Frasier – both the show and the titular character – grows on you. It is something of a miracle that Kelsey Grammer’s snobby Dr Crane, initially created as a romantic foil in the Sam and Diane “will they, won’t they” storyline on Cheers, ended up becoming one of the longest-running, most-celebrated comedy characters in television history, racking up critical praise and Emmy awards (a then-record-setting 37 wins) during its initial broadcast on NBC from 1993 to 2004. That streak could continue if Grammer’s efforts to revive the show become reality.
The joy of Frasier begins with appreciating that it is classic farce, with the staging and performances giving each beat the necessary level of theatrical hamminess. The show’s writing and identity was clear from the first episode, introducing each character into Frasier’s new life with deliberate precision, setting the stage for a dynamic that would last over a decade. Season three’s Look Before You Leap and season five’s Ski Lodge are great examples of the show’s careful plotting, witty jokes, big physical expressions and act-outs all synchronising expertly. The dialogue-free scene in which Niles sets fire to Frasier’s couch in season six is delivered like a one-act play.
In worse examples, these elements feel laboured, the wordplay eliciting groans instead of chuckles. That becomes the case more frequently in later seasons after the show resolves Niles and Daphne’s own “will they, won’t they” dynamic in the season seven finale and into the show’s final years. Niles is Frasier’s best character, a role David Hyde Pierce landed due to his resemblance to a young Kelsey Grammer. His little-brother competitiveness and cartoonish lust for Daphne gives the entire production a solid backbone and identity. Accent aside, Jane Leeves develops Daphne from a character initially meant to be a working-class nuisance for Frasier into a fully realised character in her own right.
But when the chase is over, the writers seem to be at a loss for how to continue. Season eight begins with the couple realising they can’t run into the sunset away from their obligations, and the show starts to have a similar sense of duty, as though the universe shouldn’t exist once that question had been answered. Farce requires a quickness at odds with the pace required for more dramatic emotional scenes, sending Frasier into a long slump of thin characters and weak jokes.
When Frasier asks us to invest more in the characters, it finds there isn’t much there. So the dramatic elements become tedious, with only surface-level insight into Daphne and Niles beyond mostly contrivance and cheap sentiment. That said, now that audiences are able to binge-watch Frasier on streaming services, not only are these flaws far more mitigable than during the original run, but the long view of Dr Frasier Crane’s character arc comes more into focus. It is interesting that, by the end of the show, all of the supporting characters end up finding happiness and contentment but Frasier himself is left with his usual failure and disappointment. But now there is no audience there to laugh along.
