Category: Directed by Philip Charles MacKenzie
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The episode opens with a lengthy setup for the eventual A plot, getting most of the B plot out of the way in an early chunk. Both Daphne (Jane Leeves) and Niles (David Hyde Pierce) are upset; she’s mad at her boyfriend for ditching her on their anniversary weekend to go to Vegas (we learn…
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I wanted a Roz (Peri Gilpin) episode, and for my sins, they gave me one. Frasier Loves Roz is not a bad episode. It’s a mediocre episode to be sure, but it’s not bad. It’s problematic because writer Suzanne Martin can’t decide whether or not to do easy body shaming jokes, or homophobic ones, or…
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It’s time for the seasonal Bebe (Harriet Sansom Harris) episode and it’s another fantastic one. I keep looking at Harris’ IMDb page because her never winning an Emmy for this part has got to be a mistake. She wasn’t even nominated, yet she’s so good. But we don’t know right off Harris is going to…
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Police Story is a standout episode—and writer Sy Rosen’s sole “Frasier” credit—from the very start. It’s a moving car shot with Kelsey Grammer and Peri Gilpin, where Gilpin’s getting ready in the back seat and getting Grammer to speed because they’ve got to get to her date on time. It’s a fantastic sequence and going…
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At first it seems like Crane vs. Crane is going to be a Martin (John Mahoney) versus his snobby sons episode, as it opens with David Hyde Pierce going on about how he’s going to be on Court TV testifying in a competency hearing for an old lumber baron (Donald O’Connor) whose son is trying…
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This episode’s got an outstanding last scene, which basically makes up for the rest of it. And the last scene is outstanding because of David Hyde Pierce as a showcase for his mix of physical and dialogue comedy, nothing else. It’s a bit of a deus ex machina just because Hyde Pierce hasn’t had anything…
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Is the “member of the Italian-American social club” visits a WASP-y sitcom a trope or just does seem like a trope? I feel like every sitcom with a sufficient number of episodes is going to to get to it eventually… at least when you still could make Godfather and GoodFellas dialogue references. Not sure anyone’s…
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The episode begins with Jane Leeves in bed with boyfriend Tony Carreiro, having slept in, and her antics trying to get him out of the apartment unseen. Since she’s not up to referee John Mahoney and Kelsey Grammer, they’re already bickering with one another. There’s a nice layering to the plot threads, which all come…
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It’s the first Kelsey Grammer-centric episode in a while, with Grammer realizing he doesn’t have any friends outside his family and ending up stuck with annoying new bestie Griffin Dunne, who Grammer can’t dump because Dunne’s in a wheelchair and what if Dunne thinks it’s about the wheelchair. Kind of wants to turn ableism inside…
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I thought this episode was the season finale but, no, it’s not even halfway through the season. As Kelsey Grammer realizes he’s still pining for station manager Mercedes Ruehl (they’ve behaved since their on-air tryst) and commits to doing something about it, Ruehl is accepting a transfer to Chicago. They’ve both been fantasizing about each…
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I really wish I were keeping some kind of track of “Frasier” episodes. I’m half-assing the watch-through. I wasn’t sure if this episode was the first “Frasier” Christmas or not, but it turns out its the first one where we get the Crane family having Christmas onscreen. And find out John Mahoney is a Christmas…
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Despite some very silly—and funny (well, not really Paul Mazursky’s call, it’s Paul Mazursky after all)—opening shenanigans, it quickly turns into a very dramatic episode. The opening antics involve station “Star Trek” nerd Patrick Kerr—weird how Paramount self-advertised its properties in the nineties—organizing a petition to get an homage to Peri Gilpin on “Trek.” It’s…
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The episode opens at the coffee shop and it stands out because it’s the first time this season there’s been a coffee shop scene. Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce have a quick scene post “previously on” to talk about Grammer’s “tawdry” romance with boss Mercedes Ruehl. Ruehl then shows up, so exit Hyde Pierce,…
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It’s an apartment episode, very much an apartment episode; such an apartment episode, the apartment plays a vital role in the plot. The episode opens with the obligatory radio station scene, giving Peri Gilpin a chance to reminisce about the great cheese state of her birth with a caller (Brooke Adams) to Kelsey Grammer’s utter…
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Mercedes Ruehl is back, initially as a quick foil for David Hyde Pierce and Kelsey Grammer. Hyde Pierce is visiting Grammer at work—there’s a brief, welcome Peri Gilpin eye-roll in Hyde Pierce’s direction—and they run into Ruehl. She quickly shows them both up, which is hilarious, and then seems to disappear–“Frasier” has these outstanding pivots…
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After a couple professional episodes where John Mahoney and Jane Leeves are interactive scenery, Martin Does It His Way is an apartment episode. There’s a radio station setup—with some great work from Kelsey Grammer and Peri Gilpin—establishing Grammer’s aunt has died and he’s leaded to the lawyer’s to talk about the estate. Cut to after…
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There are a couple big “it was the nineties” moments in the episode. Though, I haven’t watched sitcoms regularly in over a decade so maybe they’re still doing whole main plots about men (in this case Kelsey Grammer) not being able to work for women (here his new station manager, Mercedes Ruehl). But I’m fairly…
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Agents in America: Part 3 doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a very big episode, but then the last third or so is very big scale. The first two acts(?)—see, I probably should have learned the structure of sitcom plots, I’m sure there’s proper terminology—but the first two-thirds is mostly at the apartment. The…
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Writer Chuck Ranberg and Anne Flett-Giordano turn in one of the instant “Frasier” classics. It involves the show’s reliable standards—Maris jokes, the radio show, David Hyde Pierce’s physical comedy–and hits spectacular heights with all three, but most impressively the Hyde Pierce stuff. The episode ends with a fantastic sword fight with Hyde Pierce versus Brian…
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I really wish I was keeping track of what “Frasier” writers wrote what kind of episodes, though I do know I wasn’t expecting a Crane boys outing episode from Steven Levitan. Or, at least, I would’ve expected it from other writers first. Levitan wrote an episode first season, but just the one. This episode, Breaking…
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My sitcom nostalgias date me but still aren’t bad ones. For instance, the Nathan Lane cameo in this episode of “Frasier,” back when having a Nathan Lane cameo was awesome. Lane shows up in the last act of the episode, which has Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) scrambling to recover his belongings and his good name after…
The Stop Button 