The Lilith guest appearances on Frasier were always some of the best entertainment. That relationship never gets old..
Funny I’ve recently started rewatching Cheers... already on Season 4 and it’s actually better than I originally remember... Coach was a fantastic character!
Coach was a great character, and the acting of Nicholas Colasanto brought a charm to the character that might not have been there otherwise. His acting in the more serious scenes, like the episode with his daughter or when he was talking to Diane about Sam drinking again, showed how much depth his character had, rather just being the lovable doofus.
Seasons 3-6 are the peak of the show for me. After that, the showrunners changed, and it was never as consistent or as literate. In addition, the characters started turning into cariacatures - Sam became dumber, Carla became meaner, etc. The show didn’t have nearly as much heart later on. I don’t think those later years have aged as well as the earlier seasons.
I finished watching the whole series a few months ago and I agree completely. It never became a bad show but those middle years especially with Diane are my favorites. They had some excellent writers then.
Ironically, the one with his daughter had the biggest laugh of the season... but it was an unwanted one. When the daughter says she's not beautiful and Coach says she is, the crowd erupted in laughter for a *really* long time. They stopped filming, redid the scene with the same result. Writers could never figure it out and basically decided to mute the crowd's mics.
Season 1 is like the debut album of a band that got a lot better quickly. There is a charm to it that is still very appealing even while recognizing that they got a lot better quickly. Plus, they did a good job of letting us get to know the characters gradually more and more as the season moved along. I always thought the Sam and Diane dynamic was better when they were not a couple, and that was on full display in S1. I think Carla getting meaner did fit her character - she got saddled with more kids, all of whom she had to basically raise alone, after Eddie moved away for her job and eventually deceased - but I thought her meanness to Cliff was oft-putting at times. It didn't help that Cliff often just sat there and took it. At least when Carla went after Diane with jabs, Diane would often fire back.
My partner and I are watching this at the moment because she hasn't seen it before. We're on season 3 at the moment. We found seasons 1 and 2 a bit of a struggle, but with Frasier coming in during season 3 you can feel the momentum growing. I never enjoyed Coach. I didn't find him funny and often his lines/jokes felt forced. Woody was much better in my opinion. There's a scene in early season 3 where Frasier is confiding in Sam because Diane had said Sam's name during sex. Frasier asks Sam if this ever happened to him, and Sam says "Well, I don't think so. But then again, who listens?" and I swear to God, I nearly choked on my drink. I laughed so hard - Danson's delivery of that was perfect.
Interesting that Frasier was only gonna appear in about 6 episodes then be let go but the writer sloved writing his character and the cast enjoyed Kelsey
Haha, that has to be one of Sam's best one-liners ever. I am sure I said this already in this thread, but I love that the writers eventually would give Frasier non-funny lines on purpose, knowing that Grammar would make them funny with his delivery, which he always did.
Was an episode from Season 1 censored a bit on the DVD, because someone made a Soviet joke? That's what I heard when I used to post on Home Theater Forum.
The Thanksgiving episode is always enjoyable and I love when Diane is reciting what she's thankful for and how she says Emily Dickinson.
Same here. It certainly reinforces the contention of my TV and Theater Appreciation professor in college that humor in most contemporary TV shows is insult-based.
An all-time classic episode for sure. Having Shelly come to Carla's dressed as a Pilgrim was brilliant. The running gag with everyone always moving the television away from Frasier never gets old for me too. Frasier's line is also great: " Oh, who the hell do we think we're kidding? We're all a bunch of pathetic dropouts. Scorned by our loved ones - as if anybody ever loved us at all."