Frasier discussion thread

I believe it's a line delivered by a jinxed basketball player to Niles: "Just let me touch it!" In context, it's killer.

 

I think there's almost too many possible best lines from this show. Another favorite of mine:
Frasier: [presses button] Hello Seattle, the people who know me best
will not be surprised by what I'm about to tell you: I am
not a man who betrays his principles. I am not a man who
misleads his listeners and I am not a man who will shrink
from a fight. Today I find myself in a fight over the
content of my show. But rather than truffle to the forces
of commercialism, I've decided to take a stand on principal,
even if it means... [Roz enters his booth] I'm not on the
air, am I?
Roz: No. He put on "The Best of Crane."
Frasier: How much did I get out?
Roz: Well, let's see. [presses button:]
Frasier: [v.o:] People who know me best will not be surprised by what
I'm about to tell you: I am not a man. [stops]

 

2nd best:
FRASIER: Oh, fine! Fine! Turn your anger on me. It's almost as if you'd forgotten that not three days ago I was punched in the face by a man now dead.

 

No talk of the ski lodge episode, yet? That was some great farce.

 

That's true. They writers resorted to this sort of 'slamming-door farce' shtick more than once, but I never minded because they always executed it so brilliantly.

 

It's actually still on Netflix.

 

John Mahoney's American accent is very good, so much so, that I never realized that he grew up in Manchester until this thread. He doesn't really sound like someone from the Seattle area, but more mid-western. However, he has been in the U.S. for all of his adult life (or most of it) so he's had time to lose his Mancunian accent. As for Daphne's accent (Jane Leaves) is likely not Mancunian, since she was born in Ilford and brought up in East Grinstead in Sussex (don't you just love IMDB?), but being American, I really can't claim to be familiar with all of the variety in English accents. I'm really only familiar with how folks from Leicester, Cornwall, and London speak since those places are where the bulk of my English acquaintances are from (and I do know there is a huge variety in London itself.)

Frasier is, IMO, one of the best sitcoms ever. It was easily better than the show that spawned it, Cheers. I can watch it over and over, it's always entertaining. BTW, a little trivia: if you've ever been to Seattle, you'd know that the view of the city from Frasier's apartment isn't possible. But, if you go to Kerry Park, you can get a picture from there that looks just like it, or nearly so.

 

Definitely better than Cheers, in my opinion. I watched season 7-11 on Netflix this December and January (I have season 1-6 on DVD) and then tried to go back to season 3 of Cheers, since that's where I left off years ago, but it just wasn't anywhere near as fun to watch. Maybe I shouldn't say it wasn't as funny or good, but it was just such a different style of humor. Basically, as odd as it may sound, due to it's "maturity" and everything, Frasier is really just farce, whereas Cheers was extremely character driven and often even a bit dramatic (at least early on). I couldn't deal with the change and just went back to watching the first and second seasons of Frasier. I stopped once my Maude DVDs came in, but I'll probably circle back around to season 6 over summer.

NBC really hit it in the '90s with Frasier, NewsRadio, and Seinfeld. They're all probably in my top 10 or 15 sitcoms. Wings was really good too...a nice mix of the styles of Cheers and Frasier.

 

Jane Leeves has a Southern "home counties" accent with some SoCal nowadays - Daphne's is sort of Northern (by 'eck as like).

 

Not actually in the UK.

 

I've always been a huge fan of the show, yet I don't think I'm as familiar with it as I am with Cheers. Still, for me it's a classic, and hope to pick up a BR version of the series sometime soon.

 

Maybe you should watch it on your old TV.

 

Have to dive in the two seasons I bought ages ago....loved it then and have sort of forgotten about it. I didn't really like the later storylines (Niles getting married), but the one-liners were great throughout and I mostly loved the neurotic banter between the brothers in the coffee-bar?

 

Cafe Nervosa!

I don't think you have a Nervosa in your beautiful country, only Cafe Gezellig.

 

Amazon Prime members, Frasier is still available for streaming, all 11 seasons. Cheers, on the other hand, was included but is now back to paying per episode/season.

 

And Gezellig they are! I'd love a Café Nervosa in my neighbourhood; a small place, nothing fancy or flashy, just fine, strong coffee!

 

I remember Kelsey Grammer being upset that the finale didn't get much promotion from the network as "Friends" also ended the same week or month. What a great show though. One of the best episodes was when Daphne found Frasier and Niles snooping around in her bedroom.

 

As we know, Jane Leeves has shown her accent range on the Benny Hill Show, Murphy Brown and Frasier.

There are many great scenes too many to mention all, but here are a few:

From Give Him The Chair - The scene in the kids high school play of Ten Little Indians, when Frasier finds Martin's chair and he's trying to get it back from the director, Mrs Warner.
Frasier: "I haven't played the part in a long time, I hardly remember any of the lines!
Mrs. Warner: "Then you'll fit right in!"

When Niles goes on a radio show murder spree in Ham Radio when Frasier over-directs him, and he's had enough.
Niles: "... Will the McAllister sisters stand back to back? I'm running out of bullets..."

Voyage of the damned - when Frasier, Roz and Martin are all hiding in Maris' bathroom on the cruise, thinking she is there with the Barracuda.
Martin: " I don't want to see that, I just ate caribou!"

 

I thought most of the episodes were brilliant. Near the end, though, one season did seem pretty weak--the one in which Niles had a heart attack. It just seemed tired and ready to retire, but then it perked back up. One of my favorite episodes was in season one when Frasier brought the new station manager home to meet Daphne, and since he was gay, he thought he was on a date with Frasier! I enjoyed the more sophisticated humor--was rarely vulgar like most other sitcoms yet truly funny. The chemistry among the characters was palpable. I bought the complete seasons on DVD and thoroughly enjoy them.

 

Frasier: [responding to a caller] Roger, at Cornell University they have an incredible piece of scientific equipment known as the Tunneling Electron Microscope. Now, this microscope is so powerful that by firing electrons you can actually see images of the atom, the infinitesimally minute building blocks of our universe. Roger, if I were using that microscope right now, I still wouldn't be able to locate my interest in your problem.

 

I never cared for the character on Cheers but I enjoyed Frazier the show a lot more.

 

"Hello, I'm Niles, a person at the table."

 

I love how Frasier's little insecurities and all-too-human shortcomings get amplified to absurdity, like the time he hounded the one member of a focus group who found him "annoying" or the time he tried to teach a lesson to shock jocks Carlos & The Chicken, or the time he tried to teach a lesson to those snotty "Teen Talk" hosts (he actually succeeded at that one, with the assistance of Kirby the hormonal underachiever).

And his arrogance…Frasier in prayer: "Hello, God? It's Doctor Frasier Crane."

 

Funny SMART television.

 

Ah, Kirby. What a great character. I particularly liked it when he began a sentence with, "Uh, just for your FYI..."