodes, but I never think of him as a particularly successful director. The first scene with Kelsey Grammer talking to Hyde Pierce about getting new lawyers leads to Peri Gilpin recommending an ex-boyfriend, they meet the lawyer (a perfect Saul Rubinek, I really hope he and Gilpin get to interact going forward), there's a crisis for Grammer because it's his show still, they wrap it all up, and they give it an epilogue. It's an awesome twenty-two minutes. In a season of strong episodes—and one really shitty one, not ready to forget that one yet—it's far and away the best. It just gets better and better as it goes, ending on a bittersweet and beautifully acted moment from Hyde Pierce.

Everyone gets a lengthy showcase, except Gilpin, who's only in the first scene. She's good, but it's a Hyde Pierce episode, and they're still in a reasonably distant orbit. Hyde Pierce gets a whole range of things to do, comedy and drama, as Rubinek's effective lawyering appears to be rushing the inevitable—Jane Leeves is going to find out about Hyde Pierce's crush on her. Maris's lawyers watched Moon Dance back in season three and are… wait a second; Moon Dance is episode thirteen of season three, Hyde Pierce leaves Maris in episode eight.

Anyway.

Even though Leeves doesn't know about the crush, Grammer does, and they've already established he can't lie. His ethics, you see, which Hyde Pierce accepts but John Mahoney doesn't. So then there's a great father and son scene for Grammer and Mahoney before Mahoney gets a great bit on his own stemming from it too. It's a fantastic family episode, lots of frustrated Crane boys.

But then there's also Rubinek, whose first scene is a comedy goldmine, mixing dialogue and physical comedy. It might be Lee's best-directed scene in the episode, and all of them are well-directed. It's a great introduction to the character, with Rubinek ably putting it all out there.

Rob Hanning gets the credit on the script, which is obviously phenomenal.

To Tell the Truth's one hell of a sitcom episode. Not just a "Frasier," but it's one of the great twenty-two minutes of television.

Frasier (1993) s06e08 – The Seal Who Came to Dinner

The second half of the episode is such accomplished screwball I totally forget the first half ranges from problematic to cringe, with way too much self-awareness. The episode opens at the cafe, with Kelsey Grammer and Peri Gilpin talking about being out of work and David Hyde Pierce showing up to whine about not being able to have a fancy dinner party at his shitty bachelor pad. Next, Gilpin goes into a rant about how hard life is having a newborn as a single mom while being unemployed.

Grammer and Hyde Pierce instinctively ignore her because what do women even say and then wonder why she storms out. Exit Gilpin from the episode.

Then there’s John Mahoney perving on live-in employee Jane Leeves’s friend, Susie Park, because she’s Asian. And during the war (presumably Korean), Mahoney dated a lot of Korean girls. Though Leeves points out the power imbalance, Mahoney and the episode don’t care. They repeat the joke a little later, with Grammer and Hyde Pierce talking about geisha girls and Mahoney having a fit. They’re bad jokes, and there’s no way to do them “well,” but they could’ve been done a lot better.

Joe Keenan gets the script credit, and it feels like it’s been a while. Maybe he—or the room—was rusty. Or just particularly misogynist and predatory. Leeves is good at yelling at Mahoney, though. So whoever wrote her dialogue got it. Then again, maybe it was all good in the script, and director David Lee fumbled it.

So. Problems. Multiple, layered problems.

Until the actual dinner party, which has Grammer and Hyde Pierce breaking into his soon-to-be ex-wife’s beach house to throw the party. Only there’s a dead seal on the beach, and they’ve got to take care of it. Throw in a nosey neighbor (Marilyn Child), a demanding caterer (Arnie Burton), and the head of a syndicated radio network (Catherine Dent), and it’s a winner. Lots of good physical comedy for both Grammer and Hyde Pierce, lots of good dialogue humor for both of them. It’s spectacular stuff.

Just a rocky road to get there. The script characterizes Grammer and Hyde Pierce as inherently rude and shallow and leaves the actors responsible for making them still likable. Though it’s probably better they ignore Gilpin for a joke instead of stalk various women through the first scene like Mahoney’d apparently be doing.

The second half’s excellent, though. The ideal would be missing the first ten minutes, being confused for a couple minutes, then getting the glory of the dinner party. Particularly great work from Hyde Pierce throughout.

Frasier (1993) s06e04 – Hot Ticket

It’s an outdoor episode for the most part, with the main action being Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce trying to get into a play. So it’s the two of them outside the theater—presumably on location, though I suppose there might be a big theater exterior on the Paramount backlot—trying to avoid looking desperate for tickets and getting embarrassed whenever they see someone from society around.

The episode opens with what seems to be a narrative non sequitur about Jane Leeves getting photographed “mooning” (it’s punny because her character’s name is Daphne Moon) for the Seattle newspaper lifestyle column. Then it quickly becomes a Grammer and Hyde Pierce snob team-up episode. Only we’re in season six now and disappointed dad John Mahoney has gotten used to it and now offers them plot perturbing advice instead of shamed observations.

The talk of the town is the new play starring legendary actor Fritz Weaver—seriously, if society snobs and legendary actor tropes continue to age at current rate viewers in another twenty years are going to be wondering why there aren’t any guillotines in the episode—and so the boys need to see it. Not because they really care about the play, of course, but so Hyde Pierce doesn’t feel like he’s being left out of society even though he’s divorcing his society wife.

Grammer’s along because it’s funnier when they’re snobby together. The weirdest part of the episode comes when Grammer doesn’t try calling his talent agent to get tickets to the show, instead relying on vague connections so the script can make ablest, sexist jokes at offscreen women’s expenses. They’re not even easy jokes, just mean ones—Jeffrey Richman gets the script credit, which has the occasional lows (those jokes) but also some great material for the actors once they’re outside. There’s something even more magical about Hyde Pierce’s physical comedy off set.

Weaver’s solid for what he’s got to do as the actor (believably narcissistically pontificate) and there’s a nice small part for Natalija Nogulich. Francis X. McCarthy’s okay as her husband but he gets maybe three lines, all unimportant. They’re the society folks Hyde Pierce so desperately wants to impress.

Peri Gilpin shows up for a single scene (on par with Leeves) and it’s pretty good, until the script goes misogynist for the finish, which doesn’t play well outside in the “real world,” but the episode recovers.

Director David Lee has some bad choices—ditto editor Ron Volk—but he keeps a great pace to the episode; it’s another strong season six outing, definitely bumpier than it needs to be, but very successful when the sailing’s smooth.