Frasier (TV series)

Date Aired from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004

In using as its backdrop the postmodern fascination with psychiatry as a quick fix for relationship traumas and emotional catastrophes, this sitcom, within the limits of the genre, offered witty, often insightful investigations into stressful family conflicts, marriage breakdowns, and the struggle to find love.

The character of Dr. Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer), a pompous, Harvard-educated psychiatrist with a penchant for overanalyzing his own disastrous relationships, was first introduced as part of the ensemble cast of NBC’s successful sitcom Cheers, set in a working-class Boston sports bar in which Frasier’s narcissism and effeminate fondness for wine and opera made him a perfect foil. When that show ended in 1993, Grub Street Productions recognized the potential for the Grammer character to sustain a spin-off. Its premise: Dr. Crane, reeling from a second divorce, returns home to Seattle to accept a position as an AM call-in radio show host specializing in relationship advice. However, his life is quickly complicated when his father, Martin (John Mahoney), a crusty ex-cop wounded during a burglary arrest, must move in with him, along with a live-in physical therapist, a leggy British nurse named Daphne Moon (Jane Leeves). Frasier is also frequently visited by his younger brother, Niles (David Hyde Pierce), another prominent psychiatrist, who is plagued by exotic phobias and panic attacks.

The show’s signature comic style—highbrowed, witty, allusive, with droll Noël Coward-esque puns—had wide appeal, as did the inevitable collisions between the blue-collar father and his two foppish sons and the professional rivalries between the two brothers. Most notably, the show tracked Niles’s growing affection for Daphne, counterpointed by Frasier’s own inability to find satisfying love, ironic given his profession of relationship counseling. Although the show featured recurring characters, many of whom found an audience (most notably Frasier’s radio show producer, the plainspoken Roz Doyle, played by Peri Gilpin, and Eddie, Martin’s imperturbable Jack Russell terrier), the show centered on the complex character of Frasier Crane, who under Grammer’s subtle development emerged as an intriguing contradiction: both narcissistic and lonely, torn between his needful heart and his overactive mind, an egghead with an appealing neurotic vulnerability. Frasier Crane became one of the most successful characters in television history (only James Arness, Marshal Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke, played a character as long). The show ran for eleven successful seasons, finishing in the top ten in 1993, 1998, and 1999. It received an unprecedented thirty-seven prime-time Emmy Awards, including recognition as Best Comedy Series for five consecutive years (1994-1998).

Impact

With a richly ironic sense of comedy, a nuanced approach to character, and intricately complicated plotlines often involving misunderstandings or misperceptions, Frasier broke new ground by setting a standard for highly stylized writing even as network programming moved into an era of unscripted reality shows, lowbrow (often slapstick) sitcoms, and gritty street dramas with barely articulate characters. In addition, given the juxtaposition of the two effeminate grown sons with a gruff macho father, the show was part of the decade’s dissection of the definition of masculinity.

Bibliography

Graham, Jefferson. Frasier. New York: Pocket Books, 1996.

Grammer, Kelsey. So Far . . . . New York: Signet, 1996.

Marc, David. Comic Visions: Television Comedy and American Culture. 2d ed. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 1997.