Category: Frasier
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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…
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The first time Kelsey Grammer directed a “Frasier” episode, he barely appeared onscreen. Subsequently, he started including himself more, and with this episode, he’s got himself front and center. He gives David Hyde Pierce and John Mahoney some outstanding showcases—better than he ever gives himself—but he’s got the A plot from the start. The episode…
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Roz, a Loan is a peculiar episode. It’s ostensibly about Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) lending Roz (Peri Gilpin) some money since they’re still out of work. The episode opens in the cafe with Grammer and Gilpin thinking they’re about to go back to work at their original station—the salsa format hasn’t been working out ratings-wise—but then…
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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…
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The episode opens with a car chase sequence, with Kelsey Grammer and John Mahoney in one car and David Hyde Pierce in the other. There’s some outdoor shooting (seemingly second unit) and lots of banter during the actual driving—not just Mahoney and Grammer, but Hyde Pierce (via car phone) as well. It’s a great, distinct…
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After a peculiar opening—Peri Gilpin then David Hyde Pierce interrupt Kelsey Grammer on a date with Grace Phillips at the cafe–Secret Admirer soon becomes a spirited mix of a “Grammer the jackass” episode and a Crane Boys outing. Lori Kirkland Baker gets the script credit, Pamela Fryman directs. Both do some fine work, though Fryman’s…
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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…
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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…
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It’s another great episode. Even with some often very iffy directing from Ken Lamkin. Rob Greenburg gets the writing credit on the inspired story. The episode opens with Kelsey Grammer and John Mahoney bickering—a lot more knives out than usual; they’ve gotten sick of each other since Grammer’s been out of work. Once again, greatest…
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Jay Kogen gets the script credit on this episode; his name is quickly becoming a welcome sight. My rewatch of “Frasier” could be subtitled, “I should’ve tracked the writers,” but Kogen’s gotten to be memorable for being reliable. Frasier’s Curse is a very, very reliable episode. It again trades on the manufactured sympathy for star…
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It only took five full seasons to figure it out, but “Frasier” has finally realized Kelsey Grammer’s whine episodes are a lot better when he’s actually got something to whine about. Christopher Lloyd gets the script credit, Pamela Fryman directs. Both do excellent work—there’s a lot of integrated, passive wit—as Grammer has to contend not…
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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…
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Despite last episode’s big changes for at least one of the characters (not to mention a party plot line), this episode does the same thing. Well, not big changes for anyone, just another party plot. This time it’s Kelsey Grammer’s birthday and he’s stuck trying to get out of two parties so he can go…
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This episode’s a very pleasant surprise and not just because it’s the return to form for director Jeff Melman. The story takes a big shift in the middle and it all comes together very nicely in the end, particularly for Peri Gilpin and Kesley Grammer, but everyone gets a great showcase. Suzanne Martin and Jeffrey…
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I’m not sure how to talk about this episode. How much emphasis to place on the mean-spirited body-shaming of it all. After trying to dodge them, Peri Gilpin finally meets the parents of her baby daddy. The age difference (the not-in-the-episode baby daddy is twenty) doesn’t come up because everyone’s way too busy trying not…
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First Date is a sequel episode to Moon Dance, the season three episode where Niles (David Hyde Pierce) lucks into a perfect date with Daphne (Jane Leeves), full of high romance but still entirely safe for the then married character. I mean. From network and pop cultural norm viewpoints. The Maris thing is misogynist. Anyway.…
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“Frasier” has always walked a really fine line with David Hyde Pierce’s crush on Jane Leeves, never letting it get too creepy—usually keeping Kelsey Grammer around to rein him in or just to have Hyde Pierce and Leeves to have a sincere moment to eschew the romantic—but the joke in the end tag of this…
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It’s time for the Seabees again—the Seattle broadcasting awards show where the cast can reliably have antics once a season—this time with Kelsey Grammer emceeing the event. We get a lot of exposition real quick—Grammer, Dan Butler, and Peri Gilpin are waiting for coffee. We find out Butler’s nominated too, Grammer and Gilpin don’t have…
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As much as I’ve liked Billy Campbell over the years, seeing him guest on this episode of “Frasier” reveals his weirdly affable lack of network charm. His timing is just off or something. He lacks rapport with the costars. He’s fine, but he’s not great in what seems like a very Billy Campbell way. And…
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I want to know who had the idea to give the Crane family Greek in-laws—well, Greek in-laws once removed or whatever (John Mahoney’s brother, John Mahon, is married to Patti LuPone). Was it David Lloyd, who gets the script credit? Because it’s an inspired idea. And years before My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Throwing Kelsey…
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While this episode does a great job with Eugene O’Neill references—Kelsey Grammer at one point remarks to David Hyde Pierce they’re brothers out of an O’Neill play (because Hyde Pierce is suffering narcolepsy due to divorce proceeding stresses and Grammer is a sex maniac regarding ex-wife Bebe Neuwirth) and then the title cards all riff…
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It’s a very fun riff on Midsummer Night’s Dream with confused romantic intentions at a ski resort weekend. There’s a very quick setup with Kelsey Grammer combination guilting and bartering Peri Gilpin’s ski weekend prize away from her—as she’s pregnant and can’t enjoy the weekend, Grammer’s passive aggressive reasoning goes, wouldn’t it be better for…
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After a rough opening—with Peri Gilpin trying to gin up interesting callers in a bit where transphobia and ableism are the punchlines—the episode quickly becomes a David Hyde Pierce episode. Kelsey Grammer’s always around, but is always playing support to Hyde Pierce, who gets two great comedy set pieces. John Mahoney gets the subplot, which…
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It’s a Bebe (Harriet Sansom Harris) episode, even though Kelsey Grammer fired Harris last time she was on—last season. But it’s only sort of a Bebe episode; she’s still Peri Gilpin’s agent (maybe the biggest offscreen character continuity detail the show’s had to date, actually) and she wants Grammer back as a client, but Grammer’s…
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It’s a potentially great episode, done in by David Lee’s oddly inept direction during the most important scene—though Ken Lamkin’s photography doesn’t help—and the script. Jay Kogen gets the credit. I’m starting to recognize the new crop of writers on “Frasier” and it’s never for good reasons. The episode resolves one of the show’s longer…
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I don’t know if the laugh track is actually louder in the first scene or if it just seems louder because the laughs seem a whole lot more forced. The episode opens with an inspired flashback to Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce’s characters in middle school having lunch and being obnoxious prigs, then fast…
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Perspectives on Christmas is an exceptionally easy episode, starting with the title. There’s even a plot point about someone not trying hard enough with Christmas presents after making a big deal about trying hard with Christmas presents, which seems to be some kind of meta plea to be allowed an easy Christmas episode from writer…
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After surviving a whole episode as Kelsey Grammer’s love interest, Lindsay Frost dumps him at the beginning of this one, setting Grammer off on a self-reflection whine arc for the whole show. It’s an on-point episode as far as the character goes—Grammer’s done an obsessing episode at least once before, if not twice. Last time…
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Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) finally gets to end an episode without driving away his latest love interest—this time it’s Lindsay Frost, guest starring as a high powered attorney who’s in town to try a sensational case and she and Grammer have a meet cute where she helps him get a purse returned. See, Peri Gilpin’s pregnant…
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It’s a particularly excellent episode, with the cast—minus Jane Leeves, who gets one great showcase scene and is then out—going on an Alaskan cruise. Peri Gilpin’s got a friend looking to book a celebrity entertainer and after some mild cajoling (and Gore Vidal-name dropping), Kelsey Grammer agrees to go and give a speech. David Hyde…
The Stop Button 