By Robert Bianco, USA TODAY
Has any sitcom produced more standout episodes? There are so many high points from Frasier's glory years, it's impossible to reduce them to 10. So in honor of the show's 11 seasons, USA TODAY's Robert Bianco lists his Top 11 episodes in no particular order (leaning heavily on those earlier, better seasons):
 | |||
 | | | |
The Matchmaker
When: Oct. 4, 1994
What: Frasier invites the new station manager, Tom, home for a fix-up dinner with Daphne. What he doesn't know is Tom is gay and thinks the date is with Frasier.
Why: The Matchmaker was the first of the great Frasierfarces, where misunderstandings or mistaken identities tighten like a spring until the accumulated comic tension leads to hilarious release. It also slyly addressed the show's so-called "gay" sensibility and questions about the characters' heterosexuality, as Tom, shocked to discover Frasier isn't gay, exclaims, "But Niles — come on!"
Flour Child
When: Oct. 11, 1994
What: Worried about his parental instincts, Niles carts a sack of flour around to simulate fatherhood, with disastrous results.
Why: Cleverly, the episode keeps most of the baby-bag disasters off screen — like the time Niles lets it catch on fire. ("It's not as careless as you make it seem. After all, a real child would have cried before it burst into flames!") But every time we see the sack, it looks a little worse for wear, culminating with the moment when Eddie attacks the bag. Or, as Daphne puts it, "That dingo's got your baby."
Adventures in Paradise
When: Nov. 15/22, 1994
What: In the show's first two-part episode, Frasier takes his new girlfriend (JoBeth Williams) to an island resort and ends up with the room next to his ex-wife, Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth).
Why: This episode told us, once and for all, that Frasier's love life was doomed to be an unhappy one. The show has come up with countless ways to implode Frasier's relationships, but for sheer laughs, few match the "Oh, my God" moment when he realizes Lilith is in the Bora Bora bungalow next door.
An Affair to Forget
When: May 2, 1995
What: Niles discovers his wife, Maris, is having an affair with her Bavarian fencing instructor and challenges him to a duel.
Why: It may be decades before TV comes up with a better-matched or more skilled comedy team than Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce. The challenge here is to decide which one is funnier in the final scene: Pierce, a master physical comic, fumbling with his sword, or Grammer, a master of comic exasperation, getting increasingly agitated as he tries to converse with the German-speaking swordsman, using Maris' Spanish-speaking maid as a translator.
The Innkeepers
When: May 16, 1995
What: When their favorite restaurant closes, Frasier and Niles reopen it as "Les Frères Heureux." On the opening night of "The Happy Brothers," they're anything but.
Why: This hilarious farce boasts one of the series' best sight gags. As Niles struggles to kill an eel, an exasperated Daphne grabs it from him and slams its head on the edge of the counter. Trust me, it's nearly impossible not to laugh out loud.
Moon Dance
When: Feb. 6, 1996
What: Daphne offers to help a now-separated Niles impress his friends by accompanying him to the annual Snow Ball. But when they do a dance-floor-clearing tango, the fake date turns real for Niles.
Why: Seldom has longing and silent devotion been more amusingly or poignantly portrayed. And seldom has the show been as touching as it was in that moment when Niles realizes Daphne thinks his dance-floor love declaration was part of the ruse.
Where There's Smoke, There's Fired
When: April 30, 1996
What: Frasier's job and a syndication deal depend on him getting the new station owner's fiancée to quit smoking. The problem? The fiancée is Frasier's appallingly amoral agent, Bebe.
Why: Everyone has a favorite among Frasier's recurring characters. For me, it's Bebe, played by the incomparable Harriet Sansom Harris. This episode has my favorite Bebe-aimed insult: When she tells Niles that Frasier has tunneled "into the very depths" of her psyche, Niles replies, "Well, let's hope he sent a canary down first."
Merry Christmas, Mrs. Moskowitz
When: Dec. 17, 1998
What: Frasier pretends to be Jewish to please the mother of his girlfriend (Amy Brenneman). He might have pulled it off if Niles hadn't been starring in a Christmas pageant.
Why: Another of those classic Frasier farces, with each lie inevitably calling forth an even bigger lie until the whole deception collapses under the strain. It's also another classic display of Grammer's unchallenged slow burn, as Frasier tries to rein in an overly helpful Niles. ("Take it down a notch, Tevye.")
To Kill a Talking Bird
When: Feb. 25, 1997
What: Niles moves into a prestigious apartment building and throws himself a house-warming party. It's ruined by an uninvited guest — his pet cockatoo, who has grabbed onto his hair and won't let go.
Why: You won't find a sitcom gag much sillier than the sight of that bird perched on top of Niles' head. The joy of Frasier at its best was its ability to be erudite one moment and vaudevillian the next. Only out-and-out crudity was banned; otherwise, it was ready, willing and able to do anything for a laugh.
Room Service
When: March 3, 1998
What: Jilted by her husband, Lilith makes a play for Frasier. He resists, but Niles doesn't.
Why: While Lilith's seduction of Niles in a hotel room had plenty of amusing moments, the episode didn't shy away from the darker emotional undercurrents — a depth Frasier was able to achieve because it employed actors, not models or stand-up comics. The episode also gave Niles a line that may sum up the whole series: "We're an odd little family, aren't we?"
Something Borrowed, Someone Blue
When: May 18, 2000
What: Niles is married to Mel, Daphne is about to marry Donny, and only Frasier knows they actually love each other. Frasier resolves to keep quiet until he sees them share a dance at Daphne's wedding rehearsal dinner and realizes they're meant for each other. He speaks up, and Niles and Daphne run off together.
Why: By this point in the run, Niles and Daphne had become a problem. He couldn't go on mooning over her, but the show had yet to convince us they belonged together. With that one, lovely moment on the dance floor, Frasier jumped that hurdle. It's a good place to end this list — and it probably would have been a good place to end the series.
No comments:
Post a Comment