Frasier Gotta Have It

The Show Goes On...
This year represented the last year in Frasier's then-unprecedented and still-unequalled five-year Emmy streak for best comedic series. Although it's not quite the equal of its predecessor season, if only because the show never produced a funnier episode than "Ham Radio", this season comes darned close with "The Ski Lodge", which has the main characters changing scenery to a remote snow-packed location and finding love--just not with the people they wanted. The show's farcical humor is played here superlatively, with great result. The season also brings the final resolution to the Niles-Maris Marriage, in "The Maris Counselor", and it is resolved, of course, in the most embarassing way possible. The romantic unluckiness continued with Martin's breakup with Sherry, and the unfortunate exit of Marsha Mason from her Emmy-nominated role. Finally, the season ends with Frasier losing his job to Latino musicians. All in all, this season brought great tribulation to all the characters, but...

Wonderful Season--annoying situation with ads
Season five is clever, warm, and funny. I'm so glad it's been released. My husband I excitedly put in the first disk. We were forced to sit through a long ad for Happy Days, and the disk is set up so the viewer cannot fast forward or jump to the main menu. We shrugged and waited.

Following the long ad for Happy Days were ads for Laverne and Shirley, Mork and Mindy, McGyver, Charmed, and if you can believe it . . . The Brady Bunch. These are not brief missives, and you cannot fast forward. We were stunned and more than a little annoyed.

My advice is to leave the TV off, and put the disk in the DVD player at least ten minutes before you're ready to watch it.

Sophisticated, witty, and hilarious...
Along with Friends and Seinfeld, Kelsey Grammer's Cheers spin-off, Frasier, dominated the prime time television landscape during the 1990's. Grammer plays the role of Dr. Frasier Crane who, fresh off of his divorce from Lilith, moves back to his hometown of Seattle where he lands a gig as a radio psychiatrist. Frasier's father, Marty Crane (John Mahoney), a Seattle cop recently shot in an attempted convenience store robbery is in need of physical therapy. Frasier and his brother Niles (David Hyde Pierce) make an effort to mend their relationship with Marty whose plaid shirts and penchant for sports and beer strikes a dramatic contrast with their wine club, opera house culture. After a little prodding, Marty and his dog Eddie (Moose) move into Frasier's upscale apartment, and Frasier hires Daphne Moon (Jane Leeves), a housekeeper and physical therapist to look after the two cranes.

The entirety of the show takes place in mostly three places - Frasier's radio station where he...

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