Frasier

Kelsey Grammer (2010 photo) was cast as Dr. Frasier Crane, a psychiatrist, in the Cheers spinoff, Frasier.

Frasier is a television sitcom which aired on NBC for more than a decade (1993-2004) and was the recipient of several Emmy Awards. The show, produced by Grub Street Productions and Paramount Television, is a spin-off of Nielsen favorite Cheers, written by David Angell and Christopher Lloyd. It is set in Seattle and tells the story of pretentious psychiatrist Frasier Crane (longest-running character in a live-action sitcom), who has moved from Boston back to his hometown of Seattle and taken a job as a radio psychiatrist at the fictional talk radio station KACL. Most of the action revolves around Frasier's womanizing and premarital action, struggles with his father and job, and the themes of psychiatry.

Off-screen, lead star Kelsey Grammer has at times been outspokenly Republican, such as opposing Democrats' attempt to overturn the presidential election results in 2000.

Cast[edit]

Dr. Frasier Crane Frasier Crane is a Freudian psychiatrist who lived in Seattle and, during his years on Cheers, worked in Boston. He married two women, barmaid Diane Chambers and later intimidating psychiatrist Lilith Sternin, with whom he bore a son, Frederick. Frasier enjoys wine, opera, gourmet cooking, and plays a Steinway piano. As a radio psychiatrist, he constantly humiliates himself and provides advice with mixed results to the people of Seattle, who continue to call in regardless. A running theme in the show is his attempts to take part and to keep himself with the elite and high society of Seattle, most of which humorously fail.

Martin Crane Martin is Frasier's father and a retired police officer. On Cheers, Frasier claims his father is dead. The Frasier writers explain him to simply have been mad at his father when the claim was made. Martin is a realistic man who detests Frasier's lifestyle and refuses to abandon certain pesky habits, such as a hideous easychair and his dog Eddie, a Jack Russell terrier. Over the course of the show, Frasier and Martin develop a closer relationship and become more helpful towards each other.

Dr. Niles Crane Niles is Frasier's younger brother and husband of the never-seen Maris Crane, a neurotic, domineering and spoiled socialite. He is a superior psychiatrist to Frasier, though he suffers from many psychosomatic disorders and has difficulties asserting himself to Maris until their drawn-out divorce. He is slightly less womanizing than Frasier and at a slightly higher class echelon, though not as famous. A running joke in the show is Mile's often failing attempts to get closer to Daphne.

Daphne Moon Daphne is Martin's physical therapist and Niles's love interest from the first episode. She is from Manchester, England and speaks with a genuine British accent. In the first episode, she claims to be psychic, though the subject recurs very few times during the series, most notably when Frasier's ex-wife Lilith arrives. After Niles's divorce, she marries him.

Roz Doyle Roz is Frasier's producer and call-screener, who appears less and less in the show as Frasier's job becomes difficult to keep funny. She has a habit of sleeping with too many men and, in Season 5, finds herself pregnant. She decides to keep the baby as her own daughter, Alice Doyle.

KACL Staff The staff at KACL makes some appearance throughout the show, though its members are inconsistent. Most notable are the foul-mouthed and obnoxious sports talk show host Bulldog Briscoe and the annoying food critic Gil Chesterton. The station goes through several station manager changes and the background staff members move in and out.

Disappointments[edit]

The show involves yet censors excessive amounts of premarital sex and attempts at it, though Roz's baby and Niles's own beliefs prove the dangers. Roz's decision not to abort her child though she cannot support it shows some morals of the scriptwriters.

References[edit]

"The Good Son." Frasier. Written by David Angell and Christopher Lloyd, 1993. tv.com/shows/frasier