Frasier is an American sitcom that aired between 1993 and 2004 on NBC. It is shown on Channel 4 on British TV.
Frasier is a middle-aged single man living in a spacious expensive apartment in Seattle. He moved to Seattle after the break-up of his marriage to Lilith. The show follows on from the TV programme Cheers.
Background Story
Frasier has a younger brother called Niles. Both brother’s like the finer things in life, and like being associated with the élite. They both hold a high opinion of themselves. They are psychiatrists and like to refer to themselves as Doctors. Their father, Martin, on the other hand is blue collared and likes the simpler things in life. This difference between the father and son’s forms the basis of much comedy. The son’s have the intellect, and Martin has the practical hands-on trait.
The dad is a retired police officer. He gets shot in his line of work and moves into Frasier’s apartment to be cared for. A Home-helper, called Daphne, is hired to care for him. Martin brings in his worn, weathered, armchair and beloved dog, Eddy. This panics Frasier who worries about the dog making his apartment messy, and breaking expensive ornaments, and the armchair clashing with his expensive furniture.
Frasier gets a job as a radio personality at KACL Radio Station. Here, he becomes friends with Roz, his co-worker. Roz is strongly attracted to men and is always on the hunt for men, and Frasier makes banter out of this.
Niles, Frasier’s brother, becomes infatuated with his dad’s home-helper, Daphne. He never lets on, and keeps it bottled-up until the last episode of series 7. Niles takes things Daphne says as sexual, and enjoys any moment he can to get intimate with her. This infatuation forms the basis of much comedy, as Niles mentally drifts off during conversation with Daphne thinking of what could be.
Niles has a wife throughout his infatuation with Daphne, called Marris. You never get to see Marris, but she is described as extremely skinny, pale, obsessed with cosmetic surgery, having no strength, and extremely bossy and controlling over Niles. He eventually divorces Marris and marries Daphne at the end of series 7.
Frasier has a series of dates with many women, but they always end up not working out. He either over-analyses them, says the wrong thing or the women have another side he did not see. Frasier’s sorry love life is another source of comedy.
Review
Personally, I am a big fan of comedy, especially witty and cleverly written comedy. I like TV comedy programmes and like to buy box-sets of my favourite programmes. Among my collection I have ‘King Of Queens’, ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ and ‘Family Guy’. But, out of all of them, my absolute favourite TV series is Frasier. I think Frasier stands ahead of the rest because it is ‘clever comedy’. The jokes are more subtle and well written into the script. There is irony humour, and the humour develops and plays a big part in the story. The humour comes naturally with the story-line, and does not come across as an add-on, as I feel it does with other programmes. Humour develops, and there are no one-liners.
The characters are diverse and colourful, with different personalities entering and exiting into Frasier’s life throughout the seasons. Frasier’s scenarios include loosing his job, depression, weight gain, and many diverse scenarios that people can relate to.
The humour is expanded upon throughout the episode, and relates to other scenarios in the other episodes. It is intelligent complex humour. In my opinion, the exact opposite of one-line style comedy I think you get in TV series ‘Friends’.
