Cheers/Frasier (1982-2004)

I just started watching CHEERS few nights ago. Before that I never really saw it. By the time it ended I was 6 so I only had my share of FRASIER since then. Heck, I actually started with the pilot of FRASIER because I've been eager to rewatch it for a long time. Then I realized mid-way that I should start with CHEERS first so I went back to that.

So far? In the middle of S1 but so far it's good, nothing great though. Only complaint is the 60 second pre-title scenes which have been pretty flat so far and I haven't come across an episode that was as well written as the FRASIER pilot, making me more eager to finish CHEERS just to move onto the spin-off. Still, it's entertaining early 80s sitcom stuff and Ted Danson is perfectly cast. I look forward to when the other regulars arrive in the coming seasons.

Shame about Coach, he's already a favorite of mine, I'm more upset he'll be gone than of Diane leaving.

I love FRAISIER. I don't love CHEERS as much, but CHEERS does take a bit to get going. Once you get to Frasier's introduction, it really starts to pick up.

Thanks to Sky+ I've watched FRASIER far too many times to remember in the last decade. Best to have a long break for the show to feel fresh again.

Overall, my thoughts are as follows. The best episodes are farcical lot, the worst are the drama-soap ones, and having Niles and Daphne run off and get married was a big mistake.

I dated a girl in the early 90s that had 3 recurring roles on Cheers as the Cute Blonde sitting at the bar

j7wild wrote:

I dated a girl in the early 90s that had 3 recurring roles on Cheers as the Cute Blonde sitting at the bar

Where did you bury her?

Erica Ambler wrote:

j7wild wrote:

I dated a girl in the early 90s that had 3 recurring roles on Cheers as the Cute Blonde sitting at the bar

Where did you bury her?

Under my floorboards next to Bambi Woods.

Good night.

Sharky wrote:

Thanks to Sky+ I've watched FRASIER far too many times to remember in the last decade. Best to have a long break for the show to feel fresh again.

Overall, my thoughts are as follows. The best episodes are farcical lot, the worst are the drama-soap ones, and having Niles and Daphne run off and get married was a big mistake.

interesting how the show would've carried on if they never got together. Would've got dull Niles constantly pining for her. One option would've been Leeves leaving. Daphne killed in a boating accident caused by Sherry.

no...Bebe...yes.

j7wild wrote:

I dated a girl in the early 90s that had 3 recurring roles on Cheers as the Cute Blonde sitting at the bar

cute blonde? As Sam would say, could you narrow that down a bit.

Oh...Cute Blonde, that Cute Blonde

Sharky wrote:

Good night.

Good night, sweet prince.

Do Danny DeVito and Rhea Pearlman have kids?

Erica Ambler wrote:

j7wild wrote:

I dated a girl in the early 90s that had 3 recurring roles on Cheers as the Cute Blonde sitting at the bar

Where did you bury her?

Just finished the three parter with Kate Mulgrew. Dayum. Honestly at this point I'm finding Diane to be tired, so I'm not gonna miss her when she leaves after I finish this season.

Mulgrew looked quite striking in that trilogy. Makes me wonder if she had been on TNG at the time, that started a little while after the episodes.

Diane just wore thin sharpish and season 4 is annoying at best, season 5 Diane is much too much. Easy to see why Frasier ended up as he did. "I should've killed her when I had the chance!"

Sometimes it seems like she's too oblivious over how bad she fucked him over that it's almost over the top, so I can understand his desire to strangle her. That moment where he's massaging her neck while looking like he wants to strangle her was hilarious.

I saw a bit of that FRASIER episode where she made a guest appearance, his reaction was perfect. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6QOMelStpM#t=13s


Also, best scene of the series so far.



Also, Sam's hair this season, looks like a helmet.

Watched THE TORTELLIS pilot. No other episodes are available online though so I guess that's that. I wouldn't mind seeing more of it but I can see why viewers might be turned off. It's really offbeat and Nick Tortelli is probably the most despicable protagonist ever, but Dan Hedaya's great. Still, I could tell they were gonna soften his character up, there's hints of it in the pilot.

