Frasier is one of those great shows you can catch on TV late at night, and you expect it to be on when nothing else is. It is packed full of humor that almost anyone can relate to, and includes problems that real people can actually understand. Rather than watching some crazy soap opera with twisted story lines, Frasier brings out the humor in everyday live even just by sitting in a coffee shop and chatting with friends
Although it would seem too intellectual a series on the surface, Frasier was surprisingly very well watched during its eleven season run, with an all time high on the Nielsen ratings in its 1998 to 1999 season as the third most watched TV show in the US. People have responded warmly to Kelsey Grammer's snobbish, high brow radio psychiatrist, perhaps thanks to the witty repartee exchanged with his blue-collar cop father, his father's cheerfully eccentric physical therapist, his sardonic and promiscuous producer, his lovingly competitive and fastidious brother, and the many faceless callers to whom Frasier assures, "I'm listening."
Frasier is actually a spin-off from popular sitcom Cheers, and is called the most successful spin-off in the history of television. It began airing in 1993 and was critically acclaimed for all its eleven seasons, which ended in 2004. The series was created by David Angell, David Lee and Peter Casey, who also wrote most of the episodes together, with Glen and Les Charles, the creators of Cheers. While the show had several directors over its eleven seasons, Lee had directed the most episodes in the show, a total of 42, followed by Kelsey Grammer's 37.
Grammer reprises his role of Frasier Crane, for which he was nominated for Emmy's in three different shows – in Frasier, Cheers, and a guesting on Wings. Frasier, the show, begins when Frasier, the psychiatrist, moves back to Seattle after his marriage fails in Boston. He becomes a popular call-in radio show shrink, working with producer Roz Doyle, portrayed by Peri Gilpin, whose personality is strikingly different from Frasier's refined tastes. Frasier takes in his father, Martin, a retired cop who was wounded in the line of duty, played by John Mahoney. His physical therapist Daphne Moon, played by Jane Leeves, lives with them and sometimes acts as a housekeeper and resident psychic. She is the object of affection of Frasier's brother, Niles, played by David Hyde Pierce. The infatuation is one of the selling points of the show, consummated in the season ten finale, where Daphne leaves her fiancé at the altar to be with Niles. Each of the characters have hilarious eccentricities that play off against each other, resulting in very funny intelligent dialogue. Even the conversations between any of the characters and Martin's Jack Russel terrier Eddie are ingeniously clever.
The writing crew of Frasier won four Emmys, and the show won a record-breaking 37 Emmys throughout its lifetime. It holds the record for winning the most consecutive Emmys for Outstanding Comedy series, five from 1994 to 1998, and four Emmys each for Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce. Grammer also won two Golden Globes in 1996 and 2001. The show also won Best TV Series – Comedy or Musical in 1995, as well as the Humanitas Prize in 1996 and 2000, and a Peabody Award in 1995. In an early review, the New York Times praises the premise of Frasier as being "rather uncommon characters in a terribly common predicament… scor(ing) serious points while being steadily hilarious." In the 2006 show, The Ultimate Sitcom, screen writers, directors and actors voted Frasier as the greatest sitcom of all time.
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