I Will Gladly Pay You Tuesday

in short: this was reworked as Roz, A Loan in Frasier but here of course has its own feel. For one the way Sam reacts, gradually being wound up before in a slightly awkward moment, pulverising the girl scouts' cookies.
Diane's pretentiousness, irritating mannerisms etc...
And Sam discovering literature only to make a prize boob of the book.

That's why they called him Mayday. Just when I think I'm done...they pull me right back in

I'm watching FRASIER again at the moment. I've always loved the early seasons, but my experience of the later ones has been scattershot up until now - I've probably seen most of the episodes, but through repeats, with gaps in the chronology.

The first five seasons are all magnificent. Started season six the other day...what happened between five and six? It isn't just a dip in quality, it's a full on plunge.

I don't know about that. "Hot Ticket" is one of the most well conceived episodes written around Frasier and Nile's snobbery and one-upmanship, and "Dial M for Martin" is one of the funniest FRASIER episodes ever produced. An hysterical farce. "The Seal Who Came to Dinner" is another.

There's still "Dr. Nora", ""IQ" and a few others to come, but I'd agree there's more disappointing episodes than usual (i.e. "Roz, a Loan"). I'm not so big on the Janis Hirsch-scribed ones. Too much soapy drama, not enough comedy.

Roz, A Loan is quite close with obvious differences to Cheers' "I will Gladly Pay You Tuesday" (fantastic episode)

Recently noticed that Seasons 8-11 of Cheers are out over here now after a three year pause. If the ones I saw in Wimbledon HMV are anything to go by their incredibly dear. £22 each for a single DVD sized boxset.

I maybe went a bit too far when I said it was a massive plunge in quality. I think it's less sharp, but it certainly isn't the drop found in the last seasons of, say, THIRD ROCK FROM THE SUN. I find the shift in tone very uncomfortable - for the first five seasons FRASIER was a light, sophisticated comedy with some very touching moments, but season six is just too dark. Frasier is unemployed, Niles is poor, and two of the better episodes you mention, LS, (although I'm not too keen on 'Dial M for Martin') involve Niles trying to cripple his father and the disposal of a dead seal. The latter episode has its moments (the clap-activated lamp in particular), but it doesn't measure up to stuff like 'The Matchmaker' or 'The Ski Lodge'.

I'll keep with it. 'Merry Christmas, Mrs. Moskowitz' was a treat (the closest this season has come to outstanding thus far), and I recall liking what I remember of season seven. I hear season eleven is a real return to form, so the promise of that will keep me chugging through the rest.

It depends on whether or not one has a taste for black comedy, which I personally love. The bit that has me in stitches from "Dial M for Martin" was the finale, with Frasier switching on the lounge and dancing every time someone rings the doorbell, and then scaring off his lingerie model date.



"Why don't you just step on over my father, help yourself to some wine?"



Rivalling his patheticness at the end of "Frasier's Imaginary Friend."

Almost made it with Laura Harring.

Loved CHEERS and FRASIER growing up. One bit that sticks out is when they're looking through a two-way mirror and a man is picking his nose on the other side. Bulldog says, "I bet you he eats whatever he finds." And then he does.

Martin was my favorite, though.

HJackson wrote:

Frasier is unemployed, Niles is poor, and two of the better episodes you mention, LS, (although I'm not too keen on 'Dial M for Martin') involve Niles trying to cripple his father and the disposal of a dead seal.

The seal episode is my all-time favorite FRASIER episode. Dark? Sure. Hilarious? You bet.

Largo's Shark wrote:

It depends on whether or not one has a taste for black comedy, which I personally love. The bit that has me in stitches from "Dial M for Martin" was the finale, with Frasier switching on the lounge and dancing every time someone rings the doorbell, and then scaring off his lingerie model date.



"Why don't you just step on over my father, help yourself to some wine?"



Rivalling his patheticness at the end of "Frasier's Imaginary Friend."

A favourite moment after the date vanishes back into the lift is how Frasier takes in his empty apartment one last time, sits down stricken and growls as only Grammer could..."Bring him in."

As for above, Merry Christmas Mrs Moskowitz is a delight each time.

"JESUS CHRIST!"